Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1897-04-07
SURE-ENOUGH WINTER.
Genuine Gold Weather Felt In the
South
sleet and Snow Were Plentiful
During December Some of
the Defects OF the
Visitation

Visitation
The last month of 1896 is memorable
in the south for the cold storms that
swept over the country and enyeloped
everything in sleet and snow People
shivered before the heaped-up light
wood fires and talked as if they really
entertained the idea of building warm
er houses. Some sent of for stoves TO
warm the big halls and dining-rooms
stoves that, owing to h prevailing
torpidity of labor and trade, got to them
after the cold spell was over.
1t was 80 cold that more than one sit
ting-room door was shut and kept shut,
q fact significant to anyone familiar
with plantation customs, and 1t was so
cold that the sheets had to be rubbed
over with a warm iron before people got
between them. Even courageous, TO-
bust Young folks left the fire reluctant
ly when bedtime came, and hot-water
bottles. hot bricks and iannels were
the order of the night. The carrying in
of huge back logs and front logs and
great armfuls of fat splinters in all the
rooms was the order of the day.
The fiocks of guineas took refuge in
thick orange trees and stayed there, re-
fusing to be coaxed down even by the
most liberal spread of peas and corn on
the snow below. Mocking birds, and
poor, bewildered little thrashers and
sparrows flew in under the piazzas for
shelter. and their atura enemies made
no effort to disturb them. Up by the
cattle sheds and the sheep folds, remote
from the houses, queer tracks would be
seen in the early morning. imprinted
by shy woods creatures, which, startled
by the abnormal condition of things,
sought strange companionship. Do
mestic servants known to be of slim
proportions assumed unfamiliar stout
ness as the thermometer fell.
"How many frocks rave you got or
to-day, Maum Eye?" that trusty maid
servant would he asked, with a compre-
hensive glance at the layers of dress
bodies that refused to fasten over her
chest.
Use cold, chilel cold all through
grasping helplessly at the refractory
buttons. LAST night it look like every
ting on de whole yearth would freeze
jam up fore mornin'. l never sleep
none tall; jest lay down cen de bed and
hear de trees rackin' and strainin' and
snappin' off out cen de woods. Seem
like some strong-handed something war
going through there 'stroyin' of 'eni."
There was a heavy rain, then a freeze,
then snow, then another freeze, and
during the three days before things
commenced to thaw out the country
had a curiously unusual aspect \ hush
seemed To settle down over the land rs
if something p~ortentous had happened
or was about to happen. Scarcely any
travellers were abroad on the roads, and
over all the big. fiat fields nothing was
10 be seen but the dead white level OF
snow and the plumes of smoke curling
upward from the negro cabins. The few
people who did any visiting went
wrapped up to the ears. and provided
with every safeguard against getting
cold. When the negroes ventured forth
they were bundled up amazingly, and
had all of wooden strips ban
daged round ankles and wrist and head
Out in the woods no usual sounds wer,
to be heard. Nothing stirred, neither
fiutter of bird nor chirp of insect. Ever
Inc cndtttTlnP cTpNS NtEt uliitu ihb<
silence. The forest paths were abso'
lutely u~ntrodden by man or las Not
n sign of life vas to lie seen, not 9
glimpse of a rabbit or squirrel or chip
munk; only the vast, unbroken quiet
save when some overburdened bougf
crashed to the ground. One walking
there felt like a pioneer in n strangs
country, the most familiar hooks seem
ing cast in a different mold. Great lam
entations go up for the wrecked ant
broken trees.
"The live oaks on my place are ruined
and I'll never live to see others taxi
their place. says one cotton grower
and another reports that his fig tree
are killed and the m~aenolias in the from
garden bruised and battered. All tn
trees with thick foliage have suffered
theirs was literally n weight of wo'
that they could not withstand, each lea
n crusted icicle.
1t was too cold for hunting. too coli
for riding, too cold for sewing, pian'
playing, or any kind of occupation tina
would take one away from the fire. 1
was almost too cold to read; but it wa!
a capital time to pull molasses candy
pop corn. pet the children, and do any
thing that amounted to nothing.
81 thought thar roses grew out o
doors down here in December" protest
ed a northern visitor in south Carolina
''but l never was so cold as this IN Mas
sachusetts. Pile on that big light-woot
knot. Sambo. / love to see it blaze
even though it makes me back out int
the hall. a fire of pine knots puts t.
shame the most brilliant lamp that wa
ever lighted, and one can enjoy it
beauty even while longing for a prosai
furnace to warm by."-N. Y. Sun.