Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-01-14
OUR FIRST NORTHER.
Editor GreenbTier Independent

Edifor Greenblier Independent:
On the evening of December 23rd
at sunset, the western sky appeared
as FURNISHED steel, aglow with red
heat. The afternoon had been un-
comfortably warm. Hugging the
horizon in the far North was long,
narrow, black cloud, that reminded
one of the tax gatherer, saying
Look out tor me, I'll visit you soon"
After dark the stars sparkled and
glittered, and the heavens shone with
a dazzling splendor. The air was
so still and the night so pleasant that
it seemed certain the holidays would
be a continuation of the bright,
sunny days we had enjoyed almost
without intermission, for several
weeks.
l went to bed in the loft at farm
house, and it was good ono, for it
had window, and the lower room
was chinked and daubed, and there
was a shed attached to cook and eat
in. l needed but little cover and
the thousand crevices in roof and
wall afforded perfect ventilation. 1t
was probably midnight when
awoke with a start. The bed was
shaking, the floor and wall creaking
and the house rocking, every crew
ice was a shrill whistle; the sheets
were like cakes of ice, the house,
the air, and the earth were stricken
with a violent chill. A norther was
upon us. 1t rushed, thundered and
hoWled. Whence ii came, whittier
it was going, and why it was in such
hurry l know not. have climbed
tree or hidden in the rocks to es-
cape the fury of herd of cattle or
horses, or a panic-stricken army in a
stampede, but when all the Dakotas'
cold winds are let loose and they
sweep down over the bleak plains in
mad rush for the Gulf nothing can
escape, and all creatures shiver.
Not infrequently cattle drift, in
spite of live riders and. barb wire
fences, from the Territory three hun
dred miles south in Texas, and they
have been known to follow the Red
and Canadian rivers by the thousands
like armies of grasshoppers, devour-
ing everything edible on the way.
AT Ardmore, on the 24th, the
wind sent clouds of dust to the south.
1t passed under the dwellings, most
all of which are set high on blocks
of wood or stone. 1t saw the doors
closed and streets deserted, and the
few people who were forced to face
it were muffied in wraps and going
in haste, as Chicagoans go. The
well-to-do built big fires, and the
very poor put up quilts or wagon
sheets on the north side of the open,
cheerless box-rOom made of rawhide
lumber, that warps and twists while
its cracks grin at the dismay of the
unhappy inmates.
While the wind blew and water
froZe, my thoughts turned to the fifty
or more luckless fellows in the U. S.
Jail, if filthy little, frame building
fenced in with upright boards twenty
feet high could, be called Jail.
thought Of poor young man, more
innocent, perhaps, than some of the
witnesses or jurymen who sat on his
case, who was recently carried, when
suffering with raging fever to ten
by twelve room called the hospital.
While he tossed about on his hard
narrow bed, he saw negro close by
struggling in the throes of death,
saw him clutch the covering, heard
the death-rattle, saw the last convuI-
sive shudder, saw him laid out, saw
the corpse placed in box and car.
ried away, himself prisoner, his
friends too poor to give bond, his
wife and prattling boy and girl far
away in their lonely dug the
larder empty, and the husband and
father in loathesome Jail. No won.
der he cried in lucid interval: "Oh,
God of infinite mercy, am l pris'
oner Of the greatest government the
sun shines upon, and doomed to die
in this black hole? Is this the boon,
the life, the destiny thou hast given
Pity, Oh, pity me. 1 go an limo.
cent man from poverty to Jail, and
from jail to criminals and pauper's
grave. Mother, wife, babes, would
to God 1 could see you only once
more!" But his doom was sealed