Evening star., 1899-03-04
BLIZZARD IN DULUTH

''Yes. sirs." said the big, loose-framet
man. impaling each and every man in tn.
party with his eye. you may talk abou
| your blizzards as much as you want to a-1t
point to a measly little drift or two still
left in the holows. but this here blizzard
I'm a-talking about were blizzard right
Three feet deep on the level here. did you
say? And eight and ten feet high in some
of the drifts? Why. out where this blizzard
I'm a-talking about happened the kids
wouldn't count any three feet deep on the
level enough to make snow balls out of
1t was out in Duluth, Mimi, this one were
back in "a, and there wasn't two-story
shack in the town that wasn't covered over
the roof with snow-not drifted snow, you
mind, but just snow on the level! The
drifted snow was Scandalous. You know
Duluth is great on wheat, and the whole
water front there is lined with grain ele-
vators. Well, sirs, two of those elevators
were !s1ed up to the fifth floors with snow,
and nobody thought there was anything
wonderful about it. Nobody had much
chance to think about anything. anyhow,
except to dig themselves out 1t took two
solid months for the whole town to get dug
out, but the folks went about it systemati-
cally. as it were, and relieved suffering
where they thought it was likely to be the
worst. Now, gents, l were the chairman
of the committee that dug themselves out
of their houses first after that blizzard had
spent ITSELF and while you're talking about
awful cases of hardship that you all saw
in this here town of Washington during
your little two-by-four blizzard, III just
have to go you one or two better. and I'll
begin at the case of snowed-in newspaper
Office, at that.
''It was a twice-a-week newspaper that
hadn't been running very long, and the
whole outfit was run and printed in a little
,I,- Ill IN,, lnntr
outside the outskirts of the town. 1t took
four people to get the paper out-the pro-
prietor and editor, whose name won
mention. because he's now the owner OF 8
whole line of steamers on the lakes ano
respectable: the two fellows that did the
printing and pressing Tor whatever you call
stamping the types on the paper), VINO
never did amount to anything, and don
now. 50 their names don't count; ana the
printers devil Now, this here printer
devil figures in the story Of rescue I'm
a-going to tell you big lot. but can t tell
you his name, because he, too. has got next
to himself during the interval, so to speak.
and'll be along here tc Congress one OF
these days.
when the blizzard began to bliz all four
of these poor unfortunates were working
away in their little one-story, one-room
shack, a-getting out their paper. After 1t
had showed four days there was pile OF
snow about twelve foot high right on top
of the roof of that shack. and those four
Door unfortInates were the first people
thought about when we of the dig-out COM
mittee got to work on our heroic mission OF
mercy, as you folks call 1t.
''This here printers devil that I'm telling
you about-a kid then about thirteen years
old-had been a orphan most all Of his life,
she'd be most crazy about that boy. and
that's one of the reasons why we started
first to dig that poor little joint of a news
paper Office out of the drifts. The aunt's
L1 h~s,, ,lr4 T.,
the snow so deep as some of the other
houses, and before our heroic committee,
gents, had more than got together. along
comes that printers DEVILS aunt. a-weep-
ing and awaiting, and a-begging US to
make haste and get her beloved printers
devil boy out of his prison. We tried to
drive her home, but she insisted on going
along with Us when we started for the
snowed-iE newspaper shack, with shovels
and brave hearts, to get those four poor
unfortunates out of their imminent peril
Wen, we got pathway cleared after
eight hours hard work, and by the big
mountain of snow ahead we knew we were
only about fifty feet away from the build
ing where the Duluth Morning Kazoo was
thunk out, written, printed and distributed
When we got within thirty feet we were all
aWfully shocked to hear faint cries from
within the snow like this:
'Auntiei Auntier
well, sirs, that poor printers devil boys
aunt like to have gone crazy, she was so
eaiinlppo " nave US NOTk 1dSI6r. w nS
ured it out that all the other three had
died from the cold and exposure and that
Just this poor little kid was left. And the
way we worked certainly was a caution
The cries of 'Auntie! Auntien were ONLY re-
peated couple more times, and We were
afraid the kid had died just while we were
slowly, but surely, working toward the
newspaper shanty. Finally we got the last
shovelful of snow away from the door.
burst the door open with our shoulders.
took just one look at the scene within that
room, and then"
Whole bunch O. you, including the aunt.
keeled over eh?'' inquired one of the lis
teners.
We'll, not exactly that" was the reply
Not one o the four paid the slightest bit
of attention to US. They just went on with
their game"
"Oh the four We're still alive, then. and
cavorting around like crazy men, just to
keep from freezing to death?" asked an
other of the listeners.
Not much We're they cavorting around >"
replied the big, loose-framed man. They
We're a-playing draw poker to beat the
band, and from the size of the stacks o.
coin before each of them that printers
devil had about seven-eighths of the
money"
How, then, do you account for his ago.
niZing cry of 'Auntie!' Auntien" was the
inquiry of another of the hearers
well, l guess that printers devil was
dealing, and the fellow en- his left was a bit
shy in ante-ing. See?'
1t should have been stated in the intro
duction that this all happened at the last
meeting of the Washington Liars Club