The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-03-08
VOL. XIX.


night when it dropped to 80 and
then 35 and 40. There was an old
fashioned box stove in the big room.
It was made of thick malleable iron
and on bitter nights we crowded in
wood and pine until it was red hot
all round. On this particular night
we boys had to turn round and round
to keep from freezing on one side
while We were scorching on the
other. About midnight the mercury
dropped to As, and the house cracked
and popped like little guns. Father
got alarmed, and, being an old
fashioned Christian man, said, Come,
children, let US kaeel down and pray.
After prayer we piled more pine into
the heater.
Father said to mother: when
Elisha Kent Kane was in the artics
he said that he found that fatty mat
ter was better than fire and he made
his crew stuff themselves with whale
blubber and seal oil and grease and
it saved their lives. And so, mother,
you had better bring US all the grease
in the pantry Mother turned us all
loose on her lard and butter and fat
meat and We crammed it down and
it did do us good. But the mercury
kept dropping. Father bad an old
donkey that brayed necessarily all
the forepart of the night, but about
3 o'clock he ceased and father said:
MY children, the poor old donkey is
dead About 4 o'clock there was a
fire in the little village, but nobody
went to it. The family fed to the
nearest house for refuge. Just be-
fore daybreak the mercury began to
rise a little and father said: Come
children, let US kneel down and give
thanks to God of His mercy
"Well, it was glorious to zee the big,
round, red sun rise and shine in the
windows next morning. About this
time we heard a racket in the barn
which was near by and father said:
Boys, 60 out and see if that donkey
is alive And sure enough he was
and there he stood facing the door
with an icicle sticking out of his
mouth three feet long and as big at
the base as a coffee pot. His brays
had frozen and frozen to a sharp
point and had stopped up his mouth
so effectually he couldn't bray any
more" That's what my friend told
me, but n B. he was a newspaper
man. Well, I'm not going to write
poem on the beautiful snow, for I
don't like it, especially when I am
the boy-the only boy about the
house, and have to keep trottiug to
town or the woodpile or coalhouse, or
somewhere. But the children like
it, and there's some comfort in that,
AMI the other day while I was tramp
ing slowly to town on the slippery
walk I met pretty lady, middle
aged matron, and just before she got
to me her foot slipped backward and
the other extremity had to bend
forward and she made me the pretti-
est little courtesy I ever had made to
me. She never lost her perpendicu
lar, but just come down gracefully
on Ole knee like I have seen girls in
the parlor dance. If course, I tip
ped my hat and said ''Thank you,
madam" She colored up and smiled
and spoilt it all by saying, Il didn't
mean to-" I havn't told my wife
about it yet, for our golden wedding
is near at hand and it is no time for
these irregularities. It was tie
beautiful, the slickery, trickery sncw
that did it. I had to shovel it out
the pathway from house to the street
so yards so that my women folks
could walk without their shoes anc
stockings, but every one of them
even to my wife, prepared to wade
in the beautiful snow and the girls
found ditch where it was keep ane
waded in that. That's the way they
impose on a poor old boy like me.
But there is not so much difference
between heat. and cold after all. Botl
destroy sensation, vitality and wishe'
and blast vegetation. They are ver'
close akin. Not long ago a man toll
me be witnessed the experiment
made in New York with liqui6ed ali
He saw the discoverer place a tumb
Ter half full of it in the center OF
large pan Of water and in less than
minute The water was frozen Int
solid ice. Then be took an iron ro
three feet long and as large round a
cedar pencil and put one end |
| ~, Liz, ,,,l;l, - roc&o1 Il ( :.