The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Talks About the Cold Days Of Sixty Years
Ago.
atlanta Constitution.

to 10, and the house cracked and pop.
ped like little guns. Father got
alarmed, and, being an fashioned
Christian man, said, Come, children,
let us all kneel down and pray After
prayer we piled more pine into the
heater.
Father said to mother: when
Elisha Kent Kane was 10 the artics
ne 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,
yon had better bring lis 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 had an old
donkey that braycd 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
fire in the little village, but nobody
went to it. The family fed to the
nearest house for refuge. Just before
daybreak the mercury began to rise
little and father said: Come chill
dren, let us kncel down and give
thanks to COD for His mercy
"Well, it was glorious to see the
big, round, red sun. rise and shine in
the windows next morning. About
this time we heard racket in the
barn which was near by and father
said: Boys, go 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 coffee pot. His brays
had frozen and frozen to sharp point
and had stopped up his mouth so
cffectually he couldn't bray any more"
That's what my friend told me, but
n. B. he was newspaper man. WE'LL,
I'm not going to write poem on the
beautiful snow, for l don't like it, cs-
pecially when [ am the boy-the only
boy about the house, and have to keep
trotting to town o. the woodpilc or
coalhOuse, or somewhere. But the
children like it, and there some COM
fort in that, and the other day while
| was tramping slowly to town on the
slippery walk met pretty lady,
middle-aged matron, and just before
she got to me her foot slipped back
ward and the other extremity had to
bend forward aud she made me the
prettiest little courtesy I ever had
made to me. She never lost her per-
pendicular, but just come down grace
fully on one knee like I have seen
girls in the parlor dance. If course,
l tipped my hat and said "Thank you,
madam She colored up and smiled
and spoilt it all by saying, "I dind't
mean to-" I hayns told my wife
about it yet, for our golden wedding
is near at hand and it is no time for
these Irregularities. 1t was the beau
tiful, the slickery, trickery snow that
did it. had to shovel it out of the
pathway from my house to the street
80 yards so that my women folks could
walk without wetting their shoes and
stockings, bu: every one Of them, even
to my wife, prepared to wade in the
beautiful SNOW and the girls found
ditch where it was knee deep and
waded in that. That's the way they
impose on poor old boy like me.
But there is not so much difference
between heat and cold after all Both
destroy sensation and vitality and
wither and blast vegetation. They
are very close akin. Not long ago
man told me he witnessed the expert
ments made in New York with liqui-
fed air. He saw the discoverer place
tumbler half full of it in the center
Of large pan of water and in less
than minute the water was all frozen
into solid ice. Then he took an iron
rod three feet long and as large round
as cedar pencil and put one end in
the tumbler and while it rested there
he touched lighted match to the
other end, and it took fire and burned
furiously until the whole rod was con-
sumed. He declared that teaspoon
full Of this liquifed air placed in re-
frigcrator would freeze everything in
it and keep it frozen for three or four
days, and that ice would soon be made
at 10 cents for a thousand pounds,
and all the ice factories be closed for