Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-02-06
Looker-On In Iowa

| LOOkE|.OlL xH lOLDU
| Sheffield. Feb. 6.--Wednesday, Jan.
I 81, 1909, was remarkably fine day.
/, IL the trees had been covered with
! foliage and the grass green, one might
have remarked What is so rare as a
day in june Store doors were open
and on the hotel porch at Belmond
the travelling men were very much
| in evidence. On that day the oldest
inhabitant" thus told his story to the
LOCKER On: Yes, sir. the climate OF
Iowa is changing. We don't have the
! winters we used to in this state. The
land has been plowed up, hundreds OF
houses In our towns. cities and on our
farms pour out of the chimneys
heated air and smoke that affect the
cold air we get from the north. Our
towns are full of shade trees and our
farms dotted with wind breaks. In
this way IL an old fashioned blizzard
starts in at Medicine Hat, it's knocked
out crossing Iowa. Why. I remember
! In go we had blizzard that COM
menced Sunday night" etc. etc.
So
"The next day it raine' on Fri
day morning. the 29th on the
oldest inhabitant woke win
doWs were rafting. and Use was
shaking. The wind was j g sixty
miles an hour and snow was piling up
everywhere. Fortunately the mercury
was above zero On one rural route
out Of Latmer fourteen out Of six
l~,s ~
down. In our cities everywhere cleo
trio lights were not possible. and street
cars were not running, and nearly all
of the railroads We're tied up. Window
glass was broken, trees blown over,
and even the copper roofing on our
state house was blown off on large
part of the building. Cattle were
killed by the thousand. Never before
in the history of the state was such a
loss known. Largely because we have
more cattle than ever before in Iowa.
Reports came in from all parts of the
state of farmers losing ten, sixteen,
thirty and in one case, near CorWith,
one farmer lost forty-six head Of cat
tie from exposure to the blizzard OF
Jan. 20. 1909 All this that every read
er of daily paper now knows, is re-
printed in this column, for the beneft
of said Oldest inhabitant. His mem
DRY grows shorter as his years in
crease. His theories are balderdash.
We've all got it in for this weather
prophet. Cut out this record and ask
him to paste 1t in his hat.
And nearly all of us want that ed!-
Il. 70 60 ,fny~ a n
ingly on beautiful winter, silenced
forever on this subject. Probably it
was healthy in his steam heated sane
tum, while he sat there in his shirt
sleeves writing on the bracing effect
of cold weather. But If he had got OUT
into the barn and milked sixteen cows
Friday, Jan. 20, if he had to go out
into sixty acre stubble field after
a dozen colts, if his windmill had
blown down and he had pumped water
for sixty steers, by hand, If he had
shoyeled thru a ten foot snow drift to
get to the barn Friday night to do the
chores. if he had lost his eighty five
dollar windmill, and had to go to town
five miles next day and break the
roads all the way, to buy a hundred
and ten dollar gasoline engine, if lie
had found ten smothered fat hogs I'M
der a blown over straw stack, or to
shorten this tale of woe. if he was or
had been an Iowa farmer, he would
have kept his editorial on the beauti-
full. the bracing. the healthy, the
strengthening and the glorious winter
weather of Iowa, for July 4.
of course she would do such thing.
Girls are built that way. She didn't
want the poor thing to freeze ito death
on that blzzardy day. even if 1t was a
despised English sparrow. So she
picked up the half dead bird, carried
revived it and the precious life WAS
saved But who would have expected
that big 220 pound Dutchman that
runs the grocery store in NextoWn to
go into the sparrow rescue business
He did tho. Found one almost gone"
on the threshold of the door. Carried
it in, got a box. placed it by the stove,
wrapped his handkerchief around It,
and in two hours had saucy indie
pendent English sparrow flying around
the store. When the children under
took to drive the bird out and opened
the store door. he said, Let him stay
till tomorrow" When one of the boys
told him the sparrow was in the crack
err box, he only remarked, "'Vell,
crackers is cheap" And when the store
cat got down to business and was go
ing forty miles an hour after Mr.. Spar
row, our Dutch friend nearly killed the
cat. by throwing the broom at her.
Pathos, the girl and the sparrow.
Patlos the Dutchman and the bird.
'One touch of pity makes the whole
world akin"
~ M~.7~~~