The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-04-23
THE PAST WINTER "A PECULIAR
ONE,
Season of 191:}-14 Will Go On Record
As Most Remarkable Ever
Known,

The weather is the queerest thing
that men have to deal with. 1t is no
wonder that men are in the habit of
asking about the weather and using
the state of the weather in their salu-
tatlOnS to each other. 1t is the one
perennial subject of conversation, the
world over. 1t is the one unending
mystery, subject of whims and fan
cies that men do not know and can
not understand
This season in Iowa and environs
especially up to ground hog day.
we had the most remarkable winter
weather within the memories Of the
oldest men. There has been more
days without frost than with frost
and the prOverbial zero mark had
never been attained by the thermo ON
eter On the last day of January we
were still wondering if we were ever
to have ice enough to put up a sum-
mer's supply, but February set in cold
and stormy and up to the very begin
ming of the past week we have
been wondering if the ground hog is
not dead in his hole, and unable to
make his second appearance which is
supposed to usher in the spring.
During our mild December and
January they had some unusually cold
weather back east. In Vermont the
papers reported temperature that
slid down to, 52 degrees below zero
which is, it we remember right, about
fifteen degrees colder than it has ev-
er been in this part of the country.
Northern Europe during the same
months was swept with fierce gales
and snow Billiards of the kind that
are supposed to belong to the trans
Missouri plains. There has been
great suffering throughout Europe,
including England, where they are
lily prepared for such weather.
On the Pacific coast they have had
still different kind of weather.
There they have had gales that have
been terrific, damaging cities and
fruit orchards and wrecking shipping
at sea. In California, the lower half
of it, from Santa Barbara down to-
ward San Diego, they have had rain
falls that have broken all records
Within a couple of days, at Los An
geles more rain fell than had fallen
during all the preceding year. The
damage at Los Angeles and environs
was estimated at millions, $500, 900,
it is estimated being required to re-
pair the roads that have been washed
out Flooded conditions have prevail
ed in the valleys SO that whole trains
have been submerged. The Califor-
mans certainly suffered many re-
verses, with the frosts of last year
and the rains of this season.
At Truckee, California, on January
20-21 they had 7foot fall of snow
that in a country where snowfall
is scare. The big fall of the dates
mentioned was said to be three times
the depth of any previous SNOW
blanket since California has been
inhabited by white men.
! Within the past ten days New
York has finished the work of dig
ging out from under the greatest
snowfall known since 1888
All over Europe, even down to the
coast of the Mediterranean, the win
ter has been the most severe known
in the past 100 years. In Paris,
wher temperature Of 10 degrees be-
low the freezing point is exceptional,
the mercury dropped to degrees be-
low zero, and in Madrid, on January
IS. the people froze to death in the
streets and were found week later
{ buried in the sunny, semitropical
Spain.
At Marseilles the temooratd"e has
touched II degrees. The roads are
, impossible and many accidents are
reported.
Al! the canals and rivers Of Bel
gium are frozen and hundreds Of
rarges with coal from Germany are
ice bound, the price of coal rising
rapidly Three hundred lighters in
Antwerp harbor are frozen in.
During the same European blizzard
wild boars came in out of the woods
of Germany, Austria, and Belgium,
causing CONSERVATION in the cities, |
where the foraged for food At one
time twenty-five of these beasts ap-
peared in the streets of Chiny, a |
small town of Belgium, causing great
terror
Many workers were thrown out of
employment Seven deaths from the
cold were reported in one day from
Belgium, totalling twenty-six for a
single week.
AS late as March II snow storm
swept over northwestern Russia,
blocking the roads and the railroads
and interfering with telegraphic COM
munication.
In the suburbs of ST. Petersburg |
the snow was nine feet deep and 49,
900 soldiers and laborers engaged in |
cleaning away the drifts
Yes, weather is queer thing and |
the person who uses it as the chief |
topic Of conversation is not, after ALL |
as crazy as has been generally sup
posed.
STRENGTHENS Weak and Tired Women |