The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1916-02-10
old Time WINTERS
MADISON RESIDENT SAYS TT
USED TO GET ALMOST As
COLD AS NOWADAYS.

w hg 10 at OAA AiAdAt AlAttA p as
the ambiguous interrogation which
yesterday confronted one of Madi-
sons oldest Citizens"
oldest Citizen did not pet a vest
pocket edition goatee. scratch his
right knee with the shoe on his left
foot, or search for the nervous end Of
a broken gallus, the While he ponder
ed the question. AS a record of truth
rather than with a view to creating
concern by Withholding his answer, Il
is set forth that he did none of the
things longtime residents of a given
locality are made TO do i'm popular
fiction. Instead, he unbuttOned a
we'll cut kersey coat, removed a cap
such as h"aberdashers are glad to pur-
chase at $25 a dozen, and delivered
himself of the following;
Some May Forget.
Taking il for granted that you
are asking why people everywhere
are comparing the severe cold and
heavy SHOWS of the last six weeks to
those Of winters i'm the districts pio-
neer days, / will say that it is either
due TO folks memories playing them
pranks or because they have not
taken into consideration modern
homes and other conyeniences which
tend to minimize the effects on hui
manity of the rigors Of winter.
While | have kept no record,
there is O. the slightest doubt i'm my
mind but that the last fifteen win
ters have, on the whole, been fully
as cold-perhaps more severe-than
the fifteen winters that preceded
them.
when | hear a man speak OF the
insufferable cold of years long past,
| cannot but believe that with the
upholstered shanty which afforded
such protection from the elements
that water in it would freeze solid
twenty minutes after the wood or
soft coal fire had died out, he has
not c|ontrasted the weather proof,
furnace or base burner heated dwell
ing of today. In the average new
house in this district thirty years ago
a mar would suffer more from cold
i'm zero weather while he was search
ing for a match to light the fire or
the kerosene burning lamp than be
would in standing around for an hour
or two in most present day dwellings.
Suffered More Then.
1t is the suffering underwent
not the temperature-some residents
recall. Dozens remember when cold
and snow took its annual toll of live
stock. But the cattle lost were not
penned in the ~barnyard lot, with
straw or hay stacks conveniently
"a
1T is true that there were days at
a time when it was next to impossible
TO penetrate the drifted roads leading
to town, but il will be recalled that
the country was so sparsely settled
that the first driver out after a storm
might be called upon to break down
miles Of drifts. where now be usually
finds that his neighbors, like him
self, have been called onto the high
ways, and. just like himself, have
made more or less passable their
share of the road. 1t is no doubt
true that the settling up of the coun-
try has had a tendency to check the
drifting of snow, but | believe 1t
would be difficult to convince the
railway companies of that fact.
Different Now.
Farmers today do not lombard
three miles of piled snow TO borrow
a basin of flour from the nearest
neighbor. Instead. they watch break
fast preparations in a well provision
ed, well heated kitchen. and inquire
over the long distance telephone the
state of the temperature. | remem-
Der a few very bad Billiards, but |
have no doubt bur that the school
children of today. when they have
reached my age. Will be in a position
to recall just as severe storms. The
difference will be that under modern
conditions, the destruction caused
will not be so great as it was in the
days when the country was new.
Lessons learned when there We're
few properly constructed houses and
when there was none too much mon
ey with which to buy fuel and warm
clothing have had their effect. They
have taught the people how to 90
through a siege of 30-below weather
"A temperature reached only in one
winter within my recollection-in
comparative comfort"