Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1888 — THE SOUTHERN STATES. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

A number of persons in a boarding-house at Chattanooga, Tenn., were poisonbd by drinking coffee made from water In which arse-

nic h*<l been placed. Several deaths have occurred. Reports from different sections of Texas are to the effect that the recent cold snap was the severest Winter weather on record in that region. Bonham reports that a fanner named Henry Williams froze to death while on his way home, and that a good many cattle have perished. Cleburne reports Henry Corbin, a negro, and many cattle frozen. Austin the capital, reports the Colorado river frozen over for the first time on record, * and ice four to six inches thick. A large number of cattle have died in that vicinity. Corsicana says the snow and sleet has been unprecedented and travel is greatly impeded. An attempt to drive a herd of cattle to Ennis, twenty miles distant, resulted in losing 250 of them. Stock froze to death while standing in the streets. Sherman reports that meager reports from the Panhandle sayjthat many cattle have been frozen to death. Torrell says there are 12,000 cattle on the pasture around the town, and that many of them have died from cold. Cattlemen have suffered severely for two months past by bad weather, and have been at great expense feeding stock. Several failures have occurred in consequence. The sheep on the prairies have suffered greatly, and it is feared human lives have been lost at the sheep camps. Belton reports that many cattle on the range in that vicinity have died. Gainesville reports that Tom Jackson, a negro, was frozen to death on the prairie, and Bob Smith, a companion, was so badly frozen that his feet, hands and ears burst open, and ho will probably die. Near Ennis, Texas, two young ladies, daughters of William Williams, and a young man by the name of Babbitt, were skating when the ice gave way and they sank in seven feet of water. Miss Babbitt and. two little girls, 9 and 13 years old, daughters of William Williams, and Mr. Williams, a brother of the young ladies, were also engulfed and drowned in attempting to rescue them.