Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1912 — FRIGID WEATHER IN MIDDLE WEST [ARTICLE]

FRIGID WEATHER IN MIDDLE WEST

Suffering and Death Accompany Severe Gold Snap. AWAY BELOW ZERO AT CHICAGO Denizens of Northwestern States Experience Temperature Below—2o —Four Deaths from Cold in Kansas—Fish Frozen.

Chicago, Jan. 5.—A severe spell ot: , winter Weather, which is bringing misery to thousands and death to many, and which, according to the weather bureau officials, will last for days, has Chicago and the middle west securely in its grasp. There is but one consolation alike to those who have homes and to those who are barely able to keep warm enough to live by constantly moving and that is that there is no snow on -the ground. When it is understood i that in many costly apartment houses, with the steam radiators popping like locomotives It was impossible to keep as warm as might be desfred, some Idea may he gained of the plight of those who have to keep moving to keep warm. It means that If the cold spell outlasts their vitality, it is another grave in the potters’ field. And their vitality had to battle against a temperature of II to 16 below by unofficial thermometers on street comers in various sections of the city. ' Even so, Chicago remained one of the warmest places in the United States. Cold as it appeared here, the temperature was 29 degrees lower in Huron, N. D., where the minimum was 34 below zero. . Nearby, at Ishpeming, Mich., the official temperature was 27 degrees below zero. At Sheridan, Wyo., the mercury dropped to 29 degrees below and at Duluth to 20 below. In Kansas tjie cold snap has caused great loss of live stock, frozen or starved to death on the ranges. Near Reading, Kan , unusual winter conditions have had the effect of killing thousands of fish in the Marias des Cygnes river. Four persons were frozen to death near Ness City, Kan. One of the victims was a ranchman who was driving cattle over the range south of Ness City. “It is colder all over the west,” said Forecaster Cox. "The spread of the -winter grasp is so extehsive and so uniform that I have been unable to find any signs of moderation. Winter is here ail right. “There will be no break in the winter weather for two or three days at least, and I am not prbmising any cessation even then. “More probably we are in for a week or more of good, solid, cold weather. Just how cold it will get I cannpt tell very far in advance.”