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Show THE WINTER IN THE NORTHWEST. With many settlers at the Northwest the past winter has been a prolonged struggle for existence against the elements. A German farmer two years ago took up 160 acres of land near Big Lake, Dakota. Last year he raised wheat and received $1,200 for it. Laying in what he considered an ample supply of fuel, he set his house in order for the winter. Two other families decided to leave their houses and to lodge with him, for mutual protection and comfort. Soon the supply of fuel was consumed, and the three families had to bestir themselves to keep from freezing. They dug railroad ties and telegraph posts out of the deep snow and burned them. After this source had been exhausted, the two families that had quitted their houses were compelled to take part in tearing them down, and the woodwork soon went the way of the other fuel. Next followed the furniture. A neighbor named Becker finally harnessed five strong horses to a sleigh to force his way to the nearest railway station for a load of coal. He was caught in a snow-drift, and two days later was found frozen stiff in his sleigh, his dead dog lying upon him, and the five horses standing dead in their tracks. His body was taken to his family, nailed up in a box, and placed in the grain-loft, to be kept until the ground should allow of burial. Another family of the neighborhood was only saved from starvation by making soup of an ox skin. |