1886--Banking--(Black & White Lithograph by Charles Graham) Banking Up for Winter. It is said that there are portions of this globe, noticeably in the neighborhood of the north pole, that are colder in the winter season than the territory of Dakota, but it would at times be a difficult matter to convince the residents of Dakota that such is the case. When, as happens frequently, there steals over the plains of Dakota a frigid wave, so very frigid that you can almost see it, speculation as to the relative degrees of cold ceases to be a matter of any profit, and when this extremely low temperature is accompanied by a gale of wind known in that locality as a blizzard, life itself appears profitless. in view of these climatic freaks the residents of Dakotaa airy plans have a sensible habit, at about the time cold weather is due, of very effectually weather-stripping their houses. The artist has furnished an interesting picture of this operation, which is as common on the Dakota plains as the addition of winter storm doors to country houses is in the East. Residences which meet all the requirements of summer life on the plains, little plain clap-board houses, would be about as comfortable during the winter season as a gauze shirt and a sun-umbrella in Greenland. Fortunately nature supplies an excellent variety of sod, and ere the days grow short in the autumn the prudent householder puts an overcoat of this material upon his dwelling. it is slightly damaging to the paint, and when it is removed in the spring-time the house is apt to have the appearance of having been swallowed by an earthquake and dug up again. But people who live on the plains do not, as a rule, care much for appearances.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 20:15:32 +0000
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