The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

W ROAD AFTER A SNOW

STORM.

Many vehicles of like construction to ours were
struggling on under the same difficulties, to or from
Moscow. At nine p.m. one of our horses gave up,
died, and having been cut out of his traces, was left
to the wolves. At eleven o'clock another burst a
blood-vessel, and shared his fate. A third gave up
within a mile of the town at which we intended to
recruit, and finally we had to get out and walk to
a place of refuge, leaving the three remaining ani-
mals to pull the empty carriages after us. We had
in 16 hours, with three separate teams of fresh
horses, accomplished the distance of 45 versts ; our
pace being little better than two miles an hour.
Next morning we started at six o'clock with five
horses, but had soon to add a sixth. This day was
like the day before it, except that we killed no
horses. As daylight vanished we determined to
push on during the night, but at eleven o'clock we
lost the track in the dark, and stuck fast in a moun-
tain ridge of snow. After an hour spent in fruitless
efforts at extrication, three of us set out in search of
assistance. To our astonishment we presently dis-
covered by " the smoke that so gracefully curled"
from several points at once, that we were wrecked
in the midst of a straggling snow-covered village. A
kind peasant gave us admittance, and sent help to
our half-frozen companions. This day we made
about 32 miles in 17 hours. As I had slept
with the horses on the previous night, so this
evening the cow gave me a part of her bed.
We had passed six dead horses, some of them
partially devoured, and four overturned convey-
ances embedded in deep snow, beyond recovery
until the spring. Where the passengers were, I
know not. My companions said, " God knows,"
and crossed themselves. All along the track we
had seen evidences of distress : wrecks of sledges,
horses up to their necks in drift, men digging them
out. But just before starting the next morning we
saw the most horrible sight of all. Opposite the
hut of our poor entertainer there had been men
digging, to get into a house entirely buried in
snow, and they had succeeded in rescuing a family
that had been four days buried. This family was
none the worse for its mishap ; but the diggers had
come on a sledge with its horse, driver, and two
women frozen to death, and buried in the drift.
They had got fast, and had perished without help
in the midst of a village. Caught in the greatest
fury of the storm, they had not k nown their where-
abouts, nor had their cries been heard. Three
months after this, and when the snow disappeared,
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred
corpses were found, all of whom had met their
death in this fearful storm upon the Moscow road
alone. So I have been told, and fully believe.—
Dickens's " All the Year Round."

2HE SEARCH FOR A SERVANT.

A country gentleman who has been searching for
a servant writes to a morning contemporary as
follows :

" I selected the most prominent advertisements
in your columns, and wrote to appoint the adver-
tisers to meet me in town. The first that called
was a butler. He was a man of some personal
appearance, which he evidently thought it his duty
to cultivate. His loose-fitting coat was of irre-
proachablebhwuiestre fittingb glovesu tbuttoned
o cut ; his waistcoat, no ' reach-me-down,'
(nwte
widt
ahasot without
at the
creases,rwarcand
se t b; onhwdi s of
collar
eolgispotlessaortwi
na pt
so turned ut rbi
et
my
down, and his narrow magenta tie the nearest ap-
proach I ever saw to what Mr. Slick called ' the
titted ends of nothing whittled down.' On being
ushered into the room he said he had embraced
the earliest opportunity of obeying my summons.'
I perceived once, like Agag, he must be ap-
proached delicately, and should have felt some
hesitation how to catechise so refined a personage,
but that I soon found the question was not whether
I should engage him, but whether he would en-
gage me. Did he pay the bills ? Had he the
entire charge of the cellar, or was there a sanctum
sanctorum of which I alone kept the key ? My
answers were not satisfactory. Had I groom of the
chambers? No. In such case he concluded I had a
valet ? I suppose his scrutiny of my dress had not
encouraged any exaggerated notion of the value of
my exuvice,' for, on my replying that the butler
was the only man out of livery, and officiated as
my valet, I was a doomed man. For form's sake,
hewever, he kindly consented to give me one more
trial, and inquired whether, under these circum-
stances, it would be expected of him to bring in tea
and coffee after dinner. I told him that I regretted
that such would be the case, and he must, indeed,
be prepared for any emergency. That I did not
think it likely I should ever ask him to make the
fourth in a quadrille, but that he would, in my
house, be expected to do everything he was told—
except feed the pigs. ' That,' said I mildly, I do
myself. On looking to see the effect of my last ob-
servation, he was disappearing in the doorway. It
is my firm belief that had I attempted to detain him
he would have fled like Joseph, leaving his gar-
ments behind. The next applicant was a cook and
housekeeper. She was•pleased slightly to touch on
her autobiography, just sufficient to inform me that
she had 'always lived in the best families,' and then.,
like the Cutler, proceeded to ascertain whether I
should suit her. Her first question, also, we.s—
Did she pay the bills? Did I come to town every
year ? When in the country did the farm supply
the house, and did I kill one sheep or two per week ?
When in town did I have ' hampers of fruit and
vegetables up regular, which was mostly very ill-
convenient ?' When my examination was at an end
I said, Mrs. Jones, you were only three months at
your last place, nine at the previous one, eleven at
the one before that. It seems to me these are rather
short periods." Oh!' said she, they were such
dooses of missusses ; but in course your lady is a
real lady, and keeps hirself to hirself.' Now, sir,
in declining Mrs. Jones's services, it is possible I
may have lost a valuable Servant, who could have
cooked for me all my days, taking root in my estab-
lishment like the coachman immortalised by Dean
Ramsay in his Reminiscenes of Scottish Character,'
who, on receiving notice from his mistress, quietly
replied, Na, na, my lady, I druve ye to your
marriage, and I shall stay to drive ye to your burial.'
Still I am glad I did not take for her a first-class
ticket into Northamptonshire. This is no coloured.
statement. The whole system of service as at pre-
sent understood in England, is rotten at the core.
All play and all pay' is the cry, and meat meals
five times a day and port and sherry kitchen wines,'
the only maxim of the servants' hall !"