Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-04-10
THE sNOw-PLow ON THE RAILROAD.

The pure in heart shall meet againr' K
THE sNOw-PLow ON THE RAILROAD.
The following graphic description of a ride with
the snow-plow, in the centre of the State of New
York, is from the pen of Rev. Henry Ward Beech
er, who chose to ride on the engine for the love
of the excitement, as boys in the city have PEN
chant to " run with the machine" We take it
from one Of his letters in the Independent:
RIDE BEHIND THE Snow PLow.-Among the
tn ngs which have always longed to see. is the
work OF snow-plow, driven along the covered
cuts. This l have at length seen. The train
came to Watertown from Cape Vincent, n. York,
with two engines and a snow pillow. When we
reached Pierpont Manor, the conductor kind
ly acceded to my wish to 90 forward and take a
berth with the engineer. l was soon in position.
murky and cross. The snow was descending,
not peacefully and dreamily, but whirled and made
wild with fierce winds. The forests were laden
with snow, aad their interior looked murkv and
dreadful as witch's den. Through such scenes
began my ride on the pillow showing engine
The engineers and fremen'were coated with snow
from head to foot, and looked like mllers who
had never brushed their coats for a generation
The floor on which we stood was ice and snow
half melted. The wood was coated with SNOW
The locomotive was frosted all over with snow
wheels, connecting rod, axles and every thing
but the boiler and smoke stack. The side
and front windows were glazed with crusts
of ice, and only through one little spot in the
window over the boiler could peer out to get
sight of the pillow. The track was indistinguish-
able. There was nothing to the eye to guide the
engine one way more than another. 1t seemed
as il we were going across fields and plunging
through forests at random. And this gave no mean
excitement to the scene, when two ponderous en-
gines were apparently driving us in such an out
landish excursion. But their feet were sure, and
unerringy felt their way along the iron road, so
that we were held in our cours,.
Nothing can exceed the beauty of snow in its
own organization, in the graccfulness with which
it falls, in the curvature of its drift lines, and
in the curves which it makes when streaming off
on either side from the plow. 1t was never long
the same. IL the snow was thin and light, the
plow seemed to play tenderly with it, like an ar
tst doing curious things for sport, throwing it in
exquisite curves, that rose and fell, quyercl AMI
trcmbled as they ran. Then sud lcnlv striking Il
drift that had piled across the tract. the
sprung out, rs if driven by explosion, twenty
and thirty feet, in jets and .olts; or like long
stemmed sheafs OF snow--that spread out fan-like.
Instantly, the drift past, the seemed, by
instinct of its own, to rctract, and played again in
exquisite that and fell about Or PROV.
''Now you'll get it, IN that deep cut,'' saws the
engineer. We only the first dash. as If the
pillow had struck the bank of STOW before it could
put or its graceS, and shot it distracted and head
long up and down on either side, like spray or
flying ashes. 1t was but a second. For the fire
snow rose up around the eng inc, and covered it
like mist and sucking around, poured in uro1
US in sheets and clou is mingled with the vapor CT
ste I'M, and the smoke which from impeled draft,
poured out, filling the engine-room ami ,rkcning
it so that We could not see each other q foot
distant, except very flmy spcctres glover ng
at each other. Our engineers had on buffalo
coats, whose natural hirsuteness WIS M lde more
shaggy by tags of snow melted into iccles. To
see such substantial forms changing back and
forth every few moments from clearly earthly
form in spectral lightness, as if they went back
and forth from body to spirit, was not little ex-
citing to the imagination.
When we struck deep bodies of snow, the en-
CINE plowed through them laboriously, quivering
and grooming with its load, but shot forth again
nmble as bird the moment the snow grew
light.
Nothing seemed wilder than to be in one of
these whirling storms of smoke, vapof, and snow.
You on one ponderous monster, and another roar
ing close behind, fastened together, and looming
up when the snow mists opened little, black and
terrible. 1t seemed as if you were in battle.
There was such energetic action, such irresistible
power, such darkness and light alternating, and
such fitful half-lights. which more exciting to
the imagination than light or darkness. Thus
whirled on in the bosom of the storm, you srel
across the open fields full of wild, driving snow,
you ran up to the opening of theblack pine and
hcmlock woods, and plunged into their somber
mouth as if into cave of darkness, and wrest-
ledyour way along through their dreary recesses;
emerging to the cleared field again, with whistles
screaming and answering each other back and
forth from engine to engine. For, in the bewild-
ering obscurity, We have past the station, and
must choke down the excited stceds and rein them
back to the depot.
We think Mazeppa's ride, dashed to the wild
horse and rushing through the forests wolf. driven,
to have been rather exciting. If man in buff
falo hunt, by some strange mishap should find
himself thrown from his horse and mounted on
the shaggy back of an old fierce buffalo bull, and
90 off with a rush, in cloud and dust, among ten
thousand tramping fellows, pursued by yelling
Indians, that, too, would be an exciting ride.
But neither of these would know the highest ex-
hilaraton Of the chase. until in wild storm, up
on a scowling day in January, he rides upon
double engine team behind snow-plow, to clear
the track of banks and burdens Of snow.