Nebraska advertiser., 1869-01-28
CANNIRALIsnI IN THE cans.
BY MARK TWAIN.

BY MARK TWAIN.
io $50 U-.5 -9f - fl1 iii
visited st. Louis lately, and on
my way West, after changing cars at
Terre Haute, Indiana, mild, benev-
Olent looking gentleman of about for
ty-five or may be fifty, came in at one
of the way stations and sat down be-
side me. We talked together pleas
antly on various subjects for an hour,
perhaps, and found him exceedingly
interesting and entertaining. When
he learned that was from Washing
ton, he Immediately began to ask
questions about various public men,
and about Congressional affairs and
saw very shortly that / was cOnvers-
ing with a man who was perfectly fa-
miliar with the ins and outs of pOliti-
cal life at the Capitol, even to the
ways and manners and customs of pro-
eedure of Senators and Representa-
tives in the chamber of the National
Legislature. Presently two men halt
ed near us for q single moment, and
one said tothe other:
'Harris, if you'll do that for me, I'll
never forget you, my boy"
My new comrades eyes Hghtened
pleasantly. The words had touched
upon a happy memory, I thought.
Then his face settled into thOughtful-
ness-almost into gloom. He turned
to me and said: JUS @
''Let me tell you stOry-let me
give you a secret chapter Of my life
a chapter that has never been referred
to by me since its events transpired.
Listen, patiently, and promise that
youwin not interrupt me.p ..-.-
i said would not, and he related
the following strange adventure,
speaking sometimes with melancholy,
but always with feeling and earnest
ness:
THE STRANGERS NARRATIVE.
On the 10Th of December, 1853, 1
started from st. Louis in the evening
bound train for Chicago. There were
only twenty-fOur passengers, all told
There were no ladies, and no children.
We were in excellent spirits, and
pleasant acquaintance were soon
formed. The journey bade fair to be
a happy one, and no individual in the
party, I think, had even the Yaugest
presentiment of the horrors we were
soon to undergo. -
At IL P. NJ. it began to snow hard.
Shortly after leaving the small village
of Weldon we entered upon that tre-
mendous prairie solitude that stretch
es its leagues on leagues of houseless,
dreariness far away toward the Jubi-
lee Settlements. The winds, unOb-
structed by trees or hills, or even va
grant rocks, whistled fiercely across
the level desert, driving the falling
snow before like spray from the cres-
ted waves Of q stormy sea-. The snow
was deepening fast, and we knew by
the deminished speed of the train,
that the engin was plowing through it
with steady increasing difficulty. In
deed 1t almost came. to q dead halt
sometimes in the midst of great drifts
that piled themselves like colossal
graves across the track. Conversation
began to flag. Cheerfulness gave place
to grave concern. The possibility Of
being imprisoned in the snow, on the
bleak prairie, fifty miles from any
house, presented itself to every mind,
and extended its depressing influence
over every spirit.
At two O'Clock in the morning was
aroused out of an easy slumber by the
CG6SlNk Ot dAl tlDOne nv IL
appalling truth flashed upon me in
stantly-we were captives in snow
drift "All hands to the rescue"
Every man sprang to obey. Out into
the wild night, the pitehy darkness,
the billowing snow, the driving storm,
every soul leaped, with the conscious
ness that a moment lost now might
bring destruction to us all. Shovels,
hands, bOards-anything, everything,
that could displace snOw-Was brought
into instant requisitiOn. 1t was
weired picture, that small cOmpanyof
frantic men fighting the banking
SHOWS, half in the blackest shadow
and half in the angry light OF the loco
motives reflector.
One short hour sufficed to prove the
utter uselessness of our efforts. The
storm barricaded the track with dOz-
en- drifts while we dug one way. And
worse than this, it was discovered
that the last grand charge the engine
had made upon the enemy had broken
the fore and aftershaft of the driving
wheelI With free track before us
we should have still been helpless.
We entered the car wearied with labor,
and very sOrrOwful We gathered
about the stoves, and gravely canvass
ed our situation. We had no provis-
ms whatever-in this lay our chief
distress. We could not freeze, for
there was a good supply of wood in
the tender. This was our only COM
fort. The discussion ended at last in
accepting the dishearting decision of
the conductor, viz: that it would be
death for any man to attempt to travel
fifty miles on foot through snow like
that. We could not send for help, and
even if we could, it could not come.
We must submit and await, as pa
tiently as we might succor or starya-
ton / think the stOutest heart there
felt a mOmentary chill when those
words were uttered.
Within an hour conversation subsi-
ded to a low murTnur here and there
about the car, caught fftfully between
the rising and falling of the blast
the lamps grew dim; and the majority
of the castaways settled themselves
among the fiickering shadows to think
to forget the present II they coulta--7-,
to sleep if they might. - - a..
The eternal night-it seemed eternal
to us-wore its tagging hours away at
last, and the cold gray dawn broke Ia
the East. AS the light grew stronger
the passengers began to stir and give
signs of life, one after the other, and
each In turn pushed his slouched hat
up from. his forehead, stretched his
stihened limbs, and glanced out atthe
windows upon the cherries prospect.
II was cherries indeed mot living
thing visible anywhere, not human
habitation nothing but vast white
desert; uplifted sheets of snow drift
ing hither and thither before the wind
"a world Of eddying fakes shutting