St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1872-03-08
Letter from California.
Editor of CdledOniaR /:

ed to greet you for the first time during
the present year. OF the heavy winter
rains which are falling in abundance you
have already heard. The rain fall of
this winter previous to Jan. l., was the
heaviest on record in this state Up to
yesterday the amount of rain that had
fallen i'll San Francisco during the sea-
son was % inches. This afternoon Il
heavy storm set in which promises to
last several days. For several weeks
we have had weather that would honor
the month of May i'll New England
The fields and hills are intensely green.
Farmers have their blowing nearly all
done. Almond trees have been in
bloom for Il fortnight. Wild flowers
reward the children for their rambles.
Gala lilies, hyacinths, daisies, pansies,
! geraniums, hcliotropes and few roses
are in full bloom III the gardens. Fra
grant acassia trees are loaded with
their feathery yellow blossoms. The
linnets are building their nests in the
honey -suckles and passion vines. The
meadow larks entertain with their songs
the pasScrs-hy upon the highway, and
even the shade trees which have had
scarcely three months of rest are enter
ing upon their labor of putting forth
new leaves While we have been en-
ioying such scenes, we have felt our
isolation from the sterner regions east
ward, for we have passed full month
without single mail from the East.
Whittier should have been hlockadcd
for month 10y the SNOW upon the Mon
Pacific r. r. before he wrote "Smow
Bound" or else some of the five hun
drcd passengers Just liberated from the
SNOW banks in Wyoming should re-
hcarSe in verse the story of the snow
blockade
Day before yesterday at noon Il train
arrived in san Francisco with I2O pas
>cngcr> and fourteen days mail. In
the evening another train arrived with
TO more passengers and more mail.
Some of the passengers had been thirty
five days on the way from y. \. The
mail consisted of over lOO.OnO letters
and 200 sacks of papers. There are Il
fnrtnghtS' mails still en- rnutc.thc latest
Chicago date Vet received being Jan
uary 81. The latest date of the Cui,-
donjdR that have received is january
10. There has been much suffering ON
the hlockadcd trains. Government
furnished tn" passengers large quaint
one gentleman from y. Y. was taken i'll
and died i'll san Francisco Yesterday.
He was on his way to the Sandwich
Islands to visit Il married daughter
residing there. She. not knowing of
his proposed visit started for " Y. 10y
last steamer from Honolulu. She ar
rived III san Francisco :, few ,lnys .,inc..,
and while waiting for the blockade
upon the Il. Il. to he raised. SAW her
fathers name among the overland pas
scngcrS Just arrived and registered ut
hotel. met her father. and nurScd him
till he died the day following their re-
union. From the accompanying ex-
tract you will get good idea of the
condition of the hlockaded passengers.
the protest being signed 10y about 10
male passengers on the trains.
I'VE. the undersigned. passengers on
the second and third sections of the six
sn"w-boumd trains on the Union Pacific
Railroad. which left Omaha for Ogden.
between the 18th and 3l>t of January.
l-I2. deem il IN imperative duty To the
public To protest against the gross inca
pacity and negligence manifested by
the authorities of the said railroad.-
While We are willing to make every
possible allowance for the unavoidable
delays on account of the severe storms
and drifting SHOW. Vet We are of the
opinion that the delay has been chiefly
caused 10y the total want of ~ stem and
organization. and hv the madruuatc
force employed 10y the company f"r the
removal of the SNOW.
No warning having been given h\ the
CompanNS agents that the road WIS
I
ton would probably occur. we provid |
ed ourselves with onl y the usual lunch
basket supplies. These. together with /
three OF -four days of crackers. cheese
and bacon. furnished 10y the company's /
commISSarN, We're soon exhausted. and /
tn" second class passengers were for
several days placed on IL very short al /.
lowanrr of very inferior food. without .
tea or coffee their only drink being /
melted SNOW. At this .iuncturc. fnrtu- |
natcly, quantity of freight provisions
were found on one of the trains. which .
were distributed among lis. but afford |
ed only temporary relief.
Great priNation. if not actual Starva-
ton. would have resulted had not Gen. |
Ord. the commander of the military /
district, been fortunately fcllow-pas-
Senger. who ordered 10y telegraph Il full !
supply of provisions to he sent to lis
from Fort steele, forty-fve miles dis
tInt, in army wagons
For the free distribution of the SUP
plies (tlIr expenses of which will. no
doubt. he ultimately paid by the com
panH), we should. of course. he thank
ful; but what we wish To place promi-
nently before the public is the fact that
the company has been. and is continu-
ing to send forward passengers. and
thus Imperll their lives and health bv
representing that the road is open and
that il speedy transit will he made.
when they are fully aware that the road
Is hlockaded and that in many cases it
would require several days to clear the
track between stations only several
miles apart hy the small hir,I f,r., am,