San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-02-01

utter uselessness OF our o6orts. The
storm barricaded the track with dozen
drifts while We Ding one away. And
worse than this, Il was discovered that
the last grand charge the engine had
made upon the enemy had broken the
fore-and-aft shaft Of the driving wheel.
With free track before us we should
still have been helpless. We entered
the car. wearied with labor. and very
sorrovful. We gathered about the
stoves, and gravely canvassed our situa.
ton. We had no provisions 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 comfort. The discussion
ended at last in accepting the disheart-
ening 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 il we could, it
could not come. We must submit, and
await, as patiently as we might, succor
or starvation! I think the stoutest
heart there folt momentary chill when
those words were uttered.
Within the hour conversation sub
sided to low mnrmur here and there
about the car, caught fitfully between
the rising and falling Of the blast; the
lamps grew dim; and the majority Of
the castaways settled themselves among.
the Pickering shadows to think--to for
get the present, if they could-to sleep,
if they might. 'rlD alf''"s' ''''f
The eternal night-it surely seemed
sternal to us-wore its tagging hour
away at last, and the cold grey dawn
broke in the east. As the light grew
stronger the passengers began to stir
and give signs of life, one after, ,anoth-
er, and each in turn pushed his
slouched hat up from his forehead,
stretched his stiffened limbs, and
glanced out at the windows upon the
cherries prospect. 1t was cheerless in
deed! mot living thing visible any
where, not human habitation; moth
ing but q vast white desert; uplifted
sheets of snow drifting hither and
thither before the wind-a world of ed
dying flakes shutting out the armament
above. lt ...... tsI.s..s
"All day we moped about the cars,
saying little, but thinking much. An
other lingering, dreary night, and
hunger. .,.s.sa
Another dawning -another day of
silence, sadness, wasting hunger, hope
less watching for succor that could not
come. A night of restless slumber,
filed with dreams of feasting- wakings
distressed with the cravings of hunger.
THE fourth day came and went
and the fifth! Five days Of dreadful
Imprisonment! Asavagehunger looked
out at every eye. There was in it a
sign of awful import-the foreshadow-
ing of something that was vaguely
shaping itself IN every heart-a some
thing which no tongue dared yet to
frame into words.
i" The sixth day passed-the seventh
dawned upon as gaunt and haggard and
hopeless company of men as ever
stood in the shadow of death! 1t must
out now! That thing which had been
growing up in every heart was ready to
leap from every lip at last Nature had
been taxed to the utmost--she must
yield. Richard H. CASTOR, of Minneso-
ia, tall, cadaverous and pale, rose up.
All knew what was coming. All pre-
pared--every emotion, every semblance
of excitement was smothered-only a
calm, thoughtful seriousness appeared
in the eyes that were lately so wild.
sGentlemen-It cannot be delayed
J longer! The time is at hand! We
must determine which of us shall die to
furnish food for the restr
, "Mr. John J. Williams, of Illinois,
I rose and said: 'Gentlemen-I nomin-
, ate the Rev. James Sawyer, of Tennes.
; see.'
Mr.. VIM. r. Adams, of Indiana
, said: 1 nominate Mr.. Daniel Slote, oi
New York