Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-05
THE STORM AND TEE RAILROAD.

Inc laSt storm has entaned very neaVy
work upon the force charged with the
duty of keeping the railroad open over the
Sierra. The feats which are performed
every winter by these brave and skillful
men are not of the kind which often find
eulogistic chroniclers, yet assuredly what
they do in these conflicts with elemental
forces is as deserving of recognition and
recital as the heroism of the battlefield.
The quiet dwellers in the valley who stay
by their own firesides have no idea of the
magnitude of the undertaking in which the
railroad men on "the hill are now en-
gagged While the welcome rain is pouring |
upon the fields and giving assurance of
heavy crops, the mountains are enveloped |
in furious snow storms, and the forces of
Nature seem allied in tremendous
onslaught upon the daring mortals who
have presumed to keep open the communi-
cations over the peaks and gorges of the
range. The inexperienced traveller who
first sees the massive snow-sheds which
inclose the track for miles on the mountains
is apt to wonder at the apparently useless
strength of these structures. The ponderous
timbers seem capable of sustaining ten
times any imaginable weight that can be
put upon them but their builders know
| better. For when one of these excep-
tionally heavy storms has ragged three or
four days, and rain and snow are inter-
sperged, the drifts upon the roofs Of these
snow-sheds attain SO enormous weight
that the huge beams often snap like pipe
stems under the pressure, and the whole
shed for distance of hundreds of feet
collapses ike a house of cards. When
casualties of this kind occur gangs of men
are instantly brought up from Truckee and
other points, and no matter what the hour
or state of the weather, the laborious
work of clearing the wreck away is begun
and carried on without pause until it is
accomplished. Meanwhile the storm al
lows no breathing space for the superin-
tendents, officials and men who are sta
toned on the hill. Snow-plows must
be kept going continually, rushing with
all the force of five, six, ten, twelve,
or even more powerful locomo-
tives, at the heavy drifts which
few hours will accumulate in any
exposed part of the road. Sometimes even
this apparently irresistible charge fails,
and the snow-plow is brought to halt,
buried deep in the white mass which for
all its softness constitutes so formidable an
obstruction. And the men who run these
plows, and the men who often during
heavy storms remain in action for several
days and nights without sleep or rest, not
seldom take their lives in their hands as
surely as if they were going into an actual
battle. There are many ugly chances to
be encountered in these desperate strug-
giles with Nature, and from time to time
some disabled combatant is quietly sent to
the rear, and takes his place in the wards
of the company's hospital at Sacramento.
the extent of the disasters to be repaired,
or the opposing forces to be withstood,
the men on the hill never falter or fall
back. The sense and realization of duty
are as keenly felt among that hardy but
modest band as in any fighting" corps of
a victorious army. And their work is es-
sentially sOldierlike in its spirit. 1t is
real positive combat with the storm in
which they are engaged, and the ultimate
triumph over all obstacles and accidents
which is embodied in the terse dispatch
''road open again all through" or some
such words, Is undoubtedly as genuine and
! well-earned as any exultation over the
conquest of difficult position in the
field of arms. The work these men are
habituated to, moreover, is training on
the mountain division a corps of
self-reliant, active, indomitable officials,
whose like can probably not be found on
any other railroad in the world, since no
other railroad has the same problems to
solve. 1t is beyond question surperla-
lively useful education they are receiving,
and unconsciously to themselves they are
being fitted for executive work of the
highest order. The long, hard fights with
wind and snow, which almost every winter
forces upon them, have developed their
resources wonderfully. The discipline,
tho ovetap, +ba ,raoout;o,, Al ,,oox- s
communication, the facilities for concentrat-
ign helargest available force in the shortest
possible time upon the point of special
danger, call into play every faculty and
talent that war ELECTS The officers !
and their veteran followers are con.
sequently a real miniature army corps,
with an esprit as high and real
and love of danger as sincere, as ever
the far less harmful trade of soldering |
breeds. They are content with the con-
seriousness of arduous duties well per-
formed. They do not look for praise, or
even general recognition, Their business
is to keep the road open, and no doubt it |
sometimes happens to them, after spend
ing days and nights of toll and exposure in
their work, to hear the peevish complaints
of thOughtless passengers who only remem-
Der that they have been delayed few
hours in their swift journey across the con-
tinent, and who have neither realization
nor appreciation of the perils and labors
undergone for their benefit by the unboast.
full but alert and loyal men "of the hill
THE NORMAL SCHOOL FIGHT.
The fight over the Normal School has
been astonishingly bitter and protracted,
and has called forth as much hard feeling