Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-23
NATURE AGAINST MAN.


pitted against the power of Nature, and
the comparative impotence of the former is
strikingly displayed. Whatever unlimited
capital, energy, skill, determination, me-
chanical appliances, numerical strength,
undaunted bravery and persistence can do,
is being done to keep open the railroad
through the mountains. There is no lack
of anything that can in any way contribute
to the end sought. 1t may confidently be
asserted that whatever human beings are
capable of accomplishing under like condi-
lions is within the reach of the gallant
corps now battling with the tempest. Nor
did they approach the work at disadvan-
tage. On the contrary, every precaution
that engineering skill and experience could
suggest had been taken beforehand.
Wherever there was danger of snow slides
or fills, massive and enormously strong
sheds had been built over the track. The
ponderous timbers of these structures
looked to the inexperienced eye as though
they were unnecessarily substantial,
and the traveller, winding for miles
through their dim galleries would natu-
rally have concluded that here, at least,
the winter storms had been effectually
guarded against, and that nothing short OF
CONFUSION fierce enough to rend and
shatter the mountain peaks themselves
could affect these solid defenses. But the
railroad men, better acquainted with the
not regard the snow-sheds as an adequate
protection. They were supplemented by
ample store of powerful snow plows,
which, driven by five, ten, or even more
engines, seemed capable almost of opening
pathway through the granite walls of the
mountain. In addition to these safe
guards watchful sentinels We're posted at
short intervals throughout the area of
danger, and every device for securing swift
communication and relief that science fur
nished was availed of The storm could
not take the guardians of the railroad by
surprise. 1t appeared incredible that it
could prevent the steady operation of the
road. But the forces of Nature are not to
be measured by human capacities. At
length e storm has arisen which seems to
laugh every exertion of feeble humanity to
ayJ tr-hiob
of the most massive fabrics science, skill
and capital can erect, than of the frail hut
of the savage. The snow descends, the
gale RACES, and in little while the ava
lanche sweeps down the mountain side,
the surface soil comes away in enormous
bodies, and at score of points the snow
sheds are crushed down as if they had
been built of paper. Then rain falls upon
the snow, and packs and hardens it in the
drifts, and the great snow-plows with
their long trains of engines recoil before
the solid mass, and can make no impression
upon it. The snow-sheds are gone, the
snow-plows are rendered useless, and still
the snow and wind and rain continue to
beat upon the exposed and incumbered
track, until at last the task of the brave
railroad men becomes thousand-fold
heavier than when they began.
Indomitable energy, pluck and endur-
ance beyond praise, are at length defeated
by the irresistible force of Nature in her
most wild and mischievous mood. All
that man can do is done. No precaution
has been neglected, no duty sighted, but
the storm allows no breathing-space, and
disaster follows swiftly upon disaster. No
sooner is a slide cleared away in one place
than half dozen more are reported. No
sooner are demolished snow-sheds removed
here, than other snow-sheds yield to the
pressure of their burden there. The Su-
perintendent and his assistants forego all
rest and refreshment. The gallant men
hold back from no labor, however pro-
longed or exhausting Gang after gang of
workers retire utterly fatigued. On every
side the demand for fresh exertion is heard.
But still the furious storm RACES on,
and tramples out the work of hours
in minutes, as though it recognized the
antagonism of the situation, and was re-
solved to make no concessions to its adver-
saries. Never in the history of railroading
has so protracted and tremendous duel
between Man and Nature been witnessed
1t is an episode which deserves to be i'm
mortalized, but it is being participated in
by men who do not think of anything be-
yond the duty of the hour. To conquer
Nature in such strife would be to win a
far more glorious victory than ever re-.
suited from stricken field, but the odds
are terribly unequal. For Nature is
fighting with elemental forces as her
weapons, and the battle resembles the
tabled struggle between the Titans and
the Gods. The former did all that
merely human power could achieve,
DuI IuO luuuQcIDOlIS vi UONe
beat down their desperate arms, and
hurled them in ruin to the plains below.
In the end the brave railroad warriors will
doubtless succeed in re-opening the CON-
munications which have been interrupted /;
but the almost inconceivable exertions and
expenditure necessitated must turn public
attention more significantly than ever to
that new trans-continental road which is
now so quietly extending its long line to-
wards the Gulf of Mexico, and which
from terminus to terminus will traverse a
level and perfectly protected region, safe
from all storms, and incapable of elemental
interruption. In the Central Pacific there
is no recourse but to encounter Nature as
an opponent In the Southern Pacific she
Will be circumvented.
A FLOWER SHOW FOR SACRAMENTO.