Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-11-29
Storm at tho Signal Station, Mt.
Washington.

Noticing that the sides of the summit
were strewed with boards, beams, and
de6rts of all sorts, my guide explained
that what I saw was the result of the
great January gale which had demol-
ished the large shed used as an engine
house, scattering the loose fragments far
and wide. begged him to give me his
recollection of it.
''During the forenoon preceding the
gale we observed nothing very unusual;
but the clouds kept sinking and sinking
until the summit was quite above them.
Sergeant NJ, came to where [ was
lying abed sick, and said: There is 60
ing to be the devil to pay. SO I guess I'll
make everything snug.
"By nine in the evening the wind had
increased to one hundred miles an hour,
with heavy sleet. At midnight the ve
locity of the storm WAS one hundred and
twenty miles, and the exposed thermom-
eter recorded twenty degrees below zero.
With the stove red, We could hardly get
it above freezing inside the house. Water
froze within three feet Of the hre-in fact,
where you are now sitting
eat this time the noise outside was
deafening. About one o'clock the wind
rose to one hundred and fifty miles. It
was now blowing hurricane. The wind,
gathering up all the loose ice of the
mountain, dashed it against the house
with one continued roar. I lay wonder
ing how long the building would stand
this when all at once came a crash.
M-shouted to me to get up, butt had
trYrn !aA In
glass 90. You gee, ! was dressed, to
keep myself warm in bed
''Our united efforts were hardly equal
TO closing the storm shutters from the in
side, but We finally succeeded, though
the light went out when the the wind
came In, and we worked in the dark,
He rose to show me how the shutters,
Of thick oak, we're first secured by ali
iron bar, and secondly by strong wooden
buttons firmly screwed in the window
frame.
"We had scarcely done this, resumed
Doyle, "and were shivering over the
fire, when heavy grist of wind again
burst open the shutters, as easily as If
they had never been fastened at all We
sprang to our feet. After hard tussle
we again secured the windows, by nail
ing cleat to the floor, against which one
end of board was fixed, using the other
end as lever. You undertand. ?" I
nodded. "Well, even then it was all We
could do TO force the shutters back into
place. But we did it. We had to
do it.
'The rest of the night was passed In
momentary expectation that the building
h. .,,1~>
we with it. At four o'clock i'll the morn
ing the wind registered one hundred and
eighty-si1 miles. 1t had shifted then
from east to northeast. From this time
it steadily fell to ten miles, at nine
O'Clock. This was the biggest blow ever
experienced on the mountain.
"Suppose the house had gone, and the
hotel stood fast, could you have effected
an entrance into the hotel p / asked.
"We could not have faced the gale"
"Not for hundred feet? not in mat
ter of life and death ?"
"Impossible. The wind would have
lifted us from our feet like bags of wool.
We would have been dashed against the
rocks and smashed like egg-shells," was
the quiet reply.
"And 80 for some hours you expected
to be swept into eternity?'
"We did what we could. Each
wrapped himself in blankets and quilts,
binding these tightly around him with
ropes, to which were attached bars Of
iron, 80 that if the house went by the
board We might stand q chance-a slim
one-of anchoring somewhere, some
how"
Somewhere, indeed!
When, on the following morning I
busted myself getting ready to 60 down
the mountain. I heard profound sigh,
followed by some half audible words.
proceeding from the adjoining room.
These words rang in my ears all that
day:
''Ah, this terrible solitude!'-.S. A.
Drake. in Harper's Magazine.