Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-02-03
NEWS, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
RISKS OF THE RAIL.

h4SkAS SG 4 - - n04bs
The Perils and Pleasures of Being Snow
Bound on the Plains.
CHICAGO, February 2.-Several pass
engers who were aboard train that was
snow-bound on the Kansas Pacific rail-
way for thirty.six hours arrived in Chi
cago on yesterday afternoon. Mr.. D. G..
Graves, OF Rochester, N. Y, who was
OF the party, said that, 30 far as he Was
individually concerned, he regarded his
detention as the most romsnticslly in
teresting episode OF his life. "When l
grow DID," said Mr.. Graves, "snd my
children are grouped about me on win.
ter nights, can entertain them, l think,
with the narrative OF my snow-bound eI-
periences.
Mr.. Graves said that for several days
a snow storm ragged over the central por-
ton OF the plains OF Colorado with ter
rife violence. At one time, for period
OF several hours, the snow came down
in so dense a volume as to make it i'm
possible, he Was told, for the engin-
eer to discern any object ten
feet in advance OF his locomo.
tive. Had the snow remained undis-
turbed as it fell the accumulation would
have almost overwhelmed the train; but
the wind, which blew with fitful vio-
lence, would, it was observed by the
passengers, calm just long enough to
permit an accumulation OF snow, when it
would burst into. a heroic sndimpetuous
blizzard, and, with all the dash OF
cavalry charge, would lick up the snow
and whirl it into binding fury across
the plains and into the sky, and almost
overturning the cars. For thirty hours,
Mr.. Graves said, the train was in the
mercy OF the storm, and progress was
out Of the question. The passengers
Jared better than one would imagine.
There was some suffering among the
people who occupied the forward coach,
but the more fortunate passengers in
the sleeping car contributed literally to
their relief. The fuel had TO be used
economically, but fairly comfortable
temperature was maintained in the
coaches. The passengers seemed rather
TO enjoy the experience, and de-
spite the gloom about them
Behaved Quito Merrily.
The episode was the means OF making
everybody aboard the train well ac-
quainted. The ladies, without an eI-
ception, seemed perfectly happy, and,
in the thickest of the storm, one OF them
chilled everybody in the sleeper with
the remark: 80, wouldn't it be jolly il
we should starve and freeze to death
here?"
Mr.. Graves said that little further
east, in a district OF prairie where deep
cuts were numerous, three or four west
bound trains were stuck in the snow
for over seventy hours. In that cluster
of trains there was some actual suffer
ing. The supply OF fuel and provisions
was not sufficient, and hunger conspired
with an icy atmosphere to render exist.
ence there anything but pleasurable.
The train men performed every service
i'm their power to conduce 10 tho mitiga-
ton of the hardship, and their praises
are heartily sounded by all the passen.
gers.
The railway company, anticipating
the blockade, had concentrated a large
force of locomotives and snow.plows at
that point, and the men who engineer
cd these machines had a frightful eI-
perience. The hurricane blew snow
and sand into the cuts until they were
filled with substance as concrete as
gravel-bed. In trying to cut q way
through these cuts two or three OF the
snow ploughs were
Crushed as IL They Had Been Only Egg
Shells.
In one cut, in which the snow was about
seven feet deep, but not frozen very
hard, a snow-plow, driven by four pow
eriul locomotives, turned up "bo-
nanza" OF dead steers. The poor brutes,
stampeding before the storm, had taken
refuge in the cut and had crouched
there, untouched by the bl zxard, until
they were overwhelmed and buried out
of sight under the snow. Mr.. Graves
told how in one OF the terrific assaults
upon the snow by theenginemen, three
locomotives were wrecked and fireman
was injured, probably fatally. The three
engines, with a snow.plow in
front, withdrew from the cut a good
halt mile, the track for that distance
having been cleared OF snow. The pas.
sengers stood off IN the snow, at the
mouth OF the cut, excited witnesses OF
the assault. The locomotives, linked
together, came up over the cleared piece
OF track at a speed estimated at forty.
FIVE miles per hour. When the con-
crete drift was reached the snow-plow
and the engines cut a clean swath for
about twenty feet. The flying snow 50
completely iilled the air that for mo-
ment the locomotives were obecured
from the view OF the spectators. Then,
with a sort OF plunging velocity, the
snow-plow and three locomotives rose
from the track and shot up over the sur.
face of the drift aud cspsized quite out.
side the cut. All this happened in
three seconds. As the mighty machines
went rlunging up the hill OF snow the
engineers and firemen jumped from
their cabs. One poor fellow, however,
failing to jump in time, was badly
crushed in the cab, and may die from
his injuries. The snow had 10 be liter
ally dug from the cut.