Daily globe., 1881-02-18
WAYSIDB SOJOURNERS,
FORTY OF THEM BROUGHT INTO ST.
PAUL YESTERDAY MORNING.
Release of the Two Sioux City Trains
Which Have Been Snow Bound for Two
Weeks-The Road Again Open for Traffic
Shovel and snow-Plow Brigades Work
dred Shovelers at Work on the Hastings
& Dakota Road Between Brownton and
Ortonville - Mr.. Eddy's Double Office
Accident on the Wabash Road, Etc.

Eight hundred shovelers were at work on
the Hastings & Dakota road Wednesday, and
yesterday afternoon It was hoped they would
open the road through to Ortonville last
night. All these workers were between Brown
ton and Ortonville.
At noon yesterday the shovelers on the
Morris & Browns Valley branch of the st. P.
& NJ railway had made such progress that it
was expected the road would be opened to
Browns Valley last night or early this morn.
ing. The most of the work was in about five
miles of the road, where there was constant
succession of deep cuts full of snow. About
three-q quarters of a mile of this part of the
road remained to be cleared and the rest of
the line was supposed to be free from serious
obstruction.
Mr.. Albert NJ; Eddy, general freight agent
of the st. Paul & Duluth railroad, is again a
double header, having for the second time the
general passenger and freight departments
united under his charge, on account of Mr..
Hair's resignation of the former. If the added
responsibilities bring added pay Mr.. Eddy's
friends will congratulate him.
Mr.. James G.. Boyden, general freight agent
of the Milwaukee & st. Paul company, at ST.
Paul, arrived home yesterday morning, from
was one of the st. Paul bound passengers on
the Sioux City train which was showed in at
Heron Lake on the I'd inst, and which was
brought into st. Paul yesterday
morning. After some ten days
waiting at Heron Lake, Mr.. Boyden
started out to foot it home and in the course
of time reached Mountain Lake, from whence
he toiled along Wednesday to near St. James,
where he was picked up by one of the re-
leased trains. Mr.. Boyden says the imprison-
ed passengers were comfortable provided for,
night and day, and that ithere is every evil
dence that Superintendents Lincoln and Gear
spared neither men nor money in their efforts
to open the line. But since the 1st inst,
they have had but little time in which there
was not storm prevailing, against which it
was useless to contend. Still, Boyden
was sure the blizzard season was over
He found it mighty uncomfortable when he
couldn't see across the smallest of corn fields
because of the air being full of snow
Capt Gear, superintendent of the st. Paul
division of the Omaha line, returned from st.
James yesterday with double-header train,
made up of two passenger trains which left
Sioux City for st. Paul on the LIST and I'd insts.,
and have since been snow bound, the one at
Mountain Lake and the other at Heron Lake.
On the train was about forty of the passengers
who have so long sojourned at the way
stations named, besides some who were left at
way stations east of Mountain Lake. Capt
Gear describes the campaign on which he has
had command in the field for the last week as
an exciting but wearisome one. He made his
headquarters at St. James, and had three large
crews to relieve each other in accompanying
the snow plows. Many of the great drifts
were so high and hard crusted that the shovel
ers had to go first to reduce them to proper
tions with which the snowplow could wrestle.
The weather was variable, and it was frequent
ly the case that hard work had to be done to
bring in wOrnOut party behind which fresh
snowdrifts had formed, and the line east as
well as west had at times to be watched and
cleared. An operator and a telegraph line
reporter accompanied each working party, and
kept Capt. Gear informed of their progress,
and of the needs of the party. The work was
carried on night and day, and in one instance
a crew OF 100 men was necessarily kept at work
continuously for twenty-nine hours, cooked
provisions and hot coffee being sent out to
them by locomotive from st. James. In an
other instance one Of the crews worked thirty
one out of thirty-six hours. The drifts were
formidable and at times the chances of lifting
the blockade seemed desperate; but no engine
was disabled and no man hurt and at last the
road was opened. Capt. Gear thinks that
whatever dissatisfaction the imprisoned pas
sengers may have felt while they lay SO long
at the stations must have been dissipated as
they passed through the snow drifts on their
way out and saw how great had been the labor
of opening the road for their relief. In this
he is confirmed by one of the
released passengers, who says that
while they were shut in, wondering why the
railroad men didn't come through to their re-
lief, he was as angry as man could be and
couldn't think of an Omaha line man without
instinctively saying damn but when he saw
the snow plow coming, heaving great massive
sheets of snow and ice right and left, high
over the telegraph wires. he was molliled.
When he saw the stout shovelers beating the
snow away and marching along as if they had
all the energy and something Of the force of
the mighty engines behind the great plow, he
began to feel grateful. And when at last their
train was again put in motion and he felt that
he was moving homeward, he could have
heartily hugged and blessed every man of the
crew, from the engineer who rushed his engine
into the great snow banks to the homely Nor
wegian Of the shovel brigade who had laughed
at him when he got in the way of a flying
chunk of hard snow.