Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-17
EXPECTING TO BE BLOWN AWAY.
Terrible Night Experience In the
Mount Washington Signal Service
Building
Hayper's Mooazin

HdTpeT.s Magazine.
Noticing that the sides of the summit
were strewn with boards, beams and de-
bris, my guide explained that what saw
was the result of the great January gale.
He added:
Late in the afternoon my comrade,
Sergeant NJ, came to where | was
lying abed sick, and said There is
going to be the devil to pay, so 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 We
locity of the storm was one hundred and
twenty miles, and the exposed thermome-
ter recorded "a degrees below zero. With
the stove red, we could hardly get it
above freezing inside the house. Water
froZe within three feet of the fre--in
fact, where you are now sitting
cat this time the noise outside was
deafening. About o'clock the wind
rose to $50 miles. 1t was now blowing
a hurricane. The wind, gathering up
all the loose ice of the mountain, dashed
it against the house with one continued
roar. ] lay wondering how long the
building would stand this, when all at
once there came crash. M shouted
to me to get up; but / had tumbled out
in hurry on hearing the glass go. You
see, 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 lights went out when the wind came
in, and we worked in the dark"
He rose to show me how the shutters
of thick oak were first secured by an iron
bar, and secondly by strong wooden
buttons firmly screwed into the window
frames.
1--WE had scarcely done this, " resumed
Doyle, ''and were shivering over the fire,
when heavy gust of wind again burst
open the shutters as easily as if they had
never been fastened at all. We sprang
to our feet. After a hard tussle we
again secured the windows by mailing
cleat to the floor, against which one end
of board was fixed, using the other
end as lever. You understands" l
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 build
ing would be blown into Tuckerman's
ravine, and we with it. At o'clock In
the morning the wind registered 1856
miles. 1t had shifted then from east to
northeast. From this time it steadily
fell to ten miles, at o'clock. This was
the biggest blow everexperienced on the
mountain"
Suppose the house had gone, and the
hotel stood fast, could you have effected
an entrance into the hotel?" was asked.
1--WE could not have faced the gale. "
Not for hundred feetH Not in
matter 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 SO for many hours you expected
to be swept into eternity?"
'We did what we could. Each
wrapped himself in blankets aud quilts,
binding these tightly around him with
ropes. to which were attached bars of
iron, SO that if the house went by the
board we might stand chance-a slim
one-of anchoring somewhere some
how"