Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-12-21
WINTER AT THE NORTH.
Erie snowoanked ShOres-Fleeey Bar
riers IN the Roads-LocOmOtIvesC Charg-
ing Drifts-The Southern Contrast.

riers In the eROads--Locomotiyes Charo-
ing Drifts-The Southern Contrast.
NEAR LAKE ERIE, n. Y, Dec. 15.-0O
the snow, the beautiful snow. might he
the song of the resident of this region at
this time, providing his nature overhowed
with sentimentality to the exclusion OF
sensibility to the low temperature and
piercing blasts that accompany it.
With the native residents of Southern
Georgia and of Florida, who are readers
of the News, it will be difficult, and, /
may say, impossible, to picture in their
minds what winters day is like away
up here on the shores of Lake Erie. No
pen picture can do the subject justice.
With three exceptions the snow has
1allen every day this month covering the
earth to the depth of twenty inches, laden
ing every, bush and tree, massed upon
every building, and piled upon
every fence, so that as my eve sweeps
over the many square miles of rolling
landscape in view from my window. it
| presents an interminable field of glarine
white, with the temperature at fifteen de-
! gress below the freezing point. A high
| wind has prevailed every alternate dav
| during the past week, filling the air with
/ vast clouds of whirling snow, like DOW
dered ice, so that, from morning until
night, one cannot see five yards in anv
! direction on account of it. And as for
| travelling or remaining out of doors for
any length of time one cannot do it with
| out perishing. Your face becomes coated
with ice from the hurtling clouds of snow
that strike increasingly against it, million
icy particles sitting down your neck and
up your sleeves, the keen wind penetrat-
ing your manifold wrappings, almost con-
gealing the blood in your veins.
Blown thus the snow collects in huge
drifts or banks behind every object that
acts as a wind break. Especially is this
the case along the fence rows, so that every
high wind fills the country roads which run
at right angles with its course full to the
fence tops, obstructing travel for days at
a time; and, perhaps, after one or two
days labor with snOw-shOvels, by every
male resident of a road district, in making
them pasSabIe, the wind will again rise
and in two or three hours undo their en-
tire labor. And so it is for weeks, some
times, that the less Travelled of the country
roads are entirely blockaded, and the main
thOrOughfares kept open only by the ut
most labor and exposure.
Railroads are of course subject to the
same conditions. The long, deep cuts so
numerous on the roads in this hilly coun-
try are filled by every snow and wind
storm, requiring an incalculable amount
OF labor and expense to keep them open
and the trains running. The snow pl0Ws
used upon Northern roads would be a
great curiosity to Southern railroad men.
Every locomotive is provided with a light
snow plOW, affixed to its pilot, at the be-
ginning of winter, and calculated to sue
cessfully dispose of such small drifts as
may ordinarily form during the intervals
between trains. But for heavy work dur
ing the great snow storms that so fire.
quently prevail very huge affair is used,
which will attempt to describe.
The plOW Is commonly constructed of
quarter-inch steel plates built onto a
strong framework of steel bars, forming a
plOw Of the double mOuld-bOard style sub
stantially attached to the front of a loco
motive, the long point of this plOw extend
ing far in front of the pilot, the wings
curving away on either side to the width
of the engine, and solid as high as the top
of the smOke-stack, with a peep hole for
the man who is stationed behind it as a
lookout. From three to five heavy loco
motives are coupled together behind this
gigantic turnover, and when running at
full speed it plOws its way through an or
binary snow bank like a cyclone through
a chaff pile.
But when ten-fOOt cut a half mile long
half or wholly filled is reached, then the
fun and the danger begins. The weight of
hVe locomotives hurled against the barrier
at the speed of thirty miles an hour drives
the huge ploW through the fieecy mass.
throwing its burrows of tons of snow high
in the air on either hand. Frequently they
Will stick in the cut, and backing up they
Will go back mile to get headWay and
come at it again full tilt, and so continu-
ing until the road is cleared. These expe-
d1tiOns are attended with not little dan
ger. Sometimes a column of snow is
thrown fifty feet into the air, and tons of
1t come crashing down upon the front en-
glne, breaking the cab windows or crush
ing the roof, burying the engineer and fire.
man beneath its weight.
A great deal of trouble has been expert
enced already by the roads of this section.
because the blockades have come earlier
than usual. In fact, a passenger train is
stuck in snow drift at this moment on
the Dunkirk and Warren Road in plain
sight from my window, and the-hoWling
wind is filled with falling snow. Let your
savannah readers who are promenading
Bull, BrOughtOn or South Broad streets.
or strolling through Forsyth Park, with
their green verdure and blooming flowers.
imagine the ground covered a foot deep
and the air densely filled with powdered
ice, with the wind blowing a gale. and
they will have some idea of what it is like
here. to-day, and what it is likely to be no
small part of the time during the next
three months. Wagons, of course, cannot
be used, sleighs taking their places for all
purposes. Creeks and rivers are frozen
over and everything ice bound. How
would the Georgia and Florida reader like
to exchange place with me?
have only spoken of the unpleasant
features of Northern winter, and like
everything else, it has it's bright side, of
which may speak hereafter. A. g. p.