Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-02-15
zxpERIESCEs>IN A BLOCKADE.
~ hat "A Passenger Saw and Heard IN
Saow-BucktTsx Train ic. $sath-
western Dakota

!. western DSkotSs-
I J. III. Lozier gives to the SIOUX City
journal the following account of trip
Bon a blockaded railway train from
Sioux City: "OrT train consisted OF an
Iengine, express and baggage oar and
one passenger coach full of fugitives,
flying like birds before the storm. Our
engine had a snow-plow, bpt the pilot
was lined With plank, which enabled
us 60 90 through several baElrs of snow
of sufficient depth to temporarily bury
DOR coach in avalanches Of snow. The
second bank we struck sent several
hundred weight of the beautiful
through Higgins cab win dow, hurting
the shattered glass into his face and
cutting him tn he bled from so many
wouRds that when Surgeon General
Young had patched him ap with court
plaster his ocantenance looked like
hesh-colored checker beard that had
been struck by lightning. Once
through thet drift, and Higgins dug
out and the leaks stopped, il became
necessary TO. board up the broken win
dow, and go into the next sAow bank
blind Ii seems perAous to do this,
and it was; but no conductor could
have seen snything to speak of in such
a blizzard rs that with the window in,
and no engineer alive could have faced
that storm with a slb' window open.
Just after our expedition left Eden
junction we came UPON what Shakes
peare would have termed
The mos. snkinGsst cat Of all"
If he had Struck it as we did, ana
stuck IN it throughout 80 tedious
blizardy day. o. the mighty monster
plunged, throwing the snow in huge
blocks and avalanches ON either side
and overhead until we had almost
reached the end of the cut, when it
began to slow down, and our hearts
began to sink IA proportion, until the
engine stood still, and hopes touched
Athirty below Sioux Falls. There
was rush for the front, but by the
time the lightest and longestlegged
arrived, over the intervening snow
bank, the locomotive was more than
half buried, and the trucks and steps
of our tram rapidly disappearing. The
train men fell to digging out the loco
motive; while Conductor Curry dug
out for Eden to telegraph SNperinten-
dent Spencer, and the aggravating
"pcanut" called out, "Warm cakes,
pies and sandwiches, gentlemen Don't
forget the little store around the corn
err If ever peanut" reaches the
acme Of terrestrial bliss, it is where
YOU are obliged to eat up his stock of
peanuts and rotten apples, or starve.
BY noon the "little store" was empty,
and, in fact, sense of emptiness
seemed to prevade everything except
that cut. At this crisis J. II. Young,
Mai, Sharu's clerk, volunteered to
GO BACK TO EDEN FOR PRovI sGoNS.
We watched him disappear through
the deep snow and binding blizzard,
and resolved to nominate him for quar-
termas!er general of Dakota Territory,
| if he had made success OF that ex-
pedition, which was seconded by every
man on the train from the depths of
their stomach. After few hours Young
and Curry came clamoring over the
drifts laden with basket and sundry
sacks full of bread, crackers, salmon,
sardines, butter, glnger-snaps, mlnce
pie and ground coffee. Judge Hughes
was elected chairman of the committee
on hot coffee; and provided with tin
pail and pine stick. The emlnent attor-
new walked to the front, and returned
half an hour later with pail of coffee
that demonstrated that he had not for
gotten his soldier days, and neither did
we while we drank it, blistering hot,
from leaky tin cup. AS night and
the intenser cold crept upon us, with
consciousness that the snow pillow from
Sioux City could not reach us for sever
al hours, wagon-bed full OF us, In
GLIDING elder Whitfield an Maj, Sharpe
struck out for Eden and supper at the
Commercial. II anybody finds that
sachel | left in the bottom OF hole
where landed when l vaulted airliy
from the train into that snow bank, he
will find the owner by applying to the
undersigned. Upon arriving VI the nc
tel the first thing that greeted the eye
of Maj. Sharpe was that picture OF ms
brother-iu-law, General Grant sitting IN
coach drawn by six horses, and tip-
ing his hat to us, rs if to say: Gentle
MEN 4 III EldU YOU GhlliS Obat pS hNAA'
After nightfall the wind subsidized and
heavy corps of shovelers opened the
road so that our train was enabled to
walow back to Eden where conductor
Sam Clevinger soon reached with his
snow pillow, and orders to hitch our en-
CINE to his outfit and proceed with the
whole to Sioux Falls. Luckily fer our
marty Cleyinocr had his misgiyine about
this scheme and asked permission to
60 ahead of our train with his pillow,
and let us follow under orders. This
was granted and engineer Tom Conley
sped away northwest, pushing his pom
derous pillow and drawing caboose. A
few miles above Eden is a curve
around the bank of the river, and here
the snowplow struck q drift which
while it yielded readily on the river
side, remained so compact on the side
next to the bluff that the pressure tore
the rails from the ties and sent the