Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-01-19
i NORTHWESTERN blizzard


FREE pREss CoRREspoSDENT.
About | o'clock, while we were in a dry
goods store, the merchant, who had stepped
out a moment before, said to us: II don't
like to drive away my customers but bliz-
zard is coming from the west, and it is com
ing fast The telegraph announces that it
has reached Morris That is forty miles from
hero but it is coming at the rate Of forty
miles pvT noun, ~ you have got 40 time to
spare II you are going home to-day"
He rolled up our purchases as he spoke,
and appeared in hurry to get rid of u.s.
When We got outside the store the first thing
that attracted my attention was the fact that
of all the teams in tine street when we arrived
not one, excepting mine, remained. Every
body had scuddod for home. Even then l
did not hurry. The sun was still shining
brightly with not the faintegt suggestion of
a storm Gpparent anywhere. Before We got
a mile from town l had forgotten all about
the coming storm, and the horses were Jog
ging at their will.
We were still two miles from home when
suddenly the sun was obscured and the air
grew cold and chill in a moment A dark
ness as of smoke swept over everything.
Then ! remembered why We were going
home, and gave the horss Is the whip in
earnest, lashing them into a run. Away off
to tps iofl lLe4e aPpe4Ge4 w DO leaden vail
sweeping toward dG. There was hum iu
the air. light breeze sprang up, grew
stronger, aud in one minute became a gale.
The wall came down with railroad speed, the
roar of its approach every instant growing
louder, From the top o. roll iu thv prai-
rle We could see our house, and it came pretty
near being our last glimpse OF II,
No words will ever convey an intelligent
idea OF the blizzard of the frightful roar
with which it rolls down upon you, the howl
ing and kissing of the wind. II you try to
speak the wind dGshes tho 81 ilsbles from your
lips 50 quickly that you do not hear your own
words. In thirty seconds from the time the
| first snowflake fell | could not see my horses,
The atmosphere appesEed "a be all snow, and
every hake of il was in q hurry to get some.
where before the rest should get there,
use the word flake, " but that ID wrong. No
| flakes could bo distinguished. The whole at
mosphere was filled with one big fake that
hemmed us in on all sides. Although Ma,
bells head wasn't a foot from mine | could
not see her featurs 5, and corlS only dimly
see her form. tred " peer downward be-
alde the sleigh aud see the track, but might
a. well have tried TO see the earth beneath 4
SNOW bank. 1 could feel a motion to the
sleigh, so that knew the horses we're still
moving, The cold was intense tried t
ask my wife il she we're suffering but lc9ul,
not hear my own Yardu,
QVripg the Two or Three minutes that in
teF9epod between the time | saw the storm
approaching and the moment it struck us the
horses had run at the top of their speed, 81
we were not much over a mile from home. I
did no. seem possible fag the hoCdes 10 keel
the track. 10 one could live an hour in tina
storm. The only hope lay in the horses be
ing able to keep to track that was beinl
buried deeper and deeper every instant /
isn't pleasant to sit still and freeze to death
In ten minutes was chilled through, and
felt that l was freezing. The horses Wer
still lAoying aud, although | could not SO
them, | lashed them with the whip.
seemed hours since the storm had shut us in
and was just becoming convinced that tn
horses had got out Of the path and that W
were lost on the prairie when there came
sudden lull of the fierce wind The air wa
still full of whirling snow, but l could Sc
objects about mo, and it didn't take long fo
me to ascertain that we were in the barn an
safe. l had left the barn doors open in tn
morning, and the horses had found their wa
back l think by instinct, but my neighbol
think it was sheer accident, and declare thf
it wouldn't happen again in thousand year
Although we had reached the barn we YeI
not in the house yet. from the barn to ii
house 10 about twenty yards, but, as far 6
seeing it was concerned, tho house might Q
I well have been in the moon, The little won
an helped ms unhaTneGs the horsog and pl
them ip their stalls Then / told her to r
main where abe was, and made break fC
the house. 1t is difficult for any one to b
Heve that in binding storm he cannot {
, twenty yards in line sufficiently straight
find house, but try it some time
Do you see that pump? l stumbled ov
5 it. 1t is twenty feet to the right of the pal
from the barn to the house. If it hadn't
been for that pump would never again ha'
3 found either house or barn knew that Il
- handle Of that pamp pointed directly towal
! the house, aid that II was not over ten var
Z away l raised the handle and felt for II
} bearings. / let 60 of the pump handle al
+ plunged toward the house. When tell u
/. that ran "smack" against 1t you viii unde
7 ltapd that seeing was out of the questio
q After got into the house took a ball
j. twine, tied one end TO the door knob and su
i oeeded in getting back to the barn, and,
IS following the string, We reached the hou
i again. For three days and nights thereafI
Il neither of us even opened the outer doc
It When the storm ceased we could not see
o barn, for the snow had piled in between