Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-07-24

Later details of the great slide on Cher
ry Mountain, New Hampshire, say that it
is greater than any that has occurred in
the White Mountains within the memory
of man. far exceeding in the distance of
the descent and the quantity of material
brought down, the one which burst
through the Flume a short time ago and
the well known Crawford Notch slide,
which destroyed the Wiley family many
years ago This, too, nearly proved fatal
to life, for passing within few feet of a
small house higher up, past which it tore
a chasm thirty feet deep and two hundred
feet wide, the edge of the tremendous
mass struck the house of Oscar Stanley
and, throwing its fragments aside cross
ed the road and tore the barn into a shape
less mass of broken timbers. Mr.. Stan
ley was burned out in the spring and was
finishing Il new house. The carpenters
had just gone into the building to begin
the days work, when one asked if the
noise he heard was thunder or Il freight
train coming up the track. Mr.. Stanley
stepped to the door. Its not thunder
nor cars he shouted. Get out of here
the whole mouutaln's coming down upon
us - They did get ont and running to
the rear of the house, escaped. Mr.. stan
ley's hired man, who was milking in the
barn. was not 50 fortunate. for running to
the door upon hearing the noise, he was
carried under the broken barn and was
subsequently cut ont with a broken leg
and internal injuries which, it is hoped,
will not prove fatal. The mass of the slide
spread heavily over Mr.. Stanleys farm
utterly running it, Where il spent itself
between the highway and the railroad
track, a beautiful field, from which he
cut forty tons of hay last year, and auoth-
er with Il fine crop of potatoes, lie buried
many feet under the debris of the noun
gain side. HIS cattle were killed in the
pasture and barn, and only Il horse dug
out unhurt.
He himself described the scene as he
reached the door of the house as some
thing terrible. Looking up toward the
mountain he saw an immense wave TWEEN
ty-live or thirty feet high, composed of
earth, boulders and broken trees, and adj
Vancing with immense speed over the
slOping fields directly upon him. The vast
mass boiled and seethed, great trees roll
ing and tumblIng like so many jack
straws, while rocks of many tons III
weight were pitched about like pebbles
AS one now stands by the remains of the
Stanley house the tOrtuous course of the
Slide Is seen to the mountains summit
detected from straight line by the con
formation of the declivlty. 1t looks likt
the trail of a hugh serpent, deeply cut il
places and again broadly spread 1t:
course was through adense forest of heavy
timber, and at each side and around "a
our feet are scattered the giants of The
forest, stripped, broken and covered will
mud, transformed in an instant from tn,
leaf-crOwned beauty of this morning tC
these black and shapeless logs. The bot
tom of the slide is about mile from JET
ferson railway station the whole slide il
of course visible across the valley from
, Jefferson Hill, and several persons Their
saw it come down, while its roar wa
heard for miles. Logs, trees, rocks ant
dirt cover over twenty acres of the Stan