St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-01

III.
| lLEf[C HS under very suspicious cir
| yiTlT& h@ cumstances. If there was
one commercial traveller in the Northwest
| who deserved the honor of being placed at
| the head of this organization, it was stock
dale, Or Stock" as he is Familiarity called Dy
| the boys on the road. He represents whole
| sale grocery house in Minneapolis and has
sold goods in Dakota moro years than any
other man on the load. His face Is as famil-
| lar among the merchants of the northwestern
part of that territory as the faces or tneir
| watches, and wherever he is known there ne
! has friends. "Stock'' tried farming several
years ago down in Minnesota, but the grass
hoppers hoped on to his wheat fields ana are
aim nearly out of house and home AS soo'i
as he quit farming the grasshopper quit
Minnesota and it looked very uiucu %
though the hand of destiny was mixed up
with his affairs. He became traVehus
salesman going into Dakota with MS sampio
case when there was hardly mile OF rail-
road completed north of the forty-sixtn par
alel of latitude and he has Travelled there
ever since, building himself a pretty nome ID
pleasant part of the city or Mlnneapohs.
| He tells many interesting "reminiscences OF
the early days in dakota He has mao
| several narrow escapes from death that ne
! now recites with a smile, but acknowledges
mat he wasn't smiling 10 any great extent at
| he time. He speaks Of one time when ne
| first began to travel in the territory. he was
| il Pembina, and having finished his business
there, he concluded to reach point apouI
| twenty miles southwest of there, where ne
| lad customer who kept combination hotei
| and store. TWAS a sort of travelling post
W Iere the Indians bartered pelts ana Duualo
| comes for provisions, tobacco and trlnKets.
There was a man in Pembina representing
Chicago hardware store, and as he wanted 10
20 to the same place, he proposed to Stock
dale that they hire team and make the trip
on runners. 1t was clear day and the
prairies were level with snow that had fallen
the previous day. Stockdale agreed to the
proposition. pair of horses were secured
md hitched to bFoad-bodied sleilh, and
uto it 'Stock" dumped his sample cases.
and the hardware man threw in two or
hree sample hoes, rakes and shovels. With
buffalo robes piled around them and muff1ed
i'll heavy fur coats and caps, they started on
their journey. They had gone about fifteen
miles when one OF those sudden wind storms,
so peculiar to the prairies of Dakota, swept
Town on them. 1t was a veritabe blizzard,
-uu uII was 81 lull VI SuOW tudI tuS OCCu-
PANTS of the sleigh could hardly see the heads
f their horses. To turn back would have
,een the height of folly; the only thing to do
was to give the horses full rein and trust to
heir instinct to lead them to some human
labitation. To guide them was out of the
,uestion. The wind w now blowing per-
ect gale and the snow was sweeping over the
plains in a vast icy clou d, and drifting bail,.
m no oriE on
these terrible Odds and finally came to d
lead stop, buried to their rumps in tremen-
dous drift, where they lay as helpless as
though they were dead. Stockdale and his
companion recognized the fact that they
must take immediate action or perish, and
laundering out of the sleigh they sank waist
ieep in the snow. The hardware man man
aged to get a couple shovels out of the sleigh,
and together they began to dig into the drift.
they realized that if they could get far
enough under the snow, with the robes
and coats they could manage to keep
Il few feet down and then started horizontally
towards the center of the drift After an
hours hard labor they had dug well under the
pile OF snow, and bringing in their robes they
found that they could keep quite comfort
able. Self-preservation is the first lw of
nature, and to do any thing for the horses was
out of the question, and the unfortunate
beasts stood buried to the bellies and frozen
20 death, the snow drifting around them and
.nclosing their rigid forms in an immaculate
tomb. With their watches the men kept track
If the flight of time. STOCK happened to
have pack of cards in his pocket and the
hardware man had a quart of excellent
whisky, which he always carried with him for
medicinal purposes. The hours wore slowly
away with seven-up, auction pitch, eucher
and poker to tighten them, and now and then
the bottom of the whisky bottle would be
pointed at the roof of the snow cave. and
there would be gurgling sound followed by
d smack of lips and the game would go on.
At last it got so dark that they couldn't tell a
queen from knave and striking match
they found that it was after o'clock in the
afternoon. Wrapping themselves in their
buffalo robes they lay down. Starkdale says
he never slept so soundly or more
contentedly than he did that night
under the snow drift. When they
awoke morning had broken and the light was
stealing into the CHASTITY cavern. "Stock"
went to the door and looked out. The wind
was blowing less fercely and the snow was
drifting but little. efore him stretched a
vast waste of snow piled up in great mounds,
the sides gashed and twisted into thousand
fanciful shapes by the freakish fingers OF the
gale. Near the opening he could see the out
lines of e horses as they had stood when
covered with snow, and they looked like
blocks of marble out of which a sculptor had
begun to cut equestrian figures. Ii looked
as though they would have to put in another
day in the cave, and "Stock'' walked dubi-
ously back TO the hardware man, whom he
found on his hands aud knees with his ear
pressed to the bottom of their snow house.
"What're you doing?" queried stock
"Come here and listen,'' replied the hard
ware man.
stock" walked over to where his COM
panion was kneeling, and, bending down. he
placed his ear to tue snow and listened.
look of surprise and wonder overspread his
face as he raised up and looked over at the
hardware man.
What is it?" said he.
81 don't know" was the reply, 'let's dig"
The suggestion was Immediately acted
upon, and graspng their shovels the men
began digging down into the bottom of their
cave. The work was SLOW as each shovel
full of snow had to be carried to the door of
the cave and thrown out. They had dug
| down oout three feet when 'Stock's" shovel
struck something that gave back dull
sound. He threw up few shovels full of
snow and scraping the bottom of the hole, he
laid bare a patch of dark, weather beaten
shingles.
"We're on top of house, he shouted, and
the men, renewing their efforts, soon cleared
| several square feet of shingled roof, in the
center of which was found a scuttle or trap
| door. These doors are built in nearly every
| house erected on the prairie in Dakota and