Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-14

s proprietor, who was in the shop, "You ar E the first customer I've had since Sunda, :. noon.''
 Miss Smith of 63 Prospect street is wo man of real grit. She braved the clement
 yesterday morning and visited the CoURIEE
 office for her paper.
 Experience ofTwo Reporters. } Monday afternoon, just as the City Hal . clock pealed forth the hour of three, two E rauff1ed figures emerged from the portals o1 the COURIER office, and as blinding gust of wind and snow came down the street with
 a velocity nearly equal to that of 8 ball shot
 from cannon, the two figures ploughed | through the snowdrifts toward Chapel street.
 They were not dressed for style and looked
 like couple of chromos, but that didn't
 matter, for they were after news. The wind
 howled and the snow swept by in torrents.
 causing the blood to jingle. The reporters
 went down the steps of the old Union depot,
 and once under the depot they nerved them
 selves for the occasion and started up the l track toward Fair Haven. The report was 1 that there were trains stalled along the way. A little above the old depot was passenger l train of six cars with two engines attached. The engines puffed and puffed and sent up l great clouds of smoke that made the cut like I a prison cell. But the train would not move.
 Arm in arm the two reporters walked up 1 the track The wind and snow came faster | and thicker. Every few steps halt would | have to be made in order to take breathing l spell. But the trains in Fair Haven were | their objective point, and on they trod. Part way over groaus were heard along the side of the track. A man was in drift beside the | track up to his neck. His teeth were chat l tering and he was making great efforts to ex- l tricate himself, to no use however. A help | ing hand was given and he was released. He had been there nearly an hour and I had been peltsd by the binding snow until he began to get cold and then little numb. He had stepped off the track proper and had sunk into gully. The tracks were con- pletely showed under, the snow all along be- ing at least four feet high. In places the drifts were terrible. The two were obliged to walk on fences and help each ether along as much as possible Fair Haven seemed miles away, but the two stuck together and were bound to reach the train if possible. They finally became chilled through and were hardly able to walk. One felt as if he could proceed no further, and never could
 have done SO but for the help of the other. It was a bigger undertaking than at first supposed. The wind was increasing in vio- lence all the time. Drifts were waded through with the greatest of difficulty. Finally the trains that were stalled were seen and brought new ray of hope. The cars were covered with snow and were the gloomiest and dreariest looking objects im- aginable. The snow in some places was packed up to the windows. There the cars and engines were with the snow heaped up feet and feet around them. They were com pletely hemmed in and four hundred en- zines could not have moved the train.
 The reporters boarded the cars and afte r some length of time got warmed up. Nearly all the passengers had left the ears, but few remained. It was certainly not desirable place in which to stay all night The wind whistled and swayed fhe cars to and fro on the track much like the movement of rock ing chair. The brakemen were all aboard and so were all the others connected with the train.
 It was about the time when the sun begins to disappear behind the western horizon that the two had assumed risky and dangerous undertaking to their own lives without first knowing 1t, in order that the people might have all the news about the storm that lay within their power, stepped from one of the car platforms into bank of snow breast high. In one place they were confronted by drift fifteen feet high and roundabout way had to be taken. It was growing dark. T-A I:AL1 IL L. IT. 0H 10.r Io1 fore the two lost their way in evading the drifts and could not reach the track. They did not know what to do. The shades of night were come and the snow was piled up around them like stone walls. There were
 places to get around them but in trying to do
 so seemed to increase their dilemma. They waded through up to their neeks, and every muscle was exerted to reach the track It would not do to give up then in such an out-of-the-way place, as it meant staying out all night and likely not being found frozen to death in the morning. On they pressed until the last ray of hope seemed to have left them, when they found joy and hope and safety loom up before them. They had gained the track and with renewed courage and energy started on. It was harder to make progress than two hours be- fore, as the storm seem ed to increase in fury as night came on. The wind lashed itself around the housetops and swept down the railroad cut with such ferociousness that it nearly blew the two venturesome news gath erers off their feet. It was an experience not
 wished for again. The ferocious wind seemed endeavoring to blow everybody to stsnither eens." The reporters, however, did not blow
 away, but thought several times they were going to take an unwilling erial excursion, and perhaps be found in Montowese or down by the old light.
 By the time Court street was reached it was found that the train which had been 1JI TTrS1 had moved away. The reporters were tired out, numbed and probably looked, and certainly felt more like living corpses than live human beings. When they reached the switch house just below the old depot they had to give up for time. The little stove in the shanty was made to glow in all it's radiance by the switchman in charge, who poked it up and put on more coal. By the aid of his joViality and courteousness the reporters were at last warmed and started ahead.
 Just under the Fair street bridge was an engine on the extreme left track which seemed frozen to the bridge abutment. The two started for the engine The fire in the engine was as bright and chipper five
 year. old child, and with tender filled with coal there was no danger of the engineer and fireman freezing. As the reporters left the engine the two railroad men told them they
 were sorry they were going, as they would
 probably not see another living being until today they were not to be relieved, hav- ing been given orders to stay by the engine.
 A little further down an engine had run off the track.
 Alight in a car was soon hailed with de light, and as the two adventurers were let in through the rear door by the brakeman, they found that it was the 9:30 a.. m. train for New York, which had been stalled. On the Long wharf crossing were two engines and men were shoveling the snow from under meath the wheels. Abandoned engines and passenger cars were on all sides. The two reporters at last dragged themselves on to l the depotplatform haggard and benumbed, weak and exhausted
 The last stretch, and the home stretch at that, was begun. The wind came across the open fields that it was only by main force that the outer door of the depot could be gotten open. The two ran along the side walk and were congratu1ating themselves that they had at last struck good walking, when great barrier arose in the shape of a drift twenty feet high. The road was talk en, and as the electric light did not give as much light as a match in large dark room, they came nearly losing their way again, for fha snow WAS so bIin1inv that noXhino cou1d