St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-14
ON THE RAILROADS.
Very Few Trains Arrive In or De-
part From ST. PauI

The storm of Thursday that spread
itself over such vast area, covering
the whole Northwest, left the railroads
everywhere within its reach in most
deplorable condition. In general way
it may be said that every system in the
Northwest was yesterday brought to
Stand-Still. Of course, the managers of
the roads made all the efforts possible
to start their trains, but they found it
impossible to do so. Here and there
they partially succeeded, but the few
trains and the short distances they run
them showed that it was useless to
make any effort till the storm was COM
pletely at an end. The long and short
of the matter is, that the whole railroad
world in the Northwest was practically
brought to dead halt yesterday, and
trains were not moved. Such
wide spread and complete stop
page of the whole railway system
throughout the Northwest was never be-
fore known. This fact, in itself, gives
one an idea of the severity and extent
of the storm. No progress to speak of
was made yesterday in Dakota to ex-
tricate the trains, for the reason that
throughout that territory the cold was
so intense and the wind so severe that
nothing could be done. At some points
there were indications in the early part
of the day that there would be some
moderation in the severity of the
weather, but later sn the cold was more
severe and the wind more fierce. One
dispatch from out on the Northern
Pacific said there was no use to do any,
thing till there was moderation of the
weather. The cold was so intense that
the snow was like ice. A man could
walk upon it without making any in
dentatiOn. 1t was admitted that it was
impossible to remove the snow drifts till
there was good deal of moderation of
the weather, and till
THE SAVAGE WIND
should subside. Between st. Paul and
Chicago, where the storm was less
severe and where the wind was less
fierce, the snow plow and the other ap-
pllanceS for removing snow were put to
work, but in Western Minnesota and
throughout Dakota no attelnpt was
made to do anything except to take care
of the trains. The word ''abandoned'
was written all over the blackboard at
the union depot. Except the trains that
managed to get through between st.
Paul and Minneapolis, only one train
came in from Chicago over the Wiscon-
sin Central. This train, four or five
hours late. was pulled through
with the aid of five heavy
locomotives, all of which were
alternately engaged in pulling at the
train and cleaning the snow from the
track. There were plenty of trains that
were ''stuck" in the snow on various
roads, many of which were bulletined
on the board at the Union depot as be-
ing four, five, six and more hours late.
All were expected to reach st. Paul
some time during the night, but when,
train on the Northern Pacific road, that
went up to Minneapolis Thursday to
take the passengers off the preceding
train that was stopped there, was
stopped before it reached Sauk Rapids.
This road had four trains showed in be-
tween Minneapolis and Sauk Rapids.
1t was the same way all through Da-
kOta.
With the exception of attempting to
run trains between Barnsville and
Neche, the Manitoba abandoned all
efforts to move trains on any of its di-
visions. 1t was compelled to do this as
piercing cold. On the Milwaukee & st.
Paul, the Omaha, the Burlington and
Minnesota q Northwestern, everything
was practically abandoned. The morn
ing train on the st. Paul & Duluth due
to leave st. Paul at 500 a. M, and the
train due to leave at 8 a. M, were
abandoned. The train that left st. Paul
for Duluth was showed in at Fon du
Lac. All the passengers were taken to
Duluth and three snow plows were at
work at that end trying to clear the
| road. The Wisconsin Central was in
much the same condition as the other
Chicago roads. The only train that ar
! rived here came over this line, Thus it