Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-17
THE COLD HEIGHTS IN THE
WINTER SEASON.
Trying to Walk Down the Icy
Railroad Track in a Howl
ing Storm.


easier to 90 down than to walk up.
Il met a newspaper man once" said
Young Probabilities smiling in retro
spective way, "who went down stairs in
such quick time that he will probably
never forget it as long as he lives. He
was cool head, though. 1t happened
one winter, when | was stationed on ton
of Mount Washington, in the White
Mountains. The signal station up there
has been abandoned since then by the
Government, and / imagine that none OF
the weather boys are sorry of it. Talk
about wind L! You think it a big thing
to ssbave q sixty-mile an hour wind
What should you say to a wind blowing
100 miles an hour? Many a night | have
sat by the fire in our hut up there when
the noise of the wind was such roar that
we were obliged to shout at each other in
order to make ourselves heard in conversa-
ton. Yes, it was a lonely station. /
spent two winters on the mountain, and
though | gradually got accustomed to the
loneliness and comparative idleness of the
life, was glad enough when | was trans
terred. You see there were two of us, be-
sides cook and a servant We went up
on the mountain about the latter part OF
November, taking great part of our stores
with US. We were, of course, occupied
with our daily observations, and when
there was nothing else to do we read or
| played cards. Once in a while, when it
was clear and the snow froze hard on top.
we used to make trips down the mountain.
Sometimes, too, parties would be made up
from below to come and visit us, living as
we did so high up in the world.
One day a party of four newspaper
men, among whom was the young fellow
began to tell you about, came up to see us.
They were highly delighted with the adj
venture, and after spending a Jolly night
together, We insisted upon accompanying
them down the mountain for a part if not
all the way. The only safe means of get
ting up the mountain was by way of the
railroad track, and the descent was, of
course, accomplished in the same manner.
If you ever have made the ascent of Mount
Washington by rail, you will perhaps be
astonished that | should describe walk
over the sleepers of the road as safe. If,
however, you fastened ice-creepers on your
shoes, you were comparatively sure of not
! slipping, and besides, if the snow in places
concealed the track from view, you had
the telegraph poles to guide you. At all
events, there was no other possible way of
| going down the mountain. Any attempt
| to follow the stage road, or indeed any
other path, would have resulted in hope
less ENHANCEMENT in gigantic snowdrifts,
and in nine cases out of ten, in certain
DEATH
well, We started off. There were six
Of us. My companion and myself had
made the trip so often that we had grown
10 regard it as a trifing matter There
| is no denying, however, that walking down
the Mount Washington Railroad with ice
creepers on your feet, and the wind howl
ing around you with terrific force, is a
somewhat different task from climbing up.
| on can't hold on with your hands so well,
and the great hight upon which your OPP
erations are carried on is apt to make you
| dizzy. | have very steady head, and so
had my assistant; and so, by the way, the
| others seemed to have, with the exception
| OF one of the newspaper men-a big, heavy
| fellow, whose hearty manners had quite
won my heart during our brief acquaint-
| ance. His jollity was abating now, how
SNNA, Win liiC AiSll Vi every UlOilelll anu
the increased dip of the incline down
which we slowly crept.
lit was not pleasant position for any
one whose nerves could not stand looking
down from great hight. Sheer down, as
far almost as the eye could reach, swept
the narrow track, sometimes concealed in
drifts of snow, but again emerging, and, to
the eye of our friend, no doubt seeming to
penetrate the very bowels of the earth.
The sun shining upon the dazzling white
OF the snow produced binding effect
upon the eyes, and to add to the paralyzing
influences the wind kept bowling around
us on our airy perch like an avenging de-
mon. Conversation was decidedly tagging
in all quarters. At last, when we came to
jacobs Ladder, the big journalist stopped,
and, holding on tightly with both hands.
said solemnly: 4 can never go over that
"You Know Jacobs Ladder It's the
name given to part of the road where it
crosses very deep ravine. This ravine at
the time l speak of was considerably
well filled up with snow, the top crust of
which was frozen hard, and as slippery as
glass. The distance of the track above this
snow could not have been more than thirty
feet, and yet our friend was sure he could
never cross the sleepers at that hight and
keep his balance. We proposed that we
carry him across. At this he shuddered.
but frightened up the next instant.
~ will let myself down on to the snow
he said, underneath there until the worst
part of the ladder is over; then l can cas-
lily climb up again
All right said [ only look out that
you don't slip. There's hole thousand
feet deep just beyond that little mound
where you propose to rejoin u.s.
The frozen snow upon which our
timid friend was about to make his de-
scent described steep incline under the
trestlework of the railroad, ending in a
depression near the point where Jacobs
Ladder might be said to begin to climb.
Just before this depression was little
mound formed of snow and rocks, beyond
which lay certain destruction The big
fellow began to let himself down one Of
the beams while the rest stood and looked
! on and ioked him little. Whether it
was our fun that discomposed him or that
he lost his grip L never heard him say,
but suddenly, before we could realize what
had happened, he had fallen on his back
on the CLASSY snow surface and went coast
ing at fr1ghtful speed down the hill. |
don't think one of us could have uttered
sound if We had been slaughtered for it the
next instant. We waited to see our iolly
companion shoot over the mound at the
bottom into the abyss below. Down he
went, gathering velocity every moment
Shooting into the hollow he scarcely
seemed to touch the ice. Fortunately he
struck against bit of projecting rock and
the shock was sufficient to throw him back
in the hollow. We up above had no voice
left to ask him if he was alive. But he
was no sooner at rest in his icy hollow than
he sat up, waved his hand to US and
shouted:
GO Facilisest descensus Avernip
+" After that | understood how fellow
with first-class nerve may act like perfect
infant when he gets dIzzy."-N Y. Times