Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-03-12
GREAT AND smALLBLOcKADEs OF SNOW

On the 9th inst. dispatches from the
East announced the blocking of many rail
roads in that section because Of fall of
snow. In the vicinity of New York we
are told that travel was much retarded by
six-inch fall A dispatch from Newburg
spoke of drifts two feet in hight, and of
trains being stopped by them A Pough-
keepsie dispatch told Of roads being block
AIDED by snow a foot deep on the level. A
Scranton (Pa.) dispatch related that thir-
teen inches of snow had fallen in that
State, and that on the mountain divisions
railroads were blocked and trains had
ceased running. So the story went on; all
over the East the snow fell from six to
thirteen inches deep, and drifted to the
hight Of two feet; whereupon the railroad
authorities called halt, and traffic ceased.
A terrible calamity, to be sure. Yet in
the upper Sierras, on the east border
Of California, and in the Shasta mount
aims on our north, snow fell to the
depth of eight, ten, twenty feet before any
thought of blockade was entertained
Between Colfax and Reno the snow was
from eight to twenty-five feet deep on the
level, and along the track routes the drifts
were from fifty to one hundred and fifty
feet in depth. Against such obstacles the
railway men of California threw themselves
with resolution to conquer, and conquer
they did, and to-day trains are running
between banks of snow on these routes from
ten to fifty feet high.
The carping, fault-inding press of this
State that began to "howl" so soon as a
solitary train was stopped, and scourged
the California railway men because for a
few days the forces Of nature prevailed,
have not a word to say in criticism of the
Eastern railway operators, who retired
their locomotives to the round houses in
the face of drifts of the enormous hight
of two feet and ceased to accommodate
the public when the snow thirteen inches
deep impeded the way. There is no win
ter that on the mountain divisions Of the
California roads the snow does not fall
three times as deep as that reported in
Pennsylvania, and yet the California trains
sweep along, and such thing as a block
ade is not even thought OF.
The truth is that we are given to ex-
pee.ing more of California energy, pluck,
and the go-ahead spirit of our own than
of the Eastern people The loud growl-
er, the persistent grumbler in the late
Sierra blockade was the Eastern man, who
cursed deeply because the railroad men
did not tunnel in an hour or so through
snow drifts fifty feet deep on
an up grade of one hundred and
sixteen feet TO the mile, at an altitude
of over six thousand feet. These same
Eastern grumblers think it not at all
strange that their own roads should "shut
up shop. when thirteen inches of snow
confronts the iron horse. And, as said,
there is no word of complaint from the
carping critics of the California press who
belabored the California railroad officials
soundly, because few days of delay re-
suited from a fall of snow that drifted
along the right of way from fifty to one
hundred and fifty feet deep. Verify the
evils that are afa- off concern us little, and
our charity for those who serve us at home
;s-snall indeed.