The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-24

pleasure OF walking along tue tops of goods
wagons to brake train with the Their
mometer thirty below freezing. at comes
cheaper to kill men that way than TO put
air brakes on freight cars" said the brake
man.
Thirty below freezing! 1t was incon-
celvable till one stepped out into it at mid
night and the first shock of that clear still
air took away the breath as plunge into
sea water does. A walr1s sitting on
woolpack was our host in his sleigh, and he
wrapped US in hairy goat-skin coats, caps
that came down over the ears, buffalo
robes and blankets, and yet more buffalo
robes, till we, too, looked lie walruses
and moved almost as gracefully. The
night was as keen as the elge of newly
ground sword, breath froze on the coat
lapel IN snow, the nose became without
sensation, and the eyes Wept bitterly be-
cause the horses were in hurry to home,
and whirling through the air at zero
| brings tears. But for the jingle of the
sleigh bells the ride might have taken
place in dream, for there was
no sound Of hoofs upon the snow,
the runners sighed a little now and
again as they glided over an INEQUALITY. aud
all the sheeted hills round about were
dumb as death. Only the Connecticut river
kept up its heart ana lane of black water
through the packed ice. We could see the
stream worrying round the heels of its
small bergs. Elsewhere there was nothing
but snow under the moon-snow drfLed to
the level of the stone fences or curling
over their tops in tip of frosted silver;
snow banked high on either side of the
road or lying heavy on the pines ana the
hemlocks in the woods, where the air
seemed, by comparison, as warm as con-
servatory. 1t was beautiful beyond ex-
preston. Natures boldest sketch IL black
and white, done with Japanese disregard
of perspective and daringly altered from
time TO time by the restless pencils OF the
moon.
In the morning the other side of the pic
ture was revealed in the colors of the sun
light. There WAS never cloud in the sky
that rested on the snow line of the horizon
as sapphire on white velvet. Hills of pure
white or specified or furred with woods
rose up above the solid white levels of the
fields, and the sun rioted over their en-
broideries till the eyes aehed. Here and
there on the exposed slopes the DAYS
warmth-the thermometer was nearly 40
degrees-and the nights cold had made a
bald and shining crust upon the snow; but
the most part was soft, powdered stuff
ready to catch the light on a thousand
crystals and multiply it sevenfold. Through
this magnifcence, and thinking nothing of
it, wood sledge drawn by two shaggy red
steers, the unbarked logs diamond busted
with snow, shouldered down the road IN a
cloud of frosty breath. 1t is the mark of
inexperience IN this section of the country
to confoupd sleigh which you use for
riding with the sleigh that is devoted to
heavy work, an0 IL is, ! believe, still
greater sign of worthlessness to think
that oxen are driven, as they are in
most places, by scientific twisting of
the tail. The driver. with red mitteps
on bis hands, felt overstockings that come
up to his knees. and perhaps a silvery-gray
coon-skin coat on his back, walks beside
crying Gee! Raw!" even as is written in
the American stories. And the speech of
the driver explains many things in regard
to the dialect story, which at its best is an
infection to many. Now that l have heard
the long, unhurried drawl of Vermont, my
wouder is, not that the New England tales
should be printed in what for the sake of
argument we will call English and its type,
but rather that they should not have ap-
peared in Swedish or Russian. Our