River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1893-04-27
BLINDED BY THE SNOW.
An Awful Tragedy of the Plains During
"A Winter Long Ago.

Winter Long Ago.
III was ten o'clock in the morning
when we got down TO the plain. Six
inches of snow had fallen since mid
night. The plain was fourteen miles
wide at that point while its distance
east and west was one hundred. TWAS
almost a. level aS a floor. and the first
sig'it of it elected EXPLANATIONS of as
constituent No snow ever seemed 50
white. Not tree o. bush. not the
track of q deer or Wild beast. not the
faintest trace that life existed between
us aud the PARKWAY fort The dead
white of that p ain made ne think of
the face of a corpse.
Tie wrinkle l-faced old sergeant. who
had supcrintended our work of bridg-
ing chasrn IN the mountain pass.
looked up to the sky and across to the
foothills and seemed to be in doubt
Lets chance it," called three or four
of the men in chorus. and this decided
the matter. In single file. the sergeant
leading. the fourteen of us struck out
across the plain. As soon as clear of
the trees and brush every man feels
sort of giddiness. We had not gone
two miles when the man in front OF me
seemed to have suddenly increased his
height by foot. ! was puzzling over
it when he just as suddenly became a
dwarf ! heard the men laughing and
knew that il was an optical delusion,
but it frightened me. The sergeant
had mountain peak in view and
seemed to strike a straight course, but
when / looked back / saw that our
trail zigzagged in a curious way.
We had made five miles of the jour.
ney when there was a sudden halt. and
a groan of despair went down the line.
The clouds were driving away and the
sun threatening to come out. Even as
we turned and looked back and won
dered If there was time To retrace our
steps tho gray film drove off to the
south and the sun burst forth like an
explosion.
Every man cried ont i'm alarm. whiel
half the column swnyed and reeled as
il wounded by bullets. What was the
peril? What had the vet eran soldier to
fear? Something more dreaded that
band of Indians in war-paint: some
thing less merciful than a pack of starv-
ing wolves-s.now blindness, In one
brief minute every mans eyes seemed
aflame. To open them was 10 see a
purple flame dancing about in a fan
tastic way; the giddiness increased all
of a sudden, and we sank down in our
tracks for fear of falling.
The rope, The roper' was walled
along the line. but the sergeant had al
ready taken it from his knapsack. II
was light rope fifty feet long, and he
made one end fast To his own body
Each man then pissed the free end
bac.l to his comrade till the end OF
the line was reached. We were to
turn back and attempt to reach the
spot from which we started. There
was no such thing as seeing. II
YOU opened your eyes after a long
interval the snow was bold red The
sergeant felt for the trail with his
feet. and we proceeded at snaii's
pace. We had not made half mile on
the return journey when every man i'm
the column was weeping or cursing.
Ii was a species Of drunkenness. Later
On some shouted at the top of their
voices. In the swaying about the ser
Ceant was pulled from the trail and
could not find it again, aud one of the
men would have killed him with a
knife if he could have laid hold of him
by cropping. During a moment of
silence the official said:
Boys. am sorry for this. hut ! am
not to blame. IL you will lie down
and cover Your heads with vcur blank
cts you will be all right when the sun
goes down"
OF the fourteen only four of us did
as advised. The others seemed To have
lost all reason. They sobbed like chill
dreB; they cursed in way Ia make
YOU chill: they sang hymns and ribald
songs; they CROPPED about to
find each other and fight like
furics. II was midafternoon before I
lost the sound Of their voices. At five
o'clock the sun was out of sight. and
bitter. biting wind blew down from the
mountains. Our eyes still ached. but
we could see our way, and we took the
snowy trail back To the hills The
night came down with blizzard, and
even in the shelter of thicket. with
great fire blazing. ears and toes were
frozen. Next morning. with cold.
gray sky and the air full of snowflallcs.
which seemed to burn as they touched
the flesh. we went down on the plain TO
look for our lost comrades They were
lying here and there. to the right aud
left of the trail. Notwo wer. together.
Some had walked about in circles. and
some had crept for mile ON hands and
knees. Everyone was dead and frozen
stiff-ten out of fourteen,-Chicago
Times.