The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-26

Passenger Badly RnttIed-SaVed by
an Accident 10 the Team.
From the Youths Companion.
Before any railroad had been built along
the Upper Mississippi, all traffic in the
summer was by steamboat, which carried
also The mail In the winter everything was
carried by stage. There was line of mall
stages between ST. Paul and Prairie du
Chien-or the southern terminus may have
been La Crosse at the time of which l
write. These stages followed the river-how
much of the distance on the ice l cannot
say, but in my neighborhood, where the
river expanded and became Lake Pepin,
the route was al on the ice, and most of
the way far from the shore. Lake Pepin
is some three miles wide and twenty seven
miles long and although IN reality only a
widening Of the river, il is a true lake, in
W hich the current of the river. is almost
, lost There is no other such body of water
in the whole length Of the Mississippi. The
Upper Mississippi is worn far below the
level of the country; consequently Lake
Iepin is surrounded by high bluffs, with
bold. fiat tops. Leading down to the lake,
on both the Minnesota and Wisconsin
sides, are many ravines or couees, worn
by the waterccurses and wooded. Even
row there is much wild land among the
bluffs.
1t was in tie latter part of January
Years ago that l found myself at Hawk
Landing, IN The Minnesota side of the riv7
er 1ast below the foot of the lake whittier
had gone with an uncle. He found ina.
his business would detain him longer than
ne expected, and he decided to send ne
back alone ON the stage. 1t should have
left the londink at l O'clock but il H5as
delayed somewhere down the river, and
did not arrive til nearly 8. 1t was a full
afternoon drive TO Lake City, but tie
driver said lie had a good team, and prom
Used to get through on time, not withstand
ing the late start He was rough aCd
dissipated nan bur he had a reputa ton
Of always keeping sober till after the days
t,ip had been completed But the delay
may have upset MIN, and think he began
drinking teIorc we started, although no
one then noticed it, He certainly had pro-
vidcd f'mseif with large bottle OF liquor,
as | soon had occasion to know. l suppose
] could not have been more than /. or 10
years cid. although life in a new country
and on fl Tm had given me ability TO
take care Of myself beyond my years.
When we departed from the War Eagle
House on the levee and swung along up
bluff. with the horses at a gallop / felt
q sort of admiration for the driver. not
withstanding his roughness. We slacken-
edsomewhat when we got beyond the line
of houses along the single street and soon
rounded the bluff and kept along the edge
of a bank above the frozen river. II wss
here that the driver took his first drink
from his big, fiat bottle. This alarmed
me, because l had already seen much Of
u.
to which he belonged. He passed the bot
tie, TO the passenger, who took very small
sip, thought, more because he was afraid
to refuse than because he wanted it.
We soon came to the lake, and turned
down Fond du Lac Point and out upon the
ice, where the road was marked hy little
oedars. The driver had already taken rev.
eral more drinks, and on the lake / found
cause to be alarmed at something else.
This was the state of the weather. The
wind had fresheued great deal, and the
snow was drifting rapidly II was not suf-
fieient TO shut out from our sight the rev
of eVergreenS and we could see even the
bluffs at either side of the lake; but the
fine snow was sitting along over the crust
like streaming hair, and rapidly filling the
track This made our progress slow, but
the condition of the driver was soon, a
greater hindrance, He drove either with
though they walked more than they ran.
He kept returning to his bottle with ire
quency.
We were not yet half way when the sun
was only a little above the Minnesota
bluffs, with big orange sun dogs standing
up each side of it, Just as il disappeared
below the bluffs the driver sid out of the
seat into drunken sleep in the bottom
of the sleigh. l climbed over to the front
nd he
you seem TO know how TO drive; dc
you think we can get there to-night?'
asked the other passenger
81 can drive four horses" l answered
very proudly 1--WE can get through,
guess, if it doesn't storm so that we CAM
follow the trees"
He drew a long breath at this and made
himself comfortable under the buffalo
robes, leaving me to the full management
of the team which I was glad enough te
assume, even If my hands were pretty
cold.
In half an hour IL was dark There was
no moon, but the sky was clear and th'
stars bright. With the going down of th'
sun the wind had died away, leaving &
calm, clear night; but before it had stop
ned ii had filled the track with drifted
snow and left the travelling heavy. We
logged along past the endless row of httl'
trees at a pretty good rate. The only sount
were the creaking of the sleigh runners
i'm the snow, for the night was bitter cold
and the occasional deep rumblings of L-'
sleigh, sounding as 1t always seems TO me
like distant thunder near at hand. There
was a faint play of northern lights in th'
sky ahead Of us.
/ had for some time been looking anx'
iously for the lights of the town, although
there was no hope of seeing them YET
when my attention was attracted by Z
dark object on the snow far to the RICH
toward the Wisconsin shore. At first
took this thing to be one of the immens'
ridges in the ice where it had cracked
and heaved up several of which were OF
the lake, some of them almost as hiel
as house Then l saw it was moving
along like shadow at right angles to GU
course.
The man saw II and said: whats com
tng over thcre-some other teams?'
"They wouldn't be going so fast" / an
swered picking UP the whip from the bot
tom of the sleigh The shadow was nov
directly to the right.
TITS some sort of animal" went on th'
man. He paused a moment and added
"They look like big dogs"
AT that moment there came the cry hat