St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-08-20
THE cH1LKAr AVALANCHE.
4 rcnnsyIvania Man Relates HIS Ex-
PeIteace In the Terrible
Catastr0phy.

Town, TeluIueu uOHc TeCCudy 1iOA q
Journey to the gold fields Of Alaska.
He was caught, with 200 others, in the
great snowsIide in Chilkat Pass, April
3, in which Mrs. Maxson, of this place,
lost her life, and had thrilling cx-
perience and an almost miraculous es-
cape from death. He was buried under
25 feet Of snow for eight hours, and
was finally dug out alive. but SO much
the worse for the accident that he found
it impossible to proceed on his journey,
the long interment under the snow hav-
ing so injured his s-lungs as to produce
violent hemorrhages.
II is interesting to hear Mr.. Black
tell of his experience and of the wick
ctlness OF the average Klondiker. AS
soon as you get on the trail,' he says,
Sunday school is out. There's no FUR
ther use for hymn books, and prayer
meetings are not in it,"
There were about 200 people in the
party with whom Mr.. Black entered
Chilkat Pass. They had pitched their
tents to rest and recuperate, when
snowslide came down upon them, COW
eriug their tents. After considerable
labor they all managed to get out. They
concluded to get through the pass a.
quickly as possible, and for that pur-
pose all took hold of long rope, with
the guide in front. Mrs. Maxson, who
had been covered up with snow once,
was discouraged and hysterical. She
said she would 60 no further. She
would lie right down there and die
rather than attempt to 60 through the
oass. She was urged to take hold OF
the rope, but would not. Two or three
stalwart men offered to carry her, ro;-
ing they would not go and leave wom-
an to die. She would not be carried
While they parleyed for ten minutes
the second slide came, which they would
have escaped had there been no delay
About hundred of them were caught
beneath 25 and 30 feet of snow.
Those who were not caught by the
slide went to work at once to dig the
others out. 1t was slow and arduous
task, and out of 81 persons thus buried
only seven were taken out alive. One ol
them was Milton Black.
The slide occurred at nine o'clock il
the morning, and he remained buried
until five o'clock in the evening. Ont
peculiarity of his situation when Gov
cred up with the snow. Mr.. Black says
was that he could hear just as vel
as though he had been in the open air
The groans, prayers, lamentations ant
curses of those beneath the avalanche
were plainly audible. Some prayed
fervently, bade good-by to their neal
friends, and gave up. Others cursed
| their fate and used their last breath
TO utter profanity.
Il made up my mind" said Black
'that I would die as / had lived, and
that it was no use to pray at that stage
| Of the game. 1t seemed to me that
got a breath about every five minutes
had little hope of escape, but resolved
to live as long as could. The snow
was packed so tightly about me tha
I could not move fraction of an inch
/ thought every time got breath o
air that that was my last one. but
| never became unconscious, and j
seemed to me that had been there a
| least a week when a shovel struck m,
shoulder and / heard a voice saying:
| Il have struck a man."
| "Is he dead or alive? saiG anothe,
voice.
| II don't know" answered the maj
with the shovel, and he soon had IN,
| head uncovered. When / got a goot
breath Of air, felt that was all right
| and I said: There is woman righ
in front OF me. Dig her out. hav'
| air now and can wait" They then pro
ceeded to uncover Mrs. Maxon. But sh
| was dead. "You can form some ide
Of how solidly the snow was packed,
continued Mr.. Black, when tell yo'
that when they. had me all uncovere,
but one leg up to the hip, could no
get out until the snow was all shoy
eled away from it. i would not &
through that experience again for al
the gold on the Klondike."-PVxutaw
ney Spirit. -