The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-03
CHRISTMAS UNDER THE SNOW
WAY OUT IN THE ROCKY MOUNy
TAINS.
Curious Incidents In the Rugged
PICTURESQUE Life of the Miners.

|
1t would make reading of strange in
terest if it were told of people living
in the remote interior of some far-of
and partly UNEMPLOYED land that custo'
marily they spend their Christmas II
log nuts buried under many feet OF
snow. Yet this is where many prospec'
tors families will spend this Christmas
as they have spent many others out In
the Rocky mountains.
1t is only one incident in the ruggedly
+ picturesque life of the miner, single
experience in his hunt for gold. The
little family tucked away under this
immovable winter mantle makes prepa-
ration for long siege, often putting in
a store of provisions for seven or eight
months. With this stock the Christmas
presents were purchased-since July or
August, perhaps-and securely hidden
away until the morning Santa Claus
finds all good children, no matter where
they are in hiding. The calendar and
the clock tell them when Christmas has
Gomez neither the dawn nor the sun has
any part in announcing the day. But
in the stiffness of the cabin the day of
the Nativity steals peacefully In and is
welcomed with the same spirit which
greets it in the city mansion or the ru-
raj cottage. The hammer and drill
have been laid aside, and at the break
fast table every one appears in his best
raiment.
The writer knows of one family who
spent last Christmas in cabin sixteen
miles from the nearest settlement. The
winter was an unusually severe one, and
the snow was fifteen feet deep. The
cabin, which stood well UP on the noun
tainside in heavy timber, was complete
ly buried. The family consisted of a
husband and wife, their two children
both boys-and brother of the man.
For ten months the wife did not see the
face of another woman. The cabin was
built Of stout pine logs, "chinked'' with
spruce poles trimmed to fit into the in
terstices. The walls outside and inside
were plastered with adobe. and the
corduroy roof Of straight poles was
heavily covered with earth Ger an inter-
lining of tar paper. Inside there were
three rooms two bedrooms and a room
which served the triple purpose of par
lor, dning-room and kitchen. Attached
to the north end of the cabin was the
woodshed packed to the roof with
pitch-pine firewood, one portion chopped
to fit the Kitchen stove, and the other,
uniform in size, for the open fireplaces
in the bedrooms. One section OF the
woodshed was partitioned off and used
as a storeroom, the most conspicuous
things in which were the large quanti-
ties of kerosene oil, canned food, mate
rails and other n-perishable edibles
and household necessarles. Opening off
the woodshed through narrow covered
passageway was the door leading into
the tunnel where both men worked eve
ny day
The couple had been married but
eight years. She was the daughter of
refined and comparatively well-to-do
New England parents, and had been
teaching school two years when she got
married Her husbands opportunities
for making Roadway at his position in
a small town in the state were restrict
eds and when he suggested that they go
into the mining district, where men
were daily making fortunes, she assent
ed cheerfully, knowing full well what
winter near timber line meant. The
men went up in the early spring pre-
ceding last Christmas. and after some
staked out their claim on
what appeared promising ground Soon
after the cabin, built at one side of the
hole, was completed, and the
simple furniture, later supplemented by
rag carpets, books and a few pictures,
was put In place, and the woman and
the two children We're sent for. The
for gold can take no risks on
an open" winter, and so provisions
sufficient to last from October to the
June were stored. 1t is safe
to calculate to June, as the sun up to
that month has little effect on the
packed snow. The fears for long win
ter were well founded, for it was June
u before the family emerged from their
habitation under the snow. All during
the winter the water supply was de-
lived from the snow.
Throughout the long months the
mother conducted a class for the two
teaching them drawing among
other things. The father had painted
blackboard on the wall. and this, with
ew books, crayons and paper, oonstitu-
ed the school-room equipment.
On Christmas eve a third son was
ldded to the little family in the cabin,
md 1t fell upon the men to cook the
Christmas dinner and prepare the tree
or the children. which for months had
,een carefully concealed in the wood
lille. The average mountaineer is as
amiliar with the details of simple
as the woman is, and eve
ything passed off smoothly and hap
lily The deal table was spread with
nowy linen, and in the center was
nique decoration, displaying, as did
about the rooms, the ingen- .
GUS and artistic hand of the woman of
he house On circular tiers Of card (
oard representing In form a large
one, pine cones were glued around in
ircles until the whole seemed like a
uge cone or pineapple, Through each |
mall cone a nail was run from the I'M .
er side and the point which pfotruded /
rom the top held red candle. Twen
y four wax tapers. slowed away since S
uly for the occasion, lighted the table
hat evening instead of the usut1 t
winging lamp above. Around the pic t
Tres on the walls were entwined hop !
ines, gathered in August, the leaves q
nd blossoms still intact. Wild red ber- f
es, on branches Of russell brown, gave s
bright touch of color here and there {
bout the rooms. The meal nearly all {
anne from cans as the large side of '