The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-03
COoped Up in Cars Four Days and
Five Nights, with Insufficient
Food and Little Fuel.
SNOW WAS ALL ABOUT THEM
AND THERE WAS NO COMIUNICA-
TION WITH ANY OTHER PLACE,
Until an Amateur Electrician Found a
Telegraph Instrument-Probab
Suicide One Result.

ST. PAUL April 2.-Passengers arriving
to-day on a Great Northern train que last
Friday tell of being snow-bound for four
days and five nights on the prairies of North
Dakota in the midst of the worst blizzard
the Northwest has seen in many years,
with only food enough for two frugal meals
a day, and with such small amount Of
fuel that the women had to wrap them
selves in blankets and the men to wear
their overcoats day and night to keep from
freezing The train was completely lost TO
the world Late Thursday afternoon it
picked it's way out of Wiliston in the hope
of being able to reach Minot fourteen miles
away, before night. Almost midway, at a
little stopping place called Ray, where
there is only a siding, a water tank and
coal shed, the train stalled. The engineer
thought he could the engine back to
Williston and get aid, and, taking the con-
ductor with him, started on the trip. The
lone engine was stuck in drift in a cut
short distance out of town and had to be
abandoned. This left the train of eight
coaches and about 25O passengers alone on
the siding and with all communication cut
off.
Then started the long siege, during which
the cold had to be borne and hunger sti1ed.
There was much suffering and there was an
incipient riot on the first day. The second
class passengers insisted that they must
have as much or more food as the Others
and, as they were in larger numbers and
had more ravenous appetities, ii was diff
cult to confine them to their quota. Many
were not willing, the first-class passen-
gers insisted, that the women and children
should be fed and taken care of first, but
after some argument they were prevailed
upon to yield.
Monday evening Professor Colegrove, of
the University of Washington, who was en-
route East on vacation trip and who had
been despondent and morose attempted
suicide by cutting his throat with razor
There was a physician on the train, but he
had no facilities for performing the neces-
sary operation, and il was absolutely neces-
sary to get into communication with one
of the neighbortng towns. In their desper-
alton the passengers broke open everything
in the trains chests. and in the conduc-
tors box found a telegraph instrument A
young man, an electrician, on the train
faced the blizzard and tapped one of the
wires and attached the instrument. He
knew a little about telegraphy and notified
the operators at both Minot and Williston
of what had occurred. From each place a
snow plow was started in front of an en-
gine bearing a surgeon. The one from
Minot,. after a hard nights work. reached
the siding early the following morning and
the wounded man was removed on the first
train TO St Paul, where he was cared for
at the city hospital.
The almost famished passengers. who had
suffered from the cold and exposure were
given food and warm berths in the first
train pushed through the drifts. The rotary
plow made one trip through the drift be-
tween Ray and Minot. but the snow piled
in so rapidly that it was necessary for the
rotary plow TO pass through again and
then precede the train through the cut.
Professor COlegrOVe was brought to St
Paul early this morning. The iugular vein
is partially severed. and IL is not believed
ne can recover. He had been i'll from too
close application TO work and had decided
10 spend a month with friends and rela-
tives a Hamilton, y. Y.