Omaha daily bee., 1902-12-23
SNOW BLOCKADE IS BROKEN
Five Union Pacific Trains Arrive Two and
Three Days Late.
PASSENGERS SATISFIED WITH TREATMENT
No Stories Of Suffering TO Relate. as
Company Took Good Care Of
stalled TraveIers-MaI
Service Impaired.

five Union Pacific passenger trains that
rad been snow bound in the west for two
or three days reached Omaha Yesterday
-Four arrived between 7 and sac In tba
morning; the fifth came in at 2.45 in tho
afternoon. All the trains were fairly we'll
nlled with passengers, who had undergone
thrilling experiences. The first four trains
tnat arrived were laid up at Cheyenne. the
track being blockaded from there to Sidney
None OF these trains were entirely covered
with snow, but we're hemmed in on all
SIDES, so that progress was impossible
The last train to get in, Atlantic express
No. 4, had been blockaded at smeed Nob
and had by all the odds the worst limo
OF 1t. Still 1t came through with all its
passengers unframed, as did the other
trains. Some Of No. As cars were frinRed
around the top edges with snow, showing
plainly where they had been.
One OF the passengers on No. 4 was X.
M. DE Belle, editor Of the Cheyenne Trib-
une. He said their train reached smeed Mt
100 Saturday morning, and got out at
about Z o'clock Sunday evening. During
the siege the passengers we're cared for
as we'll as facilities would permit, though
they had to content themselves with one
meal a day. The company paid for these
meals, as II did also for those for the pas
sengers on the other four trains at Chey-
enne, which were tied up two days. Mr..
De Belle said It was with the Utmost dit-
fculty that the huge steam plows made
their way through the great e~mbankments
of snow. He confirmed a previous report
that ten engines we're still in the blockade.
The lifting of the blockade which re-
lieved the congestion o. east bound trains
enabled the west bound trains to proceed.
Six west bound passengers had been tied
up between Cheyenne and Sidney for nifty
two hours. No serious suffering was re-
ported. however. The most eventful of all
the reports came from on the Kansas-Pa-
cihc division, where a Union Pacific train
was said to have been entirely covered
with snow and. therefore, completely at
the mercy Of the blockade.
The Burlington trains out west are said
TO be still blocked by the snow, but the
Omaha trains on the Burlington are arriv-
Ing on time. 06learly so, in every case.
CrippIes Railway Mail Service.
Yesterday there were missing at the
ofhce OF the chief clerk Of the railway
mail service forty-hve clerks who should
have been on duty, and these forty-hve
were somewhere between here and Chey-
enne.
Friday twenty men were sent west over
the Omaha and Ogden route and none came
In. Saturday twenty more went out with
none arriving, and on Sunday only sixteen
were sent west, as the government ran out
Of mail cars and Union Pacific No. 3 left
at 1870 in the afternoon without a mail
car. the mail destined for Union Pacific
points west Of Omaha being held here
until cars arrived.
Yesterday four mail trains arrived and
four were expected to get in some time in
the afternoon. The eastbound trains came
from Cheyenne by way OF LaSalle, Colo,
while the westbound trains went by the
way of the Julesburg cutoff and the ma
jority of the clerks were in the pocket
between Julesburg and Cheyenne when the
trains left Cheyenne.
There are eighty-one clerks on the
Omaha and Ogden route and with the
eleven men who arrived on the three trains
yesterday thirty-one are available for
service. Out Of six crews which operate
bver the Omaha and Ogden route regularly
there are but parts OF two in the city.
Eject on Omaha once.
The effect OF the d-isarrangement Of the
service on the omaha and ogden route is
severely felt at the Omaha postof1ce, par
t~icularly In the registry division. At this
time OF Ino year hll VI tue dNhlldDle CleTkb
In the local postofice are put into the reg
istry division because of the large number
of registered packages which are sent out
and received during the holidays.
Yesterday registered and ordinary
mail from three trains was delivered at the
postoface and the clerks in both branches
we're given more work than 1t was possible
to dispatch. In the limited quarters Of the
registry department pouches we're piled so
thick that II was with dificulty that the
clerks secured room to work.
Aside from this extra work caused by
the delay OF the trains there was more than
the usual local business yesterday. The
slushy streets Saturday kept many people
at home who would generally have sent
their Christmas packages at that time. so
yesterday the local business was almost
equal to the usual combined business Of
Saturday n Monday.
Free Christmas Dinner TO the Poor.