Arizona republican., 1912-03-24
Mcke/V
 VERSUS THE
 Blizzard By ARTHUR K. AYERS Copyright, 1910. by the Pearson Pub
 fishing Co.
By ARTHUR K. AYERS

Al leas, cnce ( year there is snow on the W. G. S.-the kind over which rot the poets but the operating men rave; the sort that makes them break out into rage. instead of rhyme, and so after it with a rotary blow, instead of fountain pen. And, of course, 1t is worst of all on the mountain divi- sions. Everything is the worst there curves. grades, tunnels, slides and floods. That is why men like McKelly and Bancroft and McStewart, fighters all. stick by the mountains. They don't date things in the hills by years. Up there chronology is hung upon such convenient pegs as the Storm, the time the Crazy River bridge went out, the day George Anhorn saved the mail runs, or the Big Snow. There was nothing remarkable about the way the last-named began; it started just like any other snow. But it didn't seem to Know how to quit. Wednes- day morning il was sitting down; Thursday morning found it still at 1t. By that noon Mckelly was cutting the tonnage of his local freights and send ing the perishable stuff cut with three engines stamping the snow of their drivers up through the hills. By nightfall there were two powerful locomotives each on the mail trains tearing through the smother of white that was still coming down steadily, tbe cuts had three feet of snow in them. and extra pushers were out 10 help trains over the Divide and Win chester Hill. At nine o'clock, Number Five. running north out of Damascus Junction. was behind a big three-en- gined rotary that was eating up the drifts on the main line ahead Of her as fast as possible; and the superin- tendent had telephoned his wife that he would not be home that night.
 The Mineral lines, up in the coal country. were faring still worse. All day the mines loaded cars, and when dark came there were a dozen trains to get into Damascus Junction and Clinch River But this time they weren't getting there. Out on Blue Mountain two monster ConsOlidateds had been laboring for an hour to cllIrh the long hill a0ove Marion with the first of them-backing, charging, buck ing the snow in the cuts, sending q storm of sparks sixty feet up into the night, and gaining by yards instead ol miles. Behind them chafed and fret ted first. second, third, fourth, and fifth Eighty-nine with more coal for Damascus. DGWn at Headquarters lights burned until the leaden 'iawn in offices that usually went dark n five in the afternoon. McStewart was over at the TOundhOuse with Hayes. the master mechanic; and in the de spatchers office McKeliy and Bancroft sat al the elbow Of Bob AmhOrn, the despatcher, and fought the snow with every trick in their brains. From the telegraph office. in the next room it was raining reports on the superin- tendent.
 "Fifty-three 90 minutes late. Snow very bad north of Bristoiyille.'
 "Drifted four feet in Pine Creek gorge lst S6 seems stalled on the hill tGere"
 list, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th S9 say un- able buck through on Blue Mountain. Waiting here for blow
 Thus read some of them. They might have been messages of congrat- ulat!on, for all the disturbing effect they had on McKelly. He was Irish and he throve and grew fat on trou- ble. But the present blizzard bade fair to make him dropscal with il. He was concentrating now on keep ing the main line open for his Dassen- gers and time-freights, and for that purpose a train every half hour was better than a blow once day. Every thing went double-hcaded, triple headed. As Inc snow fell. so did the tonnage on the fTeights. Two engines for every six hundred tons was the rule that night, and the call-boys fought through the storm to rouse every available crew for them. The roundhouses began to be as hare of power as a vegetarians home of cats. Down in the Crazy Valley tbe single rotary was cutting through with in- creasing difficulty. Back Of if rumbled Number Five. the Washington Elk press, and back of her the snow clUseG in again, softly. steadily, relentlessly as Fate. Schedules went to the winds. And at Canton Eighty-seven reported the Mineral division tied up until the blows should come-siy trainloads or coal. that Damascus Junction was al ready beginning to need. sewed up fast in the hills. From other parts Of the coal region the messages still came like vail. "Oh, we cant get 'em through we can't get em through, we can't get 'em through til the morning." parodied some rus tic wag anonymously on the Mineral wire, and McKelly grinned-but it was a fighting grin.
 The gray daylight was slowly diffus- ing itself from no particular quarter of the sky when four coupled engines slid up to the divisions other blow, a retired Hanger that the car-tinks had been busy on since the beginning of