New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-26
SNOWBOUND IN CORNWALL
Experiences of One Counryman Only Fifty Miles Above
in the Blizzard Of 9l5--l666 No Longer Winter
to With

| One hour sfterwsrd saw milk pail ad
vancing. II came In a queer, plunging, halt
| ing way, in the hand of what II took felC
glasses to make out as a nan. He was com
pletely white-caked with white-shiverins
under a weight of white.
When he came in my door at last burned
some poorly written novels. How ! wish
dared thank their authors!
| shared warm milk with him. He told m,
what had come upon the countryside.
There were great drifts below as high a,
house. He had walked on stone walls anC
upon the tops of wire fences. even then up Il
his waist Occasionally he had been over hi:
head. Then IL had become matter Of crawl
ing on hands and knees without sppreciabl,
progress.
know all this was true because tried Il
the next day myself II took me FIVE hour:
10 get nv milk over distance corresponding
TO the walk down Fifth Avenue from Forty
second Street TO Thrty-third.
How on Thursday I managed 10 dig hall
this distance 70 meet him digging toward me
would make an interesting psychological
study Of how much a starving city man car
do for bread | worked from in the morning
until at night with q coal shovel that got
heavier and heavier and left my hands like
raw tomatoes
This path brings me now not only food but
information, my phone having died awsy tc
whispers on Wednesday.
got groceries to-day. By the way, have
you ever tried cold ham, baked potatoes, 9
glass Of milk and some cheese after four
days fasting?
have heard that the grocer's horses were
dug out after two days without food one
being dead. The roof OF garage in the
village caved In from the weight Of snow
running four cars and perhaps the owner. The
village Is being slowly dug out the postmas-
ter assisting, since no mail has yet come in
Twenty men working in shifts made the
state road passable up to my farmers. It
took them five days for five miles.
The phone man who repaired my wire and
told me Of the men working on the New York
connections had many pathetic stories of the
countryside. He said the phone. working
from here to Newburgh saved a chld's life
on Wednesday. A frantic farmer at Wells
Gate, a hamlet nearer here than Newburgh,
tried 10 get word TO Dr. Winter, q Cornwall
specialist, that his boy was dying. Having
no phone, he set out on the morning OF
Wednesday at o'clock, walking All that
day he struggled through the drifts At 10
alone, still struggling Almost demented, he
came upon a house with phone.
The telephone central got the Doctors d.
rections after detailing the symptoms. The
nearest phone 20 the poor farmers house got
an imperative message. The owner was a
good American, who struggled over the wastes
with II to the mother. The boy is recovering.
though the father is critically ill.,
Up in the mountains the phone wire, are
all down. have tramped up there, and hate
to think Of the poor families have seen 60
ing through what did for longer than did
Farmhouses, of course, have resource, tina.
an improvident city man, overconfdent with
phone and checkbook, does not know.
Even so. the more hear of this blizzard
Of 1915 the more I realize that the blizzard
of 1888 can no longer be the pride OF the
reminiscent READER.
J. Cornwall. N <. Dec. Is. lslA