The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1916-06-29

cross 1T. 3ut by some miracle the
line remained unbroken and a few
feet of the pole yet protruded from
the drifts.
Rescued From Avalanche.
The lineman did the only thing pos
sible-climbed the pole and cut in his
portable telephone. He reported his
plight and settled down to wait for
help. Throughout the long day, while
the storm ragged alscut him, he talked
to the operators in the towns. 1t
needed all a mans courage and en-
durance to cling 10 that pole and wait,
wait, wait. Few men could have done
it, and fewer still could have done it
without the stimulus of the friendly
voices that came to him across the
wires.
Rescue did arrive at last. The res.
cue party paused at the edge Of the
avalanche. They saw they could not
on foot. There was a ~caonsulta.
ton. Finally they rugged up a bos'n's
chair, the little portable seat which
linemen often hook across the wires
and slide along Oh as they work be-
tween poles. In this rig hung to the
wires a volunteer ventured out across
the avalanche. He brought back his
companion, half dead from exposure.
Nor is it always the mel VINO suf-
fer. Sometimes mountain linemen are
married. There is the story of Mrs.
N. 3. Mayo OF Laconia, a good exam
pie of what the women have to en-.
dure. The Postal Telegraph company
has line patrolmen all along it's right
of way through the Cascades. One Of
the stations is at Laconia, at the
summit of Snoqualmie pass.
The winter of 1912 will long be re-
membered by mountain railroad men
and mountain linemen. 1t brought
SHOWS that tied up traffic of all sorts.
Trains were stalled everywhere by
the big drifts. Rotaries got lost and
buried by the slides. One freight train
was lifted bodily off it's shelf on the
mountainside and thrown into the bed
Of the %Snoqualmie river at the foot Of
the cliff by a snowslide.
Lineman Mayo went out into one Of
the worst storms Of that January.
Wires to the east of his station had
gone down and it was his job to get
them up. When he left the storm
was at its height, but it was his job
to keep that line open. A railway
man and a line patrolman are alike in
n thing. In times of stress they
have an obsession stronger even than
religion-come what may, the line
must be kept open.
So Mayo, who is a husky young
mountaineer, kissed his wife and three
babies good-by and, strapping on his
snowshoes, stepped outside the door
Of his little cabin at Laconia. When
he had shuf11ed ten feet from the door
he was lost to the sight of those
anxious watchers in the tiny home.
More than a week passed before they
saw him again.
The wife turned back to her house.
keeping: and the care of her babies.
And the snow fell. The day passed
and the night passed and the snow
fell, but the hours brought no word
from Mayo. The drifts rose above
the windows Of the little house at
Laconia. No longer could the doors
be opened.
Imprisoned by Snow.
Another night and another day and
the snow falling steadily. The rail
way was tied up and the rotary crew
worked all hours. There was no idle
man or woman to dig paths for Mrs.
Mayo or ever to see how she Jared.
Now the snow was above the caves
of the little house. 1t was quite dark
inside and the wood was running out.
The wood pile was ten feet from the
back door, but it might as we'll have
been ten miles. Worse still, the snow
had pushed open both doors and the
woman could not close them.
A week after Mayo left ]. L. Coyle,
district foreman for the Postal, got to
LIaconia. He knew the general direc.
ton in which the little company house
was located. Looking across a plain
Of white he saw a tiny black speck,
the gable end Of a roof. A little curl
of blue smoke marked the spot. It
was there the lineman's wife was
waiting word of her husband.
When Superintendent Coyle arrived
at the home and dug his way in he
found the last of the fuel had been
put into the stove. He brought the
first word that Mayo was safe but
storm.bound at the next station east
Of Laconia. He had been there a
week, called to safety by orders of
the wire chief. That was one time
that the line stayed down a while and
at least one woman won't forget it for
a long time.
Four years ago Lineman G.. w. Hull
was stationed at VOLTS cabin on Lake
Keechelus. Somewhere to the east
the wires went down. The snow was
deep and still falling. Hull got in.
structions to locate the break. He
.-l vry-ro g. ~,