White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-02-11

OAtAA L ia
had quite as intimate a personal ac-
1udintance with a snow disaster as
that last week of Mrs. Gerald Dugan.
II not a little more so. Mrs. John
Sabine fifteen years ago in Colorado
was buried with six other persons in
la great snowslide for three and a
half hours and only lives because the
iates were with her and 1t seemed
that her time had not come.
1t Is out of sympathy for the plight
OF the Dugans and for the further
reason that the facts might save some
reader from . frightful and unex-
pected death that Mrs. Sabine per-
mits this account of her thrilling ex-
perience to be published.
Mrs. Sabine, then named Mrs. Pal
mer. was in charge of a boarding
house at the Small Hope mine. on the
side of La Plata mountain, three and
a half miles above La Plata City. II
was In January and 6 o'clock in the
evening. Darkness had settled over
the mountainside. II had been a mild
day and the warmth had slackened
the hold of the great snow blanket
OF fifteen feet on the level, with drifts
OF a much greater depth. A great
avalanche started and bolted down a
gulch near the Small Hope build
ings and tunnel and on its way
touched a second huge but smaller
bank OF SNOW and started II down
another sharp decliyity, bringing the
boarding house in the center of it's
path.
Without the slightest sound or
warning the house was enveloped
and crushed. In II were five persons.
two of them women and three men,
and two more men were on the lower
side of the building. The slide tore
OFF the roof. crushed down the walls
and timbers and bruied the seven
persons under thirty feet of snow.
Mrs. Sabine was weighted down on
her back and her left arm was forced
10 the floor in a bent position above
her head Touching her hand and
head was a huge beam from, the
upper floor.
Within seven feet OF her was a
Swede girl. who was an employee of
Mrs. Saline in the boarding house.
When the slide hit the house she was
standing by a barrel of -four. The
barrel exploded in the crush. the -four
rising from the barrel and settling
over the girls head and body. A
most distressing mass of doughsmat-
ted the girls hair and added TO her
misery. One man was lying on 4 bed
in the company's Office In the same
building. The snow held him on the
spot until he was rescued. His broth
er sat by him in a chair. He and the
chair we're crushed to the floor, the
latter into kindling. The third man
in the house was crushed down and
buried In a similar fashion. The two
men below the building were crushed
by the roof and timbers. One had
his back and neck broken and was
dug out a corpse. The other was res
cued with two broken hips.
Fifty feet on the right, as one faces
the moantain top, was the bunk
house. In 1t were five men but they
never heard a sound and did not
know anything had happened. One
looked u and seeing that the board
ing house was gone ne knew instantly
what had occurred. They collected
n quantity of waste and with kero-
sene improvised some torches and
bonfres TO light them in digging. II
was showing end disagreeable but
they dug as only superstrengtheaed
men could.
As the others lay under the snow
each one noted his f~leeting breath
Each breath was p%erceptibly shorter
than the one before. II was a matter
of hours TO be counted when they
would be too short From the old
country the Swede girl brought
knowledge. She and her forbears
knew now for generations back and
how 20 deal With it In an emergency.
Though seven feet away she could
talk 10 the others,
Don't go TO sleep! Don't go to
sleep"
These heaven-sent words she re-
hearsed one hundred. five hundred
times. She conversed with her EN-
plcver, Mrs Palmer. now Mrs. Sabine
of Ely. Her voice reached the help
less and almost dying men. The mes
sage was the same
Don't 60 TO sleep, Don't go to
sleepi'
They were ley cold and sleepy. or
all things most desired in their sub
conscious condition, slumber per-
was the greatest. They feared
not death They were not excited.
There was no room for excitement
pinioned, crushed. weighted to the.
noor-unalle TO twitch a muscle, to
move a finger. All they could do was
hroa4hn aud pa.opncn tho uhArf.,s,.