Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FIGHTING SNOW DRIFTS. THE WHITE FOE OF TRAFFIC IN THE f CANADIAN NORTHWEST. -353 Ballway Llnea Blockaded By Sweeping Avalanches—An Array of Men Be it qulred to Clear the Tracks—Great £ Snow Sheds For Protecting the Trains. r “North America is the battle ground of the biggest snow fights on earth. There are thousands of men in the northwest whose only occupation dur ing the winter months is to fight snow. It is exciting work, too, a life that in volves the greatest hardships and con tinual risks. Oiro might search the world over for a more desperate and dangerous employment.” It was a Canadian Pacific engineer who spoke. We were traveling over the Eocky Mountains at midnight. Through the glass-paneled door at the tail of the train one could see the icy crests of the Mountains in the pale moonlight. In the wake of the sum mer fires the trees stood up thin and rakish, like the masts of ships. Else where they were shrouded with droop ing branches and spattered stems, in the universal snow. The snow gave an impressive sense of peacefulness to the impenetrable silence of the moun tains. I looked out upon the solemn atillness, the broad stretches of mo tionless white, the deep passages of avalauches carved along the mountain Bides, with a feeling of awe for the immensity of the power that had so changed the face oi^ nature. But the railroad man had no illusions. To him the snow was a foe, a foe to be feared, a foe against whom men and engines had often measured their strength in vain. Every now and then tho scenery less fuss and fury, this powerless rag ing, this resultless disturbauco of their peace. Under favorable circumstances, the snow parts readily before the onslaught of the plow;. At times, however, un der the battery, to which it is sub jected, it only becomes more rigidly compressed, more solid, more impen etrable at each renewed charge, a solid, unbudging block of ice. The engine may go back a mile, the throt tle may be thrown open, it may rush upon the barrier at a speed of forty or fifty miles an hour, but when the snow dust has cleared sufficiently for the engineers to see around them, it may be that they have only advanced a yard, posssibly the engine fires have been extinguished, not improbably The cutter, with its own private en gine, as it were, is placed on a mass ive truck which is inclosed like the cab of a locomotive and linked to a heavy freight engine, the “Hog.” Ravels another of tools and irs. The men draw high is respect on ver a $150 a hands will track at the iles an hour; al is one ton Following behind this engine drawing its 1 its complement of wor who operate a snow pli wages, the expenses in] ono job amounting day. A rotary in g clear a snow blockad< rate from two to twelv but the consumption ol in 30 minutes. With a rotary plow tlB engineers do not run the same risk Z* they do ou tho plow of the old-fashioned type, with which it is often necessary to THE VIOLET. Here she is asain, the dear, Kweetest vestal of the year. In her little purple hood Brightening the lonesome wood. We who, something worn with rare. Take the road, tlud unaware Joy that heartens, hope that thrills, Love our cup of life that tills, Since in spring’s remembered nooks, Lifting tain familiar looks, Once again with curtsying grace, la the same dear lowly place, tho engine may have been thrown oil’ charge the snowbank at top speed, not the line. The ono recourse which then re mains is to call iu tho assistance of a small army of men, that a way may be forced through tho snow with pick and shovel, and, while these opera tions are progressing, the passenger train has to be kept constantly on the move, lest iu a few hours it become incapable of movement at all. At such a time it is no unusual thing to see several hundred men at work on a single drift. Perhaps eight or a dozen platforms are cut in the suow, and thus what is removed from tho line is passed upward from stage to stage, climbing the steep walls in tiny shovelfuls, until it finally reaches tho open waste, thirty or forty feet above the heads of the workers on the ground level. The men are brought to the spot in special trains and fed and housed as best they can be. They work day and night, sometimes shoveling for thirty- six hours at a stretch. THE ROTARY PLOW AT WORK. was blotted out; the glass panels sud denly showed us nothing but the re flection of the car and bobbing light of the overhead lamp. They were snow sheds through which tho train was passing. Tho railroad, cut like a single step in the side of the mountain chasm, was roofed in as snugly as a house. Above, for all we knew, the snow might be tumbling head-long over the slippery ledge in a tempest of passion; bat for all its malevolence, impotent to inflict an injury to the poor snake of a train hiding beneath its shelter. These snow sheds have been erected among the mountains at an enormous cost. They are of massive timber work—heavy beams of squared timber, dovetailed and bolted together, and backed with rock. They are fitted into the mountain so that they be come, as it were, a part of the moun tain side, so as to bid defiance to the most terrific avalanche. Anything may precipitate an ava lanche down tho steep declivities of those piled-up precipices, among which the single-track railway looks like a pin’s scratch would ou the hand of man. It need be no more than a loos ened scrap of rock that has started rolling downwards with no forethought of the immeasurable cataclysm that its passage will create. In a few yards it has become imbed ded iu a mighty mass of moving suow, a wool-white torrent licking up the leviathan trees as it passes like straws swept up in a storm of autumn leavas, growing more venomous, more power ful, more irresistible, until the rush of the wind before it clears a passage through tho forest anticipating its ravages, removing all obstacles as the outriders to a royal equipage make way through a mass of human beings. It is truly a royal foe that the rail road men of the northwest have to encounter among the mountains. An onrashiug, terrific force, something which cannot be checked. It is nec essary to resort to subterfuge, to cheat it, to hide from it, or to make good by artificial means the path that the rail way has struck out for itself. Among the Cascade Mountains I have seen seven and eight engines linked together charging impotently against tbs snowbanks, and at night time there is no more wonderful sight thau this, ea6h hissing engine throw ing its sheath of firelight ou the ten ders, with their heavy loads of wood fuel, on the gleaming snowbanks, on tho great trees seeming to press round to mock by their stillness all this use- merely cutting through, but burrow ing under the snow. ...But even tho rotary plow is liable to be disabled by encountering the frozen carcass of a horse or a steer in a sqpwbank, or tlio debris of fallen telegtaph poles, or, among the mountains*,'the trunks of gigantic trees. It is nominally tho duty bf the section men to look out for this, and if possible, to warn tiio engine driver, and to telegraph for a gang of workmen with puik and shovel to clear the track in tha old-fashioned way. But it is needless to say that the most vigilant section.men cannot always be relied upon in such a matter as this. -fe Towns Which Have Disappeared. The North Sea is slowly but surely absorbing tho counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, in England. The Cromer of Caesar’s day now lies two miles out at sea under many fathoms of water, and tile tides are stealthily creeping tow ard its successor, and already wash tho place where the brick wall of a light house stood not long ago. It is difficult to realize that the vil lage of Dunwich, iu Suffolk, was at one time a royal town, the seat of KingSigebert’s government; and that as late as the fourteenth century it was a populous and jitosperous town-, and maintained a fleet of war vessel's. A stealthy enemy was «even then at its gates, and gradually ’ the port w'jis blocked with sand; houses crumbled into the sea by hundreds, and stately monasteries and churches were en gulfed. To-day, Dua*i<5h has shrunk to a tiny village with a population of little over 200 souls.—Tit-Bits. God His manual sign hath set Iu the tender violet. —Margaret E. Sangster, in Harper's zine. Maga PITH AND POINT. Knox (looking over bill of fare)— —“Suppose we start iu with some Blue Points?” Fox—“Excuse me! 1 got enough of those from my broker this morning.’’—Boston Courier. Charming Widow—“And what are you doing nowadays?” He—“Oh, amusing myself looking out for nnin- Charmiug for number Keep on Scratching. Dl( cleat Into the hone and the Tetter will only be the worse. There * only one way to treat an Irritated, diseased skin Soothe It. ’ Kill tha (terms that cause the trouble and heal It iij>l *°und and strong. Only one thing In the world will do thla—Tettertne. It’s .Vt cents a t>o* at drug stores or postpaid for SO cents tn stamps bw J. T. Shuptrlne. Savannah, (la. The pen has killed more office seekers than the sword. To t lire a Cold in One Day. Take Laxative Bromt Quinine Tablets. All Druggists refund money if itfalistocure. SVv Tho torpedo theory is likely to explodn also. Oh, What Splendid t'olloe. Mr. Goodman, Williams Co., III., wriiwi “From one package Salzer'a German CofTeo Berry, costing 15c . I grew M>0 lbs. of better coffee than 1 can buy in stores at 30 cents it lb." a. o t» A packnge of this coffee and big seed amt plant catalogue is sent you by John A. Salr.or Seed Co.. Ln Cross, Wis., upon re ceipt of 15 cents stamps and this notice. The Spanish warship Vizcaya made a very brief visit during which she encountered no torpedos. She wasn't even blown up in tho newspapers. The thing that haa simplified the task of snow fighting more thau any thing else, especially in the prairie country, is tho rotary plow. The ap pearance of the “rotary.” as it is fa- miliary called by ra'ilroad men, re minds one of nothing so much as the screw propeller of a steamship. It is a huge rosetto of flanges, about twelve feet* in diameter, that bores its way into snowbanks, clearing just enough space to enable the waiting train to pass through. As tha winter goes on, the snow is piled higher and higher on both sides, until we have the per pendicular embankment through which the train often passes for miles with out a break. As the wheel revolves, the snow chips pass back through the intervals between the shovels, fall into a large sized fan elevator, and are hurled forth ou this side or that side of the line, according to the quarter from which the wind is blowing. In a graceful arch of silver dust, the snow is flung into tho air to a bight of sixty ~ ;How a Chameleon Cbangna Color. The chameleon is a little lizard, who* possesses the wonderful power of changing his color to suit his own con venience. Florida frbdti$ft~iWVrt , »l species of these lizarns in abundance. Up to the present day no one has un derstood the process by which, the lit tle lizard effects his changes. Now it is known. Certain colors through the medium of the optic nerve produce a contrac tion or expansion of the pigpient or color cells. The result is a protective tint or one which resembles that upon which the animal is resting. • 'Aic eye this nrrriiE cha^elson when blind folded can’t change oolok. receives the stimulus or impression, which passes from the optic nerve to tho sympathetic nerve, so reaching the various series of the lizard’s little color cells under the skin. The pigment cells are distributed all over the body with more or less regn- larity, and upon their contraction and expausion depends the prevailing color of the animal. Tho scientist discovered this by blindfolding a lizard, and found that whon it couldn’t see the color of the surrounding foliage it ceased to change its owu color. THE ENGINEER AFTER A RIDE IN A STORK. or seventy feet, descending like a fountain over the half-buried post* of tho telegraph. From the smoke stack a volume of fire is rising. There is an uproar like the sound of artillery gal loping over a cobbled street. As a spectacular effect the. snow plow is a great success. Some of the bigger plows weigh over fifty tons by them selves, and with the machinery that operates them the total weight is over 100 teas. south Diaappointed in Lore. There is au old lady residing of Kokomo, near the Howard-Tipton county line, who has been a “man hater” for forty years. She is a spin ster leading a hermit’s life, and has a comfortable sum of money secreted in her home. Since being disappointed in love forty years ago she has never spoken to a man. She is seldom seen iu town, and her small trading is always done with women clerks. She has made a will and purchased a cemetery lot. Explicit directions haae been given that no man shall preatm her funeral fermou nor act as pall-bearer. A womon is to offer praye? at ]the grave. Women shall act as yall-bearers, a woman shall drive the hearse, and women lower the body and fill the grave. No men are to be allowed in the funeral procession, and newspa pers are forbidden to mention her de mise.—Indianapolis (Ind.) Sentinel. her one. And you? Widow—"Looking out two.”—London Figaro. “Is your sister at home, asked Willie’s sister’s young man. "No; I heard her say she was engaged this afternoon—but don’t bo fright ened; I don’t think it’s anfanyiug en gagement.”—Harper’s Bazar. Old GorUeman (dictating indignant letter)—“Sir; My stenographer, being a hidy, cannot take down what 1 think oi you. I, being a gentleman, cannot think it; but you, being neither, can eadlv guess my thoughts.’’—Brooklyn Life. Jucle George—“So yon think Mr. Cai ton is a literary man?” Carrie— “I’m sure of it. When he wants to find anything in a book he wastes half an hour hunting for it before he thinks to look at the index. "—Boston Tran script. “I won’t submit to being turned away,” said the disappointed arrival at the hotel. “See hero—I’m flush!” And he displayed a roll of bills. “I know,” responded the clerk; “hut IVo gota full house.’’—Philadelphia North American. Precocious Juvenile—“Mamma, it isn’t good grammar to say ‘after I,’ is it?” His Mother—“No, Georgie.” Precocious Juvenito—“WeH, the let ter J comes after I. Which is wrong, the grammar or the alphabet?”—Chi cago Tribune. “Father, have you read my ‘Ode to the PinesT’’Nwked tb#-you«hft»I fxtet. “No, John, I haven’t; but you just take thin here ax en’ cut me down few of ’em; the pines are owin’ me about ten cords o’ wood.’’—Atlanta Constitution. “Do yon consider the electoral col lege a desirable institution?” inquired tho man whose mind is on the nation. “WeH,” remarked the nervous friend, “I can’t help admiring it for the fact that I never heard of an electoral col lage yell.”—Washington Star. Willie Smith was playing with tha Jones boys. His mother called him: “Willie, don’t you know those are had boys for you to play with?” “Yes, mother,” said Willie, “I know that, hut then I am a good boy for them to play with.”—Household Words. Miss Antiquate—“This a young turkey! I don’t believe yon, sir.” Butcher—“It is a young turkey, mum.” Miss Antiquate—“Young! Young as compared with what?” Butcher—“The pyramids er yer own sweet self, mum.”—Harper’s Bazar. “Ever notice,” asked the stove, “what a modest creature the clock is?” “Referring, 1 prosutu#,” said tho wood box, “to her holding her hands before her face?” “Why, no, not so much that as to her habit of running herself down.”—Indianapolis Journal. Mrs. Goodwin—“John,we will have to get rid of that parrot. His language is getting to be simply awful.” Mr. Goodwin—“Well, my dear, you should have known better tha*a to hang him where he could hear tho remarks tho neighbors made about him.”— Chicago News. There mtire Catarrh in this seoi.ion of tho ronntrj than all other diseasea put together, and until the last few years wus supposed to lx» incurable. For a great many years doctor* pronounced it a local disease and pivscril»Ml local remedies, and by constantly f tiling t<» cure with loc.il treatment, pronounc'd it in curable. Science has proven catarrh to be a constitutional disease and therefore reij iIis-h coUrtiUitiumil treatment- HaU‘->*<’ntJvrrht*rmr, manufactured by F. J. Cheney A Co., Toledo, Ohio, is the nnlv constitutional cure on th« market. It is taken Intel imlh in doses from 10 drops to a tea spoonful. It acts directly on the bhsid and mucous surfaces of the system. They offer one hundred dollars for any cas» it fails to cure. Scud for circulars and testi monials. Address F..!. ChcnkW- Co./fatado,Ok Sold by Druggists, 75c. Hall's Family 1‘IHs are the best. Marriage is usually a getiuiuo lutrodui of two lovers. tlon Land atitl « Living Ate liest and cheapest in the New South. Land ?1 to $.'i per acre. Easy Terms. Good schools and churches. No blizzards. No cold waves. New illustrated paper, “Land and a Living," 3 months, for 10 cents, in stamps. \V. C. Hineahson, G. P. A., Quoon k Crescent Route, Cincinnati. A man's wife’s Intellect is usually guaaged by the number of buttons missing. Chew Star Tobacco—Tho Best. Smoke Sledge Cigarettes. The pictures of tha Maine are very inter esting. No two are alike. Mrs. Wlnslow’sSoothlngSyrup forohildren teething, softens the gums, reducing tnflama- wtnd < “ Bon,allays paln.cures i i colic. 35c. a bottle. Fit* permanently enred. No fits or nervous* S ess after tlrst day’s use of Dr. Kline's Great (erve Restorer. S3 trial bottle and treatise free Dr. R. H. Kline, Ltd..Wl Arch St.. Phil*.. Pa. -L Don’t TRY to keep hou*e without Blue Baking Powder. At all Grocers. U. impany,(Richmond. Vtrginlsy ssirar medic!"e to luvfik up > hildrei’s Coughs wnd Colds.-Mrs. M. «. Bloukt, Sprague. fVash., March », 18ftL CMMl C 1 IV 1 Ribbon Bakl Iff If. B. P. Company, Viso's Cal umors Spring is the Cleansing Season- Don’t Neglect Your Health * Notable llrldge For Japan. It is reported that Japanese engi neers are preparing plans for the constraotion of a bridge across the Straits of Sliimonoseki, So as to unite the main lino of the Kin Sun Railway with that of the Sanyo Railway from Shimonoseki to Hiogo. The Straits at the point referred to, arc about one mile in width, and the current through them is very rapid. Tho bridge, moreover, must be construct ed sufficiently high to enable the largest ocean steamers to pass be neath. Thus the undertaking, if successfully carried out, would be one of the greatest engineering feats oi its kind. The work will be under taken and supervised by Japanese engineers exclusively. You Need to Take Hood’s Sarsa parilla Now Spring is the season for cleansing and renewing. Everywhere accumulations of waste are being removed and preparations for tho new life of another season are being made. This is tho time for cleansing your blood with Hood's Sarsaparilla. Winter has left tho blood impure. Spring Humors, Bofls, pimples, eruptions, and that tired feeling are the results. Hood’s Sarsaparilla expels all impurities from tho blood and makes it rich and nourishing. It builds up the nervous system, creates an appetite, gives sweet, refreshing sleep and renewed energy and vigor. It cures all spring humors, bolls, pimples, eruptions. Sarsa parilla la Ani-r'.ca’s Greatest Medicine. $1; six for $.1, Prepared by C. I. Hood & Co., Lowell, Man*. UnnfFe Pillc ar ' G." only Pills to take M0UU fa rlllo with Hood’sFarsanarllla. Tbbage PLAITS 7 ^ cabbage plants, of fnllowinv varieties: _ Henderron’s Large 'i ype Wakefield, tho earliest nnbliagc; Henderson’s Kaniy Hpr tig, the earliest flat cabbage; Henderson’s Ruc- cession. a second carl* cabbage. Above ill ants grown in the open aft and very hardy. They will withstand severe cold weather with out injury. Prices, 1.0 *1 to .000 $1.50 per thousand; 6.0J0 to 10,000 $1.26 per thousand; 10,000and over $1 per thousand. Send allor- ders to Geraty a Towles, Young's Island, S. C. Hood’s C w HAT colds 1 have ever used. ours trulv, Robekt L. Tat Lin. For sale by all druggists at 25c., or sent direct. A Much-Priced Coin. Among numismatice one of the most sought after colonial coins is the Highly copper. They are of several varieties, and were struck in 1737 by Samuel Highly, who was a physician and a blrcksmith at Granby, Conn. He obtained the copper from a mine near by and shaped the coins at his forge. German Working Women's Hour*. German clothing manufacturers are not permitted to employ women more than eleven hours daily, and on Sat urday the time is curtailed one hour. Neither can they be engaged to work later than 5.80 p. m. on Saturdays or the day immediately preceding a holi day, nor between the hoars of 8.30 p. in. aud 5.30 a. m. OPIUM 'M •HOB TAYLOIt,” fiOV. OK TKNN., SAYS. Farble (Tty Drug Mfg. Co.. Knoxville, Tenn. Gentlemen:—In reply tv rour letter of re ’et’t date, will say that l dlu r ceiv* great benefit.* from “Dr. Frank’s Cough Cur I consider it the best remedy for coughs anil Yc ' ' Augusta. Ga. Actual bn-lnoa* No text & boox.- Short bis*. Chaap board- Baud for eatalogaa pHARLOTTE COMMERCIAL OLLEGE, CHSmoitt, N. G. No Vacations—PoalUonsOuaratitsrd—Catalogue Fra* and Liquor Habit cured In 10 to SO days. No pay till cured. Dr..!. I..Mteph*n», Dept. A, Lebanon, Ohio.