BURIED IN SNOW.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2208, 24 March 1881, Page 3

BURIED IN SNOW.

HBBOIBM ABO BUFFEBIKO IB THE TXBQIBIA MOUNTAINS.

BERRYVILLE, Va. Jan. 6. This evening about dust, Mr Richard A. Ward, residing on the outskirts of the village, found a man lying in the snow near the roadside, partially insensible from the cold, and terribly emaciated. The stranger was at once removed to Mr Ward’s residence, where, after he bad been revived and had been supplied with food, which he devoured in a ravenous manner, he startled his preserver by one of the strangest and most thrilling narratives of human distress that has ever been chronicled. The man said that bis name was Roger S. Cooper, and that he resided in the village of Paris, a small town near the summit of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the dividing line between Clarke, and London counties. He bad volunteered to come to Berryville to urge the residents, by all the ties of humanity and manhood, to organise a relief party and go to the assistance of the villagers, who were literally buried in the snow, and to the number of about 300, were in danger of death from both cold and hunger. The village of Paris is on the west side of the Blue Ridge, and it was directly exposed to the terrible north-westerly gale which began on the night of December 20th. The villagers at first beheld the snow without alarm, although as the flakes came steadily down it became evident to them that the fall would be an unusually deep one. For fortyeight hours the storm so continued. . On Wenesday night the snow was piled high above all the roads and paths, and was heavily drifted against houses. As the villagers retired for the night the snow was coming down fester than ever. Cooper and his family occupied a small cottage near the western slope of the plateau on which the village stands. He says that when he awoke, Thursday morning, he found it still dark, and supposed that the day had not yet dawned. After remaining in bed for several hours, awaiting daybreak, he got up, and, lighting a lamp, saw by the clock that it was half-past ten. Somewhat puzzled, he went to the front door. It offered resistance to hi* push. To bis astonishment he was confronted by a solid wall of snow. His house had been buried in a deep drift. His young wife and child, when informed of the position of affairs, at first became greatly alarmed, but were soon soothed by his assurances of safety. Cooper is a hardy, handsome young fellow of twenty-five. He is evidently a cool-headed, intelligent man. He say* that the first thing he did was to build a rousing fire, _ and to insist on having breakfast before doing anything. That through with, he took a longhandled shovel and started to cut his way through the imprisoning wall of snow. Ho made rapid headway at first, bnt had not penetrated five feet before ho began to be troubled by the snow taken from the tunnel. He had thrown it behind him on the floor, hut it threatened soon to fill the entire interior. To add to the difficulty, it began to melt under the action of the fire, and inside of an hour the floor ran with water. The husband and father struggled gallantly at his work. The snow flew from the little tunnel into the room, where_ hi* wife endeavoured to pack it on one side. By three o’clock in the afternoon Cooper had out a narrow footway for nearly thirty feet, without seeing any signs of daylight. Suddenly the roof of hi* tunnel dropped, and he was buried in the snow. Putting forth desperate exertions, he struggled to extricate himself. The snow was light and' easily penetrated. Following the track of the tunnel, he finally succeeded in bursting into the doorway, to find his wife lying senseless on the floor. In describing the . straggle* through the snow, Cooper shuddered. “ The feeling of suffocation which came over me,” he said, “was awful. Throe or four times, as I plunged blindly along, striving to keep in the

course of the tunnel, my head »truck against the hardened walls of the track I had cut through the snow. The relief I experienced when I burst into my house is indescribable. It was a miracle that I ever got out alive. When he recovered from his exhaustion, he succeeded in reviving his wife, who was now completely prostrated by cold and anxiety. _ By this time the fire in the boose had died away, and the floor was covered with an icy slush. Cooper made up his mind that the attempt to out through the drift was impracticable. It occurred to him to try to get up the chimney. Placing his wife and child in bed, and covering them up warmly, he made the attempt. Ho ascended with case until about 10ft. from the top, where the chimney narrowed, and there he stuck. He descended and got a hatchet and chisel. Be-ascending the chimney until ho was above the level of the roof, he out his way through the brick wall. After an hour of severe toil he crawled out upon the peaked roof of his house. Bestriding the ridge he took a_ survey of the situation. The snow had piled in an immense drift, reaching to the eaves against the front of his house. He could never have cut his way out from the doorway, as he would have had to penetrate 300tt., only to find himself on the edge of a precipice overhanging a sheer fall of several hundred feet into a small valley forming the western boundary on the plateau. Glance which way he would he saw nothing but round, unbroken monnda of snow, from many of which rose columns of smoke, indicating that [there were houses beneath.

“Sitting on that ridge,” said Cooper,with the north wind whistling around mo with cutting force, and, almost benumbed with cold, I shuddered as I thought of the condition of the inmates of those houses from which those columns of smoke were not rising.” Cooper found that the most available ox’t would be through the second storey front window of hie cottage, where the incline of the drift made the distance to be out through the snow only about ten feet. Resuming bis labors in that afternoon, in abont an hour he had the satisfaction of seeing daylight through the opening, and eventually, with great difficulty made hie way to the house of his father, which, being in a more sheltered position, had escaped the worst fury of the storm. The men of the family soon brought out Cooper’s wife and child in the same way that he had himself gotten oat, and the family were soon enjoying warmth and comfort again. The snow still descended. Christmas Day dawned as cold and dreary, bringing no gladness to the belated villagers. The dark sky and occasional scurrying flakes of snow were ominous of another storm. The only thermometer in the village registered 10 degrees below zero at 8 a.m., and as the day advanced the mercury fell slowly until it registered 18 degrees below. On Christmas night the suffering from cold, owing to the scarcity of fuel, was very great, and early the next day there were not half a doren fires in the village. The residents, in order to keep warm, compelled to either remain in bed or envelope themselves in extra clothing, or blankets. At about tea o’clock the burgomaster, Thomas Aldine, went around and called for volunteers to assist in catting a way into the house of a poor widow named Mrs Rate Witman.

The next day was Sunday. In the afternoon a meeting of the villagers was held in the schoolroom, where it was resolved that every one should band over their supplies of wood and food and everything which could be eaten or burned. It was brought and put under lock and key. A fixed quantity of food was given out to each family, according tothe number of persons. All were to move into the houses around the building. Those houses to be heated by fires supplied by the committee, and no one to touch them or put anything on them except the committee. The next day the plans of the committee were faithfully carried out, and by nightfall the entire population of the village was gathered in about twenty houses in the immediate vicinity of the sehool-honse, which had been converted into a supply station. Daring the day the committee at times found some difficulty in enforcing the order for the surrender of food. Several of the villagers showed a disposition to rebel, but the inexorable committee, led by Mr Wright, helped themselves indiscriminately, ignoring all complaints. Once a man named Emory refused to comply with the requisition, and when the committee attempted to take the desired articles by force, he and his three sons seized their shotguns.“ Wright went np to Emory and knocked him down without a word of warning. In a moment the rebellious villagers were all prisoners in the hands of the committee, who had quickly supported their leader.

The Emory* were disarmed, and after their home had been ransacked for fuel and provisions, they were liberated. There was great suffering from frost bites. The energetic committee established a hospital in which the ailing could be oared for by the sole physician of the place. As many as fifty were Buffering at one time, and several amputations had to be performed. It was decided to send a messenger to Berryville for help. Cooper was selected. He started on Tuesday, mounted on a strong horse, and supplied with a flask of whiskey and a package of provisions. He travelled all that day and night. The next day the horse gave out and could go no further. Cooper went ahead on foot. Ho was thoroughly familiar with the woods. Throughout Wednesday night the faithful messenger tramped through the snow. Thursday morning found him pursuing his weary way, in an almost insensible condition. Cooper remembers singing and praying, and laughing, alternately, up to coon on Thursday ; after which time he lost all sense of what took place. When found by Mr Ward, Cooper was halt-covered by snow, and death would undoubtedly have ensued in a few hours.

This fearful story was told by Cooper. As soon os his story was made known, a party of three men in a four horse trap were dispatched to Paris with provisions and medicine. One of the number is a surgeon and smother is a clergyman. It is not known whether they can make their way through the snow. There is great anxiety in regard to the fate of the devoted villagers on the bleak side of the Blue Ridge, A number of lives will most likely be lost by this singular blockade.