BURIED UNDER THE SNOW.

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 March 1901, Page 2

BURIED UNDER THE SNOW.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES OF PAS-

SENG-ER TRAINS.

In connection with ' the recent burial under snow of a train in Russia, the Odessa correspondent of the Daily Mail writes as follows, under date January i2th:— ■ Hundreds of passengers -Heft St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kieff, and a score of inter/nediate stations six days ago bound for Odessa., little dreaming thntt they were destined to spend their' Russian Christmas isolated from the rest of the world, for .five whole days and nights1, 'half-hungered and nearly • frozen to death. ; Six days ago the first train, continuing five hundred passengers, stuck in the snow a little to the north of Raadyelnaia. Little ."ear was felt but that the snowdrifts, though already twelve feet deep, would bo quickly cleared away, and" passengers made themselves as comfortable at the junction station as circumstances would! peirmit. As twelve, eighteen,- and then, twenty-four hours passed, three more trains drew up at RazdyelnaSa.. • Then telegrams, some hopeful, some desperate', kept arrivingl from headquarters at Kieff, and'eventually'something* resembling a panic seized the eighteen hundred passengers huddlled together, shivering in the bitter cold at the station. To add to th'e'horrors of the situation the station food supply showed signs of giving out, and famine prices began, to pre- / vail. Passengers in vain demanded to know what measures were being taken by tlie authorities to rescue them. The stationmaster himself had to be dug out. Another twenty-four 'hours passed and two mora trains arrived laden with terrorised passengers who had just, finished a run of forty miles-in sixteen houre.

STORMING THE BUFFET. The' new arrivals stormed the refresh-ment-room. Strong men fought with weak women, and children even,, for the possession of a slice of stale bread. Such.

luxuries as ;ham,- sausages and boiled eggs'had disappeared long since. Children wept for very hunger, and the cendition of the women, who had- tasted nothing for. thirty-six hours, was appalling. „■ Meantime gangs of men were battling with the snowdrifts," which were now in places tihirty-fivfe Jfeet deep; but where v.ere the snow-ploughs snugly stowed away? Heayeni only knew; "where; the authorities did not. .•■;•..

Two days more were spent in digging a plough out, but the snow already had the upper hand, and no snow-plough, no matter • with how many locomotives, could make any headway. -, . A sort of mobilisation of the soldiery at several barrack e'entres was' determined! upon. A regiment was despatched from Rkff southward, nnd 3000 Fusiliers were sent, out from. Odessa* northward. Tlie only hope lay in the shovel.

At last, on the third day of their imprisonment, it was found possible to despatch a couple of the"trains further south. MAD RUSH FOR .SEATS. The joy of the famished passengers knew no bounds. Two thousand of the total of 5000 now huddled together at the junction boarded the two trains with a rush, in >vhieh the weakest had to go to ■ trie wall. The trains started, proceeded for eighteen hours, and stuck again. The engines were reversed; they covered three versts and, heavens! stuck again. A perfect pandemonium prevailed inside the carriages. Curses were "ievelled at the heads of the railway management; Indies fainted, children clung to their parents, and even strong peasants brok* do v n and "wept. The blizzard continued to rogc with dcniotiiacal fmy. and within an hour the snow was up to the tops of the carriages. Three hours later, from the engine to the guard's van, the two trains wex*e completely buried. . '". . - The horror's of that night were indescribable. , Next morning a. call was made for a volunteer to take a teiegram ,to the nearpst out-of-the-way station, !six miles back. A peasant passenger volunteered. Women on their knees wished him God-speed. The gallant fellow reached the station with several fingjers completely frozen, and despatched his Avirss, ono to the Minister, M. Khiloff. in St. Petersburg, and another to the Governor of Odessa, beseeching assistance and food, for the senders were almost frenzied with coid and hunger. The supply of firewood on the trains had given out, and not a drop of water remained in the heating boiler.

DRIVEN TO DESPERATION.

. Driven to desperation, sixty passengmrs, with Count. Kapnist among the number, determined to strike out on foot two days -ago. Bettor it was to risk death in tho snow than spend another night among the horrors of the train, not the least of' which was the human stench within from the mass of human beings 'huddled together in the compartments which they could net leave.

Count Kapirist and forty others reached 'a ■ point from -which it was jwssible to hiro sledges,, and ai-ived in Odessa, on night. How many hadu fallen by the v-ay is unknown. Meanwhile Governor Sclravaiioff had organised a, train of sledges in Odessa, on which ho despatched piles of provisions and clothing and'it quantity of vodka. After herculean efforts these reached the besieged the night before last. Tho helpless passengers were delirious with joy at their deliverance, lyiauy of them having hatl ' either arms or legs completely frosea,. "'