22

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

the streets, plunged deeply into the untroddensnow. Horses were kept from their accustomedduties and were comfortably stabled from thestorm. Nothing was stirring, apparently; onlythe strong iron horse and the solitary train, whichslowly made its way along the snow-coveredtrack.

Everything was behind time. The train whichwas due at Erie at a little after noon, was twoand a half hours late. It should have reachedAshtabula before sundown, and it was now darkand the lamps had long been burning. But theengine pushed forward. The same train which hadstarted from New York the night before, haddivided at Albany ; a portion of it was plungingthrough the snow-drifts of the mountains of Ver­ mont , and now another portion was strugglingamid the snow near the banks of Lake Erie .Both were destined to be wrecked.

Four engines had been used to push the trainfrom the station at Erie . Two strong locomo-tives were straining every nerve to push forwardand overcome the deep snow.

Within the cars there were many already anx-