THE GRAND SNOW-STORM. 



JANUARY, 1854. 



Tin: papers have all been so eloquent 

 upon the ever-memorable snow-storm of 

 Jan. 3rd and 4th, that WE need not do much 

 more than record the great fact. We are all 

 too practically well acquainted with its " con- 

 sequences," to desire to go very minutely 

 into detail. 



The stoppage of the rails all over the king- 

 dom' — the state of the London streets — the 

 extortion of omnibus proprietors and cab- 

 masters, &c. — all live actively in our memory. 

 It is long since we had an " Old English 

 Winter;" and perhaps some of us will not 

 pray for such another specimen ! 



Connected with the heavy fall of snow, 

 one thing surprised us excessively ; and that 

 was, the apathy of the London tradesmen as 

 to its removal from before their doors. Nor 

 did any one lend a hand to render the streets 

 passable. A very few shillings collected 

 among the neighboring tradesmen, would 

 have set all straight in a few short hours, all 

 over London ; and made the high- ways and 

 by-ways fordable. But no ! All the world 

 seemed astonished — frozen up — indifferent — 

 morbidly inactive. The poor were unem- 

 ployed, and did nothing but grumble (as 

 usual) — business was a misnomer — boys " cut 

 out " slides on the pavement, whilst the 

 policemen looked on and grinned at them — 

 old people fell down, damaged their shins, or 

 broke their bones — and accidents of the most 

 fearful kinds were of common occurrence. 

 Nobody, however, seemed to care ; nor to take 

 any steps to remedy the existing evils. This 

 is a startling and very curious fact. 



We suffered among the rest. The Ham- 

 mersmith and Bayswater omnibuses either 

 asked such enormous fares that nobody would 

 give them ; or they sulkily refused to come 

 out at all. This has caused us many a long 

 sloppy walk, night and morning ; and, by 

 consequence, a constant succession of colds, 

 coughs, &c. 



These worthies have since tried to keep 

 up their high fares ; but they find their mis- 

 take. The public have learnt, during the 

 snow, that walking is " good" for them ; and 

 now the omnibuses run to and fro compara- 

 tively empty. If people would only hold 

 together, and agree to walk, — coach, cab, and 

 omnibus proprietors would soon be brought 

 to their senses. But John Bull is an idiot. 

 He grumbles, — but still pays. Hence the 

 frequent attempts — seldom unsuccessful — to 

 pick his pocket. 



Here let us record the whimsical com- 

 ment of a London correspondent, on the 

 appearance of our " great city" during the 

 snow. It has reference to the week com- 

 mencing Jan. 3rd, and ending Jan. 10th : — 



Mont Blanc. Bah! Talk to us of the ascent 

 and descent of Holborn-hill. We have all of us 

 been performing exploits within the last week, 

 compared with which the ascent of Mont Blanc 

 is a trifle. The only difference was, that you had 

 not a dozen stout guides to help you ; nor any 

 provision of cold fowls, champagne, and brandy 

 flasks ; and when you achieved the perilous 

 crossing of a street, or safely traversed the 

 mauvais pas of a slide on the footpath, you did 

 not halt and give three cheers, or drink the 

 Queen's health in a bumper. You were, indeed, 

 all unconscious of your heroism, though fully 

 sensible of your hardships. 



London on Wednesday, January 4th, was Mont 

 Blanc ; and a good bit over, taken horizontally. 

 The footway was a figure of speech. There was 

 literally no footway, and what had been a footway 

 was bound by a long Alpine chain of snow; with 

 here and there narrow gorges, through which the 

 adventurous traveller penetrated to what once 

 was a road, but which had become a confused 

 mass of snow. Avalanches came thundering 

 down from the house-tops. You could hardly 

 recognise the familiar town. Its features were 

 all changed ; and it was so hoarse with cold, you 

 could not hear its voice. Its noisy rumblings 

 were all silenced, its busy throngs thinned to a 

 shivering, stumbling, staggering pedestrian here 

 and there. You might as well look for a rose 

 in bloom as for a cab ; a friend in need was not 

 more rare. 



Now and then an omnibus loomed in the dis- 

 tance ; ploughing along, pitching and sending 

 like a ship in a chopping sea. Their very pro- 

 gress, as Leigh Hunt says of pigs, was a kind of 

 sticking. Nothing, indeed, advanced but the 

 fares, which rose to the full height of Mont 

 Blanc. The rise marks the height of the public 

 distress. But other evidences were not wanting. 

 The town was like the sea shore after a storm, 

 strewed with wrecks and stranded craft. Aban- 

 doned carts and w T agons were to be seen embedded 

 in the snow. The news from the railroads is 

 only of fast trains ; that is to say, of trains fast 

 set in the drifts. Nothing is now fast in any 

 other sense, except in the instance of those im- 

 proper persons who are both fast and loose. It is 

 too obvious that the war has commenced, and that 

 we are already invaded by the climate of Russia. 

 The foe is^not only at our gates, but at our fingers' 

 ends ; and what is most insulting, taking us by 

 the nose. And, in the midst of these suffer- 

 ings, you are, in aggravation, offered the compli- 

 ments of the season ! Pretty compliments ! and 

 provoking past all endurance it is to hear a man 

 with his nose blue, his fingers frozen, and his feet 

 slipping at every step, talk of " fine seasonable 

 weather," — an expression reserved for these 

 bitter occasions, and never heard on a fine balmy 

 summer's day, when nothing but murmurs against 

 the heat are uttered. 



This frost has had only one parallel within our 

 time ; and we need hardly add we are as old as 

 Methuselah. We allude to the winter of Napo- 

 leon's Russian retreat. The frost was then, as 

 also in the present instance, preceded by fog; 

 but both of greater density and duration. It 

 lasted three weeks, with only partial breaks. 

 Then down came the snow, which drifted to the 



