The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-14
HAVOCAMONGT THE WIRES
BUSINESS FRUSTRATED BY THE
GREAT STORM.

The Loss of Telegraph Communities
ton and the Delay OF the Nails Seri-
ously Affects Savannah's Trade-The
Closing of the Northern Exchanges
and Its Effect South-How the West
ern Union Handles Its Business-The
Signal Bureaus Reports - Rough
Weather at Sea.
The storm which broke over tn country
on Sunday and is still raging in the North
with undated violence, has to a certain ex-
tent Frustrated business in the South. The
loss of the telegraph lines closed the New
York exchanges, and very little business
has been done at the Cotton Exchange here
since the storm began.
Northern travel has been de
layed and no Northern mails
have been received here since
Monday morning. The breaking down of
the telegraph lines north Of Alexandria and
Richmond and around Washington cut off
Savannah from direct communication with
New York, and it was only reached by way
of Cincinnati The Southern Geographic
circuit was completely broken up and the
Office at Cincinnati was so overloaded with
business that is was hours behind with its
stock of messages
SUBJECT TO INDEFINITE DELAY.
All messages for transmission North are
received by the Western Union office here
subject to indefinite delay. Late yester-
day afternoon connection was established
between Savannah and Washington direct
and the ''quadruplex instrument was got in
working order. This gave Savannah four
wires to Washington, and all
instead of to Alexandria, which
was the furthest point north that could be
reached before that. The wires along the
Coast Line south of Richmond are all open
and in working order The Savannah office
of the Western Union has had no trouble in
handling its business here The only diff
Guilty has been in getting messages through
Manager Merrihew and his clerks were
kept busy yesterday answering questions
about the trouble and the probability
of communication being re-established
North. The Associated Press dispatches
came througo all right last night, but no
afternoon report was received.
THE WEATHER HERE.
The weather here yesterday was genuine
March weather-cold and blust nv The
temperature did not go quite as low as it
did on Monday, however. The lowest was
81. AT 10 O'Clock it was 52'. 9 heigher than
mean temperature for the day was g. lower
than the average for fifteen years. The
highest that mercury went was 6l'.
THE SIGNAL BUREAU REPORTS.
The Signal Bureaus reports last night
were even more meagre than they were the
night before No re lorts at all were re-
ceived from north of Norfolk, and there the
temperature was down to "a at 10 O'clock
The Cape Hatteras telegraph lines We're got
in working order yesterday, and the 10
O'Clock report from there was: "Tempera-
ture So, wind blowing twenty~four miles
an hour from the northwest"
> No reports were received from the North
west or even from the Mississippi Ohio and
Tennessee valley stations. The only Gulf
stations from which reports were received
were Corpus Christi and Palestine, Tex
Most of the telegraph wires in the Rio
Grande valley are down.
ROUGH WEATHER AT SEA
The passengers who arrived on the steam
ship City OF Augusta from New York yes
terday morning are not likely to soon forget
their voyage through the Northwest gale,
which struck them off Hatteras They left
New York with every indication of an easy
voyage, but Capt Catherine says he en-
countered the storm off Hatteras with the
wind blowing seventy miles an hour All
the passengers but two or three were made
violently sea-slck by the rolling of the
vessel.
The schooner Francis E. Waters was
spoken during the storm. She was from
Wilmington, loaded with ties, and bound
for Northern port. She showed a signal
of distress and her officers seemed TO be
panic-stricken. The Captain of the vessel
wanted to be taken in tow. Capt. Catha-
rine learned, however, that the vessel was
not leaking and was sailing before the wind,
and he would not peril his own ship and the
lives of his passengers and crew by attempt
ing to take the schooner in tow in such a
heavy sea. The Captain of the Waters and
crew would not leave their vessel, although
Capt Catharine volunteered TO take them
aboard and bring them to this port.
The steamship Juni TIA, from Philadel-
phia, arrived last night and reports rough
sea and heavy southwesterly winds all
through the PASSAGE.