Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-03-22
THE STORM IN NEWaYORK.

Tuesdays New York Herald speaking
of the great storm that struck that city
says:
The storm which began on Monday
morning shortly after midnight, and
maintains its continuing energy as we go
to press, seems 10 have been the severest
within the memory of living men. At
least, we have no record of any convul-
sion of nature bursting upon New York
with fury which arrested the resources
of industry aud civilization, paralyzed
business, closed houses of amusement, in
terrupted traffic by steam or local transit,
prevented telegraphic communication
and took over the great metropolis to it's
fierce, wanton will. The lesson of yester-
day shows that civilization, with all its
forces and resources, is feeble before the
mighty power of nature, and that even
with our steady progress in meteorologi
cal science we are as yet at the sudden
mercy of the storm.
The only comm unication between New
York and the outside world which seems
to have been superior to the storm was
the commercial cable, and for the last
twenty-four hours communication with
Paris and London has been surer and
ton. With the telegraph wires disabled
we can only give partial news of the ex-
tent of the storm or its probable dura-
ton. Il seems to have originated in Da-
kota, territory which threatens in our
unceremonious nomenclature to be known
as the "BIizzard State" We may do Dako-
Ia wrong, which would be unfortunate on
the eve of her admission into the family
of states, but in the matter OF storms she
certainly comes with a bad reputation.
Beginning in Dakota on Friday, it moved
east with increasing energy until about
ten o'clock yesterday morning, when the
centre was off Hattaras. It's northern
journey was marked with SHOWS, its south
ern journey with rains, the velocity of the
wind increasing until all day New York
seemed to have been lost in gray blind
ing mists of an Arctic night.
The day was one of suffering for many,
business anxieties, embarrassm ents for
some; fatal accidents we regret to note,
discomfort and interru ption to all. There
was force, wild beauty in lower New
York, its busy Broadway, and that never
ending roar, as silent and dead, but for
the whirling gusts of banked and blind
ing snow, as an avenue In buried Pom
peii. st. Paul's, with its memories of
cOlOnlal Gays, Ine one DOueSI OH Oh his
| tory in the metropolis, wore beauty of
its own in the SHOWS, while the sombre AS
tor, with the many columned postoffice,
might have been creations Of the fancy,
so strange were the freaks of the
storm. But for every purpose except to
listen and wait New York was virtually
dead city, business as completely dead as
though it were under the guns of an in
vadiDg army. 1t was a city in chaos
good humored chaos it Is true, with moth
ing to do but make the best of it, get
away from the wind as soon as possible,
and bowling before the awful power which
taught us-as it is well perhaps we should
som etimes learn the lesson-hoE weak
and frail VS. are in the presence of in
finity, be grateful that the visitation, Sc
we're as it was, did not go beyond our
strength to bear.