The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-21
Last Weeks Great Snow Storm.

The storm of Monday and Tuesday, March
II and 49, will be memorable one in the
history of the Eastern States, equaling in
violence any other on record in sixty years
The storm had its origin in the Rocky
Mountain region, moving slowly east. The
West, with the exception of Michigan, suf-
fered little from its effects, and the worst of
it was experienced in the New England
States New York, New Jersey Pennsyl-
vania and southwark to Washington, and
in Lower Canada.
In many parts of Vermont there was an
almost continuous fall of snow for forty
eight hours. Nearly all trains were sus-
pended or blockaded from ten to fifty hours.
The main line of the Central Vermont was
opened from st. Adams to Windsor on
Wednesday. The Rutland road was in
worse shape than the other. Several trains
were stalled, and in some places the snow
drifts were from ten to fifteen feet deep
Between Rutland and Bellows Falls also
the drifts We're immense. The road was
finally cleared Wednesday night. There
was no train over the Passumpsic railroad
for two days. The snowfall in the vicinity
of Bradford was fully twenty-four inches
At Springfield the drifts against some of the
houses reached to the caves two stories
high. At Brattleboro there was three feet
of snow and the drifts were even with the
caves of houses. In most country towns
the roads were impossible, and as phys-
clans were unable to reach the sick in the
back districts there was much suffering. In
Bennington the schools and factories were
closed.
In New Hampshire the storm is accounted
the worst for forty years. In most places
business was at a stand-still. The town
meetings in several towns were adjourned
because the voters could not get out to
them. The blockade on the Northern rail-
road was the worst within the recollection
of its officials Concord Manchester and
slnua 1lx- 1ntn fnr laA1a
day. The Cheshire and Connecticut River
roads were reopened to travel Wednesday
night The situation in Maine was about
the same.
In Boston the storm was the worst for
nineteen years. The snow was ten inches
deep in the city and eighteen outside. The
wind, which blew gale, made sad havoc
with the dense network of wires spread
over the roofs. Electric telegraph, tele-
phone and tre-aarm wires were blown
down in all directions. Never before have
the Boston newspapers been entirely cut off
from Geographic communication with the
outer world for one entire night. The only
possible communication which Boston and
New York enjoyed with the outside world
or with each other for thirty-six hours was
by cable via London Even this thread of
intelligence worked very poorly. The con-
dition of the Boston streets was terrible,
Travel on some horse-car lines was entirely
suspended, and most trains on the railways
were cancelled The milk supply for the
city ran short and there was a great de-
mand for condensed milk. For two days
there was no news from congress, which,
perhaps, was not an unbearable affliction,
and nearly all kinds of business was sus-
pended, The storm caused "A more extern
sive blockade of the mails arriving and
leaving the Boston post-ottce than has been
known by the officials for many years. The
scenes along the coast were magnificent
AT Swampscott the old salts say that the
sea in the bay was the heaviest they have
known for eighteen years. Great masses
of ice were tossed like feathers on the surges
and sent far up on the sands from fifty TO
to sixty feet beyond high-water mark, The
roar of the surf was heard ten miles inland,
The entire Boston & Maine system was
without telegraphic connection and the
through trains were badly blocked. On the
Boston 4 Albany railway there were drifts
three hundred to one thousand feet long
and from six TO eight feet deep. In Berk-
shire county it showed thirty hours and the
| fall amounted to thirty-four inches. Busi-
ness was paralyzed.
Along the Rhode Island and Connecticut
shores the storm ragged with unparalleled
fierceness. Nantucket and Block Island
report a fearful gale, but no wrecks. In
| Connecticut the most fearful work of the
storm was between New Haven and the
New York line. The snow was piled in