The Portland daily press., 1888-03-16
| THROUGH THE DRIFTS.
Business Resumed in New YOrk'S Snow
Covered Streets.
Railroad Men Gradually Getting the
Lines into Shape.
Telegraph Facilities Sufficiently Re
stored to Send Accounts
OF Terrible Suffering and Death on
Land and Sea.
Locomotives Driven into Huge Drifts
with Disastrous Results.
Incidents Which Show the Great SeVeri.
ty Of the Blizzard.
Our English Cousins Now Have it as a
Guest.
Incidents Which Show the Great SeVeri-
ty Of the Blizzard.
Our English Cousins Now Have it as a
Guest.

Guest.
ITO the Associated Press by long distance tele,,
New York;.
NEW YORK, March 15.-[1.30 p. m.I-At
last. on the fourth day after the great snow
storm, the metropolis is fairly breaking out
of her Imprisonment and opening uD the
great highways to the outside world. The
probable news is of freshets and floods. Gil
gantc piles of snow cucumber every street.
They are being converted into miniature riy-
ers and lakes, and thousands of men are dig
ging away at the huge mounds. Within
few days, the combined labor Of the sun and
the diggers promises to remove the last yes
tige. Our main arteries are the Metropoli-
tan elevated roads, and they are in perfect
or der. The street car roads have not yet
been able to resume traffic, but will, in all
probability, be clear by this evening or to-
morrow. Outside of the city the situation is
improving rapidly, trains are moving to and
fro, and by tomorrow will resume with some
regularity. The scarcity of vegetables is
not likely to continue after today. Milk
trains will begin arriving by tomorrow morn
ing, and the farmers will find transportation
for their produce. The temporary rise in
prices cannot last after tomorrow. 1t is i'm
possible to estimate at this hour the extent
of the loss of life. A great many people are
missing, and the snow will have to be cleared
away before all can be accounted for. Al
most all Of the reports coming in from the
surrounding country bring news Of fatali-
ties 1t is feared that over twenty lives have
have been lost in Essex county alone. In
New Jersey alone some IL are known TO
have perished, and six on Staten Island,
while large number are missing.
A New York milk man. who disappeared
Monday, was found yesterday. His horse
walked into his yard almost exhausted. In
the wagon, seated bolt upright, was the dead
mans body, one hand clutching a roll Of
money he had collected, and the other the
reins. A number of isolated cases OF death
are reported.
At the weather bureau it was learned at
noon that finer and warmer weather. with
fresh westerly winds might be expected.
Communication has been reestablished all
around. except with the South. There is no
blizzard No. expected, and the remnant Of
No. has crossed the Atlantic.
The mails have begun to arrive from the
blockaded points quite rapidly today. Post
master Pearson cannot give any facts or fig
ures just yet. as everybody is kept as busy as
possible. That official also stated that it
would be two or three days yet before the
mail service would get back to its usual bus
mess arrangements. just at present the Of
fcals were only too glad to get the mails
from any point, and had no time to tarry for
the purpose of answering questions.
Alexander Bennett, John Lee and another
laborer at Elizabethport, living on Staten
Island, were lost in crossing Staten Island
Sound on Monday afternoon. They started
at O'Clock, in a small row boat, the wind
blowing gale. Their. craft drifted far out
of its course, and has been found in the ice
empty 1t is thought the men reached the
Staten Island shore. but perished while
crossing the meadow. A searching party
from Elizabethport crossed the Sound this
morning.
The story Of the Storm.
The storm began with slight snow fall at
o'clock Sunday night, which hardly whiten-
ed the earth, and a steady rain followed, last
ing until 4.3o Monday morning. A cold
wave had flung itself across the region sur
rounding the city by o'clock and the steady
falling rain became snow. BY s o'clock it
was blowing a gale and the snow was falling
at remarkably rapid rate. The wind in
creased until at 6 O'Clock Monday evening it
was blowing hurricane and people on the
Cd the street had difficulty in standing up.
The stores and offices closed before o'clock
that afternoon, and by evening everyone
seemed to realize that storm which would
be long remembered was at hand.
The wind was high and the snow contin-
ued to fall very rapidly until midnight Mon
day. By Tuesday morning the wind had
gone down great deal, and the snow had
stopped, but it was not clear weather. There
was more snow and an increase of wind
again as Tuesday advanced, but by night
wind and snow had almost ceased. Wednes-
day morning the sun rose amid clouds, and
the clouds brought snow about II o'clock, but,
the day closed fairly pleasant. Such Is
synopsis Of the blizzard; probably it will
take many days to write all connected with
it. The snow fell to depth of two and a
half feet on level over all the country with
in a radius Of thirty miles of New York. 1t
lay in drifts Of six and eight feet high on all
those who get up at 7.30 to $50 O'Clock in the
morning-were ready to go to business Mon
day they found the horse cars gradually be-
ing tied up. The snow which had fallen al
ter the heavy rain froze down hard, and had
rendered the use of snow plows futile. 1t
was but an hour or two later when the eleva-
ted roads began to be troubled, until by noon
every traction vehicle in the city was useless.
1t grew bitterly cold, too, o. above zero being
generally recorded, and, by early evening the
of fhsr or ff fhac cfr,u
in the case of most people, attended with
freezing, thought about which was put out
of the question by the singing violence of
the storm as one tried to make way in it.
In thelafternoon, as has been said, New
Workers began to prepare for a bad night,
and the hotels to fill up. Many who were
residents of distant parts Of the city went to
the hotels at once and registered for the
night. BY $50 O'Clock 1t was impossible to
get room in any hotel down town unless
the rent was paid IN advance, and by mid
night there were hundreds of people sleeping
on mattresses and couches in the Railways Of
the best hotels.
Tuesday morning the city seemed to be
asleed, not so much because of the the white
ceoyerlid over everything. as because every
body seemed to be held quiet by the weight
OF It: The dawn showed many singular
sights. Horse cars were stuck in the snow
and ice and half buried. The horses had
been driven away the day before by their
drivers. The elevated roads and the rail-
roads out Of the city had trains blockaded
here and there. The Fourth Avenue Tun-
nell was full Of snow, and trains were lost
idslde.
Boston via Albany.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15.-Reports at the cen
tral Office of the Western Union telegraph
company, this afternoon show that the late
blizzard was comparatively local. 1t did not
extend further south an Alexandria, w.
Va; further west than Pittsburg and Buff
falo; further north than Saratoga, and fur