St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-27
WORST OF THE SEASON
Another Devastating Storm
RACES Along the Atlantic
Coast.
All Telephone and Telegraph
Wires a Sadly Tangled
Web.
New YOrk'S Stock Exchange
Completely Cut Off From
the World.
The City Of Wilkesbarre, Pa,
Enveloped in Egyptian
Darkness.

tlme III tne history OF tue gredG lclo-
graph and telephone companies which
center in this city they are paraly zed.
Never before have they experienced
such complete and absolute havoc; The
OF their lines during the men,
orable blizzard was nothing compared
with the state of things telegraphlc to-
day. The storm of Yesterday was by
all odds the worst that the telegraph
have ever had to deal
with. The sleet storm in 1881 had the
record for general havoc, because
it laid low every wire belonging
to any company in this town. But yes
terday's storm went further even than
that. An idea of what wrecking of
lines was done may be gathered from
the fact that out of l 800 running out OF
this city the Western Union company
has but three wires working this morn
ing. The rest, with the poles that sup
ported them, now lie beside railroad
tracks end across fields, and are caught
in trees. The Postal Telegraph COM
pany actually had not one wire working
out from the city, while the Metropoli-
tan Telegraph and Telephone company
roughly estimates, it has not yet had
time to learn the exact damage, that
$500 of wires have been lad low.
The Total Damage
to the companies mentioned, which
will result from this condition or al
fairs, is roughly estimated at S5OO,OOO.
Two weeks unceaSIng effort Will be re-
uuired to get the wires back into the
condition which existed before the
storm broke and tore down the poles
ana wires. Between Philadelphia and
Trenton and between that point and
New Brunswick the telegraphic equip
ment is totally wrecked along the line
OF the Pennsylvania railroad, where
ran some of the heaviest trunk lines,
the poles and wires are scattered
about on the ground. All the East
ern wires are down between WllliamS
Bridge and Stamford. and all Western
wires between Williams Bridge and
Crofon Falls arc in the same condition..
AT Pleasantyille, which is just back OF
Sing Sing. every wire is down for dis
tance of two miles. Every one OF the
company's wires which run along the
line of the West Shore railroad is down
Suulll vi OOi INV dllf bilL pOibo III VIZ
direction are also lying beside the rail-
road tracks. The " estern Union wires
which run through Jersey are piled into
small heaps OH the Jersey flats,
Not Pole
can be seen standing across the mead
ows. Reports of that kind the company
received from employees who came in on
trans this morning. The total number
of wires usually working to the north
and west is 200 in all. The company
has in the neighborhood of 1,500 wires
rendered useless. They cannot be got
into complete working order for two
weeks. In this city the number OF
wires down is roughly estimated at 1900,
and the poles down or broken at 2oo.
In addition to the forest OF poles that
were strewn about the streets as
many were hanging in dan
gerous condition. Immense gangs
of men were busy removing
the snow and wreck; and toward after
noon matters began to assume more
cheerful appearance. A long, thick
heavy veil of mist shuts out from view
the Long Island, New Jersey and Staten
Island shores, while down the lower bay
the mist from yesterdays storm hung
like heavy fog. 1t was impossible to
report anv incoming vessels from High
lands or Sandy Hook. Not only were
they not discernible, but the wires had
been broken down by the heavy fall OF
snow and the gale that blew while the
storm was in progress. Soon after day
light two
Big Atlantic Steamships
loomed at quarantine inerusted in snow
and ice, and their shrouds fringed with
snow. They were the French line
steamship,La Bretagne and the Cunard
steamship Aurania. Both of these YES
sells were due yesterday, but, owing to
the severity of yesterdays storm and
the heavy seas that were running, they
were compelled to slacken their speed
The ships were not reported from the
Hook, and their arrival was known only
when they reached a position where
they could be seen with glasses from
the barge office. There was nc
way of communication with quar-
antine, as the wires could not be
made to work. Lookouts were
placed in the tower of the barge Office
with glasses in order to sight and report
vessel arrivals. The wires between
this city and Fire island and Barnegal
also were down. and not ship was re-
ported from either place. AS far a:
could be seen from the barge office the
| bay was strewn with vessels with thell
whole canvas spread out to dry, it pre-
sented picture that is rarely seen. ant
| afforded pleasure for many curiosity
seekers. Reels and tangled
Nets OF Telephone
and electric wires filled Brooklyn:
streets, causing damage estimated a
| $3.50, 600. Jersey City's fire alarm sys
| tenn was rendered useless and the OLE
| system of alarm towers was resorted tc
| as a protection against fire. The POSta
! Telegraph company will take no mes
sages in the city except those of absO
| Lutte necessity. Boston is now reached
| by way of Montreal. In order to reacl
California messages will be sen
| from here to Port Chester, thence
to Montreal and to the Pacific
coast via the Canadian Pacific line. Tbt
stock exchange was completely cut off
| from all quarters but London, and III
buying orders could get in from Boston
| Philadelphia or Chicago, the room trad
| ers who are alton the bear side, ham
mered the market in all directions. Tht
| only assistance they met was from
| London, but as soon as the buyin!
orders from there were filed, they hat
no tronble in depressing stocks
They turned quickly, however, ant
by buying and selling a. short inter
yals they kept the volume of bushes
up to a respectable figure. Western
Union, which will suffer to great ex
tent By the storm, was forced down 9
to "A, but the bears were afraid to g
heavily short of it, and sold only a fey
hundred shares. The Western Unio
! Office at 16 Broad street, which handle