New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-01-27
A COSTLY BUT CONCLUSIVE DEMON
STR1TION

The storm of Saturday night was remark
able both for the havoc that it wrought and
the ease and pacidity OF the performance
| There was no terrific struggle OF the elements
To suggest the spectacle which daylight re-
yealed and no doubt most persons ate their
| breakfasts in perfect Inconsistencies OF the
| melancholy transformation which the streets
had undergone while they slept. The snowfall
was not deep nor the wind high. 1t was the
temperature that did the business. 1t was
precisely cold enough to crystalline the precpl-
tation. and therefore innumerable telegraph
poles and thousands of miles of wire went down
in hopeless ruin. The word hopeless is amply
justified by the statements and action OF the
companies The poles will make good lundhng
wood and the wires will sell more or less
readily by the pound hut electrical communi-
cation wherever, in this city at least, it has
been broken must be restored with new ma
tcras. TO GiscntanSc the maze and replace
the various strands would cost more, in most
instances than it would save.
The loss is stupendouS, far too great TO be
realized except ~ those whose mournul ana
laboriouS task il is TO restore the service and
pay the bills. But persons endowed with
strong imagnationS may get an insight OF the
truth from the chance remarks Of telegraph
officials. Il can send message for you 10
Ncw-Zcaland but not to New-Jer>ey,' sad 81
operator on Sunday night There are thou
sand breaks between New-YOrl and Phila-
delphia." is the calculation Of the Western
Union Company. a hundred vessels. may
have gone ashore for aught we know or can
learn 10 the contrary" remarked a disconsola'e
manager Yesterday. We are a perfect wreck
THE blizzard wasn't circumstance to this
1.-THE situation is simply bewildering," are
some of the phrases used by experts to describe
the work of the storm. Here in New-iork no
body who took a step in any direction on sun
day or Yesterday needed to be told that the
street scenes were without a parallel.
1t must be acknowledged that the loss and
inconvenience inflicted on the community sug-
pest conSoling reflections. Pedestrians who
have houndered through the labyrinth OF wires
and all whose business has been impeded by
the isolation of the city are recompensed in
some degree by the hope that the electrical
companies have learned at last from this un-
nrecedented disaster the lesson which most Of
them have persistently neglected to learn
hitherto. 1t is pretty safe to say that feeling
bosoms at the thought that overhead wires have
now given conclusive and enormously eX-
pensive demonstration of their uniitness 70 eX-
| ist. The cost of renewing what a single storm
destroyed in few hours would he, 10 put il
cautiously, the interest on a vast investment
in underground channels Of communication ii
is great victory for the subwayS, and Scath-
ing rebuke to these who are responsible for
making a wholesome and benefcent statute
ridiculous. Ignorance, neglect, parslmony
trickely, defiance of public sentiment and will
! full disobcdience OF the law have finally pro-
duccd results which may possibly convince all
concerned that it would have been profitable
as well as decent 10 take an opposite course.
And while those who are most deeply con-
cerned are bordering the situation in New
York, it would do them no harm to take a
broader view of the subject. If every wire in
this city had been below the surface we should
nevertheless have been cut off from the rest
of the country. This reflection may suggest
that the time has come when the main lines Of
| telegraphic and telephone communication ought
TO be beyond the reach Of storms. Practically
the entire telegraph system Of Germany is
underground. TO bury or inclose a single wire
stretching through a desolate region between
widely separated stations is not feasible, nor
Immediately important. But between the great
cities of the continent communication ought 10
be as secure as it has Just been proved TO be
beneath the Atlantic There is an obvious
lesson in the fact that New York and London
were only a minute apart on Sunday, while
Philadelphia was as remote as the moon.