Evening journal., 1891-01-26
BYWNDANDSNOW
A Forest OfPOles Felled in New
York.
VERY FEW WIRES WORKING.
The City and Its Suburbs in Inky
Darkness.

Streets Strewn with Splintered Poles and |
Covered with a Network of Dangerous
wires-several Horses Killed by EIec-
trIcity and Many Narrow Escapes from
Death-The Worst Storm of the Kind
the City Has Seen in Years-Few New
Jersey Poles Left Standing-PsnnsyIva-
mia Feels the Disastrous Effects Of the
UnruIy Elements-A Cyclone Lost in the
Confusion.
NEW YORK, Jan. 26-The streets Of New
York yesterday looked as if a cyclone had
passed through them. About II o'clock
Saturday night brisk rain storm began
falling, which rapidly turned to sleet and
snow heavy with moisture, and which soon
covered the sidewalks with a mushy mass
of slush that it was nearly impossible to
wade through. The snow clung to the
telegraph, telephone and electric light
wire in big ropes, and the weight soon
proved too much for the poles and they
broke with loud reports, and came crash
ing down ON buildings along the streets or
into the streets themselves, breaking them
selves into fragments and burying them
selves deep in the roadway.
Pedestrians in Peril.
Pedestrians were in eminent danger
from the crashing poles and many narrow
escapes from death were reported through
out the city. On every side in the city
yesterday were to be seen broken telegraph
or telephone poles. while the walls and
roadways We're covered with a network of
twisted, broken and snarled wires, which
before the storm We're used as electric,
telephone or telegraph wires
As If an Explosion Had Occurred.
Thirty-ninth street. from Broadway clear
over to the North river. looked as If a gigan-
tic explosion of giant powder had wrecked
the street from end TO end. A big pole
that was almost kindling wood lay in
front Of the Oriental hotel, at the corner
of Broadway and Thirty-ninth street. II
fell with fearful crash about ! a. m, car
rying down with it one hundred and TWEEN
ty-five telephone wires and thus cutting
off telephone communication the entire
length of Broadway.
Another big pole, with nine cross trees
loaded with wires, lay prostrate in front of
| the Metropolitan Opera house. opposite the
| Oriental hotel The pole snapped at the
base about midnight and whirled into the
street in three separate pieces. In falling
it broke away from the wires with which
/ it was loaded, leaving them hanging in "a
dense mass like huge veil from the top of
the opera house roof
A Night OF Terror.
The street cars were almost unrecOgniz-
able from the mass of snow and ice which
accumulated about them, making them
appear as If they had just weathered some
| fierce Dakota blizzard The elevated trains
/ were similarly coated. and as the wind con
tinued TO roar down the streets and great
banks Of snow began TO pile up everywhere
! fears were entertained of another blizzard
similar to IL not worse than the disastrous
storm Of March, 1888. In many respects
Saturday nights storm was far worse in
its disastrous effects than the memorable
! blizzard.
It was general war Of the elements
upon telegraph poles and wires. Pole after
| pole in every section of the city, with theiI
thousands of telegraph. telephone, electric
light and fire department wires, came
crashing to the ground, forming gigantic
snarls and tangles that il will take weeks
of hard work to unTavel.
With the falling of the wires darkness
1 anu NonAuNlOn AtA ul0u lAN NlNNf ~ Aht
electric lights went out and the fire alarms
and police calls failed to respond to theil
respective signals IL was a night when
thieves and thugs and incendiaries had
did they but know il, the entire city al
most at their mercy.
Il was a night of innumerable accidents
and mishaps, and the advent Of day, as tn,
storm eased up, revealed such a widespread
scene of desolation and destruction as nevel
was witnessed i'm this metropolis.
The storms General Course.
The general course Of the storm seems {,
have confined itself to a narrow track alon,
the Atlantic seaboard, from Florida 4
Maine. Throughout this entire district tn
telegraph wires are down in every direction
AS this city lay right in the track Of tn
storm it was naturally, the heaviest suffer
er thereby. In fact, the storm left this me
trOpolis, in addition TO the general confu
sien regarding its own wires almost entire
ly cut off by wire from all parts Of tn
country
Together with the general wrecking O
the telegraphic systems inside and outsid
the city came widespread interruption q
railroad traffic, the train dispatching d,
partments of nearly all the roads being i'm
possible of operation.
Deadly Wires Made safe.
And as particularly grewsome Gilman
TO this chapter of tempestuous misery
night of black, inky, cropping darkness fel
upon the metropolis again last night-nO
an electric street lamp in the length an
breadth of the city throwing ont a spark
light the timorous pedestrian on bis way.
This Egyptian visitation came abou
from the precaution wisely suggested b.
Superintendent J. Elliott Smith. of the fin
alarm system, 10 Mayor Grant early in th
day that all electric light currents shoul
be shut off TO prevent danger to life fror
contact with the numberless wires lyin
around loose in the streets or danglin
within easy reach. The result was un
versal blackness in the city last night
Horses Killed by Live Wires.
The live wires that were down all owe
tbs city were sources Of .error TO all passei
by. Two horses were killed outright, on
by coming in contact with live wire an
another was struck on the head by a pieg
OF telegraph pole In both instances tl
q drivers narrowly escaped death. The fir
received shock which Knocked him dow
and the other was covered with splinter
1 IRON, fha shattered mole