The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-09
Storm King
Holds City
Efforts Made During Day To Loosen
His Paralyzins Grip.
THEY WERE PRACTICALLY FAILURES
Street Car Traffic on All the Lines in
the City Was Abandoned Last
Night Steam Roads Badly
Hampcred--- Great Dam.
age in all Directions.

| damage and was more severe than any
snow storm which has visited this city
| or section since the memorable and dis.
| astrous hurricane of March, 1888. And
in some respects the recent storm is
more severe than that of seven years ago
it is greater in wind, temperature and
area. Only in quantity of snow did the
1883 storm exceed the present one.
| In and adjacent to this city the bliz-
zard has caused a financial loss of hun
dreds of thousands of dollars which
cannot even be approximately estimat-
ed for several days. Business has been
completely prostrated, the street car
lines have been tied up and railroad
travel has been undisputably demoral-
| ized. \
AT midnight last night the indications
were that the storm had spent it's fury,
and unless more snow falls the rail-
roads will today resume schedule time.
1t Is not probable that the street cars
Will run with any degree of regularity
until at least this afternoon.
AT O'Clock last night the Traction
company management gave orders to
abandon all efforts to keep it's lines
open. The big electric sweepers were
| housed and instructions given to en-
ployeS to report for duty at o'clock
this morning. A concentrated effort
| VIII then be made to clear the tracks.
All of yesterday attempts We're made
to run cars, but without success.
Wind Undid the Work.
AS rapidly as a portion of a line was
cleaned the wind and snow combined
to prove the work fruitless and all that
was accomplished was to keep the
West Side line to Main avenue open for
a few hours in the afternoon. At pres
ent four cars are stalled on the Laurel
Hill line, three on the Moosic line and
as many between Market street ana
| Peckvillc.
On the Delaware. Lackawanna and
Western road no attempt was made to
run local trains. A small army of men
was pressed into service on the Pocono
and north of the city in hopes that some
sort of passenger and through freight
service might be maintained. The work
or the 400 or 500 men might as well have
| been directed against q tornado. From
3 o'clock in the morning until o'clock
yesterday afternoon the road for twen-
ty-fVe miles south of this city was COM
pletely blocked
The drifts on the Pocono ranged in
depth from a few feet to the height of
the smokestacks of the engines. Several
huge ploughs pushed by two engines
each and numerous gangs of shovelers
distributed along succeeded in making
the road passable last evening only be-
cause the wind abated. AS many as
twenty men suffered from frozen
fingers, toes or ears. and were treated
| by physicians in the small towns south
| Of the city.
About 2.30 o'clock in the afternoon the
New York mail train due here at 2
o'clock yesterday morning pulled into
the Lackawanna depot twelve hours
late. The engine was a putting study
in black and white and bore about as
much semblance to cowshed as to d
fast locomotive. The train had been
seventeen hours in making the trip
from New York which ordinarily occu-
pies but five hours. The backbone of
the blockade, however, had been broken,
and UP to an early hour this morning
all through trains from the east arrived
from three to six hours late.
IuSSCuScT lIuluS DcidyGu.
The train due here at $50 o'clock and
which left New York at 4.15 in the after
noon arrived at 1920.
North of Scranton the trouble was
not so great, although all trains were
four or five hours overdue. Orders were
given during the day to hold all local
freight and coal trains north and south
Only passenger and through freights
were allowed to leave the city, and the
ticket agent notified all purchasers that
the company would not be responsible
for distance or time.
At 8 o'clock last evening General Man
ager Hallstead gave orders to hold in
the Scranton yards sixteen carloads of
live stock consigned to New York. At
that hour the probabilities were that
the train would be unable to get over
the Pocono within five or six hours, and
rather than expose the stock to the
mercies of the gale at such high alti-
tude the company preferred to keep the
cars in the Scranton yards.
1t was reported by railroad employees
at 10 o'clock that several heads of the
stock had succumbed to the storm and
had laid down to die or be trampled to
death by their fellows. The train was
started east shortly before midnight.
but it is probable that not few will
freeze to death before Hoboken is
reached.
Until midnight the Delaware and
Hudson company sold tickets only be
tween Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale.
Beyond these points travellers had to
take chances on trains which arrived
and left this city from one to three
hours late. A special dispatch to The
Tribune from Honesdale last night said:
"All railroads out of Honesdale blocked;