Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-02-14
Echoes OF the Storm.

throughout almost the whole of the
United States on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday of last week brought
death and desolation in its chill breath,
freezing the wayfarer on land and
killing the mariner at sea. Ship
wrecks were.reported from many points
and the snow choked the wheels of
traffic on all the railroad lines. The
blizzard was worse than the great
March blizzard of 1888 in the monu-
mental character of the snow drifts and
it made new record for combina-
ton of intense cold and widespread
disturbance.
The area of zero weather reached
almost to the Gulf of Mexico. The
only patch of country above freezing
point was the extreme tip of the Flor
ida peninsula, Key West reporting the
only temperature above freezing east
of the Rocky Mountains. In Tampa
snow fell for the first time perhaps on
record. For the second time in his
tory the Galveston bay was frozen.
Much suffering was caused to the In
habitants of the city.
In Florida orange and other fruit
trees are probable all killed outright,
except the oldest and toughest of them,
for they were naked, budding and full
of sap. and therefore particularly sus-
ceptible to cold. The loss will aggre-
gate many millions of dollars.
The oyster industry, in which hun
dreds of vessels are engaged in and
about Chesapeake bay, was paralyzed
because of the extreme cold weather.
North Point and the Kent Island
shore are strewn with wrecked oyster
boats. The gale that swept the bay
Saturday, according to captain who
has for forty years sailed on the Chesa-
peake, was the worse he ever expert
enced.
In New York the wind travelled at
the rate of sixty miles an hour and six
inches of snow fell, paralyzing passen-
ger traffic, blocking the railroads and
causing great suffering. Many per-
sons were frostbitten-and number of
accidents were reported. The waters
around New York were ice bound.
Accidents were innumerable, ships
were held fast for hours, and others
were swept away on the tides. Near
Lyons, n. Y, Mrs. Davis, school
teacher, was caught in the blizzard
and frozen. Her body was found two
days afterward in a snow bank.
A train was stranded near Selma,
Kansas, on Saturday. There were
twelve passengers aboard-ten men
and two women-among them being
W. W. Read, travelling for Kansas
City grocery-house. The contents of
his sample-case was all the food the
entire party had. His coffee samples
were ground In the stove shovel with
the poker and cooked in can Of melt
ed snow. The men took their turn
carrying coal over the high drifts from
a caboose, which was stranded a short
distance ahead. The coal supply was
limited and all the passengers suffered
from exposure.
At Oakland, Nd, Friday was the
coolest day ever known. The Their
mometer was Is degrees below zero.
At Altamont the snow was four feet
deep. B. & o. trains were derailed
by the snow and engines were frozen
up.
In Washington City the storm was
very severe and the temperature de-
scended to zero. The United States
Senate appropriated $4,000 for the
immediate relief of the poor. Many
trains bound for Washington were
stalled almost within sight of the city.
In Chicago the weather was intense
ly cold, IA degrees below zero being
reached. Several persons were frozen
to death and there was general suffer
ing.
A tidal wave swept New England
coast Friday. One hundred dwellings
and business buildings were swept
away at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
1t is believed many lives were lost.
The wave did $4,000 damage to fish
cries at Gloucester, Mass. Great dam
age was done by the wave at other
New England ports. Cleveland's sum
mer residence, Gray Gables, was great
ly damaged. His fishing yacht, Ruth.
was dashed to pieces on the rocks.
The schooner Clara F. Friend, of
Halifax, was caught in the gale on
Friday, and went down with fifteen
men.
The schooner Louis Y. Place, from
Baltimore to New York. was wrecked
off Fire Island during the great storm
Life-savers tried to rescue the crew.
but the waves prevented for two days
The captain and six men were frozen
to death. Two seamen, who had chung
to the rigging for forty hours, were
rescued after they were almost frozen
to death.
Tbs thermometer has been very low
at Wheeling, and there has been great
suffering for lack of fuel, Natural gas
has almost given out. The Ohio river
is frozen over from Pittsburg to Par
kersburg.
The lowest temperature reported
was at White River, Ontario, where
the mercury went down to IS degrees
below zero. This is the coolest wealth
er ever recorded.