Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-02-07
The Fearful Result
OF a Very Hard Winter.

VI very iAdIu TLiitGi'
New York Journal
IL was q cold winter. When il began
there were many tall buildings in New
York.
There were twenty STORY Office build
ings in watch every tenant occupied
a nigh place in his profession; a young
lawyer could look down fourteen sto-
rles on a Supreme COUrc judge; young
physician could elevate his nose fifteen
stories above an old practitioner; a
landscape painter was near enough the
sky 10 catch the cloud tints with his
hands. At night the stars gathered
about the roofs as thick as firehes.
The Tract Society building was twen-
ty-four stories in height, and its CHM
nevs were so near the sky that it
would have been easy for its venerable
pensioners 10 have put on their Slip
pers and slipped from the roof into
paradise.
There was a weather building which
was twenty-five stories high, counting
the stories in the DOME and It was so
near heaven that some thought the
weather forecaster got his prophecies
by direct revelation.
About mid-winter a cold wave came
from the ice caves of Montana, and it
was the severest ever known. 1t swept
eastWarwd. freezing the thermometers
as it advanced. 1t froze the rivers as
they ran. Ii blew on the waterfalls
and they became sheets Of ice. 1t
changed the lakes into crystal mirrors
2 ~
fir trees. Bears were frozen in their
tracks. The coyotes, as they cavorted
over the plains. became as riged as
stone. The Indian reservations seem
ed 10 be sDrinkled with cigar store
signs. so many Sioux and CCmanches
had been nipped by the frost. Only
the few prairie bison that were left
kepc warm. and that was because they
wore buffalo robes. Almost everybody
and everything was frozen.
When the cold wave came to New
York fl froze the clouds Of steam above
the city roofs in a delicate fretwork of
ice. The mascs of the great ships
along the river fronts became tall lei
cles. All the gilded domes in the me-
trop0lis were silvered with frost.
Every window in Wall street was a
silver window.
A thrilling frost fell on all the thea
tres. At the tank play" in Eighth
avenue. the tank was frozen and the
performance had to be postponed. In
"The Lights % London" at Harlem,
the Thames was covered with ice for
the first time in many years. A blight
ing frost Withered all the new plays
There was an exhibition of Actic
landscapes at the Academy of Design,
but owing TO the deep snow and intense
cold no one was able to reach these
Polar scenes. All public entertain
ments were suspended. The only thing
to tighten the monotony Of the blizzard
was. lectures on the weather by Fore
easter Dunn.
BY day the sun was small and dim,
and seemed to be trying TO warm him.
self by q bank of dull red clouds. At
night a few cold stars shOne; the moon
looked down with a frosty light Every
meal was a cold meal The poor ate
cold meat, and the rich had to get
along with frosted cake. Ghost stories
were interdicted because they made
people SILVER
OF course. the blizzard did not make
everything dismal. There was tobog-
gaming on Murray Hill, and snow shoe
racing on Beekman Hill. Their ball
on the street cars signiied that there
was skating on Sandy Hook. The ice
on the ocean was almost as smooth as
glass. and ice yachts raced from the
Lower Bay to Scotland Light Ship
without fear of being crowded by the
steamboats,.
The cold storage ware houses ceased
10 do business. There was cold storage
eyerywhere-in the street cars, in the
elevated trains, and the hotels. a be-
nevolent thermometer manufacturer
founded a Hospital for Frosted Ears
and Frozen Noses"
The cold wave 50 greatly contracted
the bridge that New York and Brook
lyn were drawn close together. II the
blizzard had lasted a little longer they
would have been consolidated.
All the tall buildings in the metropo-
lis were constructed Of steel. being
merely bridges built into the air. and
venceTed with brick and stone. Like
the Brooklyn bridge, they began TO
contract as soon as the blizzard arrived
As it became colder their ceilings grew
lower and lower. Their windows
shrank to little eyes. Their towers
shrivelled to spires. DOmes became
lanterns. The eyric roofs descended
rapidly toward the streets.
The twenty-fifjh story weather build
ing contracted so fast that Forecastcr
Dunn could not measure the wind.
The official barometer rose RAPIDLY
with the decrease in elevation. and the
thermometers were soon affected bv
the radiation from the streets. The
stairways became damned together IN
til egress by them was impossible.
Weather Forecaster Dunn and his
confreres escaped from the building
by jumping from the roof into a snow
drir. in Rroadv~y.
When the cold wave had been a dav
in town the weather building remind
ed one Of a crushed hat. and the
tTenty-fOur story structure of the
Tr2ct Society had drawn together like
q cOncertin3. The twenty-story build
ings were no higher than the old 'ash-
Toned foUr-Story houses. 4 twenty
two story structure in YOrkville. which
was much exposed TO the wind. had
shrunk 70 the size of 4 three-st0rv
shop. All the tall buildings which
had once been the wonder of visitors.
had descended from the -kv. The