The Portland daily press., 1897-01-22

born for life on the ocean wave.
The pilot boat Maggie was not daunted
BY the heavy sea. and went outside short
Iy before the Labrodar, to bring back thu
pilot. The men on this sturdy little
sloop care not for anything in the shape
OF a heavy ses or storm, but they had
about all they wanted to tackle yester.
day.
| Work on the elevator was interrupted
by the storm, and all of the men given
day of rest. The big steamship
Numidian as she lay at the dock taking
in grain from the elevator rolled great
deal and 1t was necessary to r1n lines
across the dock to keep her from smash
ing the elevator wharf.
The lower part of the harbor was filled
with vessels which had put in TO escape
the terrible sea which was reported to be
| running outside. Captain Goud and the
freboat were Obliged to make several
vessels out of the channel. The cellars all
along Commercial street were flooded,
but as the merchants are always on the
lookout for this kind of a thing, little or
no damage was done.
The steam railroads experienced but
little difficulty in coping with the storm
and all the trains running into Union
station arrived and departed on time.
The same was true Of the Grand
| Trunk and the Portland and Rochester
trains.
The Boston boats did not start from
either end of the line Wednesday night,
and they will not go out until the
weather modsrates. The telegraph and
telephone companies had troubles of their
own and wires and poles were down in
almost every direction. Dor about two
hours yesterday morning there was no
direop communication with Boston and
all the messages received here from that
city came by way of New York, St.
John and Montreal. The Western Union
had the worst trouble In this vicinity on
the Eastern division, Boston and Maine
bridge over the upper harbor and In Cape
Elizabeth.
There were over thirty breaks on the
line between Scarboro and West Scarboro
along the eastern division and all the
wires on the railroad bridge we've down.
On the western division of the line there
was also considerable trouble and all
Direct communication with Boston was
Interrupted from shortly after eight
O'Clock until 10 O'Clock yesterday morn
ing. The companies lines to the eastward
and to Bangor were in fair order, al
though all the wires were down where
they cross the river at Brunswiok. The
linesmen were sent out inseyery direction
where trouble was reported and soon had
the lines in good condition.
The Postal Telegraph company was in
unusaIly bad shape and for hours their
Boston line was not open. All Of the
poles on Vaughan bridge went down be-
fore the storm and 1t took long tim g to
repair the damage. Their wire to Bangor
ana the east was open but working rather
poorly.
The telephone company had nearly all
of their local lines in working order al
though they had considerable trouble on
some of the city lines.
Their long distance line, however, In
GLIDING both the eastward and westward
ones, were in trouble. Communication
with nearly every city in the state was
impossible during the morning.
Soon after noon one of the wires run
ming to Biddeford was got into shape 80
that communication, although difficult,
was possible.
The electric roads experienced con-
siderable difficulty in the forenoon, but
by the use of snow plows and big gangs
of men had everything in working order
soon after the rain began to fail. At first
the heavy snow was packed down solldly
into the grooves Of the rails and made ii
almost impossible for the cars to move.
The Dsering cars were delayed and the
city lines got along slowly. In soma
cases the cars were kept moving while
passengers got on, for il they had been
entirely stopped it would have been q
work of some time to start them. On the
Caps line the big snow pillow was at least
ten minutes going up the hill from the
Rochester station to Congress street.
Later in the afternoon the wind shifted
around to the north end it began to grow
colder, The sidewalks were SO slippery
that only mountain goats could walk on
them. No injuries were reported from
persons falling, however, and when
Superintendent Staples at last got his
sand cart going about the streets one
could get along much faster and with
much more comfort only it still required
man with great nerve to cross the street
unless he wore hip boots.
The storm which caused all this
trouble started over Lake Superior Wed
nesday and worked it's way rapidly east
ward. 1t is believed that it must have
worked great havoc to shipping along the
coast and reports of much damage may
be looked fer in shipping circles.
But all should be happy just the same.
Some people were afraid we were not go.
ing to get any winter. Here it is2 How
do you like it?