Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-02-05
WORST IS OVER.
City Recovering from Effects of
the Blizzard.
Street Department and Electric Railway
Companies Doing Lot of Work in
Getting Rid of Surplus Snow.

the streets, but one thing is sure and
that is that the Worcester street de-
partment never had a bigger Job to
handle Certainly no contract has
equalled the present one within a score
of years The great blizzard of 'SS is re-
ferred to, but that snow came at a time
Of the year when it, to certain extent,
removed itself. Not an ounce of the last
snow has vanished by melting. The
weather has held cold ever since the
storm. The snow is heavy, it is deep
and 1t fills every street in the city. Years
ago the matter Of securing dumping
grounds was easy, but now the city has
{ been built up so that long trips are
! necessary before the snow can be
dumped. Another great obstacle to more
prompt work is the utter impossibility
to secure as many sleds as are needed.
| Not only the city but the country has
\ been secured for sleds There are horses
and men enough, but the supply Of the
kind OF sleds needed is lacking and only
a limited number can be hired at any
price The street department has $50
men at work and 60 teams No more
men can be used unless more sleds can
! be secured.
| Main street is now open it's entire
1 width from Lincoln square to Hammond
street, and before tonight the snow to
Webster square will be out of the way
In addition Front street is we'll cleared
and work has been done on Pearl Wal
nut, Elm, Foster, Waldo, Mechanic, Elk
| change, Austin, Commercial and other
streets. All the streets in the city, so far
as the commissioner knows, are open,
and also all roads leading out into the
country. The street commissioner feels
that the need of opening the arteries
| leading to the surrounding towns is inn
portant, and he has given especial care
| to this. 1t has been necessary in many
cases to break these streets out twice,
owing to the drifting of the snow and
the work has been slow and difficult.
For instance, in Brooks street the teams
could not be driven through and it was
necessary to shovel for a mile. The vol
ume of the snow Is enormous.
i There are a multitude of streets that
! are low, and if heavy thaw should
come il would be disastrous. Mr.. Prior
| hopes to go through them Monday or
| Tuesday and throw part Of the snow
! into the middle Of the street He will let
ii pack down for a day or so and then
throw the remaining snow out from the
1 cutters.
The streets are already getting into
/
that make riding unsafe, and it is some
work to put these in proper shape. All
of the teams that have been working on
the outskirts will be in today, and will
1 assist greatly in the work.
The horsemen are after the street
! commissioner, and want the two feet or
more of loose, mealy snow on the boule-
ward scraped down to the old bed and
piled up on the sides so that as the snow
1 lflTc
good sleighing. with fair weather, Tor
month or more.
There is some fault finding with the
/ slowness with which the work is pro-
crossing, but a fair understanding OF
/ the matter would go to show that every
thing possible, with the limited number
/ Of teams available, is being done.
! Foreman Blaney considers the storm
twice as bad as the So blizzard, and says
he has known nothing like it since his
connection with the department.
Commissioner Prior estimates that the
extra work on the streets occasioned by
the storm will cost the city between
$4,000 and $4,000.
A great part of the work of clearing
the snow in Main and Front streets mas
been done by the street railway conn
pany. The arrangement between the
company and the highway department
is that the former shall cart away the
snow SO as to make passage way wide
enough for a sleigh on each side OF It's
tracks. and the latter shall finish the
lob to the gutter. The commissioner
saws he could have worked raster N
Main street if the railway people mad
kept further ahead of him. Still ne mas
no reason to. complain, for he says tnat
the Consolidated has done remarkably
| we'll considering the conditions which
confronted the road. In the narrow
streets through which the street rail-
WAYS run. like Pleasant, Cedar, Thomas,
Portland. etc, the companies are re-
oulred to clear all the snow from cnro
to curb. 49,
now practically recovered from the di-
90 strous effects of the blizzard. Cars
are being run in all directions and upon
nearly schedule time. There are sun
few striDs of rails that have not been
wholly cleared as yet, but these are In
outlying portions Of the city, and IN no
way interfere seriously with general
traffic. BY this evening all companies
operating in this city expect 10 nave
every inch of their road-beds as free
from snow as they were week ago
today.
The work Friday was devoted almost
entirely to opening up the branch lines
that the companies had not been able
to reach in the days Immediately fol-
lowing the storm. The Consolidated
Company had as big gang Of men at
work Friday as on any preceding day.
The result was that Friday night the
Lake line and the Odd Fellows Home
line were the only lines over which cars
were not running from terminus to ter
minus. Today the men will devote their
energies to these two lines and then the
entire system of nearly 60 miles will be
open.
The residents at the lake and in that
vicinity, however, are suffering little
inconvenience, however, BY poor SER
vice. Cars ran from the city hall as
far as the lake Friday afternoon and
evening, but made no attempt to go
around the loop, up through Lake View
and Bloomingdale The dummy line
over which trains are making frequent
trips, are transporting those who live in
that section of the city.
The Worcester ard Suburban Com
pany cleared their Hope cemetery
branch, Friday morning, and now have
clean rail all the way through. As
one of the company's snow plows was
coming into the city yesterday morning
ahead of couple Of cars, it jumped the
track at Salem square. This caused a
delay Of about an hour, while jacks and
other apparatus We're being obtained
WIFI WHICH u Sel llle iloHSleI SiOW-
cleaning machine back upon the iron
again.
The Worcester and Marlboro line is in
running order again. although none of
the vestibuled cars of that line have yet
been sent clear through to the city hail.
Instead a transfer of passengers from
the Marlboro to the Consolidated's cars
is made at the lake.
So far as the steam railroads are con-
I'D ha do ISy 10
storm has been practically lifted. All
the scheduled passenger trains Were