The Portland daily press., 1898-02-03
LOSS OF LIFE AT SEA.
Most Startling Feature Of Storm Of
Monday and Tuesday.
BODIES BEING PICKED UP ALL
ALONG THE ShORE.

Nineteen Dead Can Already Be Counted
Up-Telegraphic Communication at
Last tRe.cstablished With Boston Over
Few Ifnes-Hard to Raise Embargo
Outside the City.
Boston, February 2.-The full realiza-
tion of the magnitude, and severity OF the
winter hurricane which .on Monday night
and Tuesday morning made a record for
itself in eastern Massachusetts and In
Rhode Island was the feature Of today a
revival of business and communication
with the outside world after many hours
of practically complete isolation. With
the resumption of traffic and the slow
patching ZIP of telegraph wires. as we'll
as, the arrival of mails from different
points, came more of the details of this
terrific and now historic storm.
People here were, in a measure, able to
count the loss not only to property, but
of the lives of those who 60 down to the
sea in ships, for while the. former already
foots up into millions, the loss of life ON
the rocky New England coast and in
the wild surges of Massachusetts, bay
will not probably be equalled for many
years to come. That SO many brave sea-
men should have found watery grave,
undoubtedly: :makss this the most startling
came in today, meagre to be sure, but
nevertheless trustworthy, of bodies not
singly, but in twos and threes, being
picked up along the shore, it was seen
that while the blowing. down of telegraph
poles and the orippling of railroad traffic
was great hindrance to communication
it sank into insiEnificance as compared
with the terrible news of brave sailors
going to their death while their ships Of
oak were broken to bits on dangerous
reefs.
-Four unidentified. bodies lie in the coro-
ner's office In Gloucester. Five more are
in Lynn brought over from Little Ma
hant on the rocky beach on which was
wrecked the schooner. Charles Fl. Briggs.
Twelve unknown corpses are reported to
be at Bakers island, in Salem harbor.
They, too, must have manned some Of
the schooners which were lost in Glouces-
ter harbor. That there are others In the
dark waters of the bay seems to be GER
tain, but tonight 10 dead can be counted,
all victims of the storm S fury.
Up and down the coast from Cape Ann
to Cape Cod are strewn the grim yestiges
of the storm. Gloucester harbor was she
storm centre of wrecks. but the beaches
near this city were not exempt from a
similar spectacle, while the shipping
within half mile of the wharves broke
from their cables during that fearful
night and worked destruction to them
selves and their neighbors. On land the
less by the storm seems to have been con-
fined entirely to property for while horses,
almost without number were killed in
the main thoroughfares of Boston, cleo
trocuted by falling trolley wires, by some
miraculous chance no human being was
struck, although there were many narrow
escapes This wholesale slaughter of
dumb animals was, perhaps. the only
ghastly feature ofssthe storm in this city.
After "a hours of unremitting labor,
the two big telegraph companies were
their own lines with the outside world.
Boston seemed, however, to be harder
to reach than other cities affected by
the storm, for while communities only
few miles from the Hub managed only to
obtain good communication late in she
day, it seemed as If clear wires would
never reach this city,
The railroads, however helped out Won
derfully in bringing in news from more
fortunate localities, and the officials of tho
different companies worked as hard as
the telegraph men to get their services
in more near its normal condition.
The electric car service in this city at
least also became once moro factor In
human affairs and nearly every one Of the
different divisions OF the Boston street
railway were in good working order by
noon.
Outside the city, along the small locali-
ties, the embargo was much harder to
break and at night but few OF the smaller
towns had local service. The telephone
proved Its value By giving almost con
tinuous service in this city and practi-
York was by the long distance lines.
A summing up of the storms work is
as yet difficult, but tonight it appears
almost certain that the great hurricane
claimed more than dozen human lives.
wrecked over so schooners in Massaohu-
setts by, completely prostrating all tele-
graph lines and caused total property
loss of near two million dollars
The cost of the storm in this city is
estimated as follows Boston Elevated
SIS, 900; W. u. Tel. Co, $50, 600; Postal
Tel. Co., $40, 600; Long Distance Tele-
phone Co., S., 600; New England Iele-
phone Co., $4,000; electric light compa-
nies, $4,000; fire alarm and police signal
service, SIS, 0O0; fire losses, due to disabled
equipment and defensive wires, 100000;
steam railroads, damage to property ana
loss.to income, S125. 900; loss to shipping
interests, about $3.50, 600; loss to Boston's g
business interests at least 5000, 900; total,
81 42S, 600.
THE HAVOC IT HAS WROUGHT.
Reports of Loss of Life and Property BY
Storm Coming In.
Boston, February 2.-Ro ports of the
havoc wrought by the storm are slowly
coming in, with clearing weather, the