The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-02
ON THE TEMPESTS EDGE.
NEW YORK cor ONLY THE WHIRL
OF THE STORMS sKIRTG

net 1ere weather esd hitter Gales Are Threat
enea for To-pay-News FIRES, the scourGrd
Few RsGiasd Cess, Crawis In % rHaith.s
Trains asa Leaks Over = s,ngie wire.
New York IL bid by Farmer Dunn to be pre-
pared for zero weather today, but need not
fear any greater snowfall, or, at any rate, q
snowfall that shall add appreciably to the OBJ
struction Of traffic caused by the storm of Mon
day and Monday night. The mercury foil in
the West yesterday 20 TO 80 degrees, but tho
usual modification which the cold waves un.
dergo on their eastward progress will cause the
drop here to be from 8 to 10 degrees less. At
midnight last night the temperature here was IL.
The cold wave is following tho snow and wind
storm which visited this section on Monday
and which had made itself felt in the West be-
forehand. 1t is accompanied by a biting north
west wind which the prophet forewarns his al
ready shivoring people to expect to abide with
them for some days.
The storm, az we saw and felt It on Monday,
was as q zephyr TO the tempest between Cape
Ann and Block Island. From some time before
midnight of Monday that section Of Now Eng
land was practically cut Off from communica-
ton with the rest Of the world, and the various
communities within IL were not able even to
communicate to any practical degree with one
another. Worcester, forty-four miles from
Boston, was able once yesterday to get the Hub
on a telephone wire. Boston could, Of course,
and did. cable to England and 80 get into i'm
mediate relationship with New York and the
rost of the world. Tho expense Of the cable
method Of communication confined Its use to
brokerage and commercial houses, and there
was very little of that even. The telegraph and
telephone wires within tho sweep Of the SO.
verest part Of the storm all went down and 1t
was not until last, night that direct.communica-
ton with New York was opened over ono long
distance telephone wire. The westerly limit
Of this furious part of tho storm ran along a
curved line-the fulness being toward the West
from Stonington on the Connecticut shore Of
the Sound to Lowell, twenty-five miles north
OF Boston. then apparently swerving sharply to
the eastward and 80 out to sea, or perhaps TAX
ing in parts of the far northeastern coast This
Is indicated by the condition of the Western
Union Telegraph Company's wires which run
into Boston from all land sides. The company
was able yesterday to;reach New London and
Stonington, along the Shore Line OF the New
York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad: to
reach Putnam, Conn.,, and Pascoag, r. l., along
another line OF that road which runs in the
general direction Of q bee-line drawn between
New York and Boston; to reach Worcester and
South birmingham via Springfield (which
means by O line running generally northward
from New York TO Springfield and thence east
erly to Worcester and South Framingham); to
reach Fitchburg via Albany, and to reach Low
ell by way Of White River Junction, VT, and
also from Portland, Me. Lowell is north Of
Boston rs miles, Fitchburg northwest Of Bos-
ton so miles, Worcester west or o little south.
west of Boston ~ miles, Pascoag southwest Of
Boston % miles and about the same distance
west of Providence. Stonington Is southwest
of Providence So miles and Is IL miles east of
New London. South birmingham, on the line
betweon Worcester and Boston, is 20 miles
west from the Hub. and is the nearest point to
which the Western Union had q wire working.
Tho Postal Telegraph Company also was
wholly crippled in the same territory.
What happened after IL o'clock Monday
evening in the territory SO bounded was wholly
unknown outside until Worcester got its tele-
phone wire yesterday and the first train from
Boston to get through the storm reached New
York at 4:25 yesterday afternoon. Worcester
learned only what had happened in Boston, and
the travellers on thestrain arriving here could
only tell of the trains experiences along the line.
Tho train was more than sixteen hours get
ting here, instead Of six hours. It left Boston
at midnight, via the Shore Line, In two Sec
tions, tho second one starting three minutes
after the first one. Neither passengers nor
train crew had any knowledge of the conditions
ahead, beyond the fact that there was a general
pho" 4 ~ uA "oe eo0 ~
an hour and seven minutes after leaving the
PARK Square station. Boston. 1t reached there
at 4 O'Clock In the morning, and didn't bulge
another inch until 8 minutes before 8 O'Clock.
The59: with and, two o., engines s;o + started ted for Spd New sos
there about 1880 in the afternoon. This side
Of New LONDON there was no epprsseHla y delay iay
skurrying, Of the passengers, immediately, after
they alighted, for telephone booths and tele-
zrah offices. But they were not by any means a
tired tired 10 looking 1dn g.I lot Ct 9bI ps sedie,s t5 Ss,s fast Se TSn f tSaf
having frightened everybody up.
The first man Of the train was p. Kaplan Of
this city. He said that from q point some dis.
while the:crew removed telegraph poles and
finally reached it was decided to cut out the
sleeping cars. Thetseventy p passengers we're all
ney:was made with five cars. The train could
Q only S crawl along even q when R%n there were II g no poles ons
way. along from signal tower to signal tower.
not having any other means Of knowing whcth-
painfully evident that no train on tho road
could get any telegraphic information as to the
s Engaea pole h az my fallen alien s across the Sps track Il
wires had. and they lay across and along 1t
In I1.d such 81 Numbers 1Ss eGg;n hat G, ssiti% aes they driy,S got r tsh,
Tho work Of clearing the poles and wires from
IL tEdtho Wd5 uhy thiiib puS oooss a. Wv
wind that had blown them down was some.
thing terrific to work in. 1t not only whistled
and howled. the passengers say, but 1t cut, and
fairly dashed peoples faces with the snow.
Baggage Master Thomas Morrisey said that
q gang OF men who were ordered out at Provi-
dence to clear the way for the train. through
snowdrift there threw down their shovcls
and refused to work In such q storm, 1t was
not, heeweyer the snow that caused the 2 great;
have pushed its way through. and the drifts:
the wind had played such havoc that neither
train nor ploughs. could move to advantage.
The city OF Providence was a sight when day
light came. Until then nothing could, be
seen OF 1t. The wind had blown down all the
electric light wires, and the town was In dark.
ness. Signs. fences. and anything that could
be torn loose Uttered the streets, and the snow
was in drifts all over.
Tho train moved TO New London with the
same caution and under the same difficulties as
before reaching Providence. and at New Lon
don the tired passengers were put into q little
brighter humor by the news that the Boston
and Albany train which left Boston at the same
time they did vas stalled at South birmingham,
eighteen miles from Boston.
Tho Shore Line express, which left Boston at
l0,Ru O'clock in the mOrninu QOf here nj lD .3O