The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-20
" AS W EIRD
Peculiar Illumination
in Clinton.
A MORNING WAIT
Resulted in Some Vexation
and a Bit of Fun.

Clinton, March 19.-The trolley cars
that left the Worcester and Clinton
barn in Boylston, this morning, in
either direction, for Worcester and
Clinton, found hard road.
The trolley wire was coated with ice
until it was as big as a rope an inch
in diameter.
The Worcester car had the most trou-
bic. The wheel on the trolley pole dug
into the sleet for a rod or two, and
the icy coating would establish its SUI
Dremacy by insulating the current. The
motorman renewed the attack by
backing his car, and pushing forward
again to the fray. A hundred times
between the car barn and Britain
square this operation was repeated.
and it was 10 o'clock when the car
finally arrived at the square.
The car was like the ark of the coy
enant to half dozen persons who mad
been holding down seats in the dilap-
dated waiting room at the square for
or almost two hours.
This waiting room is a boon to pas
sengers from Clinton, or to Clinton,
VINO have to wait at the square, but i
is not modern structure, and it is
not heated, or was not this morning
Neither was there any sufficient latch
on the door, nor any attendant.
There was small stove, a bag of
coal, shovel and an ice scraper, but
there was not kindling wood
About O'Clock the waiting passen-
gers decided that something must be
dnna and n at ,,GN Il
cided that the something to be done
was a box containing ashes. One pas
senger dumped the ashes, another con-
trihuted part Of his Sunday newspa-
per, fourth took the scraper and
turned the box into kindling wood,
while fifth contributed a match and
his skill, to make a fire. In twenty
minutes bright coal blaze was in
progress and the waiting party, which
had swelled nearly a dozen by this
time, We're warm enough to be comfort
able and take the delay calmly.
At 10 o'clock the belated car came in
and everybody hailed it with joy. The
trip to Clinton was accomplished in
reasonably good time, although there
were elements Of novelty about it. The
shrubbery beside the track Weighted
with ice, bent across the road, from
the banks, until it brushed the top of
the car with noise like stripping a
single roof.
The low hanging icicles threatened
to break the car windows. Supt John
W. Ogden had man out cutting away
the most threatening of this shrubbery,
small trees and such like.
AT the car barn there was a wait of
20 minutes for the car from the Clin-
ton end. After this the cars ran
throughout the day with only reason
able delay. Supt. George W. Burgess
was confronted with the same difficult
ties in trying to break through on the
Leominster & Clinton. Conductors and
motormen say that they never worked
harder in their lives than they did last
night and today.
The cars on the Worcester & Clinton
made regular trips all day that were
more or less irregular
This evening the oVerburdened trees
were falling right and left beside and
occasionally across the track 1t took
the car that left Clinton at $40 D. m.
an hour and fifty minutes to come
through.
Between Worcester and Shrewsbury
substantial tree fell across the trolley
wire, and the crew turned into wood
choppers. Fortunately the wire did not
break under the strain.
Many rods Of the feed wire along the
line are down or partially down. The
passengers who took one of these even
ing trips were willing to forgive the de-
lay in part, because they were treated
to some rare and wonderful effects in
reflected light.
The sparkling of the trolley wheels
kept the landscape beside the tracks
almost continuously illuminated with a
wonderful pale green light, that was
reflected sharply from millions of crys-
tai facets on diamond laden trees fenc-
es and from low shrubs and tall grasses
of the fields.
The vista was wierd and beautiful
to the eye.
They showed the slender trunks of
tall trees tented by ice branches bent
down until the ice tips touched the
ground. The white birches bent in
curves as COMMERCIALLY perfect as the
curves of a frozen rainbow The black
alders, which grow thick along the
track, did their bending at the roots,
and more frequently toward the tracks
than away from them. The alders gave
the trolley ear men lots of trouble.
They had to be cut away
They had such charm, however, in
their frozen beauty that one young
woman said: Il feel like saying,
'Woodman, spare that tcicle.'" as she
saw the motorman with very duh
hatchet cutting away glittering
branch that INSTRUCTED the passage of
the car due in Worcester at $40 D. m