The times., 1899-02-10
The CAPITAL P0LARIZED.
The Lowest Temperature Registered
in Fight Years.

\ cessation of hostilities on the part of
making things cold in Washington. is
promised by the Weather Bureau. In the
| forecast for today the prediction is made
that the skies will be fair and that the
temperature will not be so low as during
! the past two days.
| But whether the cold spell becomes
less severe today or not. the fact remains
that yesterday was 4 record breaker as
regards codness. Il seemed as if all The
piercing winds Of tine great ice fields OF
the Arctcs swcoped down upon the city
| yesterday when the mercury dropped be-
/ low the zero point. The temperature be-
| gan to go down shortly after midnight
| Wednesday night.
During the early morning hours the
mercury fell steadily Unit! between ! and
| S O'Clock when the needle pointed to the
! : degree line The weather officials. who
! had been keeping Z close surveillance over
| the movements OF the temperature needle,
hGstened to their charts and records as
/ soon as the lowest point was reached and
| by consultation of musty pages found that
| only on two occasions, namely, December
! II. 1880, and January /, 1881 has the
: thermometer surpassed the minimum
/ reached yesterday morning. At those times
the thermometer registered IA points be-
| low zero.
Last night was not quite as cold its
predecessor. although the blasts continued
to hold such high carnival that the differ
ence of one or two degrees was hardly
perceptible to those in the streets At
! midnight the thermometer was at zero
| mark.
The cold weather has caused widespread
! suffering and there is much want and de-
priyation in the city. The snow has in
creased the misery it has deprived men
| OF work thar would have enabled them to
make fair living at various kinds OF out
door labor The Citizens Relief Committee
has been called upon to relieve some OF
this suffering and has also arranged 10
furnish food and fuel for three of the fam
lilies of smallpox victims. The families are
I those of Frank Newman, one of the first
smallpox patients, at Wunder's Court,
the Milbank family, at 3o9 Eighth Street
southeast, and the Hill family. at 2616
| Eleventh Street northwest. All OF these
families are quarantined. Since none OF
the occupants Of the houses is permitted
TO go upon the street. the male members
Of the families are forced to remain idle
and the task of furnishing food and fuel
has deyolyed upon the Health Department.
After a conference with the Superintend-
ent of Charities yesterday, the Health Of
ice arranged TO have. the necessary food
and fuel obtained through orders on the
Citizens Relief Committee.
Cold weather was reported from all
points yesterday. At Cincinnati. Is de-
grees below zero was recorded, making tn
lowest in the history of that city In Chi
caso, where the winds blow in from the
lake with tremendous force and laden with
frigidity, the temperature was 20 degrees
below zero. The recent coast storm. which
resulted in so much snow for this part OF
the country. has almost entirely disap-
peared by way OF Canada and fair weather
and zero temperature has been widely ex-
perienced.
The zero temperature line yesterday ex-
tended through Oklahoma, northern Ar
kansas. central Tennessee, northern Vir-
ginia, and southern New York. Freezing
weather was experienced, with minimum
OF 80 degrees. as far south as TAMPA