The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-19
MERCURY DOWN TO SIXTEEN.
THE COOLEST DAY SAVANNAH HAS
HAD THIS YEAR.

| In Thtrty-TwO Hours the Mercury
Fell Forty-Four Degrees, Dropping
From 60 Degrees to 16-The MAXI
mum Temperature Yesterday Was
36-The Back of the Cold Wave
Supposed to De Broken and Warm
err weather Promised-Broken
Pipes ana Ice an Inch Thick Added
Their Discomforts to the Dny-veg-
etnbIes Badly Hurt, But Peach
Trees Believed TO BE Safe.
Savannah awoke yesterday morning to
find itself in the clasp of the Ice King. In
the night that discourteous monarch, her
aided by a cold wind that ratified the
chimney pots and played Arctic serenades
on the telegraph wires. had descended up
on the city, and when the morning dawned
his hand held the visible and invisible
supply of water and good humor. close
and fast and refused to release either.
It was the coolest day of the year. AT
5 o'clock in the morning the thermometer
| that does official stunts at the Weather
Bureau registered sixteen in the shade,
and unofficial instruments in other Sec
tons of the city went the one in the gov
|
ter--or rather worse. At any rate nobody
ventured to dispute the statement that 1t
was cold, even if anyone could have been
found so lost to every sense of decorum as
to make it, Heavy overcoats and chatter
ing teeth attested the general acquiescence
in the belief that the weather was too
cold and the wind too biting to admit Of
comfort anywhere in the open.
This was In the early morning. The min
imum temperature was reached at 8
o'clock. After that hour the mercury rose
steadily until o'clock in the afternoon,
when it had mounted twenty steps In the
ladder and registered IS degrees. By then
1t had become pleasant, almost, in COM
parison with the extreme cold of the early
morning, but the mercury obstinately de-
termined to take a downward course again
and fell until at 10 O'Clock 1t had reached
80 degrees.
From midnight of Friday until yester-
day morning, thirty-two hours, the tenn
perature fell forty-four degrees. Al mid
| night Friday it was 60 degrees, and at s
O'Clock yesterday morning it had fallen
to 16.
The weather bureau men think that this
| s6tllCH Ol lIlt cOuiftIS mas seen the WOISI
OF the cold wave, and from now on the
temperature will continue gradually to
rise. There may be cold weather for a
day or two yet, but 1t will not approxi-
mate in intensity that through which Sa-
vannah has just passed. Rising tempera-
ture. with variable winds, is predicted for
to-day and tomorrow.
The ice In the troughs and pals left
Saturday night in the open was often fully
| an inch in thickness and a furnace, going
at full blast, was necessary to keep the
water in the bed room pitchers from freez-
ing into solid mass. Sometimes, even
the furnace did not avail.
Pipes burst from the intensity of the
cold. and many a hapless householder, on
| whose carpets and defenseiess head tie
water descended, took occasion to curse
the existent differences between the mas
ter plumbers and their journeymen, that
might postpone the chance of having the
| leak repaired to some time in the indefl-
mite future. Many househoiders, with the
experience of past winters before their
minds eye, had cut off the water from
their homes and thus saved themselves
the trouble of broken pipes a the expense
of the water needed for the purposes OF
the household. Even at that price, though
1t was cheap.
The vegetables i'm the vicinity of So.
vannah were badly injured by the cold
Many of the farmers have large fields of
cabbage, and these plants have just be-
gun to attain a vigorous growth and 10
| show signs of renewed vitality. after be-
| ing transplanted from the hot beds in
which they were grown to the open fields
The cabbage was very badly injured. and
it is feared that much of it was killed
! Peas in the fields of most of the truck
growers have just appeared above the
ground and will probably enter the ground
! again. In this e0rly stage of their grow tn
they rapidly recover from the effects OF
cold weather. and it is believed that even
If they are temporarily stricken down their
recovery will be rapid.
Much local alarm has been felt over
the safety of the peach crop. in which
many Savannah hans are directly or indi-
rectiy interested. 1t is understood that
| the peach buds have not yet reached q
stale of sufficient maturity to be damaged
by the cold, save perhaps in very rare M
stances, where exceptional circumstances
of weather and cultivation have contrib
uted to more advanced growth end q
more rapid expansion. The great bulk Of
the CROP, II is said by those who have
had recent opportunity to examine the
trees and learn the condition of the buds
| is not yet far enough advanced to be in
jured.
This will be welcome news. for II the
crop is not hurt by the cold it has GER
tainly been benefited. That is to say, if
the buds are not vet sufficiently matured
to be affected by the ice and frost. the ice
and frost will serve still longer to delay
| their maturity and will carry that period
beyond the time when cold weather is
longer to be feared. This will almost GER
tatnly assure full crop of peaches, some
thing that has not come to the state for
several years and that will be all the
more heartily welcomed on that account
The damage to the peach crop, as well
as that to the vegetables cannot be told
definitely for a day or two, or until the
sun gets chance to shine upon the
plants. 1t is the sunshine that reveals the
fun extent of the damage, the thawine-
out process that causes the death OF the
plants. 1t will be a day or two, therefore.
before the truck growers can tell Just
how much they have lost and the fruit
growers be able to prophesy as to the
volume OF the crop for the coming season.
TOO COLD FOR TROUBLE.