Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-11-27
ICE KINGS GRASP
Broken Wires Cause City
Endless Trouble.
All Boston Communication Cut Of,
Yesterday Morning.
GREAT DAMAGE DONE TO THE
SHADE TREES

| No such damage has been done hv ar
! ice storm in this city for wears os that
| done. yesterday. when trees were strin-
ped of their branches. wires torn down
| and the city left without communi
| cation to amy point farther west than
| Portland
| The storm was really q continuation
| OF that which commenced. Saturday
| night. Then nothing but snow was
I falling and = slight foundation laid for
SIei@hihG. Later the snow changed to
rain, which fell all day long. Al times
II came in sheets and again il was
SIMPLY that soft gentle rain from
heaven. of which the spring poets are
thinking. But the linemen of the cleo
tric light, telephone and telegraph com
panies had an entirely different feeling
for it was accompanied by sufficient
cold to cause the rain to freeze as fas
as il struck.
AS the result the telephone and tele-
graph wires We're fringed with ice from
one end of the city to the other and
til weight increased so rapidly that at
noon tie strain was more than even
the wires could stand. Then began .
breaking sound in different parts of th-
city. as the wires tore themselves loose
from the fastenings.
In some places the lines took cross
arms and at times even parts of tele-
graph poles with them. In some places
the fire alarm was stretched so that il
either broke or short circuited with
other wires, and there was 4 continual
warning of the trouble from the fire
alarm whistle. which gave erratic
blasts an the afternoon.
The damage done the telegraph and
telephone wires cannot he estimated
During the latter part of the forenoon
the Instruments iii the telegraph offices
gave out their last click and il was
evident that the lines were all down
excepting those 70 certain points in the
state. This Indicated to the minds of
the operators hat the storm was gen
cral and extended west to n much
greater severity than in this city.
The telephone lines also suffered q
great deal of injury and in spite of the
accommodating manners of those in
the central office it was all guess work
whether OF not one would get the per
son they wished TO talk with. Many
of the lines were in good order and no
trouble was experienced. But the Bos-
ton lines were off register and people
mad to depend wholly on the mails for
out of the-Statc communication.
The electric cars dragged wild look
ing sheets of green flame after them
as the trolley wires and the scrarers
broke the ice: The track on l:incs hill
was 81 slippery that it required several
trials on the part of the cars before the
top was reached
The walking was simply fearful
This was acknowledged at noon when
it was considered tGo much for the
school children ana the fire alarm gave
the no school signal The freezing
rain was what made the walking 50
bad. for q crust was formed while un-
derneath it's trcacherOuS surface was
slippery foothold and more than one
after 4 bad tumble made Il hasty
change at noon that they might have
dry clothes.
business was of course at Il stand
still as no one who was not 50 COM
PEELED venured out Of the house.
There was one exception. that was
with the dealers in rubberS and rubbei'
boots. These men had the air of an
owner of sugar stocks, or that Of the
plumber and the bank cashiers gave
them the grand salam when the shoe
men crossed the thresholds Of the
banks to make their deposits.
The damage done the trees cannot pc
estimated. ON Grove street hmb SIN
inches through broke away from the
trunk and fell across mass OF wires.
and for a time it looked as though the
electric light service would be cut on.
That danger was soon over. for tn"
branch was removed before tine wire
gave way. At the residence of Hon.
]. II. Manley several trees We're badly
| damaged. At countless places in the