The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-16
since midnight Saturday
Midnight

Tightly clutched in the remorSeleSS grip
of the frost monarch the city is struggling
through a spell of weather that even the
reminiscent old inhabitant with all his in
genuity finds hard to match. There have
been colder times in plenty, and the mer-
curry in previous winters has suffered from
that sinking feeling To degree even more
depressing, but few billiards have struck
the town so suddenly and found 1T so i'll
prepared TO meet zero weather. n. Few
days ago people were padding around IN
warm rain, dispensing with overcoats and
grumbing because the old-fashioned
s'Christmas weather seemed 10 be thing
of the past. All at once the weather bu-
reau sounded its warning call and there
was a scurry TO cover Hundreds of fam
flies had put off the laying-in Of the win
ter's supply of fuel. Hundreds more man.
ifested the curious annual faith in the gas
/ companies, and a result are sitting
around muffied in bed clothing and gazing
sadly at faint fiickers of blue gas.
HARD ON THE POOR.
Upon the poor of the city the cold has
fallen with paralyzing numbness. Hun
dreds of homes in Indianapolis are utterly
comfortless, and the temperature in them
is little higher than the temperature Of
the streets. Without gas, without suf-
fcient coal or wood. forced to depend upon
whatever may be picked up around wood
and coal depots and railroad tracks, the
unfavored OF fortune must submit TO the
bitter blizzard grip with what necessarily
is only partial help from the city's char
/ liable organizations and the drop-in-the-
bucket ministrations OF kfndly-disposed in
dividuals. The men and women used In
/ way to hardship of former years will get
/ along some way. but IL is upon the young
/ children. the babies, that the cruelest suf-
/ ferings fall. Them the cold strikes terri
| bly,; and, as a physician discussing the
| matter said yesterday, the first winter Of
many of these children will be their last
In many of the poorer families there are
not even enough bed clothes to keep the
/ little people warm. The mortality among
/ the aged and infirm will also be large, 1t
| is believed a result of the present cold
weather. Exposure will breed many cases
of pneumonia and pulmonary troubles
/ among the older people.
The blizzard, arriving so Unexpectedly,
| has crippled in some way almost every de-
| tail of the public service. Train service
| in and out OF Indianapolis during the past
| twenty-four hours has been very bad. From
| the east and the west through trains have
come in hours late as the result OF condi-
| tons which had to be met by the train
/ men. In this sort OF weather IL is hard
for an engineer to make steam and hard
to keep a good head of it after Ii has been
made. The tracks are coated with ice. and
| the wheels slide instead Of catching hold.
/ The disarrangement OF the schedule neces
/ states long waits on side tracks, and these
| the gilt-edged trains have had to endure
| with the less pretentious. Through trains
/ from the east have been more behind time
| as a rule than trains from the west, the
| New York fast trains running some of
| them as much as six hours behind their
| schedule. Yesterday morning a st. Louis
| express train was eight hours late, some
/ thing remarkable in local railroad annals
| Chicago trains have also been from one
to three hours off in their time. Yesterday
| afternoon a caller at the Union Station
/ said that up until o'clock there had been
| only one train In that was exactly on time.
| The conditions. he remarked. were the
/ worst he had ever known. Ii has been i'm
| possible for the past thirty-six hours TO
/ make connections anywhere, and travelling
men, in particular, who came TO Indianapo-
81 IL I'll
! until the roads can cope with the unpleas-
| ant conditions with which they were so
suddenly confronted The effect OF the cold
| upon general travel has been marked. Com
| paratively few persons are travelling and
IL is only the men whose business forces
them TO make trips out Of the city that are
| taking trains.
STREET-CARS PAINFULLY SLOW.
AS to street-car service il undoubtedly
left much TO be wished for At each Of the
car barns when inquiry was made as to
how much the schedules had been deranged.
the reply was made invariably that no
trouble had been experienced and that the
cars were running on time But the folk
who stood around on street corners SILVER
ing and. If the truth be told, swearing.
| talked in different strain. They said
! that cars on all the lines have been late
varying as much I'm minutes as from two 10
| twenty. Two minutes or ten minutes does
| not seem much, perhaps. but when a man
is standing first on one foot and then on
the other doing impromptu dance on the
| sidewalk 10 keep the blood in circulation
two minutes is stretched into a decade OF
| agony. The Illinois, Pennsylvania and
| North Indiana polls cars seemed 10 run
| pretty close 10 schedule time, but cars
| that reached the outer suburbs were UNI
| questionably away OF. Irvingtonians who
| lodged in and out Of drug stores and
/ walled lis il never coming?' residents OF
| Brightwood who sought refuge I'm the post
/ office building during interminable waits
East Michigan-street people and people
| from Woodruff Place, who gathered all
| along Washington street. bear testimony
that the car service was very. very bad
! yesterday.
But IL was the question Of getting warm
| that concerned most people Experience
| with feeble gas fires responsible for
| hundreds OF orders that poured into the
coal offices late Saturday evening and yes
| terday morning II was stated at the OF
nce or a coal company yesterday that coal
dealers were doing the biggest Sunday bust
| ness I'm the history OF the city. So many
] Urgent requests for fuel were booked that
| IL was necessary 70 do Sunday delivering
! and until a late hour Sunday evening heaV-
| ny-lOaded coal and wood wagons traversed
| the streets In every direction The Friend
/ ~ Inn did big days business in wood and
/ the number OF orders received for the day
| eclipsed previous records.
| Countless inquiries were made at the Of
/ flee or the Consumers Gas Trust Company
| and at the office OF the Indianapolis Gas