Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-12-05
THE STORM.
Beautiful Snow"Much in Evi-
dence' Round Town.
travel on Maine Central and Electric
Railways Seriously Retarded.
streets o. City Piled High With Snow and
ShoyeIIers in Great Demand.
THE STORM.

~ dld not arriv" III II Stealthy manner
although its coming was in the still
noufs Of the night. Its arrival was
piiZZard-iike with II vengeance The
"ild howled all Tuesday night and
'he creakine trees and the occasional
siamlning of blind reminded the
WoulC-De sleeper that or the following
morning he must of necessity lead the
strenuous life. Even il he had re.
| tired from the activities of this world
10 an existence OF ease he was forced
10 arise from his d0wny cot and 20
forth 20 shovel SHOW. or hibernate for
the day. He could not call on a noic h .
Dor. for his neighbor was attending To
the same duties on his own premises.
There was one man, however. who
did not stop to shovel snow when he
emerged from his place of lodging.
That was the member Of the National
Soldiers Home who occupied an elec-
tric car which was stuck in a snow
| bank out on the Togus branch. He
! left here on tie o'clock car bound
| for the Home but on the way the car
became tired and refused to proceed.
Abou, 10 o'clock yesterday morning
he came wallCwing into this city
through the drifts.
Every one was behind time. IL en-
ployers had locked all their employees
who We're late there would have been a
decided reduction in the pay roll
Clerks started for the stores and in
their endeaVors To make progress
through the snow used up time
! enough to have sold barrel of sugar
or more under ordinary circumstances
even If it was taken in pound lots
In the memory of the Oldest inhab-
liant the like has never been seen in
this vicinity the first OF December. The
storm would have been appropriate for
March but was entirely out of place
for this sea son. The weather man by
this action has incurred the everlast-
ing enmity Of the public unless he can
do something in the near future to al
lay their anger.
Speaking of men getting surprised,
there was one who was extremely So
street Commissioner Columbus Cottle
was that man. He is not a firm be-
lever in the almanac: neither does he
place implicit failh IN the predictions
of the weather bureau. He has lived
on the shores ot the KennebeC for
some little time and has learned from
observation that under ordinary cir
Cumstances there is not much danger
of a blizzard with a foot or two of
snow at this season. Consequently
when the prediction came that we
must prepare for genuine touch Of
old New England winter he was not
confident that it was authentic. But
lie too was destined to experience diff
ticuties. When he started out to make
arrangements fo- clearing the streets
he found that he lacked teams. Horses
were very scarce in comparison to the
demand. Much to his regret he was,
therefore, somewhat late in getting
started and was hampered in the work
all day. He finally had eight snow
plows running but this WAS not enough.
The streets were kept in very good
condition considering the lack of
teams. The street department was un-
able. however. to clear out Water
street entirely and on each side there
is a big bank of snow where the plOwS
have piled 1t up. This will be removed
as soon as possible.
The telephone and telegraph lines
did not suffer much as the snow was
dry and did not stick to the wires.
But very little trouble was experienced
by them.
But the railroads had their share and
a little more. The Pullman due here
at l.30 A. NJ. arrived at 1l.16 A. NJ.
over 10 hours late. 1t was hung up
between Deering and Portland.
Other trains experienced similar diff
ficulties and were an hour or more late.
Later in the day the railroads were in
little better trim and the trains were
! getting along nearer on time although
there was but Very few passengers
though the whole day who found their
trains on time.
The Electrics had hard time of it,
In the afternoon communication be-
tween this city and Hallowell was had
but the lines to Gardiner and TOgus
were not opened until late in the even
ing. The big snow plow was at work
constantly and road machines and
shovelers added their part to the work
of clearing out the tracks.
Train No. S, which is due to arrive
here from st. John at 2.35 in the morn
ing did not reach Augusta until
o'clock Then when it started to leave
the city it got hung up at the Rines
Hill crossing. After vainly trying to
of snow piled up on the track the con-
ductor and engineer had to give up and
send for help. a snow plow had gone
East short time before. 1t was
brought back from Waterville and
pulled No. s train out of its stall. then
cleared the way and the train left the
city about o'clock.
One man from the country came in
after a physician and was four hours
| travelling six miles. He left home in
pung at O'Clock and reached the
city at 6. He was completely tagged
out and his horse was in worse con-
dition than himself. He said he never
experienced such a storm before.
Yesterday was the regular day for
the payment of pensions but the city
was not overrun with veterans. Some
how the most of them were not desir-
Gus of Drawing the storm. Usually
they are out bright and early. One
local agent who executes pension
vouchers at his office on such occasions
Is at his office by o'clock ready to at
tend to the wants of such as apply.
He does not have to wait for business