Waterbury Democrat., 1901-01-12
THE ICE STORM.
Superintendent Kelley Busy Clearing
 Off Branches of Trees.


 Off Branches of Trees.
 The ice storm of yesterday and last night caused considerable damage to trees in all sections of the city and town, and considering the number of limbs that came down. with a crash it was fortunate that no one got hurt Superintendent Kelley and his men are busy picking up pieces of trees and keeping the walks in proper condition for public travel, and the Connecticut Lighting and Power Go and other companies owning and operating wires have all they can attend to repairing breaks caused by wires being knocked askew by trees that toppled over under the weight of ice that settled upon them. The circuit of arc lights in th, neighborhood of the green gave out early last evening and people in that section had to get along during the night without street lights, and they did, too-a strong point ill support of the contention of many residents, that is, that Waterbury is getting too high toned, anyway, and that 1f people would look at things in a common | sense way they would see the wisdom of saving money by using no lights at all. Under this plan it is said that families would remain home nights and that everybody would be better off Probably that is true, but the man who wants to introduce that sys- tenn of doing business into Waterbury will not be apt to command much Of a following, for most people want the lights, and about the only fault one hears about them is that they are too far apart. The telegraph and tele- | phone companies suffered considerable | inconvenience. but so far as could be 1 learned nothing occurred but what can be repaired in short time.
 The trees and network of wires l about the green never looked prettie1 | and at noon, when the sun came out | for the first time during the day, the | sight was magnificent. and one could l well afford to take a couple of bangs against the sidewalk in order to Wit l ness it. The same thing was true ol 1 every part of the town. but people | who had handsome shade and frul1 trees damaged did not appreciate the display quite so well as others. Still | il would seem that the loss would nave to be infinitely greater than lew | limbs from a tree that probably car 1 afford to spare them, to prevent one from being charmed by the unriyaleC l gradeur of the scene which greeted the eve no matter which side one turned his head And what made it better | was the fact that the exhibition was | freq to all No admission and nc choice of seats. The man who viewed it from a dingy basement in tatters and rags got the benefit of it just as well as the millionaire who peeped al it through gold trimmed glasses froH 1 his gilded drawing room. Probably Il We had to pay we might have a keen CT appreciation of the prospect beforf | us.
 Despite the slippery rails the trolley cars made good time and managed t' | keep so close to the schedule that there was no room for faulttinding regard ing the street railway service.
 Weather like that of this morning and yesterday cost the trolley compan! dearly and cause much hard work fo
 the employees The bright green ligh which was quite frequent yesterda. I and to-day at the top of the trolle. pole meant so much waste of electr1cl ty and incidental expense. IroHe.
 men say that on ordinary occasions ;
 car could be run a mile and Quarte
 with the electricity wasted ill one O those green flashes. This goes to shov
 the enormous profit in such an enter
 prise. Besides the waste ill the man
 her mentioned. extra power IS neces
 sary to move the cars, and this mean
 additional consumption of fuel at tn
 power station. The waste of electric 1 ity has been so great during the pas
 few days that it was deemed necessar to post notices in the employees roon
 over Cones drug store warning tn
 men to be as careful as possible i
 their management of their cars.
 The storm stripped two of the tree
 in the yard of the Union club. Tw , large limbs broke under the heav. weight. There will be plenty dead wood lying around after the storm i , over
 Shortly after o'clock large branc weighted with ice and snow droppe , on the wires in front of the Water , bury club. Several pedestrians pass ing at the time hastened their steps.