The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-11
Tons UPON TONS OF ICE
LOCAL DEALERS LAYING IN BIG
STORES OF CONCEALED
WATER
CROP IS VERY SATISFACTORY
Cost of Hauling This Season Is
Twenty-Five Per Cent Greater
Than in Previous
Years.

The st. Paul plumber viii soon retire
from his unapproachable throne.
The st. Paul ice man is his heir and
will succeed to the coveted place, but he
will have an icicle for a scepter, instead
of soldering bar. Thus the world will
be kept running.
Something like 100000 tons of ice have
been harvested by the st. Paul companies
since the beginning of January Another
week and the ice cutting season will be
over few more weeks and-the summer
harvest will commence. .s.'
. The Peoples Ice company, which is the
oldest and largest in the city, has alone
cut in the neighborheod of $1,000 tons
Of ice. About 10000 tons of this were
cut at Lake McCarron, of which Il, fOo
tons are stored at the corner of Wood
bridge and Sycamore streets, and IL 900
tens on Smith avenue and Chestnut
street. At White Bear 1000 tons of ice
have been cut and stored, and at Lake
Phalen 10000 has been gathered. 1t is
stored at Eighth street and Maria ave.
nue..
The ST. Paul Ice company has by this
time stored away between $4,000 ind
20 600 tons, which is divided between
White Bear lake, Bass lake and st.
Paul. In the city about 10000 tens are
kept in the ice houses On the West side
and on Como avenue. All of this COM
pany's ice was cut at Owasso, Piekeref
lake and White Bear The Northwestern
lee company has cut 5000 tons at Lake
Phalen; the Crystal Lake Ice COMPANY
$500 tons at the same place, and the
Minnesota Ice company $500 tons at Pick
erel lake
One of the most interesting things
about the ice buE mag this year is the
fact that the companies engaged IN it. for
The first time in their experience have
hot
companies nave not been bothered by
any union and have done pretty much as
they saw fit. When this season cpeEed,
however, the teamsters came Into evil
dence with demands tor certain scale
of wages. They also asked that Only
union men be employed. The companies
had no alternative. The haulers OF ice
are now paid rs per cent more than they
were a year ago.
IL is not thought however, at this
late that the price of ice will be any
higher this year than las. At least
SC the ice men say, but the fact that
they hint at their scale of wages is sus-
picious.
The crop, on the whoia. this year is
satisfactory. The only hfndrance in the
ice cutting has been cold weather and
there has not been overmt:ch IF that
Cold weather cracks the ice and, III the
hauling, it breaks up For this reason
no ice is cut in real c ,li weather In
speaking of this last night Bernard ziru-
norman, of the People Ice company,
sad:
''It is very peculiar thing. I mem
Der years ago when we had our FAST ice
palace. Big chunks Of ice lad been taken
from Big Stone lake and other places for
use as corner stones of the palace. Well,
the Peoples Ice company took a no
ton that it could get a corner stone
here. Five large chunks of ice We're Sc
cured and hauled successfully to the
palace, but each one cracked and broke.
The fifth was a block four feet by nine
feet and thirty-two inches thick. When
this was taken out of the water we
Immediately covered it 9Th hor e
blanket which prevented it from crack
iEg. This is easily accounted for. You
see when ice is taken out of water in
cold weather it contracts The outside
contracts more rapidly than tie inner
part; hence the cracking of the ice. 1t
needs only to shake the ice to break it
after having once cracked it,
There was one slight disadvantage in
the hauling of ice this season. There was
not enough snow, but the difficulty was
overcome because it had to be. Some
of the companies do part of their haul
ing by rail.