The sun., 1903-12-27
BLACK SQUALL HERALDS COLD.
TO-DAY WILL DE WINTERS
SHARPEST so FAR.
ley Northw ester, Blowing Mile u Minute,
Rubbed I'm the Bitter Weather-The
Fifth Avenue Hatteras at Its Worst
Wagons as Well as Citizens Upset.


Fifth Avenue Hatteras at Its Worst
Wagons as Well as Citizens Upset
Frigid weather blew in from the north
west yesterday on a singing gale, varying
in force from fifty to sixty miles. An inef-
fectual snowstorm that began at 1880 o'clock
in the morning was knocked to smithereens
two hours later by a black squall that set the
flakes chasing themselves fantastically. The
| city and it, tumbling waters were in dark
ness for while, and lights bloesomed in the
| gloom from office buildings and things
afoat. What was left of the snow was
dissipated by the tumult of the wind. There
! was zero weather west and northwest OF
us. Here it had got down to 70 above zero
at midnight
The wind late last night was blowing
more than thirty miles from the northwest,
and the coolest day of the winter seemed
imminent Lay readers of the clouds and
'ometers said temperature of three or
four degrees above zero might make ears
tingle before dawn to-day.
What Santa Claus put in the girls stock
ings on Christmas Day was more or less
a matter of personal interest: What the
girls themselves put in their own stockings
yesterday morning became later in the day
a matter of great public interest and delec-
| tation.
Old Boreas, who has always been good
deal of a rubber neck, Tipped the skirts OF
young and old, rich and poor.
All over town, from early morning until
late at night, hats we're wi isked of peoples
heads. skirts were sent skyward, and in the
frantic effort to retain headgear or to con-
serve the proprieties packages were dropped
and sent scurrying heller skelter.
As he usually does when he visits this
town, Boreas made his headquarters at the
Flatiron Building. The bow end of the
building seemed to be at the very nozzle
of the bellows out of which Boreas was
pumping the blasts that went rioting all
over town. Here not only did he make
! sport with hats. skirts and packages, but
| he also toyed with cabs and delivery wagons.
He even went so far as to hold up one OF
| Uncle Sans mail wagons, holding it wind
stalled until heavy truck ran out hawser
and towed it out of the hurricane zone.
Just before noon, light delivery wagon
was bound up Fifth avenue. just north
| of Twenty second street a Flatiron draught
caught il. The horse continued to work
| his legs, but horse. wagon and driver slowly
slid southwark. Policemen kurz and Day
who were stationed at the Twenty-third
SlIttJ tTOSSlISS, W Htuu OH lUe
wagon that was running away with its
horse.
Before they could reach it the wagon
struck the curb and capsized, and the horse
followed. When the policeman got the
wagon on its wheels and the horse on lis
; feet, they pointed the outfit SOUTH and it
; scudded away before the fifty-mile gale.
Most drivers, however, have come to
recognize the Flatiron promontory as a
Hatteras that it ID well 10 steer clear OF
on windy days. w.
As many pedestrian has learned to
his discontinue, the strange thing about
these Flatiron brrezes is their unexpected
ness. On Broadway or Fifth avenue, below
Twenty-second street, you may be aware
that there is a stiff breeze blowing Once
get under the Ice of one of those towering
! Fuller walls and you suddenly become
aware that YOU are the storm centre Of
very busnesslike hurricane. II grasps
your hat and throws it into the gutter; it
twirli your Coattails up over your head,
and while you are wrapped in this temporary
darkness 1t sends you scurrying heller
skslter down l.. The e.. street You grasp
you get your coattails out Of your eyes
you perhaps find yourself grasping
stranger. Unfortunately for romance,
however. old Boreas frequently uses neither
taste nor discretion in his introductions.
There were many informal meetings
Of this kind yesterday 1t was one Of the
best parts of the show afforded by this
gusty vortex. to watch the facial express
sions as the couples thrown together at
haphazard drew back and studied their
wndfalls
One of the cops who have been stationed
on this corner since the Flatiron was put up
said that there had never been finer eX-
hibition of white goods than yesterday.
Black stockings are the style this winter,
he said "baby blue elastic and silver buckles
are the usual
The interview was cut short at this point.
There was young vision, dressed all in
black-excepting white-who was help
lessly windstalled. Her hair. her VEIL her
petticoats We're all flying in the breeze
From head TO foot her clothing was blown
taut against her figure. The cop got her
in the lea of his portly figure, and led her
to point of safety.
Busy said he, when he got back We'll,
l should say have been. The four of us
cops have been kept on the move all day
long getting ladies in out of the wind. There
have been lot of them flattened against
that building 80 that you would think they
so hard at one time that IA man was blown
over backward and hurt his head. We
had to call up an ambulance for him"
This man was George $, Anderson, a
photographer; He was taken to the New
York Hospital.
Dr. Reed of Bellevue Hospital was tax
ing a patient in an ambulance to the hos
pltal yesterday afternoon when as he was
passing the house at 8OS Last Fourteenth
street he saw the wind tear a six foot sec
ton Of iron fence from the roof of the house
and hurl it to the street. In front of the
house was Peter OConnor of COL East Thir-
teenth street,
Duck for your life!" yelled the doctor
as the section of fence came down
O'Connor fell fiat on his face. The fence
struck him and DR., Reed ran over, expect
ing to find him dead. O'Connor, however,
had nothing worse than Il broken arm.
DR. Reed took him to the hospital