The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-28
SevereSt Storm of Recent Years.
TRAFFIC WAS DELAYED
Trains In Northwest Twenty
 four Hours Late.
From Rocky Mountains to New York and from Winnipeg to New or leans Aeolus Holds Royal
 Sway.

Chicago, Dec. 27.-One of the most severe storms of recent years has ragged throughout the territory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes since early this morning and has caused much trouble to street car companies, railroads and tele- graph companies.
 The latter were the greater suffer CTS. for the blizzard which swept through the West and Northwest du- ring the last twenty -four hours was rain, which made the wires almost un- workable. The intense cold and ter rife gale that followed close upon the fog. coated the wires with ice and la- ter in the day threw poles to the ground. crippling the companies badly. Railroad trains were badly delayed all through the West, some of them being twenty-four hours late. Street car traffic in all the cities of the West and Northwest was practically at stand still at some time during the day. In its extent the storm was the most widespread of any during the last fif- teen years. Counting the fog as 9 component part of the storm it stretched clear from the Rocky Noun tains to New York and from Winpi- peg to New Orleans.
 The fatalities reported as result of the storm were three men killed. They were: Alexander Steiner of Chi cago, a teamster. killed while unload ing coal. A coal chute was blown from its fastenings, and striking him on the head. killed him instantly.
 Thomas Walsh of Chicago, laborer. struck by heavy board while enter ing a new building; Frank Cavanaugh was killed at Muncie, Ind, by a der- rick falling on him.
 At 10 o'clock tonight the storm was reported as subsiding at Kansas City and at other points on a north and south line from that city. but 1t will be several days before normal -condi- tions are restored throughout the en- tire section.
 storm still Raging
 At Chicago and east of here the storm was still raging with great vio- Ience and was expected to continue throughout tonight, the center or the storm being apparently between Chi- cago and Cleveland.
 Reports from Kansas city carry IT the day was that the storm eNlehueo @ from the middle of Missouri as Tar south as Indian Territory and was ac- comnanied throughout its entire eX- tent hv high winds and snow Wnlch' mn the level, would have been apout one foot in depth. It was drliteS 50 hadly by the gale, however, that IT nearly all the cities of NeorasKa. Nan sas and Western Missouri street ,rS cS. traf1. was at a stndstill by noon. The .aSaHr. nh wire were down in all direc- tjors and 1t was with extreme dlncal t-, +hat communication with the West and Northwest was kept up.
 All trains through that part or the country were hopelessly behind tnelr schedule, The storm hao reaonu Eastern Missouri by noon and the tei.,o no narature in St. Louis went do"h ~ P ,r two hours. while the wino biowinr at forty miles an hour' plieo .now nm in the streets in great uIilts. A Omaha and Des Moines conditions similar to those in Kansas Ciuy VI renorted. All throughout Al, Iowa. the fury of the storm raeeu' tat od trains in this section were
 from one to six hours laee. ,, avon ,,ore violent than throughout Mlssouti
 s Iou,a In St. Paul the snow com .-,ancaa to tall early last nlghl au grew heavier all through the ~ ,,,hile the wind increased uhIil II -t blowinK at fifty miles an hour' ny heavy snow and the gale workeu tt,o .,,tb the railroads and some oi th7 'ossangar trains from the Pacihc coast a,are renorted tonight about twenty sorr bours overdue The storm reacn- ad westward from St. Paul uileii ~ coyered almost the ehtire nor 'n |" NS1 and from the Dakotas, eastern "O tana. Wyoming. northern Mlchlsa' ~ tiiu wisconsin, the story was the same II all points The wires were down III all hn ednse volumes and driven by hlsh northwest gale was filling tho streets and railroad cuts.
 Better In south.
 In the south conditions were some what better, the snow in many places heinz changed to heavy ralulai, which was preceded by thunder and lightning and followed by high winds NsshvilIe. Louisville, New Orleans Montgomery and Memphis all reported Exceedingly heavy rains, rapidly falling thermometer and terrific winds. , s,.
 In the Ohio river valley the first heavy rain in five months c"thIlehceo falling early in the day and continued throughout the night. The storm was annreciated by the boatmen along the Ohio and it's tributaries for the stage of water in these streams has or late been very low. The storm struck Chi- cago shortly after noon ana lhcrease rapidly until it had assumed hurricane velocity at 5:3O o'clock when the wind tore through the downtown streets at the rate of seventy-two miles an hour If fell away after that and by o'clock had dropped to fifty miles an hour where it remained throughout the night, with occasional gusts that would howl through the streets with the force Of a cyclone, tearing down signs, smashing in plate glass windows and in many sections of the down town district hurling pedestrains from their feet and overturnng light delivery wagons.
 The late reports from Wisconsin are that the storm was the most severe ever known in that section of the country Damage in the city of Madi- san is already estimated al $100,0O0. In Vdiana the damage done by the storm ,Sas especially heavy in the oil fields. where fully 500 derrieks were blown down and all operations suspended. The loss on derricks alone in the neigh