Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-01-08
40 DEGREES BELOW ZERO
UNPRECEDENTED COLD WEATH.
Err MONDAY NIGHT.
Mercury in Local Thermometers Drops
Nearly Out Of Sight--Lowest Temp
erature by Seven Degrees that Dr..
Gale Has Ever Recorded.

| WARY wv OF o'9HsGoWCot ioV'P-
erature by Seven Degrees that Dr..
Gale Has Ever Recorded.
Brattleboro has certainly been treat
ed to the most unusual assortment Of
weather in its history during the past
week. The severe snow storm which
began Saturday morning and continued
partly through the night was the cold
est storm that has ever been known
hereabouts, the mercury striking close
to the zero mark all of the time. Sun
day and Monday were both bitterly
cold days, and on Monday night the
mercury began a downward trip that
has never been equalled within the
memory of the oldest residents of the
town. II dropped steadily all through
the night hours, and reports from diff
ferent parts of the town Tuesday
morning show that the thermometer
registered anywhere from 80 to A de-
grees below the cypher. The standard
self registering thermometer Of Dr.
O. F. Gale registered 33 degrees below
at o'clock Tuesday morning, which
was by seven degrees the coldest morn
ling that DR. Gale has ever noted dur
ing the 25 years that he has kept
record of the weather. Wednesday
morning, too beat the record by one
degree the thermometer registering %
degrees below zero. The nearest ap-
proach to such severe cold was Feb. 25.
1894 when DR.. Gales thermometer
reached mark Of 26 degrees below.
The sky of last Saturday morning
gave appearance OF snow. but experts
| in predicting the weather shook their
I heads and said that the storm would
never break until the temperature mod
Grated. But in spite of these prophe-
cies snow began falling shortly before
noon and the air was soon white with
falling flakes. AS the day progressed
the storm increased in intensity until /
toward nightfall IL took the form of a /
blizzard Saturday evening was one /
Of the worst that this town has exper- /
fenced since the great blizzard Of 1883, I
and Main street presented bleak and /
dreary appearance TO the few persons I
who had the hardihood to venture out. /
The local stores had the smallest Sat I
urday evening patronage in their his
tory, and not few OF them put out /
their lights long before the regular
closing time.
The storm continued greater part
of Saturday night and at dawn Sun
day the ground was covered with about /
foot Of snow, which on the hills
drifted to such depth as to make the
roads impossible. by steady work the
street railroad management was able
to keep its cars running somewhere
near on schedule, but the steam rail-
roads were not as fortunate. The drift
ed snow combined with the extremely
low temperature made anything like
the usual running time out OF the ques
tion. The Montreal express due in
Brattleboro at $50 did not reach here
until about . o'clock Sunday morning.
while the newspaper train from the
south. which generally reaches here ,
about s n. m. did not put in an appear
ance until In the afternoon.
Monday proved fully as bad for the
railroads as Sunday. The owl" train ,
was again over two hours behind time !,
while the o'clock from the north did
not show up until after 10. its car win
dows covered with frost and its pas /,
sengers looking nearly frozen as they
sat huddled up IN the seats. All of the /,
trains were behind time Tuesday and !,
Wednesday engineers reporting 1t al !
most impossible to make steam. In !
face of these trying circumstances the :
inc
ierfully we'll The evening train north
did not leave Brattleboro un-
iii over an hour behind time but II r
reached South Londonderry only about
Two hours late in spite of the fierce
snow storm which swept down the
West river valley. The passenger
rain from Londonderry was only about 3
20 minutes late Monday and Tuesday
mornings.
Tuesday morning was certainly sl
'ecord breaker in the way of low tenn
,erature hereabouts Early risers In .
West Brattleboro state that in several =
ifferent places the thermometers regis .
cred between 40 and so degrees below u
he knot hole" and in the east viii
age il was hardly any warmer. =
The mercury in the thermometer on -
he outside of Randall & Clapp's store
egistered 80 degrees below at y
o'clock. and 1t only came up about four u
Iegrees in the next two hours. Many
,eople were decidedly skeptical when
hey first examined their thermome-
ers, and one man who had purchased p'
lis only the day before hurriedly rung Il
p the merchant from whom he bought re
/ and wanted to know what sort of a 10
unco game had been worked upon "
i'm Whats the trouble with the IN
thermometer you solo me yesterday d.
e exclaimed. "The darned thing reg m
sters "a below zero" THE trouble I
sn't with the thermometer" the mer fr
hant replied ''its the weather: my hi
thermometer says 20 below now and CT
ny neighbor has one of n different w
lake that registers 3S below" tn
But the people who were skeptical fr
bout thermometers when they first III
them changed their minds es
s soon as they ventured out door for
ny length of time. The cold took hold
7 ears and noses and fingers in such
way as to put to flight any doubts tr,
bout its intensity. One pupil in the
Ugh school had both ears severely tn
ost bitten while on his way to the at
orning session, and a little girl in pr
he of the lower grades appeared cry du
e bitterly. with one thumb white Re
ith frost A bookkeeper in one of tw
e local factories had the end of his ru
,se touched" while on his way to ga
ork. and many other people felt the Ur
linful effects of the Frost King. col
The mercury remained below zero tn;
Tuesday morning, and after a few
'urs in the middle of the day dropped
ain with such rapidly that many ial
ople predicted even colder weather the
Iesday night. Such was not the case, moi