Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-25
STORM IS WIDESPREAD
Fierce Blizzard Sweeps Over
Wide Area Of Country.
BELOW ZERO WEATHER
HEAVY SNOWFALL ACCOMPANIED
BY A HIGH WIND.
Radical Fall in Temperature at Many
Points-Trafic Delayed and
Business Suspended.

NEW YORK, January 25.-New York is
today struggling with storm whose vio-
lence has not been equaled in many win
ters. Beginning last evening with a gentle
fall of snow, the elements gathered strength
until by noon today only intense cold was
lacking to make it typical blizzard The
snow thickened until vision was restricted
to few yards, the wind increased in We
locity until 1t was blowing slightly more
than forty miles an hour, driving the pow
derry snow In binding sheets, and the ther-
memeter fell rapidly to II degrees above
zero, adding a sharper nip to the already
biting gale.
Traffic soon became demoralized. Surface
car lines made heroic attempts to maintain
service, but at best it was slow and uncer-
tain, and the big rotary snow cleaners had
a hard task to keep the tracks free from
drifts The elevated roads soon began to
feel the effects of the storm and ran on
uncertain schedules at slow speeds, driving
the crowds into the subway which, crowded
to its capacity. was strained to handle the
sudden thrush of traffic.
1t was in the narrow and crowded streets
of the lower city that conditions were at
their worst. Eddying around the tall build
ings, the snow-laden gale was driven with
increased force into the canyon-like streets,
binding pedestrians and making street
hauling almost impossible. Teaming had
the storm had become SO bad and by II
o'clock Broadway was practically blockaded
to a standstill. Horse were stalled or down,
the car lines made little headway and all
the great traffic arteries were almost still.
Streets Were Bare of Crowds.
The streets were bare of the usual crowd
of hurrying pedestrians. and lower Broad
way and the financial district assumed the
look of a Saturday half holiday
Eight inches of snow had accumula ted by
noon, but the high wind drifted it badly.
The heart of the storm seems to be along
the New England coast line although snow
and high winds are reported up New York
state and low temperatures prevail every
where. At Chatham and Martba's Vine
yard snow-laden gale of sixty miles We
loeity is reported, and like conditions exist
at all coast points so far heard from.
Shipping Delayed
The Clyde line steamer Bsnefacter, which
cleared for Philadelphia last night, sought
shelter behind Sandy Hook. In the height
of the gale the steamer Trojan from Ma
tanzas with sugar, broke from her moor
ings in Arbuckles stores near Catharine
Ferry, Brooklyn, early today and drifted
down the East river to a point below Full
ton ferry before her drift was arrested
On the harbor the ferry boats continued to
move, but the greatest caution was OBJ
served to prevent accidents, and all the
boats were far behind their regular
schedules. No attempt was made to run
surface cars on Brooklyn bridge, the pas
sengers being transferred to the cable
lines.
The big plant of the Kip Brewing Com
pany at 3Sth street and 1st avenue caught
fire While the storm was at it's height and
although great quantity of fire apparatus
was called out by three alarms, the big
malt house was practically destroyed There
were hundreds of thousands of bushels of
grain in the bins.
Fire Threatened Property.
fire which threatened an enormous
amount of property in the dry goods dis
trict in the vicinity of Walker and Church
streets gave the firemen desperate strug-
gle for an hour while the storm was at its
height early today.
The flames finally were subdued after
causing damage to the extent of $5oO0O
The heaviest losers were Morris Roth, cot
ton goods; l.. w. Samuels hosiery and un-
derwear; Goldwater Brothers, ribbons and
pany.
Several transatlantic and coastwise
steamers which were due to arrive today
had not reached the harbor long after they
We're due. Among them are the steamer
Rotterdam, from Rotterdam, and the Me-
nominee, from London. They probably rode
out the gale outside Sandy Hook bar last
night, waiting for daylight and a cessation
of the binding snowfall before attempting
to come up through the crooked channels Of
the lower bay.
The gale was increasing in force at the
Hook early today.
The various lines of Long Island sound
steamers ran on their schedule time last
night. despite the storm, and reached their
piers here today.
The first death as a direct result of the
storm was reported from Brooklyn, where
Raino VataliZo, an Italian, was found lying
dead in a snowdrift. His death was caused
by exhaustion and exposure.