Evening star., 1909-03-07
GLOOM AT STATION
Chilled Crowds Wait for Slow
Moving Trains.
BUT ONE WIRE WORKING
Officials Hope to Have Better Service
Today.
LINEMEN HARD AT WORK
Three Hundred Men Busy Splicing
the Broken Lines Between Wash
ington and Baltimore.
BUT ONE WIRE WORKING
LINEMEN HARD AT WORK

At the Union station last night there
were five men standing a a gate above
which was the informa tion that the train
on that track was the Florida special,
and that it left at SOS. 1t was cold in
the concourse: a damp wind was chilling
people to the bone and those southern
gentlemen would look ever and anon at
the word Florida hoping no doubt to
CLEAN some warmth from the magic Of
the name. The hour was much farther
advanced than the time at which the
train should have left, and the southern
gentlemen Informed an inquisitive report.
er that the Florida special was going
to leave later
1t did leave later-probably. 1t did not
leave on time by long, long margin; for
at a little before 10 o'clock no one had
| heard of the Florida special since it left
New York. That was the way with all
the New York trains last night. Unless
they got as far as Baltimore there would
be no communication by wire. The rail-
roads did fix up long and round about
wire to the north by way Of Cincinnati.
but running trains to Philadelphia by
tclesraphing half way across the conti-
nent and back is hardly practical.
Yet hope lived in the breast of ]. ].
Cooper. the veteran train dispatcher at
the Union station He said he was hav-
ing the time of his life and that by this
morning the 800 men who are patching
up the wires would have sealed up the
loose places in the system and that by to-
night everything would be running spen-
didly. There was one wire working all
the way to a little station just beyond
baltimore, and one was said to be work
ing at times to Washington junction. YET
when trains would arrive from the north
and west.
Large Crowd of Walters.
There was very large crowd of walters
at the gate which led to the Seaboard All
Line train to Jacksonville. The train,
which comes in from New York and
should have left at 7:35 p. m.. was prob
ably in the same fix that the other FIori-
da train was in. for at 10 o'clock the
answer at the information booth was:
Nothing heard from any New York
trains. Wires all down beyond Bati-
more
AS bad as the tie-up has been the
system adopted by the roads in just such
emergencies has kept some trains moving
all the time, and though schedules have
been a joke at times and a train from
New York would take just twice as long
to get here 1t ought to, the railroad
people have worked almost without sleep
Ing since the damage became known very
early on the morning of March L. At
Us that morning the gangs of wire
splicers started out and have been at it
every minute since then. Meantime trains
have been stopping at every block sta
ton. getting information by word of
mouth from the signal station and then.
If sufficient time has elapsed since the
previous train. would creep cautiously
ahead until the next block was reached
When a train left Washington yesterday
and last night it was goodbye for a
ceived from it unless II came via the
Cinnati route.
Gay Spirit All Gone.
The gay spirit of the crowds and the
crashing of the cymbals and the heating
of drums are gone from the Union station
The gay spirit left last night when the
cold wind blew down the tracks and the
cypbals and drums do not like to play
TO a small audience.
Yesterday afternoon a band or two
played bit. and the crowd looked on,
but there was none of the cheering and
the shouting of two and three days ago
Last night band playing anything but a
dirge would have been out of harmony
with the detected folks waiting for those
long delayed trains. Inside the waiting
room fully LOCO sleepy people sat upon
the spacious seats and slept or doZed or
ate sandwiches.
But all the snap and go of the celebra-
ton and the carnival spirit was dead.
1t was like a morning after
The Lincoln Republican Club Of New
Brighton. Pa, boarded train at 10 O'Clock
last night and started for home. The
who left last night were Mrs. f.. G. Bu-
fort. president of Bufort College of Nash
vile, Tenn, and thirty of the students
of the college.