Evening star., 1909-03-14
W|REMEN s FINE WORK
How They Located and Over
came Storm Trouble.
BIG JOB AND WELL DONE
Damage Was Widespread and I'm
usual in Character.
QUICK WITS IN THE GAME
Officials and Men by Prompt and In
telligent Cooperation Bring
Order Out of Chaos.

a big job on it's hands, said one of
knot of men standing on New York ave-
nue. the other day watching the linemen
| of the telephone company engaged in re-
| pairing the damage done by the Inaugural
ton storm. "All around the town work
men have been busy as bees since early
on the morning of the 4th. Long before
the snow stopped falling I saw gang
at work. They must have got going
! pretty quick"
| The "man-in-the-street' was right.
The company did get going quick 1t
took a flying start long before daylight
on the morning Of March 4. when the
blizzard was still raging. and has been
on the jump ever since. The campaign
of restoration is still going on. but it is
rapidly nearing completion.
| Before midnight Of the night before
Inauguration day Paul G. Burton, d.
vision superintendent Of the telephone
company looked out of his window and
noticed how big the snowflakes were.
Being wise in the business, he knew
at once that there was trouble ahead
| for the company. for big flakes meant
wet, heavy snow and wet. heavy snow
means broken wires. general disaster
and innumerable complaints from SUP sup,
scribers. who can't understand why
somebody doesn't go out there and twist
the wires together and establish the con-
| nection right away.
When all this flashed through his mind
Mr.. Burton got into action. He went
| to the main restroom and told all the
test men to keep testing the connections.
particularly those to the suburban ana
long-distant points. Ordinarily these
| tests are made regularly every morning.
But the conditions that prevailed on the
night Of March were far from ordinary.
and the telephone official had no inten-
| ton of being caught mapping.
Went Down in a Heap.
| About half-past I the morning
| Of the 4tf the first break occurred, and
then the wires began going fast. At
o'clock in the morning wires in various
sections of Washington were out of COM
| mission and the only lOng-distance con-
nections from the Washington exchange
| to outside points were with Frederick,
Hagerstown and Cumberland.
Mr.. Burton realized that as the wires
| to these points had stood the test that
far they were likely to stay working, so
he knew pretty we'll how he stood
Long before this, however, he had sent
out emergency calls to his linemen all
over Washington. and they responded
promptly. At 4 o'clock in the morning
he sent special delivery letter to the
superintendent of long-distance wires at
Philadelphia containing a full report.
| The long distance superintendent
reached out with his test wires toward
| Washington and found that there was q
| good connection between Pittsburg and
| point near Cumberland, and decided to
work at that point for the restoration of
| long-diStance connection between WASH
Il ington and the north.
Remarkably Fast Work.
The long distance superintendent. who
did not receive Mr.. Burton's letter until
4 pm. March 4. located a gang of line
men at Bedford, Pa. about twenty-five
miles from Cumberland, and threw them
in above Cumberland to find the trouble.
i They went to work at once. That they
moved rapidly is shown by the fact that
at 6:3O pm. just two hours and q half
after Mr.. Burton's letter had been re-
ceived in Philadelphia, the connection be-
tween Washington and Pittsburg was re-
established.
Il In the meantime the division superin-
tendent at Baltimore had sent a gang out
toward Frederick on suspicion and d
gang had also left Frederick for Balti-
more.
These gangs started toward each other
at am March 4, and at 3 pm the
following day they had established con-
nection. This gave Washington two lines
out of the city toward the north. The
connection with Pittsburg joined the north
and south through Washington, and the
men on these jobs were all called in to
work In Baltimore and Washington and
the immediate vicinity of these two cities.
Extra Gangs Called Here.
Hurry-up calls had been sent out for
extra gangs Of linemen. In answer to
the call they came from Huntington and
Charleston. w. Va: from Philadelphia,
Wilkesbarre and Hazleton. Pa, and from
Norfolk and Richmond, Va, and from
Spartanburg, s. C.
out in Washington began in earnest Ev-
cry wire was tested and the city was
divided up into territories COR the sake
of expediting the work.
The subscribers cards are ordinarily
filed away according to the number of
their telephones, regardless of their loca-
| ton. These cards We're all taken out
and rearranged according to districts
and given the repair gangs.
One OF the troubles the company had to
contend with was the ignorance on the
part of the foreign linemen (nany of
whom had never been In Washington be-
fore) Of the location of the city streets.
In the emergency everybody was called
upon. Clerks and inspectors who could
be spared We're sent out with the foreign
gangs to act as guides.
How First Aid Was Rendered.
The only special cases attended to were
those CT doctors and hospitals. Other
subscribers were attended to according
to districts, this method being much
| quicker and effective. Consideration was
given. however to those districts which
were totally ont. of commission The