Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-01-14
GO THROUGH new
GLACIAL PERIOD
Equal of the Ice on the Land
scape Never Seen by Old
est Inhabitant.
NOTHING TO DO BUT SKATE
Trees Weighted to Earth With Bar
reIs of CONCEALED Water Fast
on Their Branches.

Never saw nothin like it since back
in eighteen-hundred and blank" said the
old settler this morning speaking of
the ice. The date mentioned was so
far back that nobody else could con-
troyert the statement. Down in their
hearts. however, nobody took any
stock in the story that there was ever
as much ice on the landscape as this
morning. By actual measurement it
ranged from half an inch on top of the
humps 10 several inches in the decievi-
ties. Much damage and inconvenience
were the result
With fairly thick coating 10 begin
with rain fell the early part of last
night and at the same time the tenn
perature declined 10 several degrees
below the freezing point The result
was probably the most perfect inland
skating that there has ever been, es-
pecially considering that there was no
snow to furnish foundation
The unusual conditions interfered
with the ordinary course of events in
various ways. Railway lines, both
steam and electric. had their troubles,
while telephone, telegraph, and power
and light wires have seldom been put
to SO severe strain, from the weight
of the appended ice.
200 PHONES KNOCKED OUT.
Two hundred telephones in this city
were out of commission this morning
and in Moline the number was double
this. The Central Union had - poles
down between Moline and East Moline.
The weight Of the ice on the wires
tla n Of
was kept busy today repairing the
trouble and it will take several days
TO gel the phones all in order again.
HAZARDOUS TRAVELLING.
Getting about. on foot for both man,
and beast is a slow. tedious operation, /
even on the level ground, while climb
ing a hill is work enough for half a
day, with the chances even as to sue
cess in the undertaking. No one need /
fail in going down hill. but the haz-
ards are extreme. Horses that are not
sharp shod have no business on the
roads. while autos have been put al .
most entirely out of business even .
non-skid tires and chains being alike .
futile in preventing skidding from the
crown of the road into the curb. Bi-
cycles are temporarily out of business,
for il would be worth the price of a
mans neck to attempt TO ride one. The
only entirely happy individual is the
boy with a pair of skates or a sled, for
he has the world before him, the skat- I
ing and coasting being good any old
place.
a good deal of damage to trees and
shrubbery has been caused and more
is expected. In many cases the weight
of the ice has broken limbs from trees
or weighted them till they touch the
ground. A strong wind now would
cause havoc in breaking down trees. I
switching off small limbs or damaging
the bark
LIVE STOCK MUST BE FED.
Live stock, much of which is still
living on forage in the open, has been
suddenly thrown upon the hands of the
owners to care for. So heavy is the
coating of ice on the grass and corn
stalks that cattle and horses are I'M
able TO feed in the usual manner and
If left alone would soon starve +
Ali the rain that fell Yesterday, that
was not CONCEALED on the spot. ran
away or collected in low places, giving
no relief to the soil that is dry be-
meath the frozen surface.
Electric railway lines yesterday and :
last night labored under a peculiar