Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-14
ZERO MARK PASSED
IN TWO-HOUR DROP
Temperature Falls Seven and
a Half Degrees From 10
O'Clock Record.
LOWEST AT MIDNIGHT
IN PRESENT COLD SNAP
Mercury Expected to Take Further
Tumble Before Sunrise.
RELIEF PROMISED BY NIGHT
Weather Forecaster Thinks Fifteen
Degrees May Be Recorded
Before Sun Goes
Down.
Weather Bureau Records.

Dropping seven and one-half degrees I'm
two hours last night the thermometer A.
the weather bureau registered seven ana
one-half degrees below zero at midnight
That was the lowest i'm the present cold
snap. Beating all previous low temper
ature records since the famous fifteen
below Of 1890. even the conservative
weather sharps admitted last night that
| Washington's cold weather records are
in danger of being broken in the early
hours today.
At I o'clock this morning the big
temperature indicator in front of
Affleck's drug store, at 18th and r
streets. registered degrees below zero.
drop Of Is degrees in two and a half
hours At the weather bureau 1t was
degrees below.
At 10 o'clock last night Forecaster
Bowie, who keeps tab on the weather
at the weather bureau. put on his over
coat and hat, and remarked TO the night
watchman:
Put some more coal on the fire: It's
going to be below zero in the morning"
1t was surely a prophetic remark. si-
though the weather did not have to
change much to bear out the truth Of
Mr.. Bowie's forecast, as at that hour 1t
was at the zero point. and had been go
ing down a degree and a half an hour
| since pm.
Milder Weather in Sight
The thermometer win be playing See
saw during today. IL the forecast Is
followed. as the mercury Is due for a
respectable climb into the upper re-
| gions Of the bulb by night. After
smuggling down in the minus quanti-
ties about the time the milkman dis
tributes his frost-bitten products of
the dairy farm, the mercury will take
a tremendous leap and perhaps go as
high as fifteen by tonight
Yesterday saw genuinely cold weather.
! At no time was the official thermometer
above eight degrees. and the ice which
has been forming on the river for the past
| two weeks is reported at any thickness
| from four to fourteen inches Trains
are running we'll. but steamboats, are
rarities. Only the biggest ones can make
| the.r "ay. 10 suatu AGAINST the oaI.se'
| of being held prisoner in the ice at the
| time of a river front fire, the Ffrehghter
| has been smashing a runway through
the ice within its precincts, and few
Tia, poa,s are also rammIng ice with
| heavy ice plows.
Suffering Among the Poor.
| The poor are suffering intensely, but it
is said by expert charity workers that
| every one of them who applies for help
will receive 1t. The cold weather seems
| to open up a sort of fur-coat charity that
| never comes at other times 1t is the sort
| of charity which leads a man in a big fur
| coat to slip q shivering tramp dollar on
| cold day. The sufferings of the poor
are very evident in this zero weather.
and for that reason the need is great and
the response is generous.
| woman with two children in her
arms staggered into the hall of the Sal
walton Army on Pennsylvania avenue
near 10th street last night so nearly
frozen that she could not unbend her
fingers when the children were taken
| from her and placed near enough to a
stove to thaw out without endangering
their lives. One Of the children was
year old and the other about two years.
| The little one was actually blue ana cry
| ing with the pain of several hours In icy
temperature with nothing to eat.
The older one was numbed with the
| cold and as silent as the grave. The
| woman was sick and hungry. She told a
| tale not at all unlike scores OF others
| heard today and yesterday and the day
before in mission homes and other
charity headquarters. 1t was another
| case of husband out of work, FUR
nished room with no fire and no food.
Day after day the husband had chung TO
the little family, seeing them suffer cruelty
because of the social and economic condi-
tion that kept him from getting work
Night after night the woman saw him
come home with the expression OF his
eyes growing more hopeless with every
futile search.
Yesterday the end came 1t was either
find some place to eat and be warm or
die. After roaming about for several
hours she found the Salvation Army, ana
for a time, at least, that particular fam
ily will be kept from immediate want.
The sick children were sent to a hospital.
Turned Out of Saloon.
homeless. wretched, rum-soaked hobo.
who couldn't do % cents worth of work
In a whole day, was turned out OF
saloon early last night because he was
nuisance to the men who wanted to warm
up on the inside without being bothered
in the process.
He is seemingly worthless, for he can
hardly walk, has but one arm. ana the
fingers Of the remaining member are
twisted and paralyzed SO that his ever
present craving for liquor gives him .
hard row to hoe when IL comes even 10
the simple matter OF grasping glass
He was wandering, muttering sham
bling and half falling along the side
walks until his eye chanced to catch the
sight Of a mission home, and he sham
bled into the door. A man on the plat
for,,, uroS telling an ''exDerience' e''-gfy-