Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-20
SNOWSTORM FEATURES
THE VERNAL EQUINOX
Wintry Reminder Comes From
Medicine Hat, and Is to Pass
Away Rapidly.

| According to all calendars in these
parts. tomorrow, March p. is the first
| day of spring. Tomorrow the sun
| crosses the equator and the days be-
gin to be longer than the nights-that
! is, it will be longer from sunrise to
sunset than from sunset to sunrise.
| Today the innumerable first robins
| bluebirds, song sparrows. cardinals
ct id omne genus are sitting around.
| hunched up in whatever shelter they
are able to find, while they think of
| the sunny southland from which they
| were decoyed by the fair false prom
| ises of the calendar and the astron-
omers who tell us when the seasons
begin and end. but who apparently
| have little care for the kind of weather
that marks those beginnings and end
ings
| 1t is a safe bet that all these afore-
| said first comers of the feathered
| world think they have struck the
| spring training camp of the Nationals
and, further. that they have it in
for the weather man. the ground hog,
| the calendars and everything else in
sight, including the weather itself, in
! all the naughty words of the birds
voca bulary.
| Blackbirds Voice Protest.
| No newspaper would dare print a trans
| lation of the remarks OF flock of black
birds seen over in Georgetown early this
morning. The birds forerunners of the
big 1ocks that haunt this section during
the summer, sat around on the trees near
the corner of Wisconsin avenue and r
street. the profanity in their weather
comments being sufficient to bring blush
of shame or the pallor of horror to the
cheek of any one who could catch the
| drift Of the discussion.
Today's storm was forecasted in the
weekly bulletin issued by the weather bu-
reau last Monday. 1t comes from the
region around Medicine Hat. of course
and i'll it's progress across the continent
it has deposited several inches of snow in
broad track extending all the way from
the far northwest to the Atlantic coast
and down as far as northern Georgia. The
weather bureau officials say, however,
that the storm will pass away rapidly, and
that the weather should be fair and some
what more springlike within a couple of
days. But then the weather bureau is
always saying things like that Anyhow
today'S snowfall makes the total for
March approximately twelve inches, as
about two inches of snow fell last night
and today, in addition to the 80 inches
appeared before winter pulled todays
stunt of sticking around in the lap of
spring.
Snow Surprises Official.
Just as j. w. Paxton. superintendent
of the District street cleaning depart
ment. was getting ready to store away
the departments snow plows for the
season he was forced to order out the
entire equipment today and set 800 men
to work removing slush from the street
crossings and cutters.
So confident was Mr. Paxton earlier
in the week that spring had come that
he had begun to count up the money
left in the departments general fund
which was the victim of several in
roads as result of the expense in
Cured in removing SHOWS. Now the
fund will get another upset and Mr..
Paxton is considerably concerned over
it, He stated today that the cost of re-
moving all the SHOWS which have Wis
tied Washington since Christmas would
be somewhere between $4,000 and
0.o00.
BY noon today the entire white
wing force of the department was in
action and plows We're being used for
cleaning out the cutters in the business
section. Unless the snow should be-
come much heavier extra men will not
be employed. Mr.. Paxton expresses
confidence that the departments regu-
lar force will be capable of handling
the situation