The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-01-31
MAN ELECTROCUTED;
ONE BADLY FROZEN
Sleet Storm at Indianapolis
Early Today Was a Very
Costly One.
TRACTION ROADS HIT
Four Interurban Systems Are
Badly Crippled During
Early Hours.

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 31-A life
was claimed by the sleet storm early
today. as it relaxed the grip it held ON
the city during the nine hours of dark
ness last night.
Joseph M. Wash, engineer, 345 N.
Addison street, was instantly killed
by an electrically charged telephone
at Oriental street and the c., H. &
d. tracks, when the storm gave way
to snow. A sleet-broken electric wire
crossed on the telephone wire of the
private order" phone of the c., II. &,
D. is supposed to have caused Walsh's
deaht, though the wire trouble was not
found at once.
Frozen Man May Die.
The attention of pedestrians pass
ing Illinois and Maryland streets early
today was attracted to the unusual
sight of man standing against tele-
phone pole. He did not move a mus
Gle. Some one went up to him and
found that he was frozen stiff and un-
conscious. He was taken to the City
hospital. His condition is serious.
The man had on a rubber coat and
cap covered with sleet and snow, and
the coat was frozen to the pole. No
marks of Identification were found on
the mans clothing, and he remains
unidentified at the hospital. t.
1t is thought possibly that he had
been out all night and when he
reached Illinois and Maryland streets
he could go no farther and leaned up
against the pole, where his clothing
froze to the pole and that when he be-
came unconscious the frozen sleet was
so strong that it held up his body.
Crippled by ice, sleet and snow the
four interurban systems radiating out
of indianapolis experienced one Of the
worst tie ups in their history, early
today The city street car lines also
suffered greatly and curtained service
was the best that could be offered for
early morning traffic.
Although not hindered greatly by
the drop in the temperate ture, the rail
road trains coming into the city were
not operating on their regular sched-
ules early today. 1t was reported at
the union station that all the through
trains were one or two hours late, but
were running.
Wiremen on the city car lines and
officials of the interurban lines were
hoping there would be no further drop
in the temperature causing more ice
to freeze on the wires. With the loos.
ening of the heavy coating today, 1t
was expected the regular schedules
would be re-established before the day
was over.
Gripping of the telephone and tele-
graph service made it impossible for
interurban officials here to determine
just exactly what the condition Of
their lines out of the city.
The systems of the indianapolis,
Terre Haute and Eastern lines were
completely tied up early this morning,
it was said at the office of G. X. JEFF
fries, superintendent.
RAILROAD WIRES DOWN
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind, Jan. 31.-
Railroad traffic was delayed, tele-
phone and telegraph communication
was crippled and travel over the coun-
try was rendered difficult by the heavy
snow storm that ragged last night and
this morning Telegraph wires on the
Big Four railroad between here and
Indianapolis fell under weight of the
ice that covered them. Suffering
among the poor is expected.
SNOW AT SOUTH BEND.
SOUTH BEND, Ind, Jan. 31.-A
heavy snowstorm has been raging in
northern Indiana since midnight, near
ly foot of snow having fallen early
today. City street car and interurban
service was almost completely stalled
for several hours, and the public serv-
Ice companies reported wire trouble
everywhere. The temperature drop
ped nearly 10 degrees during the
night