New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-04
Continued from page 1

snow from the housetops and across
open fields and plazas, piling it into
heaps that later stirred up the wrath
Of motormen, chauifeurs. drivers and
pedestrians The gale early worked
up velocity Of sixty miles an hour
in this city, and AZ this rate 1t blew
until 4 o'clock, when it settled down
to forty miles an hour, changing its
base from northeast to north.
The storm did not originate in
Greenland or Siberia. II came from
the sunny steppes of Palm Beach. Fla.
/ And it can go right back.
In the dead of winter there has
seldom been a drive of snow that 60
blinded the person facing the propel-
ling wind When it landed on the
street it stayed there, the lower layer
melting quickly into a mass that gave
pedestrians a clear idea of the intieX-
! ible laws Of equilibrium.
Collisions between pedestrians be-
came so frequent that the novelty
nailed after a time. The hardy bearer
of Easter gifts found that the perils
of shopping were not over when the
actual purchase had been made And
in avoiding these bebundled carryalls
motormen and chaufFeurs spilled
enough profanity to last pirate for
six or nine months.
Street Traffic Blocked.
Between the chances Of success of
the horse and the motor there was
little to choose. At Fulton Street and
Broadway, for instance, where trouble
always comes in bad weather, automo-
biles and horse-drawn vehicles were
stalled for hours at time throughout
the day. Once the entire width of
Broadway at that point was occupied
by horses and machines, locked in the
snow, while policemen and sympathetic
volunteers pushed and pulled into a
perspiration.
This same situation was staged at
numerous other popular crossings, the
police having their hardest days work
| in months. At Forty-second Street and
Broadway, at Madison Square, at Four
teenth Street and at the approaches 10
the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges no
real trouble developed, but at the Will
/ iamsburg Bridge approach there was
{ considerable delay because of the CON
gestion.
The patron Of the taxicab did not
reach his destination much more speed
{ lily than if he had travelled on foot
And the disciple of the streetcar had a
merry time trying to figure out the
/ probable time he would reach the place
/ he set out for. Even where the streets
were reasonably clear, the surface cars
consumed about three times their
schedule allotment.
/ In Manhattan the surface and ele-
waited car service was more than a
/ shade better than in the other bor-
/ oughs. The surface cars did not make
/ anything like their regular time, of
/ course, but they kept moving. The ele-
waited trains could have done better.
but safety demanded caution. And the
dear old subway did its work well.
Conditions in Brooklyn were not as
good The main elevated lines gave
[ fairly satisfactory service, but the sur
face system was a sad and battered
thing early in the day. Whole lines
went out Of commission before the at
/ ternoon came on. Efores were made to
/ keep some cars going on these lines, but
even the most courageous endeavors re-
suited in failure. The Brooklyn Rapid
Transit Company had out what at first
seemed a sufficient number OF ploughs
and sweepers, but the snow fell so thick
ly and stuck so HARD when 1t landed
/ that their work made comparatively lit
/ tie impression.
In The Bronx, in Queens and in
must have been in small upstate
towns. In Richmond Hill, for Illus
tration, motor fire engine was as
signed to drag a snowplough TO give
the natives who succeeded in carving
their way out Of their igloos some
hope Of getting into the more popu-
lous districts Of the city. But the fire
engine, after beginning really
brilliant, gave up the task when It had
settled down on one Of the tracks on
the Atlantic Avenue division OF the
Long Island Railroad.
Railroads Hard Hit.
Establishing no precedent, about
everything got in the way Of Long ISL
and Railroad trains yesterday. Auto
mobile trucks did what they could to
rewrite the time tables, but snow
drifts played a more prominent part
in disorganiizng schedules. How late
the trains were no sane person would
venture to guess.
The Pennsylvania and New York
/ Central lines were knocked out OF
/ shape, the delay in reaching the Penn
| sylvania Station and the Grand Cen
/ trail Terminal varying from one u
three hours. All the railroads running
/ into nearby terminals in New Jersey
were as unsuccessful in trying to keep
/ to schedules.
/ Commissioner John T. Fetherston OF
/ the Department of Street Cleaning ap-
reared not TO be frightened at the
/ outlook. He had intended to spend q
good part of the day discussing tho
proposed garbage incinerator In
4 Queens, but be dropped that subject
/ in a hurry, and early In the afternoon
had $4,000 men, twenty-six ploughs and
several hundred trucks at work. In
Brooklyn, Deputy Commissioner Mauro
was very active, and predicted sweet,
clean-looking borough for Easter TO
/ break upon.
! Sixteen mail and passenger vessels
were scheduled TO leave this port yes
terday. Among them was the Lust
/ t6nia, Only a few Of the ships vent
ured out. Reports of the predicament
/ of the Prins Maurits. off Cape Hatteras,
were sufficient TO indicate what de-
parting vessel would have 10 weather.
Many Hurt in Storm
The snow, coupled with the heavy
wind which accompanied IL vas re-