The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-06-19
Tree Breaks Down Electric
Wires During Saturday
Night Trading
CANDLES USED FOR
LIGHTING STORES
Barber Shop Patrons Separated from
Hirsute Adornments Under Difficult
ties - Trouble on Vernon Street
Keeps Lights Out Four Hours.

Besides plmging everything outdoors
under water for a few weeks the rain
managed Saturday evening at 9.20I
o clock to plunge everything both in
doors and outdoors in Brattleboro into
inly darkness Saturday evening. For
nearly four hours not an electric light
burned in Brattleboro. The streets were
in gloomy darkness. The prize fighter
who has been knocked out has the slim
satisfaction of seeing stars, but Satur-
day evening when BrattlebOro was
knocked out not n star was visible.
The cause of al this was the rain. a
tree ON n bank on lower Vernon street
slid down the bank with considerable
earth because of the heavy washing the
earth had been subjected to, and then
fcll across the electric transmission
lines of the Connecticut River Power
company. Bingol Out went every
thing electrical. The big high tension
wires that carry all electric current
from the plant at Vernon to Brattlc-
boro snapped under the weight OF the
tree and with one mighty white fash
that lit up the southern sky for an in
slant Brattleboro experienced the last
real light for four hours.
BARRIERS poised their razors over the
half shorn faces of Saturday night Gus
toners and waited patiently for the
lights to flash up \ again. Clerks in
stores stopped in their tracks and wait
cd. The trolley cars initiated every
thing else and waited, even though
| they were on the rails. The housewife
| at her sewing, stuck her needle in her
| work and rested a minute The drug
| gist compromising a prescription; the
| driver Of q team; the chef in the
| restaurant; the card player: the movie
| fan; the physician at the bedside of q
| patient, all stopped and waited.
/ Seconds heightened into minutes and
minutes doubled and tripled and then
| the grocery stores which had taken
| from their stocks candles seldom in
/ demand in these times used them a>
/ flickering advertisements of the art OF
| illumination and began to do business
/ Two elderly women, who had beer
| stranded on the street, discovered the
lights in one store and CROPPED theil
way thither. Each invested in a candle
and began her hcmeward Journey.
The proprietor Of barbershoI
| hustled in and demanded a dozen can
| dies. He had a shop full Of customer;
and, what was more important, chairs
full of customers in variouS stages ot
separation from their facial adorn
| ments. Securing the candles and the
| services of several boys as torch bear
] ers the barber and his crew Of tonsoria
| artists finished, as we'll as possible be
tween drips of hot tallow, the jobs OF
| removing lather and whiskers from tht
faces of men who do not habitually us,
| safety Tazors.
| One clothing store had recourse t
| lanterns and tried to make the aisle,
in the store. resemble the great whit,
| way, but to a disinterested Observes
| from the outside looking in it rescm
bled more a foggy night on {
stern and rockbound coast. 1t woull
not have been difficult to palm off {
| raincoat for a suit of pajamas in thai
! glim.
One store proprietor who was for
tunate enough to own an automobil,
placed his car on the opposite side OF
the street and brought the search
lights in range of the front windows
which was a scheme that could no
have been tried back in the days Of
the tallow Dip
Not many places of business and no
many more private residences ar,
equipped with gas for illumination,
purposes, which spoiled a big oppor
) tunity for the Twin State Gas & Elec
tric company to show a big divident
for this month and manufactured
lot of belated Saturday night grouehes
Pocket flash lamps that had not bee
used in months were dug out from thei
hiding places with the resultant dis
: covery that the batteries had run dry
Within few minutes from the tim
of the break linemen started to locat
the trouble, knowing that it was b,
tween the Vernon plant and Brattl,
boro, but as they started from Nerno
they had the trip to make over nearl
the entire distance before finding Il
Etronble. 1t was about o clock who
the power was turned Gu again.