Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1917-02-16
MERCURY HITS
LOWEST POINT
Twenty Below Here and 50 in
West Brattleboro
Railroad Trains Delayed by Cold
Temperature Lowest Tuesday Morn
ing Since Dec 27, 1914.

ing since Dec. ", 1914.
The only things that vera up in
Brattleboro Tuesday morning were
hopes and prices. Hopes were based on
the prediction of the weather man that
there would be rising temperature
that day.
The weather man guessed partly
right Monday when he predicted
continued coldD for Monday night.
1t continued" to get colder and next
morning perfectly reliable thermom-
oters and others that have been sus-
pected of prevarication in the past
agreed that it was at least two degrees
colder than it was Monday morning.
Even with furnaces and boilers work
ing to full capacity Sunday night and
Monday morning it was well towards
noon before some homes and places of
business got thawed out enough to per-
nit anything like actual comfort. An
Arctic explorer or an Eskimo would
have felt at home most anywhere i'll
Brattleboro Monday.
The mercury kept slipping all Sun
day afternoon and Sunday night until
West Brattleboro stuck its official nose
out of the door next morning and read
80 below on that @ official'' thermone-
ter up there. A man from Broolfline
said one thermometer in that burg reg
iistered SO.
Train schedules were shot to pieces
that morning caused in a great meas
ure by the extreme cold, which makes
it hard to keep up steam on the en-
gines. The engine hauling the paper
Il, to1n Ea
east of Greenfield, Mass, which made
When it appeared it had two engines.
minutes late. 1t was nearly II CLOCK
when one section of the owl train due
here southbound at 5 o clock, pulled
into the station.
1t made no difference in what direc-
ton from Brattleboro telephone call
was made Tuesday for news of wealth
err conditions, as the reports were
unanimous that it was colder than it
was Monday in the same place. Rec
ords kept by Ferris r. Vaughan show
two colder consecutive days recorded
by his standard thermometer at his
home on High street following Christ
mas in 1914. On both these mornings
his thermometer reached down as low
as the -23 mark 1t was shy three
points of that record Tuesday morn
ing, but was one lower than on Mon
day morning.
The plumbers We're not especially
busy Monday, considering the cold.
They attributed that fact to the deep
snow and that the first onslaught came
Saturday night and Sunday when men
were at home and could shovel coal re.
gardless of the expense. Some of them,
too, knew how to thaw out water pipes
and did so.
The continued cold began to get to
spots which were untouched Monday,
as indicated by the increased number
of calls for plumbing aid Tuesday.
The coal dealers are usually pleased
to have a good business, but there is
such thing as too much Of a good
thing. They were hopelessly behind
Tuesday on rush orders, in spite
Of the fact that every sort of q rig
that could be hired to haul coal was in
use bright and early and many
of them were in the coal carrying serv-
ice Monday. A man who figured
Saturday that his coal supply would
carry him a week rushed to the tele-
phone the first of the week and yelled
for coal right off or he would be
frozen out. He was only one of scores
who found that to keep warm it was
necessary to put in most of the time
shoveling coal.
The following are the scores of the
marcury.