New-York tribune., 1917-12-31
7 Dead in City
AS Temperature
Goes to IS BeloW
Continued from page i

The Consolidated Gas Company has
been selling about 1,400 heaters a day
for more than two weeks. Sales IN
proportion we're made by the Brooklyn
Union Gas Company, which is said TO
have suspended ITS instalment sales oi
stoves Saturday % conservation
measure. Other stocks Of heaters were
said TO have necn praetica'!y cX-
NAM apartmcut dwellers and house
holders who had provided themselves
with gas heaters awoke yesterday 70
find that gas pipes, as wen as Wa'Cr
pipes and gas meters, mad frozen
Users OF oil heaters. one OF "hlch ac-
counted for the death of woman on
Ninth Avenue yesterday, were con-
fronted by an oil famine:
The emergency corps OF the gas com,
NAMES were rushed all night ana az
day by complaints. Dealers IN OIL
said they were helpless until tankers
and barges held up by fogs created by
the cold on the bay could reach their
piers. L-..t..,-o
The shortage o. OIL ana lhe Ditdha sV
Of cas- pipes only intensified the wlde
spread suffering due to the lack o.
coal. An arrangement made. by various
charity organizations with the fuel al
ministrations through which destitute
families have been provided with llt-
tie fuel daily accounted Tor the iact
that the charity organizations dld not
receive a single emergency call yester-
day.
But hundreds of thousands Of per-
sons able and willing 10 pay were un-
able to get any coal at all, and one in
stitution-the Industrial School ana
Home for Destitute Children, at 2lI
Sterling Place, Brooklyn was so short
of coal that. the Si0 children sheltered
there we're wrapped in blankets and
sweaters 20 keen them warm during the
day. 4 majority OF the children, Of
hcials OF the home said. vere. those oi
alien enemies driven on. OF various
barred zones in Brook yn and OF men
drafted into the army.
CIamor for Fuel
Conditions on the East Side and the
poorer sections of Brooklyn were in
dicated by the long lines of numbed
men. women and children lined up at
coal yards and cellsrs. most of which
were entirely unable to serve them.
Robert Crosby. of the University Set
clement. sent out forty Investigators
Yesterday. Within q radius of twenty
blocks Of Rivington and Eldruge
Streets .siNty-eight coal cellars were
found. Only about twenty-five Of these
had any coal. and the Investigators
found that many o. these. IN common
with pcddlers IN other sections OF the
city. were charging as high as > cents Il
pound for coal. and ignoring entirly the
new city ordinance prohibiting the sale
of coal except By weight
Ten young men of the settlement
found a small coal supply. and with
push carts took small quantities of
fuel to about fifty families in which
there were sick children or adults
lying in unheated rooms
During most Of last night these vol
unteer pushcart men took fuel 20
freezing families IN ,heir neighbor-
hood.
In The Bronx. where the coal short
age has been acute for weeks, hun
dreds OF persons driven out OF their
homes by lsck Of heat were enter
.ainod At the police stations.
Church services in that borough and
~ various sections Of the city were
curtailed on ace0uu. OF the lack o.
heat.
An aged woman was found by a po-
iceman in East l35th Street search
ing ASH cans and barrels. She was on
the verge Of collapse from cold. She
said she had no fuel at home and
could not buy any. although she had
money. and had begun the search Of
the ash containers as last resort.
She had been put abou, six hours, she