New-York tribune., 1918-01-02
happiest New Years Day they had evel

.
passed
II never expected to see e>such suffer
ing in the worlds biggest, most en-
lightened city," said Miss NJ DEC. Tren-
holm, chief worker of the East Side
House Settlement, at $40 East Seventy
sixth Street. 1--WE have been almost
powerless to cope with the situation
Hundreds Of families in our district
are actually freezing. They came to the
settlement this morning, scores of
them, and begged for coal.
"The people learned that there were
two barges full Of coal anchored in the
East River at the foot of Seventy sixth
Street. Policemen guarded against all
approach to the barges, but that failed
to prevent talk of selling the coal.
became fearful of possible riot and !
telephoned to Police Commissioner
Woods. He said he would do what he
could. Then We heard that Mayor Hy-
Ian was planning to help the poor, and
we tried to get to him, but he was
being inaugurated.
1--WE found eight women, each with
babies.' prostrated from cold in their
icy rooms. where there was neither wa
ter nor gas, the pipes having frozen and
flooded the rooms. The greatest death
roll on record will undoubtedly accrue
in our district unless the weather mod
Two feet of solid ice was found by
workers of the Union Settlement, 237
East lO4th Street, in the single base
ment room occupied by a Polish family
The water pipes had burst, flooded the
shabby room and driven the occupants
to the street. The hor,eless family was
taken to thsy settlement headquarters.
ers to obtain food for their children
also were distributed by this organiza-
ton. The certified milk supply has been
so curtailed by the severe weather. it
was said, that hundreds of babies were
facing starvation. The Union Settle
ment also was possessed of few tons
of coal. which it parcelled out to tho
needy.
Similar stories of distress were told
by officials Of the Henry Street Settle
ment, the Greenwich Settlement, the
Harlem House and other relief organi-
zations. The College Settlement, at
"a First Street, distributed candles to
those suffering from the lack of coal
and gas. With the candles scores OF
shivering families eked out a scanty
warmth and provided themselves with
hot food and drink.
Brooklyn Gas Bad
Wherever company gathered for New
Years dinn in Brooklyn yesterday the
hostess, generally with a worried and
harassed look, remarked:
please excuse the cooking; the gas
was bad"
Thus the general fuel shortage man
aged at last to strike the relatively v
few lucky enough to have had steam
in their radiators throughout the pres
cnt cold wave.
The Brooklyn Union Gas Company
could only give the assurance that re
lief would come solely through mod.
Grafton of the weather and a diminish
ing demand.
James H. Jourdan, president OF the
company, explained tnat the trouble
was due to two factors--the unprece
dented drain on the gas supply re-
:, sulting from the coal famine and los.
of pressure through the bursting D
service pipes and the freezing o
meters.
There has never been during ny,
, thirty years OF experience in New Yor.
= anything like the present consumpto,
! Of gas" said Mr.. Jourdan. "The drai,
on the supply has made it utterly i'm
possible to keep the tanks filed. an.
. the lower the tanks are the smalle
becomes the pressure. Lack Of press
- ure also has been partly due to tn
= breakags Of service pipes. many .
which are so situated that we hav
been so far unable, with the lack o
labor to get at them. and the fact tina
meters more or less exposed to tn
u weather have been frozen and retar,
y the gas flow"
: Manhattan Suffers, Too
E The same conditions prevailed i;
n Manhattan and The Bronx. The on
section apparently unaffected by dwin i
: ling gas pressure was Queens.
~ Hundreds of families in Manhatta1
II were unable to get any gas at all,
e was said. because of broken pipes c
d frozen meters. Hundreds of heater
d were also out of commission.