The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-12-26
DIFFICULTY Of Locomotion Of All Kinds
in Deep Snow Frozen Hard
Kept People from Nov
inc Around Much.
ALL TRAFFIC PARALYZED
Street Railway, TaxIcabe. Automobiles
and Trains All Had Difficulty
in Moving or Were Aban-
doned Entirely

1t was a rather quiet Christmas In
Keokuk this year, chiefly on account
OF the snowstorm, which made loco
motion Of every kind very difficult.
It was therefore q day of family
dinners at home, although families
scattered over town somehow man
aged to get together in one place by
noon, chiefly by walking through
snowdrifts and picking out the
streets with narrow paths ON the
sidewalks.
This morning the paths. both on
the sidewalks and in the streets
most used. were packed down better
and somewhat widened, SO that con-
dftions were better, but getting any
where was still far from pleasant to-
day.
Professionalism and Psychology.
Professionalism was general, II not
popular, Christmas day in Keokuk.
with no hope of street cars start
3nx. the danger OF operating auto
mobiles in the snow, and taxicaDs
hard to get, the quickest and surest
vay OF xntng somewhere else was to
walk
Even walking was worse than
usual In Keokuk on account OF the
nAgligenoe Of householders In clean
ing the sidewalks. For years here,
sidewalks were all cleaned by at
last 10 o'clock In the morning after
I snow. This time many OF them
vere not cleaned until the next day.
and some Of them not at all. This
was not due to the extra work re-
auired to get the snow off, so much
a to the peculiar paralyzing effect
OF the storm on human energy, II
seemed.
This peculiar mental effect was
observable throughout. The best OF
janitors were late getting at the
snow, and some OF them never did
clean it away properly in Main
street. Although school had ad-
iourned, there was an unusual lack
Of boys with shovels asking for con-
tracts to clean off walks in the resi-
dence district. Other instances OF
the same thing were reported from
various factories where there seemed
to be a remarkable lessening OF pep
in men.
Tryinu to Clear the Car Tracks
Christmas day lacked much, OF be-
ing a holiday for Superintendent An
derson of the street railway.
The snow piow having been used
up the night before and in the shop.
he secured a road scraper and hitch
ed eight horses to it. This was
dragged along the track, but only
few feet at a time represented It's
progress, and even then the icy
snow had to be picked out OF the
groove along the rail with shovels.
Perseverance was the main thing
required, and with plenty OF that
some of the track was cleaned by
Christmas night
The snow was not only deep, but
had frozen hard by Christmas morn
ing, which made the real Difficulty;
and it had been packed by the auto
mobile traffic which had made its
, own road in the middle of the street,
where the curb was farthest from
sktdding wheels
. Those who desired to absorb Christ
mas cheer at Warsaw found the in
) terurban running, but had to walk to
) the levee to take 1t, and from the
} levee on their return
Street Cars Running Again.
4 This morning, however, the big car
was making its terminal at Sixth
street, and traffic between the Hi.
nois cities of Hamilton and Warsaw
was normal again
BY this morning the street car
tracks had been cleared along the
most important stretches-those TAX
ing men to work The Mckinley
[ avenue line was rnnning and the
cemetery line as far down town as
Sixth street The West Keokuk line
was in operation from Main street
10 the fire department station on the
west side.
By keeping continually at it, the
street car service was started al
over town during the day, and this
evening the cars will be running on
| normal schedule, albeit operation is
- somewhat slow to keep the cars from
triding on ice off the rail.
Railroads and Christmas Gifts.
: The railroads had tneir own trou
bles from the deeply drifted snow
land trains were running in all sorts
/ iof ways.
Trains on roads with terminal:
I. here left on time and got out along
I the line losing time every hour
I lThose trains coming into Keokul
: Iwere all late from one to seyera
hours, depending largely upon how
!, far they had to come.
Part OF the delay was due to tnt
heavy holiday shipments of mail ant
,express matter, which required mucl
longer time than usual to load ant
unload at every station.
Many Christmas gifts from rela
etives and friends out of town wer'
/, mot received here by the recfpienti
i until today, and some of them viii
/, litter in all the rest of the week, ap
) parently.
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IL The Rock Island railroad now en-