The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-12-24
KEOKUK STORM
BOUND TODAY
Snow in High Wind Drifts and Makes
Loeomotion Almost Impos-
sibIe Beginning Last
Night
ALL ACTIVITIES SLOWED
Street Cars ParaIyzed, Automobiles
SkiddIng, Mails and Trains
Very Late, and Interur-
ban 1eneaded.

heOKuK aWOHe L1lS morning SHOW
bound to a very considerable extent
Today the street cars are not run
ming. the interurban cars are not
getting farther than the levee, auto
mobiles are skidding around, if they
are out of the garage at all, the
sidewalks are covered with snow
later in the day than ever before In
Keokuk, and even the people with
Christmas packages to mail forsook
the postoffice corridors all forenoon.
Ten inches of snow fell here be-
tween o'clock last evening and Z
o'clock this morning. 1t kept on
falling after that and the weather
bureau forecast was for 1t to con-
tinue until tonight.
Tomorrow, it is to be officially
fair generally and colder. The morn
ing weather map indicates that there
will be high northwest winds. be-
ginning tonight, which Will not add
any to the pleasant characteristics
of the weather.
Route to Warsaw Only Regular One.
s. Traffic of all kinds was paralyzed
today. The trains wandered in long
after everybody had forgotten about.
them except the people waiting for
them, and the mails arrived at the
postoffice once in a while a half day
after they should have appeared
there. The railroad people grew
tired Of marking on the bulletin
board how late train was and final
" answered inquiries in rather gen.
eraI terms Of indefinite and nm
known times Of arrival
The interurban to Hamilton and
Warsaw was the only car run by tile
Keokuk Electric company, and after
It's first trip to Warsaw it found on
returning that it could not climb the
Keoluk hill It ran from the foot
Of Main street to Warsaw and, back
to the foot Of Main street. The con-
ductar trudged UP town and told
everybody around Sixth street who
looked like he wanted to go to War
saw that the car started from the
levee.
Deserving City Streets.
All night, Superintendent Ander-
son, OF the street railway. had the
snow pillow working over the Keokuk
lines. The snow drifted back on the
track soon after it was removed.
Finally, at Fourth and Morgan
streets. its motors burned out and
street car had to pull it into the
shops.
Motoring was interesting, not to
say exciting, all day. Touring cars
and trucks that had to run made
sort OF track in Main street in which
they could run carefully with chains.
Some nighthawks, who started home
In their automobiles late in the even
ing, were stalled and left the We
hicles all night where they happened
to be, to collect fine mantle of
snow by morning.
obIiaue Features Of Storm.
All sorts of things grow out of the
weather
This is the day of the week that
the street lamps are trimmed. 1t is
done from a tower wagon hauled I'M
der them. Today hauling tnat wagon
was a job in itself, and keeping the
tower from upsetting was another
mans size job. There was little
hope of getting all the street lamps
trimmed and burning by tonight, and
dark corners this evening have the
storm as the explanation.
A regular Alpine snow slide oc-
Cured at o'clock this morning off
the roof of building at Sixth and
Main streets. An avalanche came
from the roof which covered the
sidewalk two or three feet deep, but
fortunately nobody was under 1t.
Worst Sidewalks Ever Here.
Cleaning sidewalks was not much
encouraged by the fact that the snow
got right back on them, The JAM
tors of the business buildings were
slow, and it was late before there
was even much of a path along either
side of Main street. Never before
was the residence section SO poorly
cleaned OF snow on sidewalks, for
Keokuk always attends to this early
in the morning, as rule.
The snowstorm was general in this
part of the country. There was snow
at Kansas City, Des Moines, Omaha
st. Paul Dubuque, Davenport and
Chicago and it was still showing at
all these places at o'clock this
morning. The snow is the result of
an area over Cairo, Ill, this morning,
with the storm center over st. Louis.
This low barometer moved up from
the Gulf of Mexico during the pre-
vious twenty-four hours.
Even Santa Claus Stopped.
II was not cold here last night,
the lowest being 20 degrees above
zero The forecast is that the Their
mometer will fall to Is or 20 degrees
above zero tonight
Yesterday the postoffice corridor
was packed with people mailing
Christmas packages. ALI forenoon
today it was empty, although it is
the day before Christmas and the
last cnance to mail matter to reach
nearby points to connect with Santa
Claus.
The 5000 women doing work in
Washington come from every city IN
the United States