New Britain herald., 1918-06-13

railroad block signal system was rendered useless.
 Mrs. Arthur Oldershaw of 62 liar rison street was driving her auto into the garage when the cyclone struck. The doors were blown off and the shed was moved. The auto curtains were torn to ribbons.
 A peculiarity of the blow was ob- served in Thomas E. LaWlor's yard on Black Rock avenue. Two trees top pied over were cast in opposite direc- tions. They were valuable trees. An old apple tree of little value stand ing between the two Withstood the gale.
 Over 200 telephones in the west end of the city were rendered useless by wires coming down. A cable on For est street was dragged down.
 A tree in front of the South Con- sregational church was uprooted. Trees were overturned on Camp and Prospect streets.
 Damage Done in Few Minutes.
 The havoc done by the cyclone was accom- plished in less than five minutes. The wind blew, and rain fell hard during the period of the cyclone. People in City hall thought they lell tile Dullul1lS Slidht. I Iolll other buildings similar reports were heard. Persons watching from City hall saw a tree in Central park go down and then realized the severity of the gale. The caretaker at Shuttle Meadow reservoir, from which direc- tion the cyclone came, said that there was no unusual wind in that vicinity.
 The atmosphere seemed to clear in, minutes rain and hail fell. The hail was as large as beans. During the second storm a trolley wire came down on Church street, near Main. causing an electrical fire. Almost simultaneously there was an cleo trical fire near the Elm street rail- road crossing. The rainfall for the afternoon was .64 inch. Near Panic at Theaters. There was q near-panic at FoN's theatcr The house electric current went off and the piano player became nervous and stopped playing. A patron sitting in the front row grabbed the pianist and sat him back on the stool and commanded him to play. Play d-n you and play hard" the patron whispered in his ear. The musician complied. Manager Me- Donald opened the fire exits to let in the daylight, while cool-headed men in the audience assured the people to "sit still" Order was restored with difficulty. After awhile the cleo tric power was again turned on. Many of the theater patrons re- mained and did not learn until leav- ing the theater what had been occurring outside
 When the light became exiting uished at the Lyceum theater and door closed with a, crash a largo number of women in the audience made a | rush for the exits and for a minute a panic threatened. Manager Glaclin appeared on the stage, shouted to the audience not to be alarmed and sue ceeded in allaying their fears to some extent. Joseph F. Haffey and Michael Edwards, a travelling salesman, who were in the audience, assisted in calm ing the women.
 High tension wires used to supply ] current to factories went down when l trees fell and factories so supplied were without power until nearly ! l o'clock.
 The Connecticut Light and Power
 
 1 setting up new wires. Several miles 1 of wires were down.
 Teachers in the Lincoln street ] school were just making preparati tions
 to go home when the blow began. 1 They sought safety in the basement. i About 30.0O0 people visited the l west end last evening to view the
 havoc caused. Almost everyone in l sisted on likening the ruina ton to a 1 Hun invasion
 Save the Trees. Superintendent Wainwright of the 1 park departm and other city
 officials urge the public to go slowly 1 with the destruction of the trees and
 they advise that a large number of l them can be reset and saved An 1 arrangement will be made if possible
 to advise with property owners in
 such cases and give other assistance.
 Wagon Tipped Over. While driving down West Main ! street in one of the Latimer Laundry | teams, William Marsh, one of the dri- 1 vcrs, was caught in the wake of the l cyclone. The team, with Marsh in it. ! was turned over and torn from the 1 horse, which preceded leisurely along
 the way while Marsh crawled, unhurt,
 out of the debris.
 Manager Gerth of the Southern 1 New England Telephone Co.,, imme-
 diately arranged after the cyclone to
 secure help from Hartford and New 1 Haven. The linemen from those c-
 ties came here and co-operated with