New-York tribune., 1920-02-15
All Billiards.
StiuDate From
Historic 1888
Great Blow Starting Marcel,
III, Defed Oldest Living
Inhabitants of Its Time to
Recall Storm So Severe,
Traffic at a Standstill
New York, Snowbound for
3 Days. Walked Deep in
Slush When Thawed Out

However bewldered and overwhelmed
and the aftermath of slush and near
paralysis, there still remains sufficient
calmness among the citizens to allow
them to say in the impersonal manner
of the historian, "The worst since the
blizzard OF 1888"
That has become the stereotyped
phrase for use in speaking Of current
storms, for all billiards. and near biz
yards take their rank from the historic
storm of 1888. The blizzard OF March
II to ID, 1883. defcd the oldest living
inhabitants of it's time to produce It's
peer, and these venerables held their
silence. Neither in depth of snowfall
nor in long-cortinued high winds. nor
in the pail that was cast over the city,
has it been eoualed since. 1t over
shadowed the great blow" of 1886,
when the wind had come down on the
city at eightytwo miles an hour, fortu-
nately for only scant ten minutes; it
Outdlstanced the fame Of the great
storm Of SO.
1t started to take its place in history
with great stealth. In the early after
noon of March II, which was Sunday, a
drizzling rain started. with a stiff wind
which constantly increased in force
until soon after midnight it rose to the
force of a gale and the rain changed 70
snow, which fell steadily for the next
twenty-nine hours.
Drifts Shifted and Swirled
When New Yorkers peered out Of
their doorways OH the morning Of the
18th. instead of the customary milk
bottle on the stoop there were huge
drifts. drifts that were never still that
were shifted and swirled about by the
driving wind. In the air was binding
whirl Of dry, stinging snow. Those
who tried to reach their Offices on that
day wrestled with the problems of
their Pilgrim forebears, for New York
had become overnight q pioneer com
munlty. 1t had, as a community, it's
highly complicated tasks to do, but it
had cn!y primitive means az its COM
mand
The surface cars had been abandoned
early in the day; those who struggled
through the blizzard to their work
caught glimpses now and then through
the snow of horse-cars, abandoned and
wil-dow-deep in drifts. The elevated
Hres showed greater ter8citv. but those
whc bearded them found them selves
s-a ,cd between stations 10Y three or
four Acass; only . few o. ne hardier
son.s eyed TIE c.l.3 down the
"stiits" g.. .he q .s tae s.re.t below
rain Service Abandoned
Is 3 o'clock on the AFTERNOON of the
l2th mo.e than a foot of snow had
fallen ..Ed more was coming steadily.
Tie elevated trains had ceased to op-
cr:1e. SO trains came INTO the city or
VICE, "G. all day. The telegraph wires
had cone down before 4 wind that mad
14-..'s-d an average velocity of thirty
rve niles an horr. and all commun;ca-
.ioN with the outsid world had been
cat cfi.
M-0ica.ion had been suspended be-
causa of az ice-cholsed harboY. The
c9.lgs rcre closed. A few brokers who
had #4Ged brGVeiy ever irom Brooklyn
waited in Vain or reinforcements at
the Stecl EXCHANGE aud closed carly !
i. poSt0lficc there were few CLERKS, /
and ye' nearly enough to give clerk |
fcv every letter taaS there was TO
haaa'e. Ferries stopped. Schools ceased
5unc1 oning. And win night came dark
nos5 q the streets, the current cut off
70 essen the terrible fire hazard of
the caoked streets.
he CITY was under She spell of a
gre. calm, u calm that meant the ces-
sation G. all the normal Intercourse of
iife II was Z city shacklcd by the
snow, without COMMUNICATION. with the
world outside on with its own scat
tered PARTS.
l.ull Only Temporary
At five inmates TO SIX en- the morn
ing OF the 18th She snowfall ceased
temporarily. That morning the ele-
waited road resumed operations and
brought some relief to those who had
walked TO work the day before But
the town was as much under the spell
of the storm as it had been. No trains
arrived or departed. The stock Ex
change closed at noon. The New Jer-
sey railroads were blocked. In Brook
lyn as in Manhattan all traffic was idle
except the elevated trains. The 1000
iaborers and 500 carts that were sent
out before nightfall made but a slight
impression on the great drifts, that
reached depths Of fifteen feet in some
places And at o'clock in the after
noon the snow began to fall again, and
continued, with only an hours luu, un-
til nearly o'clock on tie morning Of
March IA.
With the next day came a slight re
crowds in the Grand Central Station
cheercd the first train sent out by the
New York Central since the storm A
few trains were run by The Erie and
West Shore lines.
IN Manhattan some Of the surface
cars were put in operation. but it was
for short distances only. the Twenty
third Street cross-town line being the
Only one IN operation on the whole of
its line. A few surface cars we're in
operstion in Brooklyn With the l4th
came the last of the snow OF the biz
zard; eight hours of snow on that dav
brought the total for the storm to 20.a
inchos.
|. was on the l4th that some of the
suhcring that the storm brought in it's
", ke became apparent There was great
distress IN the crowded tenemonts of
the East Side and milk famine was
imminent. Hundreds Of calls for re
Lief came to the charitable organiga.
aons Of the city
Nature proved friendly the next day.
with the warm weather of the 18th
-''o" York began to see the way out of