The New York herald., 1922-02-18
COLD WAVE RECORD
Is 2 BELOW ZERO
Ships From Tropic Chimes Ar
rive in Port as if Carved
From Icebergs.

Two degrees below zero was the Off
cial mercurial record at Z o'clock yes
terday morning on the breezy top of the
Whitehall Building. In open places in
Jersey and Long Island 1t was several
degrees below the official figure. which
was plenty cold enough for everybody
In the built up parts OF the city's bor-
oughs and more frigid than it has been
here since February l, 1920, when the
silver pencil pointed to three below the
goose egg.
To-day. however is going to be lit
tie cloudy and much milder. the tenn
perature at its highest probably getting
slightly above the freezing point, the
foreca sters declare.
Perhaps folks most seriously affected
by the drop in temperature were voy-
ayers from tropical and semi-tropical
seas. The Empress OF Britain of the
Canadian Pacific line, from West
Indian cruise, came in shimmer!ng from
water line to truck with ice and snow,
accumulated in the last day of her
trip and with the water OF her SWIM
ming tank on the upper deck frozen.
A few days before there had been Il
swimming carnival In the tank.
Tho Fabre liner Providence from the
Mediterranean, looked as IL she had
been carved ou. of an iceberg. The
change from balm to blizzard came on
Wednesday with 1G0 mile blow. Pass
engers had been playing shuffleboard
in shirt sleeves on the open deck in the
morning and the next day, Thursday,
they were muffied in winter clothing.
The intense cold was tempered to
folks afoot by the dying down of the
northwesterly gale. The Municipal
Lodging House at 4S2 East Twenty-fifth
street, and the Salvation Army shelter
in West Twenty-sixth street had less
patrons last night than they have held
on other nights of the winter The ca
pacity of the lodging house is $50 and
439 men, % women and children were
cared for for the night. The Salvation
Army sheltered 500 homeless men, giving
them supper and breakfast, ana might
have taken in many more.
More than 100 men who usually seek
lodging at the lodging house went there
en- Thursday afternoon. but on learning
that they could earn so cents an hour
removing snow they hastened to the
Street Cleaning Department stations in
East Twenty-fourth and Thirty-second
streets and were put to work.
The cold wave covered more than the
eastern half of the continent and ex-
tended as 1ar SOuln dioHH tIt Sodot
as northern Florida. Richmond, Va
shivered with minimum temperature
Of above and even Jacksonville was
only two degrees above the freezing
point. with "a. A minimum of IL above
may be the coolest hereabout this
morning The mercury will then start
upward.
Zero weather fires were numerous.
Fire that started on the ground floor
of the three story brick building at
391 Bridge street. Brooklyn. occupied by
Iesbner's store. caused damage esti-
mated at So, 900 last night at 7:3O O'Clock.
Two alarms were turned in. and the
fireman had the fire under control
within a few minutes after their ar
rival.
A fire that started in passenger ele-
vator as IL rested on the cellar floor
caused sixty-five families to leave the
twelve story apartment house in 500
West End avenue yesterday. The blaze
quickly ascended through the elevator
shaft setting fire TO Railways. but all
of the tenants were carried down i'm the
cars without any one being injured. The
building is owned by Jacob Rupert.
The flames were quickly extinguished.