Evening star., 1925-01-28
2.9ABOVE BRINGS
NEW LOCAL RECORD
Billiards and Falling Tenn
perature Widespread, But
Damage Light.

Old Man Winter lashed shivering
Washington with a north wind that
sent the mercury tumbling to a rec
ord low mark OF 2.9 degrees and
swirled into drifts a four-inch blan-
ket of fine. dry snow.
Today he reluctantly withdrew to
survey his work, but threatened to
return tomorrow with a fresh sup
ply of snow, served up by much
warmer breezes.
The low temperature mark was
registered at the Weather Bureau at
1880 o'clock this morning, breaking
all previous records for the past five
years. The minimum II failed to beat
was the 2-below mark set on Febru-
airy 5, 1918. Even the frigid tempera-
ture OF the fateful Knickerbocker
storm three years ago today was ex-
ceeded.
Not so cold tonight" was the good
word of the forecaster today. Only
about % degrees below freezing, he reck-
ons, viz, about 10 degrees above zero.
Little damage has resulted beyond
few nipped noses. fingers and toes.
TrafIic Kept Moving.
Street car and automobile traffic
kept right on moving. though some
what slower at times. The street car
companies and the street cleaning
forces of the District government
combined to prevent a repetition of
the tie-up Of traffic that accompanied
the first big snow of the year, and
they were greatly aided in their work
by Dame Nature, who saw to 1t that
the snow was of the dry, non packing
variety.
Two deaths that occurred during
the storm were not held to be directly
the result of the cold wave. DIR. G. P.
Lumsden. 70-year- retired naval
commander, suffered a fatal heart
attack last night at his home, after
walking through the storm. DIR. c.
w. Carr of the naval dispensary, who
was summoned, pronounced Dr. Lums
den dead from heart disease. The
other fatality was that of colored
man whose dead but still warm body
was found in the snow at Congress
court this morning. Police were in
formed he had suffered from heart
trouble and epilepsy.
The storm was held responsible for
a number of the Is automobile accf-
dents reported yesterday and last
night. Several lampposts were de-
moiished by skidding machines.
Supt. Morris Hacker of the Munich
pal Street Cleaning Department or
dered his Is motor plows into action
in the downtown streets at 8 o'clock
last night, and l.. r. Cradle, in charge
of snow removal on suburban roads in
the District, swung his eight plows
into service at the same time. These
forces worked until L and O'Clock
this morning.
The two street railway companies
had a total of 33 track sweepers in
service during the night, keeping the
roadbed clear of snow and precluding
any serious delay in movement of
street cars. A number of underground
trolley plows were disabled, but the
street cars soon resumed motion with
the aid of ''pushers."
The Washington Railway and Elec-
trio Co., in addition to Its % plows,
kept street cars moving on all of it's
tracks during the night so as to in
sure clean rails. Today the company
added Is extra cars to it's systems In
order to accommodate the overflow
of passengers. John H. Hanna of the
Capital Traction Co. announced that
similar precautions were taken by
his company.
Rapidly Remove Snow.
Supt. Hacker today had 80 munic-
ipal horse carts and 32 hired auto
mobile trucks employed in removing
accumulations of snow from the
downtown thoroughfares. Part of
the snow was carted to outlying
places and dumped and the remainder
was deposited in sewers. Water
plugs used to flush the snow
through the sewers.
Injury Of a boy yesterday while
coasting brought to the attention Of
police the necessity of protective
measures for the young sledders of
the city and today Mai. Sullivan or
dered the following streets closed to
vehicular traffic for the benefit of the
boys. Northwest-First street, be-
tween l. and M streets; Fifth street,
between L and NJ streets; Harrison
street, between Thirty-seventh and
Thirty-eighth streets; Macomb street,
between Thirty-fifth street and a
point just west of Connecticut
avenue; River road. between Wiscon-
sin avenue and Fessenden street;
Twentieth street, between Kalorama
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