Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-17


bring . handsome steady income in the way
OF rental In any ordinary March weather in
Washington the $500 gas burners and the
steam pipes in use would have abundantly
heated structure as large as the Inauguration
ball room but the experience of this year has
shown that 1t is not safe to count upon the
usual order of the seasons in these exceptional
times"
This was the first Inauguration attended BY
the Annapolis Middies and the West Point
Cadets and, though warmly clad for the oc-
caSion, yet the boys felt the severity OF the
weather and were glad to entrain for home
and their warm and comfortable quartera
A T the Inauguration of MIR. Hoover. nearly
three years ago, Col. Luther Hare, u. s. A.,
retired, of the CADETS who attended the
second Grant inaugural ceremonies, said that
the things that impressed him most at that
time were the horse ride through Balti-
more on the way here and the perfect firing
by the midoies, of which he said:
MY class had just completed the course
In artillery and We were particularly in
interested in the salut of the middies. I don't
think that ever from that day to this have
I ever witnessed more perfect firing We
timed them to the quarter second and 1t was
as regular as clockwork.
THE parade at that time pursued about
the same line of march as it does now. We
marched past the President at the reviewing
stand in front of the White House and then
we returned to our quarters at the hotel.
That night we attended the inaugural ball
When we had returned to West Point we
did an unheard-of thing-we cheered the
commandant. Nothing could have more fully
expressed our appreciation of the trip to
Washington than that cheer
Washington experienced some very cold
weather during the latter part of December,
md fha narIy RI IF Ia
when the Potomac blockaded with ice
and for while closed to navigation, the
channel being frozen over for many miles
down the river.
In matters of history it does not always do
to rely upon ones memory, especially when
the facts are easily obtained as they are In
the more recent events of this kind So here
Is reliable press account of this cold snap
printed January 3, 1879, and which tells US:
1.-THE sudden and severe change in the
weather which commenced here yesterday
afternoon is almost unprecedented, there
being fall of almost 80 degrees in the Their
mometer in few hours. The minimum tenn
perature last night 5ia degrees below
zero, recorded in front of Hempler's store
near the corner of Four and Half street and
Pennsylvania avenue, by registering ther-
mometers. To-day severe cold and biting
winds recall the memorable 4th of March
when Gen. Grant was inaugurated President
the second time The channel is
frozen over completely and no passage for
boats can be made at all. Rivermen report
that some tugboats came up the river as far
as Alexandria yesterday morning, which Is
the last communication held by boats below
that point. The ice is reported to have
formed quite thick far down as Cedar
Point. The tugboats more less injured
by the ice especially those which kept run
ming as long as was possible Those which
laid by in the best condition and have
avoided trouble and cost thereby. River craft
are reported frozen in the ice all the way
down to Cedar Point.
lice is being gathered today at many places
about the city, and inches thick. and
the prospect is that large quantity will be
saved as many carts and horses are employed
filing private ice houses"
In the press of January 4 We find a further
reference to this cold spell, which says:
The weather last night is said
TO be the coolest here since 1856. The Ice
cut today is from to 10 inches thick and
still freezing.
- Many of the clerks in the Quar-
termaster Generals Office had to quit work
yesterday on account of the cold and SO did
the female clerks in the sixth story OF the
Shepherd Building-the Pension Once"
THIS building which was erected by the late
~ Gov. Alexander r. Shepherd stood on
the site now occupied by the Raleigh Hotel
and was removed number of years ago to
permit the erection of that building.
Recently, when the writer visited the Rup-
pert farm, on BladenSburg road he saw two
very large ice houses typical of those used
By the butchers for storing their seasons ice,
and this they did to the limit for it was just
As impossible then to depend upon cosltinu-
OILS cold weather as it is now, and the thing
TO do was to get it while the getting was good,
and the butchers never failed to do this, for
ice was a very essential part of their business.
The next real cold spell, when the Their
mometer registered Sc degrees above zero. &C.
esirred January II, 1885. Much snow fell upon
this occasion and physicians and others who
found it necessary to go out on business had
to make their calls in sleigh and, usual,