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 \t) • tt^e • Blizzard 
 
 EING AN AUTHENTIC AND COMPREHENSIVE RECITAL 
 
 OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND CONDITIONS 
 
 WHICH SURROUNDED THE METROPOLIS 
 
 IN THE GREAT STORM OF 
 
 MARCH 12, i888. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 N. A. JENNINGS and McC. LINGAN, 
 
 Of the New York Evening Sim. 
 
 
 ROGERS & SHERWOOD, 
 
 21 AND 23 BaRCI^AYSTREEX, 
 
 NEW York. 
 
 \ 
 
Copyright, 1888, 
 By ROGERS & SHERWOOD. 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following reports of Life in New York during the great 
 Blizzard have been carefully selected from the columns of the 
 New York Sun, and embody the most faithful and correct pen 
 portraitures of the great city's three day snow siege that have 
 been presented through the medium of the press. 
 
 To the many who were unable to obtain accounts of the 
 storm during its reign, the following pages which deal with all 
 the happenings by land and sea in and around New York, will 
 doubtless prove both edifying and entertaining. The articles 
 appeared severally in the New York Sun, and to that paper 
 is the just credit given by 
 
 The Compilers. 
 
The First Day of the Blizzard. 
 
 At little after 12 o'clock ou Sunday nieht, or 
 Monday morning, the severe rain that had been 
 pelting down since the moment of the opening 
 of the church doors suddenly changed to a 
 sleet storm that plated the sidewalks with ice. 
 Then began the great storm that is to become 
 for years a household word, a symbol of the 
 worst of weathers and the limit of nature's 
 possibilities under normal conditions. 
 
 At a quarter past 6 o'clock, when the ex- 
 tremely modified sunlight forced its way to 
 earth, the scene in the two great cities that the 
 bridge unites was remarkable beyond any win- 
 ter sight remembered by the people. The 
 streets were blocked with snowdrifts. The car 
 tracks were hid, horse cars were not in the 
 range of possibilities, a wind of wild velocity 
 howled between the rows of houses, the air 
 was burdened with soft, wet, clinging snow, 
 only here and there was a wagon to be seen, 
 only here and there a feebly moving man. 
 
 The wind howled, whistled, banged, roared, 
 and moaned as It rushed alone. It fell upon 
 the house sides in fearful gusts, it strained 
 great plate glass windows, rocked the frame 
 houses, pressed against doors so that it was 
 almost dangerous to open them. It was a visi- 
 ble, substantial wind, so freighted was it with 
 snow. It came in whirls, it descended in lay- 
 ers, it shot along in great blocks, it rose and 
 fell and corkscrewed and zigzagged and played 
 merry havoc with everything it could swing or 
 batter or bang or carry away. 
 
 It was Monday morning, when a day of rest 
 from shopping had depleted the larders in 
 every house, and yet there were no milk carts, 
 no butcher wagons, no basket-laden grocer 
 boys, no bakers' carriers. In great districts no 
 attempt was made to deliver the morning 
 papers. The cities were paralyzed. 
 
 Few of the women who work for their living 
 could get to their work places. Never, perhaps, 
 in the history of petticoats was the imbecil- 
 ity of their designer better illustrated. "To 
 get here I had to take my skirts up and 
 clamber through the snowdrifts," said a wash- 
 woman when she came to the house of the re- 
 porter who writes this. She was the only mes- 
 senger from the world at large that reached 
 thatfhouse up to half past 10 o'clock. "With my 
 dress down I could not move half a block," 
 It was so with thousands of women ; the thou- 
 sand few who did not turn back when they 
 had started out. Thus women were seen to 
 cross In front of The Sun office and at many of 
 the busiest corners up town. But all the 
 women In the streets ass<*mbled together 
 would have made a small showing. They are 
 said to be much averse to staying in, but they 
 8ta]f^ in as a rule yesterday. 
 
 At half past 10 o'clock not a dozen stores on 
 Fulton street, in this city, had opened for 
 business.- Men were making wild efforts to 
 clean the walks, only to see each shovelful of 
 snow blown back upon them and piled against 
 the doors again. 
 
 " Have the girls come ?" an employer asked 
 of his porter, 
 
 " Girls!" said the porter. "I have not seen a 
 woman blow through Fulton street since I've 
 been here." 
 
 The street was dead. Here and there a truck 
 moved laboriously, but more trucks were stuck 
 in drifts and the horses were being led away 
 from them. The elevated roads were running 
 trains semi-occasionally at this early hour, 
 and mainly over only certain parts of their 
 routes. Only one East Elver ferry, the Fulton, 
 was making its trips. The Brooklyn elevated 
 was chook-a-block with an engine broken 
 down and a solid line of trains from the ferry 
 to Greene avenue. The big bridge was next to 
 useless. A dense mass of men were packed in 
 the Brooklyn depot, and a shuttle train, run 
 by a dummy, was pecking dainty mouthfuls 
 out of the great multitude, running now and 
 then. The cable whirred along, but it never 
 would have done to hitch cars to it. That would 
 simply have been to have the grips torn out of 
 the car bottoms. The attendants would not 
 allow any man to attempt to walk over the 
 aerial footway. 
 
 The Fulton ferryboats picked their way 
 across the turbulent river as blind men grope 
 without their sticks. The water was black and 
 boisterous, the air above It white and roaring. 
 When a boat would hold not another passenger 
 it crawled out into the storm. The Staten 
 Island boats ran In a desperate effort to mind 
 their time table. Nothing was ever known to 
 make any difference to a Staten Island boat 
 except when the Westfleld burst her boiler in 
 1871, The Jersey ferries, at least those that 
 wharf down town, ran as best they could, and 
 they brought unof^clal rumors that not a rail- 
 road wheel was turning in New Jersey. 
 
 You could not see New Jersey from New 
 York ; you could not see Brooklyn or even Gov- 
 ernor's Island. But the storm was plain to 
 see, to hear, to feel, and to fight. 
 
 What a storm I What a day! What a crip- 
 pling of industry ! Policemen who did not hide 
 In doorways plodded along the middle of the 
 streets. In Brooklyn a chimney took fire 
 somewhere up at the head of Broadway, and a 
 hose carriage was seen going to it with four 
 horses at the rate of two miles an hour. At 
 Broadway the firemen must have thought all 
 the horse cars in town were huddled there in a 
 heap, for they were blockaded there. 
 ^Nassau .street from the IHhune |)uilding to 
 
the southern end of the Vanderbilt building 
 and the Kelly building opposite had become a 
 funnel, a wind-condensing canon. The gale 
 there swept the flagging clear and took men off 
 their feet so irresistibly that they were seen 
 falling and lying down everywhere, and there- 
 while the air seemed litteredwith flying hats and 
 pierced with the yells of the merry idlers who 
 blocked the doorways and looked on at the fun. 
 
 Cabmen at the Astor House were demanding 
 five to eight dollars to carry passengers up 
 Broadway below Central Park. Cab horses 
 were breaking down and tiring out, and their 
 drivers were resting them wherever one went. 
 Whoever faced the wind had his breath driven 
 down his throat, his eyes blinded, his ears 
 frozen, and his hands numbed. Whoever went 
 with the gale achieved the velocity of a cutter 
 As is usual when there is snow in the air, the 
 laboring men and the small boys yelled at the 
 top of their voices. Never was there heard in 
 New York such a chorus of shouts, curses, ap- 
 peals, idle screams, and peals of laughter. 
 
 " How on earth did you get here ?" was what 
 each man asked every other man who appeared 
 in the down-town streets. 
 
 Every man had a moving tale of hair-breadth 
 escapes, of blockades and breakdowns, of pugil- 
 istic set-tos with the gale, of mirings in fabulous 
 drifts, of queer sights, of hampered business 
 and snow-ehoked plans gone in the storm. 
 
 As the hours went on and noon drew nigh 
 the storm lost none of its severity. Dusk cauie 
 and then darkness, and the wonderful visita- 
 tion was still in progress. Still the streets were 
 banked high with rifts of snow, still the wind 
 roared and howled and bellowed and flung it- 
 self against tbe city's walls, still the horse cars 
 were cut off from their tracks and the pillai-ed 
 roads were idle, still the wagons were few, the 
 women were obliterated from the outdoor 
 scenes, the pelting enow and sleet blinded 
 men's eyes, the cold wind numbed man and 
 beast, the uproar of wild voices continued. 
 
 The streets were littered with blown-down 
 signs, tops of fauey lamps, and all the wreck 
 and debris of projections, ornaments, and 
 movables. Everywhere horse cars were 
 lying on their sides, intrenched in deep snow, 
 lying across the tracks, jammed together and 
 in every conceivable position. The city's sur- 
 face was like a wreck-strewn battle field. 
 
 Locomotion was especially difficult on ac- 
 count of human helplessness. Men were con- 
 stantly thrown against one another and were 
 continually falling on the sidewalks. A woman 
 attempting to cross Nassau street was obliged 
 to call for help. She said she had lost her 
 strength, and her clothing was so entangled 
 with her limbs that she could not move. Two 
 men helped her to the sidewalk. Up town, 
 well-dressed women bogged the drivers of pri- 
 vate carriages to let them into the vehicles. 
 Their manifest helplessness often got them the 
 opportunities to ride. 
 
 So fierce was the wind that sparrows could 
 not fly against it. They rested in the windows 
 of The Sun building, and started out against 
 the air to stand still with wings fluttering 
 vainly. If they attempted to fly with the gale 
 they were hustled along like stones thrown 
 with fearful force. 
 
 So amazing, so unprecedented was the situa- 
 tion that at 3 o'clock in the afternoon the only 
 vehicles in Printing House square were two 
 abandoned horse cars covered with sleet stuck 
 horseless in the snow. The only human beings 
 to be seen were a fat policeman knee deep in a 
 drift and three boys on the sidewalk. 
 
 Clothing, the like of which is seldom seen in 
 town, was brought out. Men appeared in quaint 
 caps, in enormous thigh boots (some looking 
 like theatrical properties), in vast coats of 
 cloth, rubber, canvass, fur, oilskin, sou'westers, 
 Indian moccasins, trousers legs tied at the 
 bottom with twine— everything, anything that 
 could keep out the weather was to be found on 
 the people in the street. 
 
 The busiest streets were lifeless, the wires 
 were down at last— not subwayed, but hang- 
 ing in tatters. The houses were coated with 
 sleet, the general tone of every scene was 
 white, the general motion was whirling, the 
 general sound was roaring. 
 
 When dusk came there was no abatement of 
 the fury of the blizzard. It howled more and 
 more loudly, accentuated by the darkness and 
 absence of all distracting sounds. New York 
 had at last experienced at least one day with a 
 Western blizzard. At last weather had been 
 felt the like of which no old inhabitant ven- 
 tured to say he had ever seen in this neighbor- 
 hood. The city went into its gas-lighted rooms 
 and its heated houses, and its parlors and beds 
 tired, wet, helpless, and full of amazement. 
 
 'Tis an ill blizzard that blows no one good, 
 says the proverb, and in this case the good 
 came to the liverymen. Here is how it worked: 
 A gentleman living near Central Park went to 
 the Fifty-ninth street station of the Third 
 avenue elevated. It was packed, and the peo- 
 ple said they had been there two hours. He 
 went home, was thawed and dried, and made 
 ready for another venture. He plodded, be- 
 tween ankle-deep and knee-deep, to the Sixth 
 avenue road. The same conditions there. He 
 turned back and went to a stable. There 
 they would take him to the Post Office for 
 $10. He would not pay so much, for he 
 did not know that at that time there 
 were no carriages in most stables, and men 
 were paying $8 to go down town from Twenty- 
 third street. While this traveller waited he 
 learned that a carriage was to be sent down to 
 the Produce Exchange to bring a broker back. 
 Could he not go in that for $5? No ; but he 
 could for $10. He would not pay $10. Would 
 he pay $7? No; not a cent more than $5. Well, 
 he could go for that. He was a lucky man. 
 Others walked or stayed at home. 
 
 Men walked to business from the other side 
 of Brooklyn, from Harlem, from Jersey City 
 Heights. Those who chose the main avenues 
 made their way with reasonable ease, but 
 nearly every one had more or less of side street 
 experiences, and these they will narrate for 
 twenty years, or as long as they may live. 
 
 The morning rush down Broadway was a 
 very little one considered as a rush. It was to 
 be called that only because it was the time 
 when there usually is a rush. A thin stream 
 of plodding pedestrians strung along the^drift- 
 heaped sidewalks struggled down town, snow 
 covered, ice fringed, breathless, and perspiring 
 
under the close wraps that were necessary to 
 shut the fine snow out from necks and wrists. 
 They were mostly young men and boys, who 
 were continuing the journey interrupted by 
 blocked elevated trains or stalled street cars. 
 A few elderly men struggled with them in the 
 restless, eager mood that comes of the fact 
 that promissory notes and little matters of 
 that sort stop not for blizzards. 
 
 A few women and girls also faced the storm. 
 They were the weakest and least prepared of 
 any for the contest. Yet many of them laughed 
 gayly as they plunged and slipped along. 
 Others proceeded slowly and painfully, and de- 
 spite additional pairs of coarse stockings drawn 
 over their shoes and the most careful use of 
 their meagre wraps they were evidently suffer- 
 ing. They attracted attention and excited 
 pity, no doubt, but no one could spare the time 
 and strength to tui-n this sentiment Into prac- 
 tical assistance. So they helped themselves as 
 best they could, and floundered through drifts 
 and across streets knee-deep with floury snow; 
 or with equal effort tried to brace themselves 
 against the wind when they struck a clear spot. 
 The contest was bitter, and they wer« often 
 driven to doorways to gain breath and strength. 
 
 In the roadway the yellow cars were few and 
 far between. The reporter saw but three be- 
 tween Tenth street and the City Hall. None of 
 them was making any progress, though in one 
 case six horses were tugging in vain at the 
 traces. One with four horses was in much the 
 same fix, and the third, with a single team, 
 stood motionless, no effort or strength being 
 left in horses or driver. 
 
 The vehicles that were getting along were 
 very few. Cabs, coupes, and carriages were 
 the liveliest, while the big double wagons of 
 the express companies seemed to be making 
 pretty good weather of it. Trucks were far 
 from plenty, but their drivers were, as usual, in 
 good spirits and good tongue. One of them ad- 
 vised the three drivers of the six-horse car 
 team to " swim out when you are over your 
 head." As he disappeared in the snow-clouded 
 air a burst of profanity followed him that 
 ought to have melted the snow which clogged 
 the wheels of the car. 
 
 BEOADWAY STOKES SHUT AND SNOWED UNDEK. 
 
 The persistency with which these men and 
 women struggled toward the usual scene of 
 their daily labors was usually but poorly re- 
 warded. The business done anywhere was in- 
 considerable, and in many cases the doors were 
 closed altogether and half hidden in drifted 
 snow. As late as 10 o'clock in the down-town 
 streets and avenues clerks and shop girls stood 
 shivering in doorways and hallways, sheltering 
 themselves as well as they could, and anxiously 
 waiting for the arrival of the holder of the keys. 
 Only about half, as a rule, of the force in all 
 the business houses, banks, and offices was on 
 hand by noon, and this number was not added 
 to during the slow-moving hours of the after- 
 noon up to the time that an early closing was 
 generally determined on to give everybody a 
 chance to try and get home. 
 
 In the Equitable Insurance ofiQce 93 out of 
 205 clerks made their appearance, and no offi- 
 cer of higher rank than the assistant cashier 
 was on hand. The offices throughout this and 
 the other big buildings were only half of them 
 
 opened, and these but half tenanted. Business 
 was practically at a standstill, and one or two 
 elevators were enough in the biggest build- 
 ings to take care of all the traffic. Those who 
 had persevered in their efforts to get to busi- 
 ness despite the elevated, surface, bridge, and 
 ferry blockades had don© so in the hope that 
 things would be cleared up during the day, and 
 the home trip would be easy. As the day wore 
 on and this hope faded away they began to re- 
 gret their success of the morning, and to wish 
 that they had not left home. The scenes of 
 the morning were the suggestion of yet more 
 trouble to come. 
 
 Men who had paid $5 or $10 for a short car- 
 riage ride on the way down, or anything from 
 25 cents to $1 for the privilege of using a ladder 
 to climb down from an elevated train stalled be- 
 tween stations, were quite naturally prone to 
 wonder how much it was going to cost them to 
 get home, as the conditions had grown worse 
 instead of better. The only way they could 
 withdraw their minds from these dreary fore- 
 bodings was to discuss the peculiar expe- 
 riences of the city's blizzard day. When snugly 
 ensconced for the time being, it added to their 
 feeling of comfort to relate the incidents they 
 had observed of the details of the hard lot of 
 others. The policemen, the letter carriers, the 
 newsmen, and the milkmen were the principal 
 objects of this kind of attention 
 
 The milkmen had all succeeded in getting 
 their supplies from the railroad depots before 
 the storm had developed to its full intensity. 
 But in the work of distribution they were 
 caught badly, in many cases it was nearly 
 noon before, with their horses jaded and them- 
 selves half frozen, they stopped the service, 
 with most of their customers supplied. With 
 the newsdealers it was much the same. They 
 got their usual stores of papers in due season, 
 but when it came to serving routes the condi- 
 tions were such that few attempted it. Cus- 
 tomers who came after their papers were very 
 welcome to them, but the job of leaving them 
 from door to door was too much for the deal- 
 ers. They preferred to be " stuck" with what- 
 ever unsold papers their luck might deter- 
 mine. The letter carriers made a great strug- 
 gle to get out the two early deliveries of Sunday 
 stuff, but so many business places were closed, 
 and the work was so difficult, that not much 
 headway was made. 
 
 The policemen were scarcely to be seen. The 
 snow was so thick and their storm-coated uni- 
 forms looked so much like everybody else's 
 clothes that it took sharp eyes to tell where 
 they were. But they were on hand when any- 
 thing happened, and that was all the time, for 
 events crowded each other's heels all day long. 
 Falling awnings, signs, and telegraph wires 
 were constantly endangering lives, and not a 
 few narrow escapes were recorded. At 32 
 Vesev street a section of the iron awning in 
 front of the Metropolitan Hardware Company's 
 store fell under its weight of snow. A postman 
 had just passed under it, and just missed be- 
 ing caught in the wreck. In Courtlandt street, 
 Capt. Slevin stopped a lady who was rushing 
 blindly along. A falling sign that the Captain's 
 quick eye had espied fell just in front of her. 
 It smashed a big plate-glass window. 
 
 Spruce and Nassau streets was one of th© 
 
breeziest corners down town. Park row and 
 Beekman street was an equally exposed place. 
 Men and women alike were unable to retain 
 their feet there They were blown with wildly 
 fluttering garments and most undignified haste 
 across the street and landed in the opposite 
 gutter every which way. The Western Union 
 corner was in some mysterious manner made 
 equally dlfiaoult to travel upon,. The wind had 
 swept it clear of snow and on its glare Ice sur- 
 tare at times no progress could be made ex- 
 cept on all fours. Many a man rounded it in 
 this fashion careless of the fate of the hat or 
 unabrella that had gone in the first gust. 
 
 Washington Market's early birds of business 
 men were on hand and ready for customers 
 before the storm had entirely blocked things. 
 But the blockade was around ahead of the 
 buyers, and they were so few that there was 
 really no use for the stand keepers to have 
 opened at all. It is positively stated by some 
 of the marketmen that there was not an ave- 
 rage of two customers to each stand in all the 
 people that had visited the place up to noon. 
 By that time nearly every one had given up 
 the expectation of doing any business, and 
 closed up. 
 
 The public schools were all onened on time, 
 the resident janitors making this a certainty; 
 but the teachers and scholars reported in such 
 meagre numbers that scarcely one of them re- 
 mained open for an entire session. The slim 
 attendance and the general disorganization of 
 the day made the exercises necessarily brief 
 and unimnortant. Some of the children nar- 
 rowly escaped getting lost on their way home. 
 No schools were open in the afternoon at all, 
 
 A messenger boy, whose errand set his reluc- 
 tant face against the full fury of the storm, said 
 sadly to a companion, " I wonder what a day 
 like this is made for, any how." He had just 
 floundered through a drift three feet high on 
 the sidewalk in front of St. Paul's Church. It 
 was one of the most peculiar snow formations 
 in the city. Between it and the iron railing of 
 the church yard a space two feet wide was left 
 comparatively free from snow. There is no 
 better way of showing how completely 
 businefs and traffic were at a stand- 
 still than to say that this space was am- 
 ple here, where a twenty-foot sidewalk is 
 ordinarily all too narrow. Other big and dan- 
 gerous drifts were on the Park row side of the 
 Post Office. Two men were actually pulled out 
 of it unable to help themselves. One of them, 
 who is supposed to be Herman Oelke of 1 Can- 
 non street, was so thoroughly overcome by ex- 
 posure that Hudnut's brandy did not revive 
 him, and he was taken to the Chambers Street 
 Hospital in a comatose condition. On West 
 street the drifts were very deep and the wind 
 that swept over the river was piercing and 
 strong. Women here had frequently to call 
 upon utter strangers for assistance to get 
 along. 
 
 The blizzard rigs of the down-towners wera 
 diversified and curious. Oilers in full suits, 
 from sou' westers to rubber boots were seen, 
 and all sorts of moccasins and waterproof foot 
 gear were common. Edward S. Innett, one of 
 the Governors of the New York Athletic Club, 
 was one of the best fixed men about. With 
 perfect protection he had provided for a fair 
 degree of activity in getting about. Over a 
 stout pair of walking shoes he had drawn a 
 pair of bicycle stockings that reached outside 
 his treusers above his knees. Over the stock- 
 ings were ordinary light rubbers. His overcoat 
 was short and he wore a light silk handkerchief 
 about his neck to keep the snow out. 
 A thin skull cap under a soft felt 
 hat comnleted his costume and made 
 his comfort secure. Some English tourists 
 were his only rivals as to completeness of 
 preparation for the arctic weather, but the 
 homely, though excellent, device of h«avy 
 woollen sock, overshoes and trousers bottogia 
 
 was frequently seen. Porters and others wno 
 believed in this, but who were frugal-minded, 
 ued bandages or bagging around their feet. 
 The practice of tying the trousers about the 
 ankles to prevent the fine snow from getting 
 over the tops of gaiters and low shoes was very 
 general. A large proportion of New Yorkers 
 never wear any heavier foot gear than a calfskin 
 Shoe or gaiter. These peonle were in a fine fix 
 yesterday, despite the strings thus brought to 
 their aid, Theyfstarted out blithely in the 
 morning in the same spirit that the scoffers 
 felt when they told Old Noah tnat it wasn't go- 
 ing to be much of a shower. They got back, 
 if they got back at all. with frosted 
 toes, wet feet, and a stock of the seeds of pneu- 
 monia, rheumatism, and other ills suflicient 
 for an army. The people unprepared for such 
 an experience as yesterday, and yet sufficient- 
 ly unwise to venture out and toy with the bliz- 
 zard, were legion, and the doctors and the un- 
 dertakers will be the beneficiaries. P. C. Ben- 
 jamin of the Merchants' National Bank of Wall 
 street, who walked down from the Ninth ward 
 and arrived on time, without any elaborate 
 preparations for the experience, is not one of 
 these. He declared to congratulating friends 
 that his feet were not even wet. 
 
 The mail service of the city succumbed to the 
 storm early in the day. The employees came 
 to their costs pretty promptly, but the carriers 
 went out almost empty handed, as the railway 
 mail service was about paralyzed. Superin- 
 tendent 'Jackson of the railway mail service 
 said that all his means of obtaining informa- 
 tion were cut ofi". What little mail was brought 
 in by the collectors and from the sub-stations 
 during the morning was despatched from the 
 general office. 
 
 At 1 o'clock he telegraphed to all the railway 
 termini for advice as to the possibility of get- 
 ting the afternoon mails out. 
 
 Postmaster Pearson said that the service was 
 about demoralized and that business was 
 nearly at a standstill 
 
 There were forty out-of-town mails due be- 
 tween 4 o'clock yesterday morning and noon 
 Of these only four arrived— the Washington', 
 Baltimore, and Philadelphia mail over the 
 Pennsylvania Road at 4:05 A. M.. came in the 
 office at 6:30. The Boston mail due at 4-10 A 
 M. over the New York and New England Road 
 was received at 6:30 o'clock/ The Chicago 
 mail, due over the New York Central Road at 
 6:45, reached the office at five minutes before 1 
 o'clock. The Boston and Springfield express 
 due at 7:06. arrived at 12:40. At the close of 
 the day's business no other mails had been re- 
 ceived, and the exact locations of the trains 
 unknown. 
 
 "There is not a single wire working between 
 New York and the South," .^aid Wire Chief 
 Baldwin of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
 pany in the afternoon. "As early as 9:30 last 
 night we received news to the effect that sixty 
 poles, bearing some of our most important 
 wires, had fallen in Washington. Shortly after 
 that information we lost Baltimore, then we 
 lost Washington, and then Philadelphia. We 
 have but ten wires to Buffalo, and should have 
 fifty, while to Albany we have not quite ten, 
 and they are working very badly. Our only 
 way to reach Chicago is around by the Lake 
 Shore and Western, through Buffalo. Even 
 those wires may be down before Monday. 
 
 As far as Harlem and a little beyond where 
 our lines run in aerial cables we are all right, 
 but past the point where the wires separate we 
 have no connection. Never before in the his- 
 tory of telegraphy has New York been cut off 
 from communication with the rest of the world. 
 The European cables, while all rignt in them- 
 selves, are useless on account of the destruc- 
 tion of the shore lines. Why, we have no con- 
 nection with Newark, and New Jersey is further 
 away than ever. The damage I cannot even 
 approximate. The sleet storm of '81 was the 
 most destructive ever known before this, the 
 damage running into the thousands. We have 
 hundreds of men ready to send out for repairs, 
 but cannot send them now, as they could do no 
 work. As soon as the storm ceases we shall at 
 once begin repairing our lines. The Hudson 
 River lines came out better than all. and we 
 have connection with Poughkeepsie yet. The 
 
lines In and around New York will be fixed as 
 soon as possible, the vicinity of the damage 
 making the work of repairing easier. Should 
 the storm abate to-night, we will probably be 
 all right by the end of the week." ""'""'' 
 
 The telephone wires, though in short cir- 
 cuits and short stretches, did not escape dam- 
 age. ^ Even if they had held their own weight 
 of snow and resisted the strength of the wind, 
 the wreck of the other wires would have 
 brought them to grief. There were a great 
 many subscribers who could ring up the cen- 
 tral offices, yet it seldom happened that any 
 two of these wanted each other. So the opera- 
 tors spent the day in varying the "Hello! 
 hello!" of every day with an equally monoton- 
 ous cry of " We can't get them !" 
 
 Superintendent Hibbard of the Metropolitan 
 Telephone Company was far from being a 
 cheerful man yesterday. " We are in a bad 
 fix," said he, " but we cannot tell how qadly off 
 we are. We cannot tell how much of our trou- 
 ble is due to our own wires being down, and 
 how much of it is due to other wires being 
 down on ours. In West Eleventh street there 
 are several blocks of poles down. They car- 
 ried hundred of wires, and many of them are 
 ours. Some of the poles crashed through the 
 house windows, and the wreck was a lively 
 ono. At Eulton and Washington streets, 
 Brooklyn, there is another bad mess, and in 
 Mott Haven the breaks and tangles ure fright- 
 ful. We have a strong force of linemen at 
 work. They cannot climb poles or make re- 
 pairs in such a storm as this, but they can un- 
 tangle the wires, straighten them out, and roll 
 them up. That will get them out of the way of 
 travel and avoid a great deal or danger." 
 
 By 3 o'clock the generally hopeless character 
 of the outlook had entirely depressed those 
 who ha.d ventured out to do business, but who 
 had been rewarded with very indifferent is re- 
 suiiB. Anxious inqtuiries as to whether any 
 cars were running on the surface or anywhere 
 had been made all day whenever two persons 
 met, and the answer was uniformly discourag- 
 ing. So the thouahts of home became stronger 
 with every moment, and the wonder of how it 
 was to be reached became greater. By 4 o'clock 
 all considerations of business had been out- 
 weighed by these, and nothing was left open 
 except the saloons, which had been pretty 
 well filled all day, in the absence 
 of any business stir. The absence of 
 the usual crowd down town was a 
 matter of congratulation when the tide set 
 homeward. With not a wheel turning on any 
 of the regular lines of travel, it was well that 
 scarcely five per cent, of tho usual crowds 
 were down -town. The majority, under the 
 impulse of stern necessity, set themselves 
 sturdily to the task of footing it. Broadway 
 was the most popular track (although the Bow- 
 ery was better^ and a black procession of pe- 
 destrians soon marched along its more shel- 
 tered western sidewalk. It was laborious work, 
 the wind being dead ahead and laden with 
 cold, fine snow, as well as keener and harder 
 
 E articles blewn off the roofs. But many of the 
 ravest walkers of the morning faltered at the 
 thought of the return. It was not alone the 
 difference between a fair wind and a head 
 wind. ■ The lameness and fatigue resulting 
 from the unaccustomed and vigorous work of 
 the down trip was the chief trouble. And so it 
 happened that hundreds of men who are in a 
 position to look lightlylon five or twenty dollars 
 when_ compared to comfort and ease," deter- 
 mined that there should be no more walking in 
 theirs. 
 
 It was then a question between getting hotel 
 accommodations or getting a conveyance. And 
 it was speedily developed that there was not 
 enough of either sort of relief to go round. The 
 hackmen wer^ the first to be found in inade- 
 quate supply. Such of them as had braved the 
 storm, and there were many who would not on 
 their own account and on account of their 
 horses, were all too few to take the anxious 
 up towners home. The work was too slow and 
 hard for many trips to be made. The Astor 
 House was the best place to see the de- 
 mand. All below that were exhausted by 
 4 o'clock, or engaged at a price that put 
 them beyond temptation, . ana th« improvi- 
 
 V 
 
 dehf meii who Tiaa rested in the belief tTiat 
 the railroads would be all right by that time, 
 and had not ordered carriages from uptown 
 set their faces toward the Astor House to get 
 cabs there. The down towners had all got $20 
 for a trip up town. A coupe or a coach either 
 got this price. In one case it was $10 apiece, 
 and in the other it was $5, as four could be car- 
 ried. A gentleman with a lady at the corner of 
 Courtlandt street and Broadway paid $20 to be 
 taken to Fiftieth street. Detective Phil Reilly 
 waited three hours for a chance to pay $5 to be 
 driven to his home in Bank street. He had 
 walked down, and figured that it would be 
 more economical to ride than to take the risk 
 of walking back. The struggle for carriages 
 was very exciting. The starter and the colored 
 boss porter in the corridor were subjected to 
 all sorts of blandishments by the applicants. 
 It finally got to be necessary for a man to 
 canvass the crowd until he found three others 
 who lived near him. Then, by a compact job, 
 with the customary S5 a head, the Jehu could 
 be tempted. This price was frequently raised 
 t(i $10 apiece for four by impatient ones who 
 were afraid of getting left. It looked like big 
 money, but it was killing work, and the livery 
 men said they did not feel as though they could 
 afford to work their horses even at these price's. 
 The saleswomen in Macy's store who live too 
 far from the store to walk home and depended 
 on the cars were invited to stay all night by 
 the proprietors. It was a regalar picnic. The 
 men were all obliged to shift for themselves, 
 and walk or not, as they liked. When they 
 were gotten rid of, mattresses were produced, 
 and everything necessary to make the girls 
 comfortable was provided by the firm. The 
 girls thought it great fun to camp out in that 
 fashion at first, but before morning doubtless 
 many of them wished they were at home. 
 
 It was startling to see how effectually Wall 
 street and the Exchanges, the Clearing House, 
 the banks, S the Sub-Treasury, the Custom 
 House, and the business that centres about 
 them were knocked out. All the great Ex- 
 changes were practically closed at noon. The 
 slim attendance on the Stock Exchange made 
 the great Board mournful. Viee-Chairman 
 Henriques was around on time to bang the big 
 ivory hammer that opens the session in the 
 morning, but before him were but twenty-one 
 brokers. There are usually 500. The Worm- 
 ser brothers, Mr. G. B. Schley, Charley Johnes, 
 and Mr. John Kirkner were in the little band, 
 and Secretary George W. Ely was up 
 stairs in his office thawing out. He 
 and others on the Exchange had ploughed 
 through the snow drifts from their 
 homes up town, some felt flush enough to pay 
 from $15 to $35 for cabs tobringthem down, but 
 most of them were carried a block or two by 
 elevated trains and were shot along by the 
 blizzard the rest of the way. Mr. Ely said he 
 knew of two brokers who were brought down 
 half the way in a butcher cart, but at the 
 Morton House the butcher boy driver and his 
 horse gave out, and his passengers did the best 
 they could after that. 
 
 Commodore Bateman started out from his 
 home at the Windsor Hotel in a butcher cart, 
 but that butcher boy dropped the doughty 
 Commodore after a block or two, and his pas- 
 senger struggled back to the Windsor and 
 stayed there. An elevated train which started 
 from Harlem with Brother Jones of Dow. 
 Jones & Co., and a contingent of brokers, was 
 practically abandoned at Twenty-third street, 
 after taking nearly four hours to get there. 
 The brokers flocked to neighboring restau- 
 rants and hotels, and the billiard rooms and 
 barrooms were thronged from that time out. 
 
 While there were but twenty-one brokers on 
 the floor at the opening of the Exchange, there 
 was even a smaller number of customers dis- 
 tributed through the offices of the 600 and odd 
 active members of the Exchange. The thou- 
 sands of private wires leading to Chicago. Bos- 
 
ton, "Philadephia, "Washington, and other specu- 
 lative centres had been snapped like cotton 
 twin^and while the London cables were work- 
 ing, Wall street and all linancial and commer- 
 cial folks were absolutely cut off from their out- 
 of-town constituents. The streets were strewn 
 with broken telegraph wires. Stout cables 
 banging from swaying telegraph poles parted, 
 and many a struggling pedestrian, in addition 
 to all his misery, was tripped by them. 
 
 Shortly before noon, when the attendance on 
 the Stock Exchange had increased to a little 
 over a hundred, it was announced that one 
 wire was working to Chicago. This was a small 
 ray to the benighted, but the blizzard-struck 
 brokers were too indifferent to brignten much. 
 They swapped their experiences with their 
 neighbors on the floor, and finally decided to 
 give it up and shut up shop for the day. Vice- 
 Chairman Henriques got out his ivory hammer 
 again and called them around him. This reso- 
 lution was then adopted: 
 
 That it is the sense of the members present that all 
 dealings, so far as possible, be suspended, and deliveries 
 go over until to-morrow, March 13. 
 
 Furthermore, all loans were extended until 
 to-day. This is the first time in its history 
 that the weathsr has knocked the Stock Ex- 
 change out. It was closed for a few days dur- 
 ing the Black Friday panic, and since then only 
 once on a business day. That was when Vice- 
 President Hill died suddenly on the floor of the 
 Exchange. 
 
 After tne little throng had decided to quit, it 
 was figured up that the transactions for the 
 session had been 15,200 shares. 
 
 There were two cabs in front of Delmonico's 
 when the brokers abandoned the Exchange, 
 One driver got $35 and the other $40 to go to 
 the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The other brokers 
 got home the best way they could. Many of 
 them went to the ofiBces of the elevated road.s. 
 at 71 Broadway, to inquire about the chances 
 of getting up town. They were greeted with a 
 big placard stating that the road was blockea, 
 and they were informed that not a single ex- 
 ecutive official of the elevated roads had 
 turned up at the ofiQces. 
 
 Judge McCue, the new Assistant Treasurer, 
 managed to get to the Sub-Treasury, but laalf 
 of his clerks were away, and at the Clearing 
 House business was clogged until nearly dusk 
 by the absence of the clerks. All the banks 
 managed to make their clearances, but in sev- 
 eral of them certifications were refused because 
 of the absence of Presidents, cashiers, and 
 tellers. 
 
 Collector Magone, Sur^^eyor Beattie, Deputy 
 Collectors Dunn, Guthrie, Nicoll, and McGee, 
 Democrats, were at their posts in the Custom 
 House. Of the force of 1.500 in the Custom 
 House and the Barge Office, 500 were kept 
 away by the blizzard. The duties of those ou 
 hand, however, were light, as business along 
 the docks was practically abandoned. A good 
 many of the female Inspectors were on hand. 
 
 The Produce Exchange was closed at 2 
 o'clock. When the doors were opened seven 
 stanch men wero on hand. At one time there 
 were ninety-five brokers on the great floor, but 
 all efforts to do business were abandoned long 
 'before 2 o'clock struck. Some of the valiant 
 ones were Alex. Meakim, Samuel L. Finlay. 
 James Christie, Latin Scholar White, and 
 Michael Hennessy. The flour men didn't show 
 up at all. The freight men were without any 
 occupation and sensibly stayed home, and at 
 no time were there over a score piping around 
 tne grain pit, where hundreds usually cluster 
 and howl. The average daily attendance on 
 this Exchange is 1,700. 
 
 The Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Ex- 
 change, the Cotton, the Maritime, and the Cof- 
 fee Exchanges assembled from 20 to 120 per- 
 sons, where 300 to 1,200 are usually seen. The 
 doors of the Real Estate Exchange were not 
 opened. 
 
 A peculiar and interesting feature of the 
 brokers who braved the blizzard was their de- 
 mand for fresh linen when they got downtown. 
 The few haberdashery stores in the neighbor- 
 hood of the Exchanges were positively thronged 
 with them calling for fresh collars ana shirts 
 that had been soaked and wilted by the shoot- 
 ing and penetrating snow. Mufflers were of no 
 account. ♦The icy particles scorned them.* All 
 th«.hatatore8 down town sold cases of Scotch 
 
 caps with peaks in front and rear; Ijut of all, 
 the blizzard barons down town the cabmeui 
 were the mightest. 
 
 HARLEM TO CITY HALL—TIJUE, 2H. ll]a.< 
 
 A gentleman who lives at 128th street and 
 Sixth avenue and who does business near the 
 City Hall, made the distance in two hours and 
 eleven minutes yesterday morning, probably 
 the fastest time on record for the day. This is 
 the account as he gave it to a Sun reporter: 
 
 " I left my house on 128th street at 9K A. M. 
 and at once discovered that it was snowing. I 
 opened my umbrella, and a howling wind swept 
 around the corner from Sixth avenue and took 
 that umbrella out of my hand and lifted it 
 over the roof of a neighboring flat house. 
 Next my Derby hat flew off my head and went 
 skimming over the snow drifts at the rate of 
 about sixty miles an hour. I let it go, return- 
 ed to my house, put on an old hunting cap, tied 
 up my ears in a woollen muffler, and started 
 out again to go to my business. I met a friend 
 who yelled to me that the Sixth avenue trains 
 were not running, so I steered for Third ave- 
 nue. Arriving there I found that the train* 
 were not running there either. On Second ave- 
 nue there were no trains either. The cable 
 road in 125th street had stopped, and business 
 men by scores were walking from one L road 
 to^ another in the effort to go south. 
 
 "I had to get down town, and I went to a 
 livery stable to get a conveyance. There was 
 one cutter, one horse, and one driver left. I 
 hired all three for $15 and started out. That 
 was at 10:20 o'clock. The driver told me that 
 the horse was liable to run away if he got ex- 
 cited, but he didn't get excited. Well, we 
 started down Third avenue on a fast trot, and 
 then the fun began. The air was so full of 
 little fine needles of snow and the wind tore 
 by us at such a rate that that horse staggered 
 about like a drunken man. But he was game. 
 He put his head down and trotted ahead in the 
 teeth of the blast. His mane and tail wero 
 masses of ice, and his hide was thickly 
 veneerea with it. You know I wear eyeglasses. 
 Well, my eyeglasses were covered with ice so 
 thick that I had to lick it off every five minutes. 
 I couldn't get them clear any other way. 
 
 " We passed Third avenue surface cars all 
 the way down. They were all deserted ana 
 most of them were off the track. The horsesi 
 had all been taken back to the stables. The- 
 brewers' wagons were out, though, out in force, 
 and each one had from four to ten great 
 Normandy horses. Even the great strength of 
 these huge draught animals was not enough to 
 pull the wagons through some of the snow 
 drifts, and the drivers were lashing the poor 
 beasts with their whips and cursing them with 
 great vigor. The sidewalks were almost de- 
 serted as well as I could see through my ice- 
 covered glasses. As we kept moving south- 
 ward at the great speed of four miles an hour, 
 the sleet striking my face made me feel as if it 
 was raining carpet tacks. My moustache froze 
 solid, my eyebrows did likewise, and little 
 icicles formed on my eyelashes and got into 
 my eyes. They hurt like hot cinders. 
 
 "At Eighty- fourth street I got out, went into 
 a dry goods store, and bought two toboggan 
 caps for the driver and myself. We pulled 
 them down over our ears and tied mufflers over 
 our faces, leaving only the eyes exposed. Then, 
 things were more pleasant. The driver was 
 61 years old, but he didn't grumble a bit. 
 
 " ■ I'm an old New York tough,' he said. ' I've 
 lived here, man and boy, all my life, but I'll be 
 
 if ever I seen the likes o' this ride, an' I 
 
 doan' wanter.' 
 
 '• And still that good horse went staggering 
 ahead. We tilted nearly over several times 
 and twice we ran into pillars of the elevated 
 road, for we couldn't see where we were going- 
 half the time. As we passed Seventy-sixth, 
 street I saw a great crowd of people ga«ing uj> 
 at the scene of the accident on the elevated. 
 
They were all standing witli their backs to the 
 wind. Desortsd wagons stood at the curb all 
 the way from Harlem to the City Hall, and we 
 met any quantity of men who had unhitched 
 their horses and were taking them to sheltei-. 
 At Ninth street the fury of the wind redoubled, 
 and when we got to Park row the horse was 
 forced to stagger a little more slowly. 
 
 "1 arrived opposite The Sun office at 12:31 
 o'clock, having made the trip in a little more 
 than two hours, and I don't believe anybody 
 beat it yesterday. One of the driver's fingers 
 was frozen, and the horse was completely ex- 
 hausted. No, I am not going home to-night. I 
 Lave telegraphed to expect me in May." 
 
 Fulton ferryboats and the boats along the 
 iKorth Kiver, which xised up nearly an 
 hour on a trip in the dayiight hours, 
 *had clear sailing compared with the voy- 
 lOges of the Staten Island iferryboats to Bt. 
 George and back. Six trips were all that the 
 Northfleld, Southfield, and Westfield were able 
 to fight through by daylight, and tion© of the 
 J boats dared to face a battle with the blizzard 
 iafter dark. The wind snapped oSf the iflagstaffs 
 of the Northfleld and Westfield the instant 
 "they left their piers in the morning. Out in 
 midstream, where the wind had full play from 
 the northwest, the boats skimmed along lik© a 
 lightning express, but the helms were prae» 
 tieally useless, because the boats wouldn't 
 answer them. The Captains had to trust to 
 luck to reach their piers. Capt. Cattermal©, 
 who has been twenty years an the service ot thi& 
 ferry company, said that m. all his life he never 
 knew the wind to blow over the waters with 
 euch furious vigor. 
 
 The new ferry line to the foot of Thirty-nJath 
 street. South Brooklyn, gave up bu.siaess for 
 ihe day after the boats North Brooklyn and 
 "West Brooklyn had fought their way across. 
 The West Brooklyn tried to battle its way back 
 to Brooklyn again after reaching the New York 
 Bide, but gave the job up after fighting the gale 
 Jor fifty minutes, and anchored with great 
 difiQculty at its pier on the New ¥ork side aloua 
 *he South JFerry slip. 
 
 "It's ten times worse than a foe." eaid an 
 old engineer on a Barclay street ferryboat. 
 '°* The danger of collision prevents the running 
 cf many boats, and they have to move slowly." 
 This was at S3i P. M., as the ferryboat, crowd- 
 •ed with passengers who had waited for upward 
 of an Ihour in the dark ferry house, moved 
 elowly out of the Barclay :street islipi OMy a 
 lewnersojiBwentured loutt <of the <cabins. and 
 tho.fie whom icoiriosity led to do so were nearly 
 •thrown flat upon the deck by the blast. 
 
 Nothing could describe the fury of the wind 
 ■or the Diaek desolation of the scene out on the 
 North River. The snow, driven by the wind, 
 made an impenetrable veil, which the sharpest 
 eye could not pierce more than 200 feet from 
 the boat. Here and there, as the wind lulled 
 'or shifted for an instant, another ferryboat 
 liuight be seen, looming spectre-like and alarm- 
 ingly near at hand. 
 
 The boats were then running on half-hour 
 intervals, but later in the afternoon they took 
 an hour's headway. In conseauence the crowds 
 were larger than usual. They were chiefly 
 composed of men and boys. Very few women 
 had ventured out. The boys seemed to take a 
 wild dohght m the raging elements and kept 
 up a continuous uproar of yells, cat calls, and 
 Jaughter. T hey were bound to get as much 
 fun out of the strange condition of things as 
 possible. For the rest a strange, bewildered, 
 feelpless look was on nearly every face, and the 
 
 more elderly men talked In subdued tones or 
 tried to appear unconcerned and calm. 
 
 The Koosevelt Street, Twenty-third Street, 
 and James Slip ferries stopped running before 
 the day was over. The passengers were so few 
 that it was hardly worth the while to run, and 
 the storm on the river so great that lor the 
 long runs that those ferries have to make the 
 trips were delayed and dangerous. The snow 
 deceived the pilots, and the wind blew them 
 out of their course. The two Williamsburgh 
 ferries that land at Grand street on this side 
 made their short cross-river trips without 
 much delay, except in the early hours. The 
 Grand Street Ferry lost three minutes a trip, 
 and the Broadway Ferry two minutes, on the 
 average. Few people travelled that way, 
 though. The cars did not run in Williams- 
 burgh, and scarcely 400 passengers cams 
 across from Grand street in the morning. 
 The usual number is between 3,000 and 
 4.000. Those that came over were dis- 
 mayed when they found ther street cars 
 on this side had stopped, too, and many of them 
 returned home on the nest boat. Those that 
 footed it up Grand street wished they hadn't. 
 They all returned early in the day, and by 6 
 o'clock the ferry was deserted. The gray- 
 bearded man who takes the fares for the 
 Grand Street Ferry had a lazy time. He says he 
 has been thirty-seven years in the company's 
 employ and does not remember so small a 
 day's business. He does not remember ever 
 seeing such a storm, either. 
 
 There were nine funerals booked for Brook- 
 lyn eemetaries which expected to cross this 
 ferry yesterday. They were all postponed. 
 Nearly as many more were going over 
 the Broadway ferry, and were postpohed. 
 The ferry to Broadway, Williamsburgh, is the 
 one specially used by the saleswomen who 
 make Grand street stores attractive. Hardly 
 100 crossed yesterday, against about 500 which 
 the ferry masters say is the usual number. 
 Most of those who came went right back as 
 soon as they found the cars on this side were 
 not running. 
 
 The boats of the Communipaw Ferry ran 
 regularly until nightfall, but at intervals of 
 hall an Hour, instead of every seven minutes. 
 In the afternoon, when it was officially an- 
 nounced that the Jersey Central had aban- 
 doned all trains, travel fell off, and all the boats 
 were withdrawn except the Plainfleld and 
 Communipaw. These made regular trips until 
 8 P. M. and quit. 
 
 With the exception of an hour from 9 to 
 10 A. M. yesterday cars ran on the Brooklyn 
 Bridge at intervals. The bridge was enduring 
 a severe test, but President Howell said that 
 not the slightest vibration was discovered in 
 the solid piers. A northwest storm does not 
 strike the bridge so fair as a southeast or 
 southwest, storm. Delay was caused by snow 
 and ice. Regular trains ran yesterday morn- 
 ing to 5:10, when the cable was started. For 
 two hours the cable did satisfactory work, but 
 before 8 o'clock snow and ice accumulated on 
 the tracks, and the momentum of the cars was 
 not sufficient to take them to the platforms. 
 Engines had to pull the trains into the stations. 
 The intervals between the trains grew longer, 
 and the crowd which every morning rides over 
 the bridge to New York was jammed up at the 
 entrance of the bridge on Sands street. 
 
 The string of people became so dense and 
 so vociferous that the police feared trouble, 
 and wooden bars were put up at the gate in 
 Iront of the ticket choppers after a crowd had 
 assenibled on the upper landing. The barriers 
 were broken down, and with a yell the crowd 
 burst through. They did not gain anything 
 by It except to get under cover. The situation 
 was made more vexatious by an accident on 
 the New York side. A train of three cars was 
 pulled by a motor from the north track a short 
 distance west, when the last car slipped off 
 from the icy rails, and it had to be raised with 
 
iaokscrews. This caused a delay of consider- 
 ably over half an hour. Meanwhile the Brooli- 
 lyn crowd of passengers waited. 
 
 The bridge promenade was closed at 6 o'clock 
 A. M. by order of Sergeant Phillips of the 
 bridge police. When the crowd was biggest in 
 front of the boxes a young man who said that 
 he was Mr. Barnes, and was Secretary of the 
 American Exchange, limited, at 162 Broadway, 
 and that he had walked from Greenpoint, 
 begged Sergeant Phillips to let him walk across 
 ■the bridge, because he feared he would lose 
 his place if he was late. Sergeant Phillips con- 
 sented, and the young man walked or rather 
 staggered across the bridge until he became 
 benumbed by cold and sore from being knock- 
 ed against the iron railings by the wind. The 
 policemen in their two snug houses under the 
 towers had been warned by Sergeant Phillips 
 by telephone to look out for Barnes. When 
 Barnes arrived over the land span in New York 
 he staggered and fell. Policemen followed 
 him, and as he did not rise they yanked him to 
 his feet and mai'ched him to the bridge en- 
 trance. Alone, he would have perished. 
 
 Some passengers secured cabs to ride across 
 and others climbed upon trucks. 
 
 Superintendent Martin arrived in the middle 
 ■of the forenoon in a cab and oi'dered the cable 
 to bo stopped, because the grips failed to hold. 
 Trains of two cars and two engines were put 
 on, and afterward three cars and two engines, 
 ■with a headway of from five to ten minutes. In 
 the afternoon the Brooklynites returning 
 caused a big and perpetual jam on the bridge 
 approaches in New York. Men, in their haste 
 to get into the cars, smashed car windows and 
 crushed each other's hats. 
 
 Superintendent Martin hired a gang of Ital- 
 ian laborers to keep the tracks clear, but most 
 of them deserted before night. 
 
 The bridge, on the whole, justified its crea- 
 tion yesterday. 
 
 €OZLISION IN THE STORM, AND AN 
 ENGINEISR KILLED. 
 
 One of the most distressing results of yes- 
 terday's storm was a collision upon the Third 
 avenue elevated road at Seventy-sixth street. 
 It occurred in the early morning when traffic 
 is usually heaviest, and, from accounts of eye- 
 witnesses, it is a wonder that no greater calam- 
 ity attended it than actually occurred. Only 
 one death resulted from the accident. Several 
 passengers were painfully injured, but no case 
 ■was serious enough to warrant sending the 
 victim to a hospital. 
 
 The collision occurred at 7:42 o'clock. Long 
 before this hour the violence of the storm had 
 Impeded the regular running of elevated trains, 
 and every down-town station was crowded 
 "with passengers. In some cases they had been 
 waiting an hour, for such trains as managed to 
 run over the slippery tracks made no bones of 
 passing stations if it happened to be inconve- 
 nient to stop. This Avas the case at Seventy- 
 sixth street, which is at the bottom of grades 
 running from Sixty-soventh street in one di- 
 rection and Eighty-fourth street in the other. 
 Nearly every train bound down town after day- 
 break went by Seventy-sixth street at full 
 speed in order to have force enough to climb 
 the succeeding grade to Sixty-seventh street. 
 It seems that it was understood by many of the 
 engineers on the road that Seventy-sixth street 
 ■would be passed without stopping, and in the 
 confusion resulting from interference by the 
 storm with telegraph wires, it proved impos- 
 sible for the general train despatcher to keep 
 the various stations and train engineers accu- 
 rately informed regarding the progress of 
 trains on the down-town track. 
 
 About twenty minutes past 7 a train stopped 
 at Seventy-sixth street. It was so crowded, 
 and so many people were waiting on the plat- 
 form to got aboard, that the engineer pulled all 
 the cars Out one beyond the southern end of 
 the platform. A scramble for places followed, 
 and the rear platform was quickly filled to the 
 utmost capacity. Then the train waited for 
 more than twenty minutes, because the track 
 was so full of trains ahead that it was impos- 
 sible to proceed up the grade to th« next sta- 
 tion until the way was clear. 
 
 Meantime another train drawn by two en- 
 gines was crawling slowly over the track on 
 its way down town. It was conducted by John 
 Harty of 74 East 104th street. The engineer of 
 the forward motor was Samuel Towle of 
 Ninety-sixth street and Lexington avenue, and 
 the fireman was Martin Byrne. John O'Con- 
 nor of 143 East 113th street, was one of the 
 guards. When this train arrived at Eighty- 
 fourth street it had been twenty minutes since 
 the last preceding down-town train and the 
 engineer decided not to stop at Seventy-sixth 
 street for fear that, if he did, he would not be 
 able to climb the next grade. He therefore put 
 on all steam down the grade and approached 
 the Seventy-sixth street station at a speed 
 much greater than that usually attained \i7 
 elevated trains. 
 
 All who attempted to traverse the streets 
 yesterday know that the wind drove the snow 
 so furiously through the air that it was impos- 
 sible to see the distance of one short block. 
 The forward engineer of the down coming 
 train, therefore, could not see the train at a 
 standstill just beyond the Seventy-sixth street 
 station until he was almost upon it. The engi- 
 neer of the forward train saw the danger of a 
 collision at the same moment, and immediately 
 endeavored to start his train southward out of 
 the way. He had not succeeded in making a 
 start before the crash came. 
 
 The engineer and fireman of the second 
 engine of this train jumped from their 
 motor when thay saw the inevitable accident, 
 and saved themselves by clinging to the tressle, 
 Towle and Byrne of the leading engine, how- 
 ever, stuck to their posts and did everything 
 possible to render the collision less damaging. 
 Towle's engine tore its way well into the rear 
 car of the forward train, and the shock was so 
 great that both the motor and the car were. 
 lifted from the track into the air. They came 
 down nearly upon the rails. The second en- 
 gine of the colliding train broke the forward 
 tender ail to pieces, and drove it forward so 
 that Engineer Towle was pinned between it 
 and the boiler of his engine. Byrne escaped 
 with a severe shaking up. He was able to ren- 
 der some assistance in the work of rescue. 
 
 When the persons upon the rear platform of 
 the forward train saw the engines dashing at 
 them through the driving clouds of snow, they 
 jumped over the gates to the platform, or 
 crowded frantically into the densely packed 
 car. Several women were among the passen- 
 gers of the forward train, but their screams 
 were drowned by the cries of the men. Th© 
 conductor and guards wore prompt to assure 
 the passengers that all danger was at an end 
 the moment the shock was over, and nearly 
 everybody quieted at once and went out of the 
 cars in a fairly orderly manner. They jumped: 
 down upon the tressle and made their way' 
 back to the station platform without extraor- 
 dinary excitement, and some of them fell to 
 work in helping Engineer Towle from his ter- 
 rible situation. His cries of pain wore plainly 
 audible over the clamoring of the frightened 
 passengers. 
 
 The people in the colliding train behaved in 
 a very different manner. Several through 
 fright or thoughtless mischief raised a cry of 
 fire, and the excitement was unbounded. As 
 soon as the passengers could recover their feet 
 after the shock they forced their way out by 
 whatever means was readiest. Windows were 
 broken on both sides of the cars, and men 
 crawled through the openings thus made, glad 
 
or any escape however perilous from what tliey 
 believed to be greater danger. 
 
 Those on the platform were in wild confu- 
 Bion, and lor several minutes little was done 
 toward aiding the wounded. It was not until 
 Police Captain Gunner of the Sixty-seventh 
 street station arrived with several men that 
 systematic efforts to quell the panic and care 
 for the wounded were made. Then several 
 men went to work with axes to clear away the 
 wreck that imprisoned Engineer Towle. This 
 work was speedily accomplished, and th6 body 
 of the unfortunate man was lifted to the sta- 
 tion platform. A moment later he died, and 
 his body was soon afterward removed to the 
 station house, and thence to his home. 
 
 Never has there been such a day as yester- 
 day in the history of the elevated railroads. It 
 was not supposed that a snow storm could 
 seriously affect travel on the trestles, but be- 
 fore 10 o'clock all attempt at regularity in des- 
 patching and running trains was abandoned, 
 and not one-tenth of the number of trains 
 iisually in progress on the roads were in mo- 
 tion. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon notices were 
 put out that no trains were running. A little 
 before dark these notices reached the np-town 
 stations. They were chestnuts then. In some 
 cases the agents continued to sell tickets to 
 all who had faith to buy until the formal no- 
 tice from below was received that gave au- 
 thority to suspend nickel gathering. 
 
 There were three leading elements in the 
 difficulties that beset the elevated railroad 
 men. First, though not necessarily most im- 
 portant, was the slipperiness of the rails, which 
 rendered it difficult and dangerous to round 
 curves, and almost impossible to climb steep 
 grades, or stop Tithin the required bounds at 
 stations. For this reason alone trains were 
 obliged to move slowly and with added caution 
 on account of the blinding, whirling snow 
 which hid all objects at less than a 
 block away. Secondly, the snow really 
 had a chance at the elevated struc- 
 tures where, as at 14:5th street, west, and 
 .Eighty-ninth street, east, there are many sid- 
 lings on which cars and engines are stored 
 during the inactive hours of the night. At such 
 places trains are made up in the morning to 
 take passengers down town, and yesterday 
 morning when the employees of the elevated 
 road came to get cars and engines they found 
 great drifts in front of them. These had to be 
 cleared away before anything could be done, and 
 as the wind heaped up the snow almost as fast 
 as it could be cleared away, a considerable de- 
 lay was unavoidable in despatching trains 
 from the northern end of the island. Third, 
 great difficulty was experienced in working the 
 switches, because the snow was packed by the 
 wind into the crevices between the rails like 
 solid ice. and it required a special force of 
 men with brooms and pails of salt water 
 to keep the movable rails In working 
 order. Even as the men labored at 
 this branch of the work the salt 
 water froze in the pails, and whenever 
 a train arrived at a terminus it took several 
 minutes of patient, hard endeavor to loosen 
 the rails so that the switch could be thrown 
 over. To all these causes for delay should be 
 added the influence oi inertia, for once a block- ' 
 ade is begun on a system of tracks, every min- 
 ute adds to it, and a delay is bound to increase 
 in force from hour to hour, just as a train gains 
 speed in running down a grade. 
 
 ON THE WKS'£ SIDE. 
 
 Although many less passengers went to the 
 stations on the west side north of Fifty-ninth 
 street than usual, the platforms became 
 crowded by 9 o'clock, for few of such trains as 
 came along stopped at the appointed intervals. 
 
 It 6ften happened that passengers wa-it- 
 e'i upward of half an hour for a, 
 train to arrive only to be refused en- J 
 trance to it when finally stopped at a station, i 
 The express train which takes passengers 
 from the New York and Northern road 
 to the Battery with few stops en route, waited 
 for an hour beyond its schedule time for any 
 train to arriae from the north at 155th street. 
 Two trains of this kind are run on the west 
 Bide via Ninth avenue, the first leaving at 8 
 and the second at 9 o'clock. The second did not 
 attempt the trip yesterday. Way trains along 
 the Ninth avenue division, south of Fifty- 
 ninth street, ran with reasonable regularity 
 until nearly 10 A. M., and a few hundred pas- 
 sengers were therefore fortunate enough to get 
 to their places of business nearly on time. But 
 these were only those who lived near Fifty- 
 ninth street, for at that station all southward 
 bound trains were densely crowded, and few 
 were admitted at other stations. Some of the 
 trains were so heavily loaded that the bodies 
 of the cars were depressed until the flanges of 
 the wheels grated against the floors. As there 
 are no sharp curves on that line the trains 
 moved at nearly their schedule speed until the 
 general blockade affected the division. Traffic 
 was substantially suspended on Ninth avenue 
 at noon. , , , , 
 
 Trains on Sixth avenue were blocked much 
 earlier on account of the curves, and the 
 greater demand for transportation on that di- 
 vision. At ten minutes past 10 a train stopped 
 at Twenty-third street, and after a wait of sev- 
 eral minutes the guards announced that there 
 was a solid block of trains extending south- 
 ward as far as Chambers street. Most of th» 
 " standees" and a few of the others promptly 
 left the train, and proceeded the rest of tha 
 way down town on foot. At that station th© 
 ticket agent had sensibly closed the gate to 
 iis offlce, so that patrons were not induced to 
 buy tickets and endure a hopeless wait upon 
 the chilly platform. 
 
 At half-past 10 there was a narrow escape 
 from an accident similar to that which resulted 
 BO fatally at Seventy-sixth street on the east 
 side. A downward train was pulling into the 
 station when the engineer saw directly in front 
 of him the rear car of another train. He had 
 not been informed that the blockade extended 
 so far north. He applied the brakes at once, 
 but on account of the slipperyness of thetracka 
 they had little effect, and the result was that 
 his engine bumped smartly against the plat- 
 form of the car in front. A general fright en- 
 sued in both trains, but there were no injuries 
 recorded either to people or rolling stock. 
 
 The passengers on tne trains south of Twen- 
 ty-third street who were imprisoned in cars 
 that stood on the elevated structure between 
 stations waited for hours for progress or relief. 
 Some of them took the risk of getting out and 
 walking over the ties to the nearest station, 
 whence they made their way to the street. 
 Most of them remained in the cars. About 1 
 o'clock Capt. Copeland of the Ninth polica 
 precinct on Charles street became aware 
 of the situation and communicated to Super- 
 inte^-dent Murray. A detail of policemen 
 was then sent to that part of the road lying be- 
 tween Eight and Fourteenth streets, where the 
 blockade was thickest, and long ladders were 
 carried there. These were placed against the 
 trestle, and by means of these the passengers 
 were slowly taken to the ground. Some en- 
 terprising residents of the vicinity took a cu© 
 from this, and added their endeavors to the 
 work of rescue, charging five cents a head for 
 passengers who were relieved from their aerial 
 captivity by private ladders. 
 
 Rumors of every kind were afloat during the 
 afternoon and they grew to great proportions 
 as the news spread about the collision at Sev- 
 enty-sixth street. The most striking and start- 
 ling report said that a train had been blown 
 off the track at the great curve on the west side 
 line between 110th and 105th streets. This 
 was utterly without foundation, as no trains 
 had passed over that section of the road since 
 10 o'clock. As the blockade was gradually re- 
 lieved on lower Sixth avenue, or the company 
 ceased to try to run trains, a few cars were sent 
 northward with workmen on board to look 
 after the switches and keep the tracks as clear 
 as possible. ,_ - . 
 
THE EAST SIDE LINES. 
 
 The condition of things was little, if any, bet- 
 ter on the Second and Third avenue divisions 
 than on the west side. The accident at Sev- 
 enty-sixth street brought about an immediate 
 suspension of traffic on Third avenue, but for 
 two or three hours after after it occurred there 
 Avere blockades at the south, especially along 
 the Bowery. It was discovered early in the 
 [day that any attempt to run trains to South 
 Ferry would result in forming a solid blockade 
 south of Chatham square, and about noon the 
 agents at the down-town stations were 
 notified that no trains would be run 
 'below Grand street. At irregular intervals, 
 however, trains were despatclied from the City 
 *,Hall station, but passengers were warned that 
 they might not be able to get any further than 
 Chatham square. After the middle of the day 
 there was no attempt made to run trains to the 
 north on Third avenue, but the stations were 
 besieged with people who wanted to get back 
 'to Harlem, or to the Thirty-fourth street ferry, 
 or to the Grand Central Depot. Importunate 
 passengers who hunted up Train Despatcher 
 Carroll of the City Hall station were informed 
 thtit their only chance for getting to Harlem 
 was to walk to the Grand street station of the 
 ■Second avenue division, whence trains would 
 he sent north at intervals of " when they could." 
 
 " They won't stop this side of Sixth street." 
 «aid Mr. Carroll. 
 
 In consequence of this information and the 
 general knowledge that trains were running 
 <m Second avenue, a great crowd of pushing, 
 frost-bitten, but good-humored passengers 
 gathered upon the Grand street platform. 
 Trains of two cars were sent out toward Har- 
 lem as fast as trains from the north came in 
 and the switches could be operated, and there 
 wiTo cccasinal delavs from broken couplings 
 that had to be replaced. Even at this the cars 
 were run nearly beyond the depot, so that 
 only the rear platform was available for 
 entrance. In struggling for a place many of 
 the passengers fell to the trestle and there 
 were narrow escapes from tumbles into the 
 street. Mr. Carroll's word was nearly correct. 
 Xo stops were made on most of the trains short 
 of Thirty-fourth street, and a howling mob of 
 disappointed ticket-buying patrons was left on 
 the platforms of the more southern stations. 
 Even when stops were made it was only to lot 
 passengers ofl', and the engineer drew the 
 trains to points several rods from the plat- 
 form, so that passengers had to get down to 
 the narrow walk alongside the rail and walk 
 back. There was often an interval of forty-five 
 minutes between trains on Second avenue 
 going up town, although the down trains ran 
 more frequently. 
 
 At the headquarters of the elevated roads 
 there was the usual ignorance of what was go- 
 ing on on the various divisions. At 2 o'clock 
 P. M. no one there had heard of the accident at 
 Seventy-sixth street. Manager Hain was at 
 home sick, and the Superintendent was out 
 trying to untangle the snarl on Sixth avenue. 
 tktinct to bkeak through. 
 
 Late in the afternoon trains began running 
 on the Ninth avenue elevated road, starting 
 from the yards near the upper terminus. First 
 a single train was despatched with a double- 
 header, and it worked its way down at a very 
 s!i iw rate, for there were numei'ous drifts, and 
 whenever one was encountered the engines 
 had to back for a distance and then advance 
 with all the steam turned on. Soon after the 
 first train other ti-ains were sent out at inter- 
 ■vals of a few minutes to keep the track clear 
 (if the shifting snow. Before 9 o'clock the way 
 was iipen as far down as Fiftieth street on the 
 Sixth avenue line, and for some tin^e all the 
 trains were reversed on a switch just above tliis 
 point, and they returned on tlie eastern track 
 ti. Harlem. All the stations above Fiftietli 
 street were crowded with people who bought 
 tickets and dropped them into the box, only to 
 find that the trains carried no passengers, 
 although they stopped at every station for 
 more than a minute. Many of the people 
 waited for several hours and then went away, 
 forfeiting their fare. The road for once made 
 quite as much by carrying no passengers at all 
 as when the cars are crowded to the platforms. 
 Later in the evening, the tnick^ was cleared 
 
 on a considerable portion of the Sixth avenue 
 line, o 
 
 The Brush Electric Light Company sent word 
 to Fire Headquarters that they would bo able 
 to light up only Broadway and Sixth avenue as 
 far as Twenty-eighth street. All their other 
 circuits would be closed at 7 o'clock. Thirty- 
 fourth street was in utter darkness from 
 Broadway to the East Piiver after 7 o'clock. 
 
 A reporter of The Sun, who had an early 
 assignment requiring his presence in the lower 
 part of the city, had what seemed to him a 
 very unpleasant experience of elevated rapid 
 transit under the conditions of yesterday, but 
 it was one that was shared by at least 50,000 
 other New Yorkers at the same time. He 
 reached the Eighteenth street down-town sta- 
 tion on Sixth avenue a little after 8 o'clock 
 A. M. No train was in sight, and he was told 
 that " no train had come down for thirty-five 
 minutes," and " none had gone up for a h — of a 
 while." After some ten minutes of waiting a 
 down train slowly crawled to the station. It 
 was loaded to the muzzle. There were some 
 persons aboard who wanted to get off there. 
 To enable them to do so, the men nearest th« 
 gates had to climb over them to the statioa 
 platform before the gates could be opened. 
 Three trains similarly laden came in, and 
 moved out with their seats, aisles, and plat- 
 forms so packed that not even one small boy 
 more could have got aboard. 
 
 The train moved down a little below Seven- 
 teenth street and stopped. It stayed there 
 more than two hours. Then it moved ten feet 
 and stopped another hour; ten feet more and 
 another hour ; finally to a little below Sixteenth 
 street, and there it stuck until 5 minutes be- 
 fore 3 o'clock. 
 
 Meanwhile, men took some desperate meas- 
 ures to reach the Fourteenth street station, 
 less than two blocks away, or tne street. A 
 few clambered out on the west side of the cars 
 to the foot-wide top of the iron wall, almost 
 level with the car platforms, and, balancing 
 upon it, supi)orting themselves against the 
 cars, walked to the station iilatform. Many 
 got out on the east side and walked the ties 
 to the same point. The ties were slippery, 
 and, such was the force of the gale 
 much of the time. that those who 
 attempted these perilous feats were 
 in imminent danger of being blown 
 from the track into the street, and found them- 
 selves compelled to go on their hands and 
 knees. The blinding force of the drifting snow 
 lent an additional peril to the desperate en- 
 deavor, particvilarly at the moments of great- 
 est risk, when the escaping victim of the train 
 let himself down to feel with his I as for the 
 single connecting tie between the down and up 
 tracks, and when turning on that scant perch 
 he made his plunge for the ties of the up track 
 beyon'^.. 
 
 6 After a long time somebody in the street 
 raised a ladder. It was too short to reach the 
 track. To get on it one had to swing down and 
 grope with his toes for its topmost round, see- 
 ing nothing, numbed and confused by the ele- 
 mental rage about him and the cold, hustled 
 by others behind and himself crowding others 
 in front, in such eager haste on the part of all 
 that the ladder was kept full of descending 
 men for some time. 
 
 Then a darky brought two ladders lashed to- 
 gether and so made long enough to t-xtend 
 above the side wall of the track, so that it was 
 comparatively easy of access. He charged 
 twenty-five cents for each descent by his route, 
 standing at the top of the ladder and collect- 
 ing from each person, shouting from time to 
 time, "Look out dah down b'low, Wil'm; hole 
 date laddah fas; ketch dis umboril ; don't let de 
 laddah slip." and caught not less than $40 from 
 his eager patrons. One woman, a brave, ad- 
 venturous little lady of middle age, who had a 
 
very businesslilcf air, -went down by the ladder. 
 
 With what astonishinerly good nature "that 
 train load of people waited! There were men 
 aboard who had started before 8 o'clock from 
 125th street and had important business down 
 town, but they took the situation philosophi- 
 cally, joking over its discomforts and making 
 new and often apparently agreeable acQuaiu- 
 tances in their all-around good-humored chat. 
 There wei-e a few ladies aboard, who were 
 going down town to business and had their 
 lunches with them, and, after four or five hours 
 of imprisonment, they appeared to find no little 
 comfort in that fact. 
 
 At one time, the mathematical fiend, who 
 seems to infest every place, came near creating 
 some alarm and was evidently proportionately 
 happy. He figured that there were not less 
 than eighty trains on the downtown track, con- 
 sisting of five cars each, with an average of 100 
 passengers in each car, who— as they were 
 nearly all men— might be averaged at 150 
 pounds weight each. That would give a total 
 of 3,000 tons of human beings, in addition to 
 the enormous weight of the rolling stock, and 
 engines and snow, all on one side of the struc- 
 ture, and, he said, " it would be nothing 
 strange if the whole business slumped over 
 sidewise into the street." But as 
 people obsei'ved .that it didn't slump 
 they appeared to become aecustomea to the 
 situation ana resigned to take their chances. 
 Then he went to figuring on how many woul4 
 be likely to get deadly pneumonia fi-om the 
 savage draughts of air through the ears, 
 caused by the incessant rushes, to and fro, of 
 desperate men looking for ladders or some 
 other way of getting out of their trap. At every 
 minute the door, at one or the other end of the 
 car, would be dragged open and the storm 
 would rush in with a scream, dashing its bur- 
 den of snow into people's faces almost half the 
 length of the car. To add to the gen- 
 eral discomfort and emphasize the math- 
 ematical fiend's calculations, the engineer, 
 to economize his steam, shut off the heat from 
 the cars, and a North Pole temperature pre- 
 vailed. The windows were coated thickly with 
 ice, so that only by vigorous scraping of them 
 could a glimpse of the street be obtained. Still, 
 people smiled at the idea of pneumonia, kept 
 up a vigorous stamping, buttoned their coats 
 more tightly, and joked. 
 
 "If we could only smoke, this situation would 
 be a little more endurable," suggested some- 
 body in the car where the reporter was, and 
 the suggestion awoke a chorus of assent. 
 _ " Happy thought!" suggested somebody else, 
 "for the company's rules prescribe that any- 
 body who smokes shall be put off the train, and 
 that being what we all want, we should all 
 smoke." 
 
 There were five ladies in the car. The first 
 one asked if she would object to smoking, said 
 very pleasantly: 
 
 "Not at all; I would be happy to see you gen- 
 tlemen find some mitigatton of our common 
 discomfort." The second said: 
 
 "No; I wish I could smoke with you," The 
 third replied: 
 
 " Certainly ; I am not so selfish as to deny to 
 others a pleasure that I cannot share." 
 
 The fourth also gave pleasant and ready 
 consent. 
 
 A consensus of opinion reached the eonclu- 
 Bion among the would-be smokers at the fur- 
 ther end of the car from where the fifth woman 
 was that she was too hard to get at to be ask- 
 ed, and she looked as if she could stand smoke, 
 or pretty much anything else, so the ventila- 
 tors above were opened, and a few cigars and 
 cigarettes were lighted. 
 
 Instantly a little ferret-faced fellow with a 
 red nose, who announced himself as being in 
 company with the fifth woman, made a tu- 
 multuous kick. He declared that the smoke 
 made her very sick, that she was almost faint- 
 ing, and he seemed upon the verge of apoplexy. 
 The cigars and cigarettes were extinguished 
 in deference to the woman, and a gloom set- 
 tled down over the previously jolly party. 
 
 Then everybody voiced the opinion that the 
 person responsible for such outrageous man- 
 agement of the trains must be an immeasura- 
 ble and unspeakable ass; that during the six 
 hours of waiting it would have been easy to 
 
 know what the chances were for forwardhgr 
 trains and to back all trains up a little to sta- 
 tion platforms, so that passengers desiring to 
 escape from the infernal trap might do so : and 
 that the sooner an underground rapid transit 
 was afl'orded for New York the better. 
 
 Everybody was in a bad humor when at 
 length the train was backed up to the Eigh- 
 teenth street station again and emptied in- 
 stantly of all but the train hands. It took the 
 reporter just six hours and twenty-five min- 
 utes to go two and a half blocks and back 
 ■again by rapid transit on the elevated railroad, 
 
 BITS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 The Man frum Omaha Helpa BesuIIe the 
 Way Bown leTv^n. 
 
 Among' the passengers waitingr for a train 
 ; at the Eighty-first street station of the Sixth 
 avenue elevated railroad at 9 o'clock yesterday 
 morning was a tall, stout man in a long Irish 
 frieze overcoat and a high silk hat. He was 
 ruddy and bluflf, and had a voice like a steam 
 whistle. The big waiting room was crowded, 
 and this gentleman took the responsibility of 
 advising everybody else what to do. 
 
 Most of the crowd had been there for nearly 
 three-auarters of an hour. A train had passed 
 in the mean time, but the crowd had been in- 
 • duced not to attempt to board it by the con- 
 ductor, who assured the people that there was 
 I another train right behind, and that he had to 
 hurry up for fear of a collision. A half hour 
 had passed, and the expected train had not< 
 I appeared. 
 
 " After a careful consideration of that con- 1 
 ductor's statement," said the stout man, " I am; 
 forced to the conclusion that he lied with 
 malice aforethought. Was it for our sakes that - 
 he gave us a bluff about another train coming ' 
 right along ? No 1 Then why did he do it ? Be- 
 cause he was born a liar, and had to lie be- 
 cause he couldn't help it. I have a present- 
 ment that a complaint is going to be lodged' 
 against that man, and that my name is going; 
 ,to be signed to it. When I was in Omaha, in. 
 1869, a blizzard struck me late one night on a 
 big prairie— a blizzard and a snow storm, and 
 jthey raged for thirty-six hours. What saved. 
 me ? Matches ! I had a lot of sulphur matches 
 iin mypocket. and when I saw the storm comins 
 'I whipped off all my clothes ana rubbed the 
 [phosphorus over every portion of my body un- 
 |til I shone like a monster glowworm. Then I 
 
 lUt myself 
 
 I There was the rumble of a train, and through) 
 |the whirling clouds of snow the black front of 
 I an engine was seen wearily puffing along. 
 j " Follow me," shouted the big man, as he 
 'surged up toward the south end of the plat- 
 form. The crowd followed. The first words of 
 'the conductor were: 
 
 I " Don't be in a hurry, gents, another train, 
 will be along in two minutes, and it is empty."" 
 
 " No, you don't," yelled the mob, " open this 
 here gate." 
 
 The big man receded to the outskirts of the- 
 crowd and shouted: 
 
 " He's a liar; J^orce that gate." 
 
 The gate was opened and the people pushed 
 their way on board. The big man was almost 
 there when he was thrust back, the gate was 
 banged to, and the starting bell rang. As the 
 ti-ain moved away a chorus of " Ah, there, 
 Omaha!" was shouted by the fortunate ones. 
 
 A_peculiarity of the jammed, trodden upon, 
 and helpless passengers was their extreme 
 good nature. You couldn't offend them, and 
 no matter what happened, they only laughed. 
 The first car was packed so close that it was 
 impossible to move. 
 
 '■ Come in and shut the door." cried a man in. 
 the middle of the car. 
 
y "Move up," was the derisive answer, and 
 there was a yell of laughter. 
 
 "Let go ol my loot!" screamed a boy in 
 agony. 
 
 "Change for Ninth avenue trains," bawled 
 the conductor at Fifty-ninth street. 
 
 "Are there any Ninth avenue trains?" asked 
 a passenger. 
 
 " Loads." 
 
 At this unexpected answer a dozen confiding 
 individuals left the train. 
 
 At Twenty-eighth street a man in the centre 
 of the train cried out: 
 
 " 1 want to get out at Twenty-eighth street. 
 What station is this V" 
 
 Half a dozen voices promptly replied. "Thir- 
 ty-third." 
 
 " Oh. no: don't deceive the poor man," said a 
 woman. " Tliis is Twenty-eighth street." 
 
 The man tried to got out, but it was impos- 
 sible, and he finally gave it up. 
 
 At the Twenty-third street station the con- 
 ductor said : 
 
 " You can take your choice and get out here 
 or take your chance of getting down town. 
 There's a block just below here." About a 
 dozen men got out, and those who didn't were 
 afterward seen trudging back to the station on 
 the ice-covered tracks. 
 
 A few Broadway cars were sent out from 
 the Fiftieth street stables at 5 A. M. yesterday 
 with two drivers on the front platform of each 
 and four horses. Then the snow plough was 
 sent out. But the wind blew the snow back on 
 the tracks. 
 
 The cars frequently ran off the track and 
 were dragged through the snow. At times the 
 horses tugged in vain to move the car, and 
 drivers and conductors were often assisted to 
 put cars on the track by passengers. More 
 frequently cars were abandoned, and the 
 drivers unhitched their horses and drove back 
 to the stables. Oars were left standing from 
 Broadway to ihe Battery. 
 
 In the afternoon Superintendent Neville sent 
 out horses to draw the cars to the stable. Con- 
 ductors and drivers remained in the stables. 
 Superintendent Neville said: 
 
 "Our most serious difficulty is the wind, 
 which blow the snow on the tracks. The 
 horses suffer terribly. It is impossible to keep 
 the cars running. I do not know when busi- 
 ness will be resumed." 
 
 The Avenue C and Pavonia Ferry Eailroad 
 and the Chambers street road stopped running 
 after thev had sent out a few cars. A few ears 
 on the Seventh avenue road were sent out but 
 they were called in. The Sixth avenue road 
 began early to send out cars, and after an 
 hour's experiment recalled them. 
 
 An attempt was made about 8 P. M. to open 
 the road for traffic. A snow plough drawn by 
 ten horses and manned by a score of men was 
 sent out, but the wheels could not be kepd on 
 the tracks, and the attempt was given up. 
 ■ On cross-town roads the south track was free . 
 of snow, while the north was buried in mounds 
 five feet deep. 
 
 The Avenue B line sent out only one car. and 
 that only to save its charter. 
 
 Car 47 of the Second avenue line was aban- 
 doned about 7 P. M. in Clinton street, near 
 Grand street. At 8 o'clock not a street ear 
 could be had anywhere on the east side. Cars 
 half buried in the snow were seen here and 
 there. Some were filled with women and boys, 
 who found in them a temporary shelter. 
 
 Travel on the Third avenue surface road 
 was entirely suspended. The last ear left Six- 
 ty-seventh street depot at 9 A. M. The big 
 plough was sent to Harlem Bridge early in tlie 
 morning with ten horses attached. Several 
 cars were made ready to follow it. but they did 
 not reach l'25th street. More horses were sent 
 for, and six came up from the depot, but all 
 sixteen ot them failed to drag the plough 
 further than 111th street, and there the crew 
 had to leave it on the track. 
 
 Five ears of the Third avenue line were aban- 
 doned at various points between the depot and 
 City Hall. 
 
 On the Second avenue surface road fifteen 
 cars were abandoned in various parts of the 
 road. 
 
 On the Fourth Avenue Bailroad no ears were 
 running after 10 A. M. In the middle of the 
 Fourth avenue tunnel at Thirty-fourth street 
 was a series of big snow drifts. 
 
 When the storm began ten night cars were 
 running on the Eighth Avenue Railroad. All 
 but five of these were called in and the teams 
 were doubled. About 4 o'clock these were 
 taken off, and three snow ploueha, with ten. 
 horses each, were sent out, but snow eovennl 
 the tracks again in so short a time that nothing 
 further was done. No day cars were sent out 
 at 6 A. M. or afterward. 
 
 The Ninth avenue line mns no ears late at 
 night, but at S!4 yesterday momioj; it sent a 
 enow plough up to 116th street for the purpose 
 of getting the track ready for day traffic, which 
 was to begin at 6 A. M. When the plough re- 
 turned from the upper terminns the track that 
 had been cleared was just as bad as the oth^r, 
 and 60 it was decided to run no ears 
 during the day on the section above 
 Fifty-fourth street ; but at 6 o'clock the snow 
 plow started down town, getting as far as Canal 
 street. Ten cars were sent out at intervals ot 
 a few minutes after it. One of them g:ot as far 
 as Canal street and got stuck, end the other 
 nine stopped at points between Canal streeft 
 and the stables. Extra horses had to be p-cnt 
 out to bring back both the plough and the cars, 
 and the last one was towed into the barns at 
 11 o'clock. 
 
 Whistling:, screeching, and howling around 
 the top stories of the Fire Headquarters build- 
 ing till it almost drowned the voices of Assist- 
 ant Superintendent Farrell and Secretary Jud- 
 son, the blizzard seemed to mock at their dis- 
 comfiture, and glory in the destruction it was 
 doing in their department. Until 4 P. M. only 
 two alarms of fire were received, ine first 
 alarm from Sixteenth street and First avenue, 
 aiad one from the box nearest the accident on 
 the Third avenue "L"road. This latter call 
 was a precautionary measure in case of the 
 cars catching fire. At all engine houses order."* 
 were i-eceived to have four horses ready to 
 hitch to steamers and trucks, and two to carts. 
 
 " This is the worst storm we have ever had," 
 said Mr. Farrell to a Sun reporter, " Wires are 
 down all over the city. There are now d P. M.) 
 75 boxes out of order below Houston street, 
 100 between there and here (Sixty-seventh 
 street), and 200 north of us. There are 1,000 
 boxes in the city altogether. In case of fire 
 there are some districts that we could not 
 reach at all, but most of the fire companies can 
 be reached by us by the gong, telephone, or 
 combination circuit. The latter is worked by 
 a Morse key and sounder. The chief trotible 
 we have to encounter is the falling of telegraph 
 poles across our wires, and we hear there are 
 many down in all parts of the city. With a 
 force of twenty-five men to work on the poles 
 and thirty more ground hands, I think we shall 
 be able to have the wires in good condition 
 again in less than twelve hours after the storm 
 subsides." 
 
 At the request of Chief Shay, through such 
 police wires as were working and by polieo 
 mes.'^engers, all police station houses were 
 notified to instruct policemen to be watchful 
 for fires, and in case of the discovery of a fire 
 not only to send out the alarm, but to go to tha 
 nearest engine house. 
 
 Communication between Police Headquar- 
 ters and stations was badly broken up. Out of 
 the thirty-five precincts only seven were able 
 to telegraph to Central Office. These were in 
 Leonard street, Elizabeth street. Prince street, 
 Charles street, Mulberry street, and West Thir- 
 
tletn streeT;, and oh Pier 31, North Eiver. Oc- 
 casionally East Twenty-second street and East 
 Thirty-fifth street were able to use the wires. 
 The others employed DOlii36men to carry de- 
 spatches to Headquarters. One policeman 
 came from High Bridge and another walked all 
 the way from West 100th street. Both left 
 Headquarters with the expectation of walking 
 back. 
 
 In the afternoon notification was received at 
 Police Headquarters that the electric light 
 companies would be unable to work their 
 plants. The information was imparted to po- 
 licemen who went on post at 6 o'clock, with in- 
 structions not to leave their posts to report 
 lights out. and to answer all qaestions of night 
 ])edestriaDS on the subject. A good many lights 
 ■worked, after iill. 
 
 An effort was made to mend the disconnect- 
 ed police wires. Linemen were sent out to sev- 
 eral points. They scaled a number of poles in 
 the hope of repairing damage, but the storm 
 raged so furiously that they were unable to do 
 .anything, and their perilous undertakings 
 brought no benefit to the Police Department. 
 
 A lineman went on the roof of Police Head- 
 quarters to -straighten out the wires there. He 
 came down looking like an icicle. 
 
 Five plays new to the city were to have 
 been acted at as many theatres last night. 
 Circumstances over which the actors had no 
 control necessitated a postponement of aU of 
 these "first nights." They were Eobert B. 
 Mantell in "Monbars" at the Fifth Avenue, 
 Maggie Mitchell in "Maggie, the Midget," at 
 the Fourteenth Street; Ludwig Barnay. the 
 German tragedian, in "Kean" at the Academy; 
 "Town and Country" at Wallack's. and Herr 
 Bandmanu in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" at 
 Kiblo's. 
 
 At 5 o'clock Herr Barnay's managers an- 
 nounced that the blizzard, was of no conse- 
 quence so far as they were concerned, and that 
 Herr Barnay would surely make his bow in the 
 Academy of Music as announced. It is under- 
 stood that the management was all ready at 
 8 o'clock, and that the entire company were on 
 hand, having been brought from their lodgings 
 in $15 cabs. But the blizzard was greater 
 than the management thought. It had 
 been circumvented by the actors, but the 
 audience had not taken the same pains, and 8 
 o'clock found precisely twelve per.sons sitting 
 in the body of the house. In the galleries 
 there were not more than 100, and in view of 
 this meagre attendance the stage manager was 
 constrained to announce that HerrBaruay's 
 performance would be postponed. Many of 
 those who had braved the storm wei-e keenly 
 grieved, and expressed their ieelings roundly. 
 But there was no help for it. The manage- 
 ment bad come up bravely, but the blizzard 
 won. 
 
 Daly's, the Star, and Dockstader's were the 
 only Broadway theatres at which perform- 
 ances were given. Daly's contained about 150 
 people, who saw a good performance of "A Mid- 
 summer Wight's Dream." though there were 
 one or two changes in the cast, necessitated by 
 the non-arrival at the theatre of actors in the 
 company. 
 
 About 100 people were in Pastor'.s. Mana- 
 ger Harry Sanderson said he gave a perform- 
 ance because ho thought it only fair treatment 
 to those who had braved, the storm to attend 
 the show. All but two of the performers on the 
 programme appeared. Maggie Cliue was ready 
 to play, but her wnrdrobe trunk had failed to 
 arrive at the theatre. 
 
 Irving and Miss Terry went to the Star in a 
 carnage, and "Eaust" was nluyed to a sparse 
 yudience. At Daly's,a few people asked to have 
 
 their rdoney refunded. The house had been 
 sold in advance. Corlnne was singing Tow- 
 Tom in " Arcadia," at Dockstader's to a pretty 
 good house— considering the blizzard. Some 
 people in her company, however, were missing. 
 
 The Standard and Niblo's had notices to the 
 effect that tickets for Monday would be ex- 
 changed to-night. Harrigan's, the Bijou, Wal- 
 lack's, Fifth Avenue, Casino, and the New 
 Broadway were dark. 
 
 The Bowery houses were deserted. No show 
 was given at the Thalia nor the People's, where 
 Nat Goodwin was to have opened a week's en- 
 gagement. 
 
 The financial loss to the theatres will be 
 about $20,000 on last night alone. Two or three 
 managers displayed shrewd business tact. 
 These were notably Irving and Augustin Daly. 
 Their houses had been sold ahead very largely. 
 particularly in Mr. Daly's case. As he refunded 
 money to those who came to the theatre, and 
 gave a performance for those who came to stay, 
 his obligation is over, he will probably halt. 
 Those who neither used their tickets nor had 
 their money refunded will perhaps lose their 
 investment. 
 
 To a philosopher hke Phlneas Tayler Bar- 
 num, whose big show has wrestled with six 
 fires and come out of them greater than ever, a 
 thing like the blizzard was simply a new form 
 of experience and an unexpected medium for 
 demonstration that the greatest show on earth 
 rises easily superior to freaks of fate 
 that down any ordinarily constituten human 
 enterprise. Twice yesterday the combined 
 shows were disrilai ed in Madison Square Gar- 
 den, and though the New Yorkers who braved 
 the blizzard to get there to see the spectacle 
 numbered only a sparse hundred at each per- 
 formance, every detail of the bewildering per- 
 formance was gone through with. 
 
 The difTerent acts in the programme aggre- 
 gated over a hundred in number, and they 
 kept acrobats and jugglers and merry-makers 
 busy in three rings and a central stage lor two 
 hours. 
 
 Not a train had moved out of the Grand 
 Central Depot all day, and only one had come 
 in. President Chauncey M. Depew of the 
 New York Central was one of a dozen men in 
 the executive offices who reported for duty. 
 Fifty were missing. 
 
 The pleasant frame of mind that character- 
 ized Mr. Depew was not shared by his subor- 
 dinates. Every attempt to communicate with 
 station agents after 8 A. M. had proved unsuc- 
 cessful. The waiting rooms were crowded 
 with travellers anxious to depart, and persons 
 waiting to hear from friends who were en 
 route to this city. To neither could the officials 
 give the slightest satisfaction, 
 
 HAULING IN THE BOSTON EXPEESS. 
 
 Nor was the condition of affairs on the New 
 Haven any better. The one train that suc- 
 ceeded in getting through was a train that had 
 started long before the storm began. The ex- 
 press that leaves Boston at 10:30 P. M., and 
 which is due in New York at 6:20 A. M., got as 
 far as Hartford before any part of the storm 
 was encountered. That was 2 :41 A. M. The 
 train had started under a comparatively clear 
 sky. Clouds were encountered at Hartford, 
 but the air was mild, and there was no 
 reason to expect anything more than a light 
 rain storm. At New Haven, at 3:58 A. M., 
 snow was coming Idown lightly but regularly. 
 The further the trains travelled from that city 
 the denser the storm became. At Stamford the 
 first signs of the blizzard that was prevailing in 
 New York showed themselves. , From thereon 
 the storm was similar to the one that pre- 
 vailed in New York. The wind drove against 
 
the train and around it so that the engineer 
 'didn't know which way it was coming. The 
 storm increased in intensity. Snow drifts had 
 -•covered the tracks in all places where these 
 run through depressed cuts. The wind de- 
 creased the heat in the cars and the passengers 
 began to doh their wraps. Those that had 
 sleepers piled their overcoats on to their blanK- 
 ets and swore at the porter. Sleep was impos- 
 sible after leaving Stamford because of the fre- 
 ■quont stops and the jerks as the trains started. 
 The train reached the Harlem bridge three 
 *^ Siours late. From there its progress was much 
 impeded, until it finally stopped altogether at 
 Fifty-ninth street. All attempts to move it from 
 there proved futile. A bank of snow fully five 
 feet deep had formed across the track. It was 
 BOW after 11 A. M., and all the passengers were 
 fully awake and aware of the situation. They 
 €0t out and discussed the diffieulty among 
 themselves. Some were prepared to leave the 
 train, but the announcement that a mes- 
 senger had been despatched to the Grand Cen- 
 tral Depot for assistance deterred them. In a 
 short time an engine came pufHng along slow- 
 ly, and assisted after the drift had been cleared 
 away in pulling the train through. When the 
 passengers arrived in the depot they were still 
 further disgusted upon learning that no cars or 
 elevated trains were running. Cabs were final- 
 ly secured by such as could pay $5 a mile, and 
 the others had to walk. The train was five 
 hours late. 
 
 THE STAMFORD LOCAL STUCK AT IIOTH STBEET. 
 
 That was the last and only train to8reach the 
 depot. The only other that came anywhere 
 near ic was the Stamford loea.1, on the same 
 road. That left Stamford at 5 A. M. It had 
 reached 110th street at 10^ A. M. This train 
 was crowded with brokers and business men. 
 The Boston express had passed the same spot 
 ■with difHculty a half hour previous, and the 
 ■wind and snow had put in effective work since 
 then. The drifts were piled so high that it was 
 impossible to pass them. After a number of 
 vain attempts a brakeman was sent on foot to 
 the depot. He had hard work getting there, 
 but his errand was fruitless. The officials had 
 been endeavoring for some time to get an en- 
 gine through the Fourth avenue tunnel, but 
 had found it now absolutely impossible. 
 
 The passengers were furious when the mes- 
 senger returned with his answer, but there was 
 no help for it. One courageous passenger who 
 was on important business refused to be com- 
 forted, and started off on foot. He succeeded 
 in pushing his way through the drifts, and 
 reached the Grand Central Depot by wav of the 
 tracks an hour and a half later. He was com- 
 pletely exhaused, and paid $20 for a cab to 
 take him down town. He refused to tell his 
 name. The remaining passengers stayed in 
 the cars, and took such comfort as they 
 could out of the provisions supplied by a 
 neighboring restaurant at the order of the rail- 
 road company. 
 
 NO NEWS OF THE MISSING TRAINS. 
 
 The leading officials of the railroad had be- 
 come convinced of the danger that lay in the 
 attempt to run trains early in the day. None 
 had been allowed to leave the depot, and fran- 
 tic attempts ware made to reach the agents 
 alone the route. It was impossible to commu- 
 
 nicate with any of them after 8 A. M. No word 
 had been received from the agent at New Ha- 
 ven after midnight on Sunday, and even Mount 
 Vernon could not be reached after 8 o'clock. 
 Th« last word received by wire from any offi- 
 cial connected with the road stated that tele- 
 graph wires were down everywhere, and that 
 the poles lay across the tracks in many places. 
 The long-distance telephone owned by the 
 New Haven Company could not be worked 
 either. The tunnel from Fifty-ninth street to 
 Ninety-sixth street was blocked. 
 
 TBTING TO FEED THE BESIEGED. 
 
 The train despatcher said that eight local 
 trains on the Harlem division of the road were 
 stalled between stations. As far as possible 
 word had been conveyed to the conductors to 
 supply the passengers with provisions and 
 such other comforts as could be obtained 
 These messages were sent by wire and fast 
 messengers, but their efficacy was admittedly 
 doubtful where the trains were far from ca- 
 terers and retaurants, and had to de- 
 pend on the propinquity of farm houses. 
 Superintendent Turner said that he had 
 done all he could to relieve passen- 
 gers, but, in the uncertainty prevailing, could 
 venture no opinion as to their condition. None 
 of these local trains, of course, are fitted with 
 any sleeping accommodations, and the result 
 last night cannot have been pleasant. Not the 
 slightest tidings had been received as to the 
 condition of the trains on the main line, but 
 the superintendent thought that these had all 
 been stopped in time. Where trains were de- 
 layed in towns over night the company will 
 pay hotel bills. In the depot a group of con- 
 ductors of the road were gathered. They said 
 that three and four engines had been put 
 on single trains that were stalled along 
 the route, but without any appreciable 
 effect. They said that the tunnel in the city 
 was not only blocked at the entrances, but that 
 the air holes along the street had admitted the 
 snow in large quantities, and that under these 
 holes the snow was seven feet deep. Where the 
 tracks ran in cuts with banks on each side, the 
 snow had filled up the depressions even to the 
 tons of the bank?. They declared that four 
 trains were stalled along the main road be 
 sides the eight locals, I3ut they did not know 
 the exact time on which these started. 
 
 HOPELESS EFFORTS TO CLEAR THE TUNNEL. 
 
 Mr. Depew said that he had employed 300 
 Italians to clear the snow off the tracks in the 
 yards and the tunnel, but they gave out in a 
 short time. All the woi-k that they had done in 
 several hours was rendered useless in a few 
 minutes by the storm. Three hundred more 
 were employed yesterday afternoon. They 
 were put under the personal direction of Supt. 
 Toucey. That astute otficial took them to a 
 cheap restaurant before setting them to work 
 and gave them a good dinner. He thought 
 they would be able to stand the weather better 
 under such circumstances than otherwise, and 
 held out further inducements to them. They 
 were put at work at 5>2 P. M., but with all en- 
 couragement were able to make only slight 
 headway. 
 
 FORTY HUDSON AND HARLEM TRAINS SNOWED IN. 
 
 Not a single train on the Hudson River or the 
 Harlem branches was able to reach the depot, 
 and Superintendent Toucey declared that forty 
 trains on the different branches were snowed 
 in. Many of these, he said, were undoubtedly 
 stalled between stations. Mr. Depew sent out 
 an engine immediately upon reaching his 
 office to break auWay through the snow drifts 
 
in tlie tunnel. This engine tad fabt this slight^ 
 est effect, and a second was sent out to aid it. 
 This, also, did no good, and a third was de- 
 spatched to the scene. The three engines were 
 coupJed together and made a united effort to 
 break through the snow. The only result was 
 the derailing of the last engine, which narrowly 
 escaped toppling over. After that no effort 
 was made to force a way through the tunnel. 
 
 FOOTED IT FEOM SPUTTEN DUTVIL. 
 
 Superintendent Toucey said that most of the 
 local trains on which the commuters of the 
 road travel had been ca<i :!it between stations. 
 Thev were scattered along the road from 
 Spuyten Duyvil to the (irand Central Depot. 
 Mr. Depew sent an employee of the road to 
 126th street to communicate, if possible, from 
 there with the conductors of the stalled trains 
 and order them to supoly the passengers with 
 proyisions. As far as could be heard from, that 
 had already been done. Mr. Depew admitted 
 that most of the unfortunates who were caught 
 in the local trains were wealthy brokers and 
 business men, and smiled sadly as he thought 
 of the wrath that would come down upon 
 him and his fellow officials from these 
 patrons of his road. A despatch received at 
 the superintendent's office late in the after- 
 noon stated that the storm had reached Utica 
 and was becoming violent there. There had 
 been very little snow at Peekskill at 7 A. M., 
 but it came down rapidly after that. No trains 
 had left Albany all day, as far as could be 
 learned. A man walked into Mr. Depew's office 
 in the afternoon and announced angrily that 
 he had footed it all the way from Spuyten Duy- 
 vil after paying his fare on a train. He had 
 business that compelled him to reach New 
 York, and the only means of transportation 
 that he could get for love or money were his 
 feet. 
 
 Superintendent Toucey said that he had re- 
 fused all offers of freight and could not tell 
 when the roads would be opened to traffic 
 again. 
 
 "If the storm were to stop now," he said [it 
 was then 4 o'clock], "I might be able to clear 
 the roads by sunrise." 
 
 THE T>., L. ANDW. TIED IIP. 
 
 In the yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
 and Western gangs of shovellers were battling 
 with the rapidly building drifts, in order to 
 make way for the engines, which were at work 
 with small ploughs keeping thelsnow from the 
 entrances to the tunnel. Superintendent Eea- 
 soner of the M. and E. division sat in his office 
 with the passenger agent. 
 
 " You bring the first news we have heard from 
 New York, or from the outside world, in fact, 
 since 9 o'clock this morning, " he said. [It was 
 nearly 4 P. M.] "' At 10 all trains on the division 
 were stopped. They are laid up all along the 
 road. The last train got in about 2 P. M. from 
 Boonton, N J., thirty-five miles out. The usual 
 number of people came on the morning trains. 
 A train going west about 10 o'clock stuck at the 
 west end of the tunnel between here and New- 
 ark. We are now trying our best to get it 
 through. All our wires are down. There has 
 been no telegraphic communication since 7 A, 
 M, The division is eighty miles long and ex- 
 tends to Easton. Pa." 
 
 About 4 P. M. the Weehawken ferryboats 
 stopped running from both Forty-second and 
 Jay streets. It was reported that no West 
 Shore trains had moved since early in the 
 morning. 
 
 NO THKOUGH TKAINS ON JERSEY CENTEAL. 
 
 Of the thirty-five or forty trains scheduled to 
 arrive yesterday morning at the Jersey City 
 terminus of the various divisions of the Cen- 
 tral Railroad of New Jersey, scarcely half a 
 dozen succeeded in ploughing a way through 
 the snow and into the station. One or two got 
 near euougli to permit passengers reckless of 
 frozen ears and noses to walk to the ferry, but 
 the rest stuck fast in the big drifts that every- 
 where buried the tracks deep out of sight. 
 
 No trains arrived or departed on the Long 
 Branch division, and no through trains on any 
 division. The early local trains from Somer- 
 ville and Koselle wore delayed an hour or more 
 at Elizabeth by a Pennsylvania train caught in 
 a drilt at the crossing. When that obstacle 
 was removed, fresh ones, in the shape of snow 
 
 drifts reaching up almost to the locomotive 
 headlights were encountered every few rods. 
 The two trains arrived at the Communipaw 
 station almost togetherat 10 o'clock, eachhav- 
 ing consumed four hours in accomplishing its 
 short run. The Koselle train, having got under 
 good headway after crossing the Pennsylvania 
 tracks in Elizabeth, ran by the Spring street 
 station, leaving two hundred operatives of the 
 Singer Sewing Machine Company without the 
 means of reacMog the factory. 
 
 A train from Newark struggled in a little 
 after 10 o'clock, and stuck fast just outside the 
 station. The 7 o'clock Somerville accommoda- 
 tion was the next to arrive at 1:30 in the after- 
 noon. When the jassengers had been dis- 
 charged the two eogines attached to the train 
 endeavored to back it out of the station and 
 succeeded, but no more. The last car could 
 not be moved a dozen yards beyond the shed. 
 At 4 o'clock the last train of the day pushed in 
 as far as the round house, and the passengers- 
 were compelled to walk to the ferry through, 
 the blinding snow. They had come from Plain- 
 field and intermediate points, and some of 
 them had been eight hours en route. 
 
 ONXY ONE TBAIN SENT OUT. 
 
 No trains were sent out on any division by 
 the Jersey Central after 8 in the morning, whea 
 an accommodation was despatched to Somer- 
 ville. Its fate and that of some that preceded 
 it is unknown, for telegraphic communication 
 was early cut off and not restored. 
 
 At 4 o'clock ofBcial announcement was made 
 that all trains had been abandoned. Up to that 
 hour people came flocking across the river and 
 stood in wet and shivering groups about the 
 snow-covered platforms or crowded to suffoca- 
 tion the waiting rooms and the restaurant. 
 When it was made known that no egress could 
 be had over the railroad there was a general 
 rush to return to New York. A determined 
 few, however, remained to occupy seats in the 
 cars standing in the station until something- 
 moved. 
 
 Among these were the members of the Lily 
 Clay Gayety Company bound to Reading, Pa. 
 The buxom blondes and their male escorts, 
 having engaged a car for their special occu- 
 pancy, disposed themselves for slumber and 
 passed the night as comfortably as possible un- 
 der the circumstances. The members of the 
 Roland Reed company, who were anxious to^ 
 keep an engagement at Williamsport, Pa., re- 
 turned to New York at 4 o'clock. 
 
 LOCOMOTITES COLLIDE IN THE TAED. 
 
 Out in the yards of the railway company the 
 packed snow and ice made it impossible to 
 move the switches, and the tracks were block- 
 ed with locomotives and cars. The furious 
 wind filled the air with flakes of snow and 
 caused an accident just beyond the station. 
 Passenger engine 172 and shifting engine 1 
 were moving in the same direction upon con- 
 verging tracks. Neither engineer saw the dan- 
 ger, and the two locomotives came together 
 with such force as to demolish the cab of the 
 shifting engine. Charles Barber, a brakeman.. 
 was standing in the cab of the shifter and was 
 caught in the crushed timbers. One of his leg* 
 was broken. He was brought to New York. 
 
 NEW TOEK A MOUSE TEAP. 
 
 The interior of the Long Island Railroad 
 station at Hunter's Point resembled a scene 
 in Castle Garden. Three early trains had 
 brought in scores of people who found that 
 they couldn't do anything after they got here, 
 and, worse still, that they couldn't get back. 
 
 The only trains that came in yesterday on 
 the Lone Island Railroad system were the 
 three which came over the North Side division. 
 The first, which started from Whitestone 
 Landing at 6:25 A. M., was onlv about 15 
 minutes late. The second, which started 
 from Great Neck at 5:40 A. M., got in about 45 
 minutes behind time. It had but one car, 
 which was packed like a sardine box. The 
 third had the roughest experience. It left 
 Whitestone Landing at 6:25, left College 
 Point at 7:40, which was one hour and 
 ten minutes late, and instead of reach- 
 ing Long Island City at 6:57, did 
 not get in until 4:30, "and she ain't 
 here yet," said a passenger, who was relating 
 his experience. The train stuck fast about a 
 
quarter of a mile west of the slation, and tliero 
 she staved all day. Her passengers found it 
 hard work to foot it to the ferry. This train 
 ran into a big drift at Main street. Flushing, 
 and nicks and shovels had to be used beforo 
 she could proceed. About opposite the Queens 
 County Court House another drift was struck, 
 but the snow was light, and the engine dashed 
 through it, throwing the snow back upon the 
 roof of the cars, " until it was as dark as a tun- 
 nel," said the passengers. 
 
 AUSTIN COKBIN DtTG OUT. 
 
 The trains coming in from the eastern end of 
 the island did not meet the storm until they 
 reached Dabylon. Austin Corbin, the Presi- 
 dent of the road, who was bound west from Sag 
 Harbor on the Montauk division of the road, 
 found himself blockaded a few miles west of 
 Babylon about 9 o'clock. A force of men was 
 sent out from Jamaica.and after several hours' 
 work they succeeded in freeing the road as far 
 west as Jamaica, where Mr. Corbin and the 
 other passengers were glad to find a refuge. 
 
 At 5 o'clock a placard was hung up announc- 
 ing that no trains would be run last night. 
 
 The only train that left the depot yesterday 
 was one which was started at 6:50 A. M, for 
 Babylon. It made but two miles when the 
 snow prevented further progress. Men were 
 3eul out troui Hunter's Point to extricate the 
 train, but their labor was unavailing. 
 
 All telegraphic communication was shut off 
 early, except along the lines to Flushing and 
 Far Rockaway, " and we won't guarantee when 
 or in what shape a message will reach those 
 points," said the operator. 
 
 WAIT Tllili THE CLOUDS KOLL BY. 
 
 A railroad official, who has been on the road 
 for fifteen years, said there had been no such 
 blockade since the winter of 1881, when the 
 road was snowed up for four days. "I never 
 knew the North Side division to be blockaded 
 before, though. The roads running north and 
 south seem to have got more snow than those 
 running east and west. We shall make no at- 
 tempt to run trains until the wind and snow 
 stop. It would be useless for us to try to send 
 out a snow-plough and follow it by a train, 
 for the tracks would fill up as fast 
 as ■ they could be cleared. Why, five 
 engines together were unable to push out of 
 the yard this morning. Yes, this is a regular 
 Western blizzard if the thermometer would 
 only move down to 10° or 15° below zero. I've 
 been on roads in the West, and in Minnesota 
 I've seen them snowed up for two weeks. One 
 winter some engines that started out on the 
 prairie in January did not return until they 
 were brought back on freight cars in June. 
 But this is a genuine blizzard except for the 
 temperature." 
 
 Late last night it was announced that no 
 fast mail could be sent out this morning, and 
 that before this afternoon it would not be pos- 
 sible to send out more than one mail. The 
 Pennsylvania Kailroad will send out a mail 
 train at 7:30 A. M. If the storm abates then 
 mails will probably be sent out this evening. 
 
 The letter carriers were dismissed by Post- 
 master Pearson's order at 6 P. M., because the 
 collections from the boxes were meagre and 
 because the probability of mails being sent out 
 this morning is slendei-. The service by mail 
 wagons was discontinued in the afternoon. 
 The wires between the sub-Post Offlce stations 
 and the main office were down on all sides. So 
 far as was heard from at a late hour one wagon 
 only— that in Forsyth street— was abandoned, 
 and the mails were taken from the wagon to 
 the general office by letter carriers. Postmas- 
 ter Pearson said last evening that the mail 
 ' matter collected yesterday resembled that of a 
 city of 10,000 inhabitants. 
 
 TENTING IN THE ERIE DEPOT. 
 
 The Erie station in Jersey City was absolute- 
 ly cut off from all communication with the 
 outside world after 1 o'clock yesterday after- 
 noon except by the ferries. These ran to both 
 Chambers street and to Twenty-third street 
 until 3 o'clock, making half-hourly trips. At 3 
 o'clocK the Twenty-third street boats were 
 taken off for lack of coal. Fifteen coal carts were 
 stuck a dozen blocks away and abandoned. A 
 great drift of snow across the upper end ot tne 
 sheds made it impossible to move a train in or 
 
 ont of the depot, and It also extended acros8> 
 the street and stopped all pedestrian or vagoa 
 traffic. . , . i, 1 
 
 Hundreds of people got in during the eari-y 
 mornlDg and many of them did not leave the 
 station during the day. There were a dozen 
 women among them. Nearly all of them ^vere 
 shop girls who belonged either in Newark or 
 Jersey City. Two of the_^ others were 
 Miss Phelps, a daughter of William Walter 
 Phelps, and a married lady with a baby. 
 As night approached there was_ a great 
 demand for sleeping accommodations. Ih© 
 women who were without money were fed at 
 the expense of the railroad, and a coach was 
 set apart for their use. Many of the men also 
 slept iii the heated coaches which had been 
 standing ready all day to go out. Miss Phelps 
 and the married woman and baby spent the 
 night in Division Superintendent Barretts 
 
 AfteJ 4 o'clock the ferry to Chambers street 
 ran hourly until 7. The boat that made the ( 
 o'clock trip struck heavy ice which_ had been 
 backed up the river by the flood tide, and m 
 trying to enter her slip on this side of 
 the river she got caught across it and 
 lay ther two hours. She was finally 
 pulled around by a tug. _ She made her 
 last trip from this city at 9:45 and at 10:30 she 
 made the last trip back. At that hour there 
 were 150 or 200 passengers left prisoners in 
 the Jersey ferry houses. As early as 3 o clock 
 notices had been pasted that no trains would 
 be run during the day. Nothing can be don© 
 toward opening the line before morning. 
 
 PENNSTIiVANIA'S BOLITABT TKAIN STALLED, 
 
 Only one train left the Pennsylvania depot 
 in Jersey City. This was the Chicago limited. 
 It went out with its usual number of pas- 
 sengers at 10 A. M. All the telegraph lines had 
 been gone for hours, and nothing "was heara 
 from the train or about the condition of the 
 road until a local train got in at 11:50. This 
 brought word that the snow was piled up m 
 great hard windrows across the meadows, and 
 that the Chicago train was stalled at Harri- 
 son's, just across the river from Newark. 
 Superintendent Crawford sent out a relief tram 
 to dig them out. '" We shall do nothing else. 
 he said, " until the storm ends." 
 
 Never since it was started has the Grand 
 Union Hotel been so jammed with guests as it 
 was yesterday. Most of the new arrivals were 
 men who had gone to the Grand Central Depot 
 with the expectation of taking trains for other 
 points. The announcement that no trains 
 would be sent out had left them disconsolate. 
 After waiting for hours in the vain hope that 
 the tracks would be cleared, some of them 
 took cabs at exorbitant rates and the others 
 betook themselves to the Grand Union Hotel. 
 It took two extra clerks to get their wants at- 
 tended to, and the rooms soon gave out. 
 The lobbies were filled late in the afternoon 
 with passengers from stalled trains on the New 
 York Central and New Haven railroads who 
 had succeeded in routing out farmers and had 
 come down to the city in sleighs. They came 
 from as far as Spuyten Duyvil, and many of 
 them were sick from cold and exposure. To 
 add to their distress all the rooms in the hotel 
 were taken, but, fortunately, they were ac- 
 quainted with many of the earlier arrivals, and 
 in this way got at least a berth. Nearly all the 
 beds in the house had two occupants. 
 
 The late comers had thrilling experiences to 
 relate. A party of four gentlemen were on a 
 train that reached Mott Haven at noon. They 
 induced John Leroy, a liveryman, to take them 
 to New York in a hack-sleigh for SoO. His first 
 pair of horses foundered at the end ot two 
 miles, and both he and his passengers were 
 nearly frozen. At a farm house along the road 
 where he was acquainted he succeeded in 
 getting shelter for a while and a fresh pair of 
 horses. A mile further on his horses struck a 
 drift, and almost^ank out of sight. They were 
 
extricated with diffleulty by the united efforts 
 of the passengers and himself. When they 
 reached the Grand Union his horses were 
 trembling in every limb, and the passengers 
 ■\vere hardly able to move. He ^vas offered $25 
 above his original price to take back another 
 party, but refused the offer. 
 
 "lam going back again," he said to the re- 
 porter; " but I am going back without any pas- 
 t^engers. This is the toughest trip I ever made. 
 I dou't know the names of the gents that came 
 down with me, but they were game all the 
 way through. If they hadn't been we'd a'been 
 frozen stiff on the way. They got out and 
 walked a number of times when the horses 
 gave out. They've got friends here who took 
 care of them when they came in." 
 
 The men did not register, and theiir names 
 could not be ascertained. 
 
 One man who said he was a lawyer and had 
 been driven in from a Mott Haven train said 
 that friends of his had been compelled to 
 change horses four times on a similar trip. 
 The roads were said to be full of drifts, many 
 ■>f them over seven feet deep. It is not certain 
 that all who started got to the city. A passen- 
 ^ej- on a train that followed the express which 
 met with an accident at Dobbs Ferry said that 
 -ome of his fellow passengers had put up for 
 the night at adjacent farm houses. 
 
 ' FREEZING ZN T3XEIR COACH. 
 
 None of the steam roads which terminate 
 at Greenwood Cemetery attempted to run 
 trains yesterday, and the thousands of busi- 
 ness men living along the various routes had 
 to stay home. Not a day has gone by since 
 Greenwood Cemetery came into existence that 
 a funeral procession has not passed the big 
 t,'ate at the Fifth avenue entrance. The record 
 vvas kept up yesterday, but it came very near 
 ;ostingthe lives of two men who braved the 
 storm and came all the way from Thirty- 
 lifth street, New York, in coaches to 
 1purv a man of the name of Hillyer. 
 The procession started at 9 o'clock, and by 
 31 con it had reached the entrance of the ceme- 
 tery. There were only two coaches and the 
 hearse, and when the cemetery was reached 
 the horses as well as the drivers had almost 
 Kivea out. Twenty-five men were set at work 
 to dig a roadway through the huge drifts in the 
 grounds to the grave, but it was found impos- 
 .-ible for the horses to go further. 
 
 The cofiQn was taken from the hearse and 
 nurried to the receiving vault by half a dozen 
 men. The living were then looked after. The 
 imilertaker, Bernard Linus, and a son of the 
 (lead man were taken from the coaches, which 
 "vore being rapidly hidden from sight, and car- 
 ried to Jo Braun's saloon. It took several hours 
 to revive them, as they had almost succumbed 
 to the blizzard. They were put to bed in a 
 neighboring house. 
 
 The hearse and coaches were abandoned and 
 the horses housed at the stables of the Fifth 
 Avenue Railroad. After the sheets of ice which 
 </'>iilod their sides had been knocked oft' and 
 they had received plenty of oats they appeared 
 little the worse. Two of the drivers, Andrew 
 Burns and Edward Webster, were badly frost- 
 bitt(Mi, but coachmen are hard to kill, and ice 
 water and a few hot drinks brought them 
 around. 
 
 The storm was more severely felt in South 
 Brooklyn than in any other part of the city. 
 Tclegrajih wires were down, and fences and 
 
 treeS^ tad been laid low as well. A number ot 
 stores on Fifth avenue had the panes in the 
 windows blown out. It was reported in the 
 afternoon that a 10-year-old boy living near 
 the cemetery had left his home on an errand 
 and had been lost in the snow. A search party 
 was unable to find any trace of him, and he 
 may have been frozen to death. On all the 
 avenues the snow has drifted in some places 
 to the depth of fifteen feet, and the horse car 
 men do not expect to run any cars in that part 
 of Brooklyn for several days. 
 
 O O OD- B T, SLIZZARD. 
 
 The Storm Passlnsf and tbe £levated Road 
 StrnceltnK Into Motion. 
 
 At 10 o'clock last evening- the barometer 
 at the Signal Service office in the tower of the 
 Equitable Building had ceased to fall. It was 
 at 29.64, which was low enough, and it had not 
 begun to rise. But a rise was considered cer- 
 tain to be the next change, and that speedily. 
 The wind gauge record showed that the wind 
 had been very variable. The prevailing direc- 
 
 ' tion as well as the direction from which it came 
 strongest was westerly, and the range was only 
 to northwest. The greatest velocity was forty- 
 eight miles an hour, and was recorded about 6 
 P. M. The fall of snow was sixteen inches. The 
 temperature at 10 o'clock last evening was 11° 
 above having fallen more or less steadily from 
 the 35° recorded twenty-four hours before. 
 
 In the absence of any reports from any sta- 
 tions south of this or from the Chief Signal 
 office in Washington no proabbilities could be 
 furnished. The most help in that direction 
 was from Erie. Pa., and other point West, in 
 the shape of reports of clear weather. This 
 and the fact that at midnight the glass 
 was showing a disposition to rise while 
 the temperature had fallen a litte 
 more, made it safe to say that the 
 storm was passing off to the eastward. The 
 snow-bound city was thus promised a chance 
 for breaking its bonds in the morning. The 
 work will be slow and difficult, unless there is 
 a thaw, as the tracks and streets are buried 
 under packed and frozen snow, in many places 
 as solid as ice. 
 
 At half-past 6 o'clock inspection trains were 
 sent over the Third avenue line between City 
 Hall and Ninety-eighth street, and on the re- 
 port that switches and tracks were in good con- 
 dition several trains were despatched on a few 
 minutes headway from each of these 
 points. It was claimed at the City Hall 
 station that trains were run once in 
 
 ^ five minutes, but an actual test during 
 the evening showed that the schedule was sub- 
 ject to many variations. A train was sent 
 northward, however, about once in every flf- 
 
 . teen minutes. The trains consisted only of one 
 
 . car and an engine, and the seats in the cai-s 
 were covered with snow, and in some instances 
 the windows wore broken out. Meantime trains 
 continued to run at irregular intervals on 
 Second avenue to and from Grand street. 
 
 The Sixth avenue elevated trains which were 
 snowed up at Bleecker street since yesterday 
 at eight o'clock began running again at half- 
 past 10 o'clock last night. The first train rolled 
 by the Chambers street station last night at 
 five minutes to 11 o'clock. It was followed by 
 
 . another in twenty minutes. Then came a mes- 
 sage that a train would be sent through every 
 twenty minutes if possible. The next one 
 came through in twenty-eight minutes. They 
 were running to J.55th street. 
 
The City Snowed Under. 
 
 No mails yet enter or leave the cities of 
 tliis metropolis except such as they inter- 
 change, and the delayed matter from stalled 
 trains. Except to Newark, Paterson, and 
 Jamaica, no trains have moved on the 
 great railroads but such as are busy try- 
 ing to clear them. Fifty trains are still 
 snow bound on the approaches to New York. 
 You can't telegraph or telephone in the city 
 or from the city much more than you could 
 on Monday. New York city itself has gone 
 to work heartily to dig itself out. Suffering 
 is threatened by the difficulty of hauling 
 coal and by the increasing prices of food. 
 The elevated roads are going, and travel 
 north and south is reasonably easy. 
 
 In New York State, outside of this city,, 
 the violence of the storm exerted itself 
 chiefly in the valleys of the Hudson, the 
 Mohawk, and the upper Delaware rivers. 
 To the' west it tapered off to Buffalo, beyond 
 which it was only an ordinary snow storm. 
 From Syracuse eastward-bound traffic of all 
 kinds is absolutely suspended. In the Al- 
 bany region the snowfall is tremendous, and 
 it was stiU snowing there last night. The 
 Legislature remains snowed in in sections of 
 from one to fifty members at various points 
 on the roads leading to Albany. 
 
 There is a complete embargo upon railroad' 
 travel between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh 
 and many trains are fast in the snow. West 
 of Pittsburgh trains are moving as usual 
 and telegraphic service has not been inter- 
 rupted. Washington, which for two daj's 
 was cut off from the world, is able at last to 
 use the telegraph to some extent. The 
 trouble which is preventing railroad and 
 telegraphic communication with the West is 
 almost entirely east of Pittsburgh and Buf- 
 falo. In the Northwest and Canada severe 
 storms are raging, and trains north'of Lake 
 Superior are blocked. 
 
 It has been noticed in New Jersey, which 
 is as closely snow bound as New York, that 
 many sparrows and other birds are lying 
 about dead, and it is feared there has been 
 great destruction of life among game birds. 
 
 Since Sunday morning and until this 
 morning the peoDle of New York had not had 
 any news to speak of except of occurrences in 
 town, close by, and in the Old World. Never in 
 the history of New York, since it became a 
 place of universal importance, had such a state 
 of affairs existed. President Cleveland might 
 have died. Joe Manley might have put Blaine 
 back in the field, Thomas F. Bayard might 
 have repented of the fisheries treaty and 
 resigned, Henry W. Grady might have re- 
 canted his speech crediting the South with 
 fraternal feeling toward the Yankees, and 
 Winnie Davis might have been crowned Queen 
 
 of the South. No newspaper in New York could 
 have stated with any positivoness until this 
 morning that these things had not occurred. 
 
 Yesterday was the day of the shovel. If the 
 City Hall had displayed a flag, and it had been 
 at all truthful, it must have shown the tradi- 
 tional Indians each armed with shovels. All 
 the roadways were between knee deep and 
 neck deep with snow, and rifts and mounds 
 blocked the sidewalks. The Central Park was 
 a wild waste untrespassed. and the other 
 breathing places at Union and Madison and 
 the other squares were merely great mounds 
 of snow, fringed with ice-plated trees. 
 
 Broadway was as white as a bridal gown, 
 deep white on the roadway and sidewalks, and 
 thin white where the snow had plastered all 
 the windows and cornices and shutters and 
 stoops. St. Paul's and Trinity recalled the 
 engravings one sees of ancient Gotham, white- 
 fringed and white-sprinkled, with graveyards 
 blanketed with snow all around them, and 
 snow-clad stones and monuments rising from 
 the wintry ground. Grace Church was like a 
 pastry cook's dream, and the wholly modern 
 elevated roads were made as ancient looking 
 as the streets by the omnipresent snow. 
 
 Tbe new invention, which we call the Street 
 Cleaning Department, made its appearance 
 after twenty-four hours' absence in the form of 
 a mass of grubbing, can-covered Italians, with 
 shovels in hand, who cut a path along Broad- 
 way, throwing the snow in two long ranges 
 over either gutter, while the clerks and porters 
 from the stores increased the two long piles by 
 adding to them the snow off the sidewalks. 
 
 The result of this— two long heaps of snow 
 and three paths beside them— recalled to ail 
 old-timers the days of the past, when the vol- 
 unteer firemen ran the town, when we had no 
 street-cleaning bureau, and when the snow 
 was everywhere as high as men's heads. But 
 in other ways things remained worse than any 
 one remembered. The elevated railroads were 
 the salvation of the situation so far as passen- 
 ger traffic was concerned, but business re- 
 mained at a standstill. In one hour, between 
 10 and 11 o'clock, only nine vehicles passed in 
 front of The Sun office, the busiest part of 
 town, and Nassau street was only passable to 
 persons on horseback, who, by the way, ^- 
 peared in the most extravagant numbers ail 
 over the city. 
 
 The houses were plastered with snow, the 
 shutters were frozen against the walls, the 
 areas were blocked up, the stoops were the 
 sites of huge drifts, the pavements were chan- 
 nelled with single paths, and not a horse rail- 
 road, not an express company, not a routine 
 wagon business of any sort was in operation. 
 Famines of half a dozen sorts threatened and 
 still threaten the town. Nobody has had fresh 
 milk since Monday morning, the butchers are 
 asking an increase of 10 cents a pound for 
 chops and steaks, many bakers' wagons are 
 not running, the newsmen are divided into two 
 classes, the small class that gets the papers 
 and tries to deliver them, and the large clas* 
 
that makes no effort to do so. Eggs, meat, 
 milk, bread, vegetables, newspapers, and pie 
 are either hard to find, or held at a high pre- 
 mium. No news in the possession of The Sun 
 indicates that there may not be a famine in 
 these necessities for the rest of the week. 
 
 Women who have not set a foot out of 
 doors since Saturday are to be found in every 
 house, and tens of thousands of persons, un- 
 able to procure the newspapers, are wondering 
 about the extent of tne storm. 
 
 New York had never seen such a quietus as 
 Monday put upon it. Tuesday was worse in 
 most respects, for though the elevated roads 
 resumed traffic, and the big bridge kept open 
 its railroad, the telegraph lines remained bro- 
 ken down, the telephones were knocked out, 
 the housekeepers' supplies began to run out, 
 and the necessity for resuming the routine of 
 life pressed with added force on most people. 
 
 So desperate was the situation that many 
 men on the elevated trains yesterday morning 
 said they had been trying for twenty-four hours 
 to get down town. An Evening Sun was read 
 aloud at the top of the reader's voice to a ear load 
 of persons on the Brooklyn elevated, ana every 
 man in the car said that its news was the first 
 he had heard since Sunday morning. From all 
 the elevated tracks in both cities the view was 
 the same— a constant repetition of thorough- 
 fares in which men were shovelling ways 
 from stoops and areas to sidewalks, or of streets 
 where the only thoroughfare was the driveway, 
 walled in by high rifts of snow. Sumner ave- 
 nue, Brooklyn, was blocked by a drift that 
 reached to the second tier of windows on the 
 \v'est side. The drift at the corner of Hart 
 street was eleven feet deep, tvventy feet wide. 
 and forty feet long. The American Bank Note 
 Company's building in New Church stx-eet, in 
 this city, was walled out of correspondence 
 with the world by a bank of snow that prevent- 
 ed the manager, Mr. Lee, the only man who 
 came there yesterday morning, from getting, 
 in. While the elevated railroad shovelled the 
 '^Tiow from its tracks into the street, that and 
 the neighboring corporations banked it up on 
 the curb lines. 
 
 The snow had ceased to fall during the dark- 
 ness preceding Tuesday's dawn, but Tuesday's 
 daylight was accompanied by an intensely 
 strong and cold wind. The horse car corpora- 
 tions made no effort to run cars. One stock- 
 holder said that his company would have to 
 pay so much more than the daily receipts of 
 $30,000 to open the road that he imagined his 
 road would do nothing more than wait for a 
 thaw. He said that all the companies would 
 wait either for a thaw or the Street Cleaning 
 Department to render their tracks fit to run on. 
 He had not taken President Chauncey M. Depew 
 into account. His Fourth avenue cars began 
 to run on part of their route late last evening. 
 On the elevated roads the trains did nearly all 
 the business of taking the city's multitudes up 
 and down. The cold was so intense that those 
 who rubbed peep holes in the car windows 
 found that a film froze over the smooth sur- 
 faces faster than they could be rubbed clean. 
 Whatever of the general scene of Gotham in 
 the grasp of a blizzard was seen from the up- 
 
 lifted tracks must have been viewed from the 
 car platforms. 
 
 It was all new to New Yorkers. Here were 
 men tunnelling through drifts higher than 
 their heads to clean the sidewalks; there were 
 others shovelling their way to the wagon ways 
 to get out of their houses ; elsewhere were let- 
 ter carriers bawling to people in doors to come 
 out over ten-foot snow heaps to get their let- 
 ters. Then there were school houses, not 
 open in two days, walled apart from the chil- 
 dren by unsurmountable ranges of snow, parks 
 that no one had entered, streets that no wagon 
 could traverse, and shops whose fronts were 
 fortified against their owners. 
 
 The peopl* who ventured out were wondrous 
 to see. They had on every sort of footgear con- 
 ceivable. It seemed as though most men must 
 have issued from the hands of their wives. 
 Some had bits of waterproof around their legs, 
 some had bindings of cloth, wrappings of can- 
 vas, boot legs, cavalry boots in full, stockings 
 over shoos and rubbers over all, fabrications 
 of straw, and bindings of string to hold their 
 trousers tight against their legs. As for their 
 hats, there is no room to tell of the various 
 sorts that appeared. 
 
 The big bridge was the centre of interest all 
 day. Toward 10 o'clock, when the trustees 
 had been running one train at a time one way 
 at a time to bite out small mouthfuls of the 
 crowds that waited to cross, the ice in the 
 river became jammed tight in a natural cause- 
 way, and the bolder spirits of the two cities 
 attempted to walk across from shore to shore. 
 Hundreds succeeded, but suddenly, at about 11 
 o'clock, the great bridge of ice cracked in sev- 
 eral pieces. It left three men on one big cake 
 as large as Washington square, two men each 
 on cakes that seemed the size of door mats, 
 and no one on the main cake that 
 filled all but the edges of the river. 
 Six tugs started to the rescue of these men, 
 but five of the boats instantly became wedged 
 and helpless in the ice. Five thousand per- 
 sons watched the sixth boat with breathless 
 interest. It had slow work before it. The 
 wharves on the Brooklyn side became crowded 
 with onlookers. The tug crawled through a 
 narrow aisle of water to the big cake where 
 the group of three men stood. It pushed the 
 many-acre cake slowly up to the wharf, and 
 the men leaped off. Then it steamed for the 
 smaller cakes, now floating rapidly into the 
 upper bay. As it skilfully rounded up against 
 the second floating bit and rescued the last of 
 the five men the thousands of men on the 
 river side and the bridge yelled their applause 
 in rounds of cheers and screams. 
 
 If it were possible the town took the_storm 
 too seriously, inasmuch as employers often 
 reached the business places to find their hands 
 not there, while in other places the employees 
 came to find the bosses absent. Thousands of 
 stores and offices were thus only half equipped. 
 
 The barrooms, both up and down town, were 
 exceptions. They all seemed to be packed 
 from daylight until dark, and the drinkers, who 
 usually adopt an excuse for their sins, asked 
 one another what else was there to do, and got 
 no answer sufficient to turn them to sobriety. 
 
FIGHTING OUR VAT AROUXO. 
 
 The aspect of the streets up town, and down 
 town as well, prepared the people lor the repe- 
 tition of their troubles of transportation, and 
 made them broad and comprehensive in their 
 review of the situation before they took the 
 leap to struggle toward office, shop, or store. 
 The drifts that lined the north sides of the 
 cross streets and the west sides of the avenues 
 were in many places five and six feet high. 
 Areas were filled up and their railings covered, 
 while stoops were hidden under white mounds. 
 The elTorts of the shovel brigade that was 
 early put to work soon cut narrow paths along 
 these sidewalks. The drifts rose higher under 
 the contributions of these workers, who piled 
 the many cubic yards thus removed upon the 
 tops of the huge drifts at the curbs. In many 
 places this resulted in huge white heaps that 
 reached to the crossbars of the lamp 
 posts. On the other sides of the streets 
 bare spots and little drifts alternated. 
 Sometimes for whole blocks, and always at one 
 or more points in a block, the drifts extended 
 Into the roadways. In the cross streets and 
 all the narrow thoroughfares scarcely ono 
 whole block was passable, and more wagons 
 were soon stalled and left with those that had 
 been out all night. Those who started gaily 
 out with fresh horses and the comfortable con- 
 sciousness J.hat the storm was over were 
 speedily undeceived as to their expectations of 
 getting anywhere. A block or two of travelling 
 would use un the horse or horses, and one or 
 two experiences of digging a way through 
 drifts would use up the driver. Few of the 
 many drivers of the Ninth ward (known as the 
 truckman's home) even made the attempt to 
 get out their teams, and those who did were 
 soou obliged to relinquish it. In Charles 
 street, from Fourth street to Greenwich avenue, 
 the drifts were impassable even to sleighs, and 
 Tenth street, in the same two blocks, were 
 nearly as bad. 
 
 FIBEMEN SHOVELLING SNOW. 
 
 The men of 18 Engine, who had been nearly 
 frozen to death in a night run, restored the 
 circulation of their blood by clearing a way 
 from their quarters to Sixth avenue. Their 
 engine had got stuck, despite its four horses. 
 at the corner of Greenwich avenue on Monday 
 evening, 150 feet from the engine house door. 
 The boys improvised a snow plough and broke 
 paths out to the avenue, using their shovels 
 to reenforce the work of the plough and their 
 best horse. 
 
 SLEIGHING BREAKS LOOSE. 
 
 Broadway was filled with a lively parade of 
 vehicles and sleighs. Cutters, Eussian sledges, 
 and sleighs of all sorts were in the line. One 
 or two four-in-hand livery sleighs were char- 
 tered in Harlem originally, and remained to do 
 a little Broadway railrouding at good figures. 
 The plumed sleighs and horses were the 
 swellest things out. Altogether it was a sight 
 that Broadway has very seldom seen, and one 
 that the laying of tracks there was supposed 
 to have put an end to forever. Carriages and 
 coup(5s were there, too, and seemed to suit 
 those of rheumatic tendencies or delicate 
 build, though their progress was heavy and 
 lumbering as compared with the gliding, 
 speedy sleighs. 
 
 GOOD ENOUGH FOOT GOING IN SPOTS. 
 
 Pedestrians were plenty. Their experience 
 as compared with that of the previous morn- 
 ing was pleasant. The air was sharper, but 
 the going had improved. Even where the side- 
 walks had not been thoroughly cleaned a path 
 had been beaten by the tramp of hundreds of 
 feet, andfthe laborious tugging of the Monday 
 morning's walk was replaced by something of 
 springiness and sprightliness. The air was 
 more bracing, and the absence of flyipg clouds 
 
 or snowy particles fine as fog made the trip a 
 great deal pleasanter. There was not the 
 further danger of missing lormeriv familiar 
 landmarks or getting sufficiently bewildered to 
 look for Bleeckor street in the neighborhood of 
 Canal or similar incongruities. 
 
 THE PROPER CAPER IN CLOTHES. 
 
 As has already been intimated, many men, 
 on weighing it up, decided not to venture out. 
 Those who did go out knew what they were 
 going into, and prepared for it more than they 
 iiad the day before. A soft hat tied down over 
 the ears with a handkerchief was a prevailing 
 mode, and coarse packing cord tioil tightly 
 about the trousers at the ankle was the correct 
 caper in west side high lite. A few extremists, 
 who sported rubber boots to their knees, were 
 scorned as dudes. Coarse bagging or brown 
 packing paper tied about the feet and legs was 
 good enough for ordinary folks, like grocers' 
 boys and butchers' assistants. There seemed 
 to be no generally recognized fashion for la- 
 dies' outdoor wear. A gossamer coat, with the 
 hood drawn close, and a peaked expression of 
 countenance, were the observable features of 
 most female costumes. 
 
 SLEDDING FOR COAL. 
 
 The attempts at doing business were not 
 largely productive, and in the especial and nec- 
 essary matter of getting provisions and coal 
 the only real progress was made. Coal in 100- 
 pound bags was in very limited supply in some 
 neighborhoods. A west side coal man drew 
 them to his customers on a home-made sledge, 
 built on the pattern of an old-fashioned stone 
 boat out of packing box stuff. Others sent 
 them out by hand, or rather on the stout 
 shoulders of men whose pay brought the cost 
 of the coal up to double or more than double 
 its usual price. Toward evening the pressure for 
 a coal supply became so strong that the lum- 
 bering coal carts were brought out. and with 
 half a load and a tandem team made to do 
 what little could be done to help out. 
 
 PROVISIONS IN GREAT DEMAND. 
 
 The marketing made necessary by the three 
 days' havoc in Saturday's supply was very un- 
 satisfactory work. The retailers, whose base 
 of supplies is Washington Market, were unable 
 to replenish their stocks, and their customers 
 were in turn deprived of the opportunity to 
 store their larders. Down town the hotels and 
 restaurants were better off. Strong men and 
 capacious baskets did the business there, and 
 with some exceptions— like Currier's, where 
 the coal was out, and the Press Club, whose 
 cook was snowbound at home— the regular cus- 
 tomers fared pretty well. The efforts to do 
 business around the market were vigorous to 
 the verge of heroic. Seaman Lichtenstein & 
 Son paid $100 to get a load of produce up town 
 to some of their hotel customers. 
 
 IMPROVISED A BIG SLED. 
 
 But the boss job of pushing was done by 
 Alexander Powell of Drahan & Powell. Their 
 business is with Southern hotels, like the Ponce 
 de Leon and other $8 a day houses. The 
 idea that these houses were to feel the effects 
 of the blizzard was not to be thought of. 
 The people pay those figures to get away from 
 such things. Mr. Powell wanted to get 250 
 barrels of meat, poultry, and other provisions 
 aboard the steamer. Trucks were out of the 
 question, A double truck loaded with ten bar- 
 rels and harnessed to four horses was as im- 
 movable as the hills. Something had to be 
 done. Sleighs were sought in vain. At 7 
 o'clock in the morning Mr. Powell hunted up 
 a down-town wheelwright and gave him an or- 
 der to build a sleigh. He did not care for finish 
 or shad runners or anything except strength 
 and to get it quickly. At 1 o'clock in the after- 
 noon the sleigh was delivered in front of his 
 store, and, after getting his stuff down to the 
 boat, Mr. Powell let his neighbors use the 
 rough, unpainted, but very serviceable sleigh. 
 
 NO MAILS. EXCEPT FROM STALLED TRAINS. 
 
 Postmaster Pearson rose from a night's rest 
 on his office sofa to a day of masterly inactivity. 
 It was not his fault or that of his men, and they 
 took no comfort in the fact that there was little 
 for them to do. They knew too well that the 
 day of reckoning was at handi and that an aval- 
 
atiche of mail mat>r would tax tlielr every re- 
 source when the (.lelayed trains should arrive, 
 and no one knew when that would be. in 
 the mean timeithe collectors, without refer- 
 ence to schedule time, kept the lamp-post 
 boxes clear, and the carriers also, in disregard 
 of the deliveries on the card, distributed the 
 light local mails sifted from the result of the 
 collectors' trips. Biisiness was at such a stand- 
 still that the street boxes did not furnish 
 much material. And the difficulty of hauling, 
 with the certainty that no mails were being 
 sent out. made publishers and others slow in 
 sending big loads in. It would have made 
 little difference if they had, as the Post 
 Office people would simply have stowed the 
 stufT away. Monday morning's newspapers and 
 those of yesterday were held there, and they 
 made the bulk ot the matter on hand. Com- 
 munication with the local branches was rees- 
 tablished yesterday, but this did not involve 
 much increase in the volume of busines/ Mr. 
 Pearson was rather more sanguine than som» 
 of his men about the rush expected from the 
 incoming trains. In fact, he did not expect any 
 rush, calculating upon their arrival at inter- 
 vals, which would enable the clerks and car- 
 riers to get their mails out of the way easily. 
 
 THE BIG DEIFTS PHOTOGBAPHED, 
 
 The fact that the city never saw such an 
 experience before since it was a metropolis, 
 and the reasonable supposition that many 
 years will intervene before the experience will 
 he repeated, appealed at once to the knights of 
 the camera. Amateurs and professionals alike 
 got their instruments to bear on choice bits of 
 blizzard scenery as soon as the light was suffi- 
 cient for their purpose. Broadway. Union, and 
 Madison squares were especially favored by the 
 picture takers. The preservation of some of 
 the storm effects by the truth telling photog- 
 rapher will be a blessing to the future story 
 teller who recounts his storm experiences to 
 those who saw none of it. The evidence thus 
 brought to bear cannot be gainsaid, and in no 
 other way perhaps could those who did not 
 have a share in these experiences be made to 
 appreciate the situation as it was when yester- 
 day morning dawned. And after a few days of 
 good solar printing weather has enabled these 
 artists to finish some pictures the windows of 
 the photograph sellers will blossom with some 
 of the mos t interesting things they have ever 
 shown. 
 
 HACKS IN NOEMAL DEMAND. 
 
 The gilt edge was taken off the hack-driving 
 business by yesterday afternoon, and two 
 blanketed teams stood in front of the Astor 
 House in peace yesterday afternoon at an hour 
 when the contest for them was greatest the day 
 before. The V's and X's were not flying around 
 in the plenty of the storm's harvest day, and 
 the carrying capacity of the nimble nickel was 
 again asserting itself. The drivers who were 
 on runners kept a little of the fat that had 
 gladdened the fraternity on Monday, but the 
 average New Yorker is not sufficiently inured 
 to the chill delights of facing the breeze in an 
 open sleigh to make the demand for sleigh 
 rides up town very strong. 
 
 Women were rather more plenty in the streets 
 than on Monday, and they got along a great 
 deal better. They attracted a great deal of at- 
 tention, and deserved it, for rosy is but a poor 
 term to describe their complexions, and 
 sparkling is only a weak word to indicate the 
 brightness of their eyes. 
 
 PLENTY or WOKK FOB MEN. 
 
 The amount of snow to be shovelled from 
 sidewalks and tracks is sufficient to furnish oc- 
 cupation for thousands of men. who will find 
 In the opportunity to make some ready money 
 a mitigation of the otherwise adverse circum- 
 stances of the storm. Shovels were in great 
 demand, and a run on the hardware stores 
 was begun early. The impossibility of having 
 orders to wholesalers or jobbers filled made the 
 retailers wary, and in mobt cases the prices 
 were gently lifted. A good margin of profit is 
 looked for in most of the articles that the re- 
 tailer deals in, but as a rule shovels are not 
 among them. Yesterday it was different, and 
 fifty per cent, was the least that would satisfy 
 many of the dealers. 
 
 Wall street is still in the grip of the bliz- 
 zard. This was demonstrated in a very pro- 
 nounced way yesterday when only 1,800 shares 
 of stocks were dealt in on the Stock Exchange. 
 Between 10 o'clock and noon, when the Ex- 
 change adjourned, half a hundred brokers, 
 most of them governors, wandered over the 
 echoing floor of the great Board room. Most 
 of those on hand hadn't been home over night. 
 Some slept in their offices and others were 
 packed four in a room in down-town hotels. 
 There was a dreary effort by some of the al- 
 leged wits to make things pleasant. Half a 
 dozen played " one-old-cat," the base ball 
 game in their boyhood games. The Governors 
 saw how things were running and decided to 
 exercise some of the absolute prerogatives 
 with which their fellow members have en- 
 dowed them. They closed the Exchange at 
 noon. Deliveries of stocks and loan accom- 
 modations were again extended twenty-four 
 hours, but unless telegraphic communication is 
 established to-day with other speculative cen- 
 tres there will doubtless be another dreary time, 
 followed by a half holiday more effective than 
 the one established by the Albany fraternity. 
 
 At the Sub-Treasury one-third of the clerks 
 from Jersey towns and the upper New York 
 districts were absent. Cashier William Sherer 
 lives in the outskirts of Brooklyn. He is 50' 
 years old. On Monday and yesterday he walked 
 the eight miles necessary to attend to his duties 
 and get home again, besides lugging a well- 
 dressed individual on Monday night through 
 one mile of snow drifts to shelter. The well- 
 dressed person had attempted to get square oa 
 the blizzard by the help of alcohol, and was in- 
 different about going home at all. 
 
 All day amateur photographers f ocussed their 
 cameras on Washington's statue on the Sub- 
 Treasury steps, A professional secured a nega- 
 tive for Harper's Weekly. The statue is coated, 
 with icy sleet, and is topped by a white head 
 dress of the shape of the hats worn by King: 
 George's men a hundred years ago. The snow 
 has settled on the shoulders of the statue up to 
 the ears, so that the stoop-shouldered and medi- 
 tative manner of the first Napoleon nre por- 
 trayed. It is a curious combination Jiat the 
 blizzard has thrust on the first President of th» 
 republic. 
 
 The Cotton and Coffee Exchanges didn't open, 
 their doors at all; the Produce adjourned at 
 noon after a sorry and slimly attended session %. 
 the Consolidated Exchange followed suit at 1 
 o'clock, and the Custom House, although most 
 of the prominent officials were on hand, was 
 dull as on Sundays. 
 
 The Produce Exchange men, in addition ta 
 being cut off from the outside world, are also 
 up a stump because the manager of the Prod- 
 uce Exchange Safe and Deposit Company 
 hasn't been able to get to town from his horn© 
 in Jersey since Saturday night. The securities 
 and certificates required by the grain and 
 other men are locked up in the vaults. ,^^. 
 
 The down-town end of the blizzard, taken as 
 a whole, is about as successful as anv, and 
 until the telegraph wires can be patched and 
 rigged very little business can be done. 
 
 yO MILK AND ZTTTLB COAL. 
 
 Mutton, ribs of beef, and other solidities 
 were quoted at an advance of two to four cents 
 the pound yesterday at the fountain heads of 
 retail distribution. Up-town butchers soon 
 doubled Washington Market prices for their 
 customers, and, though there was some grum- 
 bling, their exactions were submitted to. There 
 is meat enough within reach to last a week, it 
 is said, but after that time the dealers predict 
 that their picnic will begin. The dealers of 
 Washington Market say that they experienced 
 no difficulty yesterday in transporting meat to 
 all parts of the city. They held themselves 
 out as ready and able to fill all orders. 
 
Notwithstanding their assertions, however, 
 the spectacle of wagons laden with meat strug- 
 gling in vain with the ruts of snow constantly 
 recurred. One novel means of transporation 
 was to hang great haunches of meat over the 
 back of a horse and get up town without the 
 dangers atteiKhint upi.ntho haulingof awagon. 
 
 Ihe milk situation is declared to be simply 
 appalling Not a car load of milk arrived here 
 yesterday. Fifty cents was refused for a glass 
 of milk in a down-town restaurant yesterday. 
 As the situation became known most of the 
 restaurants refused to sell milk as a beverage. 
 Later in the day this was the universallv 
 adopted rule. No milk was dispensed except 
 with coffee. 
 
 In the up-town districts not only was it im- 
 possible in some cases to get any milk, but 
 even bread was out of the rjuestion. The milk- 
 man, of course, was not, and the spec- 
 tacle of innumerable journeys to the corner 
 grocery or the neighboring dairy was in many 
 instances touching, because it yielded no re- 
 sults to anxious mothers or distressed house- 
 wives- 
 
 The poor, who are accustomed to buy their 
 milk in small quantities at the grocers', were 
 greatly distressed by the famine. The grocers 
 had no milk, and so these unfortunates were 
 forced to do without. This privation, however, 
 could easily have been endured, but the scarcity 
 of coal at all the places where thev have been 
 accustomed to buy it by the pailful added a 
 new peril to their condition. Hauling coal was 
 hardly attempted yesterday, and the existing 
 supply at these groceries was exhausted yes- 
 terday in many quarters. 
 
 Crowds of women and children brought tin 
 and patent pails for a little coal, and in many 
 places so great was the demand that police- 
 men were stationed at the groceries to prevent 
 the people from storming the coal bins. For a 
 " patent" pail full of coal sixty cents was 
 charged, and when a poor woman demurred at 
 the price she was told that the supply was low 
 and that if she would not pay the price others 
 would quickly do so. A patent pail contains 
 twelve quarts. The supply of coal in many 
 grocery stores was exhausted even at this ex- 
 orbitant chari,'e. and cards were posted in the 
 windows like this: 
 
 : COAL ALL OUT. • 
 
 ; NO COAL SOLD. ; 
 
 Women, bareheaded and scantily clothed, 
 dragging shivering children at their heels and 
 carrying little tin pails with them, burst into 
 tears on reading the placards, and turned away 
 to pursue too often an equally fruitless search 
 at other stores. 
 
 A horse hitched to a coal cart broke down 
 while the blizzard was at its height at the cor- 
 ner of Thirteenth street and First avenue. 
 Several hundred men and women whose faces 
 blocked the windows of the big tenements in 
 the street saw the driver jump from the cart 
 and unhitch his horses in despair. In another 
 instant fully 100 women and girls with pails 
 and baskets and tin cans were swarmed 
 around. the coal cart clamoring for the coal. 
 In less than five minutes it was all sold. The 
 load bi ought over $7. 
 
 FOUND HEAD AND BURIED IN SNOW. 
 
 One of those places in the city in which 
 the great storm spent its wildest fury was in 
 Seventh avenue, between Fiftieth street and 
 Central Park. The thoroughfare here is on 
 rising groundVand the wind gets a great sweep 
 at it through th© broad street openings. Police- 
 men who were sent out to patrol it on Monday 
 shrunk, shivering and bewildered, into^ the 
 doorways, and were almost frozen fast there. 
 The men around the Broadway street car line 
 stables at Fiftieth street were almost terrified 
 at the storm, and were as solemn in the stables 
 as if they were on strike. To a Sun reporter 
 who looked up the street yesterday it seemed, 
 
 with its sidewalks half shoveUed, and with 
 carts and wagons of all sorts and descriptions 
 lying abandoned in the road, like a picture of 
 as utter desolation as New-York is ever likely 
 to present. The Sixth avenue elevated cars, 
 pulling at intervals through Fifty-third street, 
 were the only things that made it seem likely 
 that anybody lived around there at all. 
 
 At a quarter to 5 o'clock yesterdav morning, 
 as Policeman Henry Haag of the West Forty- 
 seventh street station struggled up Seventh 
 avenue, right under the elevated tracks at Fif- 
 ty-third street he saw a man's arm and hand 
 sticking out of the snow in the middle of the 
 road, just in front of him. The policeman 
 kicked the snow away and discovered the 
 man's body. The man was frozen dead and 
 had evidently lain there for hour.s. He waa 
 well dressed and there was a gold watch chaia 
 across his breast. The hand that was stretched 
 out of the snow had the fingers wide apart. 
 The policeman pulled the body out of the snow 
 to its full length, and then tramped back to 
 Captain Killilea's station house for help. 
 
 When they examined the man's clothes at the 
 station house they found, besides the gold chain 
 and watch and a small amount of money in 
 currency, letters addressed: 
 
 : Mr. George D. B.iRKHORK, : 
 
 : The Osborne Klalg. : 
 
 : 205 West 57th street, : 
 
 : New York. 
 
 A policeman who knew Mr. George D. Bare- 
 more, a wealthy hop dealer, when that gentle- 
 man lived at the Dakota Flats, identified the 
 body, and word was sent to Mr. Baremore's 
 family at the Osborne. 
 
 Mr. Bnreraore's wife and two little boys had 
 eat up all night, waiting for him to come homo. 
 Mrs. Baremore asked the oflicer to notifv lier 
 husband's brother Henry, at 324 West Fifty- 
 seventh street, and the officer did so. Mr. 
 Henry Baremore went to the station house and 
 identified his brother's body, and it was taken 
 home. Death was caused by freezing. 
 CHARGE OF THE SUOVEL BRIGADE. 
 
 Mayor Hewitt got down to his office at 11 
 o'clock yesterday morning. Ho came down 
 from Twenty-third street ia a Third avenue 
 elevated train, and got pretty well squeezed on 
 the way. He was deeply impressed with the 
 emergency created by the storm, and had busy 
 conferences all day with the heads of depart- 
 ments, with a view to clean and protect the city. 
 
 Chief Shay of the Fire Department came 
 down and urged that, as a measure of protec- 
 tion from flre, leading thoroughfares should be 
 promptly cleaned. 
 
 The Mayor had a conference with Street Com- 
 missioner Coleman, who said he had made all 
 possible arrangements to get the streets clean. 
 That he had required the contractors to keep 
 up their full force of men, and had hired all the 
 extra carts he could get. Commissioner Cole- 
 man urged that in this emergency the restrict- 
 ed dumjiing grounds are not sufiBcient. The 
 Docks Department rules require snow to be 
 dumped from the ends of the piers at wide in- 
 tervals apart. The Mayor wrot'" a letter urging 
 the Dock Commissioners to su; lend the rules 
 for this emergency, and to permit the snow to 
 be dumped from any bulkhead. Mr. Coleman 
 took the letter over to the Dock Department to 
 get the required permission. 
 
 The Street Department stables are at Seven- 
 teenth street and Avenue C. The force were at 
 once ordered to work its way to Broadway and 
 clear Broadwfvy as quick as jiossible. clear- 
 ing first the side streets leading to the ferries. 
 All the men and.carts that could be hired were 
 at once put on. 
 
 A committee of merchants ofTered to clean 
 Ferry, (iold. Spruce, and Jacob streets, and 
 their offer was accepted. 
 
 Orders were issued to clear the snow first 
 from the vicinity of all the fire hydrants. Be- 
 fore nieht tbare were about a. thousand men 
 
ana c^rts at' work on Broadway and side 
 streets; ' 
 
 Mayor Hewitt sent a message to Inspector 
 Williams last night requesting him to notify 
 the police throughout the city not to interfere 
 with the dumping of snow from piers other 
 than those usually used by the Street Cleaning 
 Deiiartmont. The Mayor deemed this neces- 
 sary in order to facilitate the cleaning of the 
 streets for the resumption of traffic. 
 
 General Manager Hain of the Manhattan 
 Elevated Railroad Company passed the after- 
 noon of Monday.'and neai'ly all of the night in 
 the station 'at Sixth avenue and Pifty-eight 
 street, where he directed the work of clearing 
 the tracks and relieving the blockade. The 
 superintendent was similarly engaged at 
 South Ferry. Shortly after midnight traffic 
 was resumed on Sixth avenue with two-car 
 trains at irregular intervals from the southern 
 terminus to 155th street. All through the early 
 morning elevated traiHc was limited to two-car 
 through trains on Sixth avenue, one car trains 
 from City Hall to Ninety-eighth|street and re- 
 turn on Third avenue, and occasional trains 
 from Grand street to the northern terminus 
 and return on Second avenue. 
 
 By daybreak, when the patronage of all the 
 lines increases suddenly, trains were despatch- 
 ed more frequently on all lines, except 
 Ninth avenue, the south of Fifty-ninth 
 street, where employees were still at 
 work clearing off the tracks. Before 9 o'clock 
 two-car trains were run up and down this line 
 at intervals of eight minutes, and, as the day 
 advanced, the operations of the road improved 
 steadily. It was not until late in the afternoon, 
 however, that full length trains were running 
 with regularity on the west side divisions. 
 
 The Third avenue line was soonest put in 
 running order, and all day yesterday it fur- 
 nished the best facilities for transportation in 
 the city. Two-car and three-car, and finally 
 four-car trains ran at nearly regular intervals 
 of six minutes from City Hall to 129th street 
 and return. It is probable that longer trains 
 might have been made up had there been men 
 enough to run them. Many of the day force of 
 engineers, firemen, conductors, guards, and 
 station men worked straight through the night, 
 because the night men could not get to their 
 work. Other day men had to walk many miles 
 to reach the roads, and some who lived in for- 
 eign parts, reached only by ferryboats, could 
 not report for duty at all. 
 
 The last part of the elevated roads to be 
 cleared and opened for traffic was the mile of 
 crooked track from Chatham square to South 
 Ferry. When this was finally cleared away it 
 was impracticable to run trains on that section 
 at the usual speed, for the tracks were slippery 
 and snow was being blown upon them con- 
 tinuously. 
 
 The express trains from 155th street to Cort- 
 landt street, via Ninth avenue, did not run yes- 
 terday morning, and the return trips were 
 omitted in the afternoon. This was because 
 the demand which these trains usually supply 
 did not exist. They are run primarily for the 
 accommodation of patrons of the New York 
 City and Northern Railroad, which crosses the 
 Harlem to 155th street, and sends its passen- 
 gers down town over the elevated road. The 
 express trains make close connection with 
 trains from and to the north, but since Satur- 
 day there have been no trains to connect with. 
 Several south-bound trains on the Northern 
 were stalled early Monday morning, and there 
 they are yet. Not one has reached the city. 
 
 A desperate effort was made on Monday to 
 force a way through the drifts, but nothing 
 was done yesterday but patient shovelling. 
 Passengers were imprisoned in the cars for 
 many hours on Monday, and it is not certainly 
 known that any of them reached the city; but 
 when the company abandoned Its attempts to 
 move trains every effort was made to 
 care for the passengers. The high- 
 ways in the country are blocked by drifts 
 and almost impassable, but by yesterday morn- 
 ing the company had emptied all of its stalled 
 trains. It Is said that some of thQ.passepger9 
 
 were cared for at houses near by, ana tnat 
 others vi'ere enabled to reach their homes. 
 There is little information in the city as to the 
 progress the Northern people have made in 
 clearing their tracks, but there is some hope 
 that trains may be run to the city this morn- 
 ing, barring delays from a new snow storm. 
 
 "We died the hardest of any of 'em," 
 said Superintendent Newell of the Broadway 
 and Seventh avenue street car line "And," 
 said the superintendent, " we're coming to life 
 as soon as any of 'em, but no one can tell when 
 that's going to be. Of course we shan't run 
 any cars to-day, and probably not to-morrow, 
 either. I have about 250 men out shovelling 
 to-day, 75 of whom are Italians and men who 
 wanted a job. The rest are some of our con- 
 ductors and drivers." 
 
 The superintendent had a good many more 
 men than 250 at work early in the morning. 
 Each of the newly-hired workers was to get 
 $1.25 for his Jay's work. Pretty soon the po- 
 lice came around with stern notifications to the 
 occupants of buildings to clean off their side- 
 walks immediately. The laborei's found their 
 services at a premium, and in a great many 
 cases they left the street car tracks for the 
 more lucrative task of cleaning the sidewalks. 
 The slush which formed on the tracks at the 
 beginning of the blizzard was frozen, of course, 
 and was to be dug away with pickaxes. It does 
 not seem as if cars could be running the length 
 of Broadway these three days, though superin- 
 tendent Newell says, he has 1,000 men prom- 
 ised him for to-day. The workers yesterday 
 only cleared the tracks of the drifts between 
 Thirty-eighth and Forty-ninth streets. The 
 The worst drifts upon the Broadway track are 
 at Union and Madison squares, and near Fif- 
 tieth street. The Broadway road has two cars 
 snowed in, one at Bowling Green and the other 
 between Eighth and Ninth streets. The Sev- 
 enth avenue cars are all in. 
 
 At 6 o'clock yesterday morning Superin- 
 tendent Moore of the Sixth avenue surface 
 railroad left the road stables, at the corner of 
 Forty-fourth street and Sixth avenue, with a 
 corps of three hundred workers armed with 
 pickaxes and shovels. The workers comprised 
 nearly all the drivers and conductors of the 
 road and Italians and other chance laborers. 
 The men were distributed from Vesey to Fifty- 
 ninth street, and they went to work shovelling 
 snow with a will. Particular attention was paid 
 to the Sixth avenue part of the road from Car- 
 mine street up. Before the day was done the 
 upper part of the avenue was cleared of the 
 drifts, but the tracks were still clogged with 
 ice so that car locomotion over them was im- 
 possible. It will require four or five trips of 
 the sweeper over the tracks after the ice is off 
 before the cars can be run. Superintendent 
 Moore said that if there was no more blizzard 
 he hoped to start cars this morning. 
 
 The Third Avenue Horse Car Company had 
 500 men at work yesterday clearing the tracks. 
 They were put to work early, and many were 
 kept at it during the night. Snow ploughs and 
 sweepers were useless. "I have been in this 
 business," said Vice-President Hart, " since 
 there was a horse car, and 1 never before knew 
 it to be necessary to use picks on the road. But 
 we had to get picks to-day, and we couldn't get 
 along without them. The great trouble is with 
 the ice which formed on the rails when the first 
 snow fell on top of the rain on Sunday night." 
 
 Several of the horses were badly strained be- 
 fore the running of the cars was given up, but 
 none was lost. Half a dozen cars were stalled, 
 all but one of which had been brought back to 
 The stables at Sixty-sixth street by 3 o'clock 
 P. M. 
 
 The Harlem Cable road, which is a part of 
 the Third avenue system, had four cars run- 
 ning Monday, but none yesterday. There was 
 no trouble with the cable itself. No attempt 
 was made to start a horse car yesterday. The 
 Second avenue horse car line started oht to 
 clear the tracks from the stables at Ninety- 
 
«lxtli streef southward. About 250 men were 
 at work with shovels. The company means to 
 start the cars as soon as it can clear the tracks 
 •down to Houston street. Fifteen cars were 
 .started yesterday, and only three could be ex- 
 tricated. AVork on the track was continued 
 during the night. 
 
 Fourth avenue horse cars were out last night, 
 and were carrying passengors on a portion of 
 the road, from the dejiot to below Twenty-third 
 street. People cheered them as they went. 
 
 JiOSCOE CONKUNG XEARLT DEAD. 
 
 Koscoe ConJiling said yesterday that he 
 liad a pretty tough constitution and had been 
 in some pretty tight places in his life, but that 
 he had never found himself as far gone physi- 
 cally as on Monday night in Union square. 
 
 " I had been at the Stewart building in the 
 afternoon," he said, " and had some work to do 
 in my office, and not thinking that the city 
 would be dark at night I went down to Wall 
 street to look after the work. A little after 6 
 o'clock I wanted to go home. There wasn't a 
 cab or carriage of any kind to be had. Once 
 during the day I had declined an oft'er to ride 
 up town in a carriage, because the man wanted 
 $50, and I started up Broadway on my pins. It 
 was dark, and it was useless to try to pick out 
 a path, so I went magnificently along shoulder- 
 ing through drifts, ana headed forthe north. I 
 WHS pretty well exhausted when I got to Union 
 SQuare, and, wiping the snow from my eyes, 
 tried to make out the triangles there. But it 
 was impossible. There was no light, and I 
 plunged right through on as straight a line as 
 1 could determine upon. 
 
 "Sometimes I have run across passages in 
 novels of great adventures in snow storms; for 
 example, in stories of Kussian life, where there 
 would be a vivid description of a man's strug- 
 gle on a snow-swept and windy plain; but I 
 have always considered the presentation an 
 exaggeration. I shall never say so again, lor 
 after what I encountered in last night's bliz- 
 zard I can believe that the strongest descrip- 
 tion would fail to approximate the truth. 
 
 "I had got to the middle of the park and was 
 up to my arms in a drift. I pulled the ice and 
 snow from- my eyes an<l held my hands up there 
 till everything was melted otT so that 1 might 
 see; but it was too dark and the snow too 
 'blinding. For nearly twenty minutes I was 
 stuck there, and I came as near giving right up 
 and sinking down there to die as a man can and 
 not do it. Somehow I got out and made my 
 way along. When I reached the New York Club 
 at Twenty-fifth street I was covered all over 
 with ice and packed snow, and they would 
 scarcely believe me that I had walked from 
 Wall street. It took three hours to make the 
 journey." 
 
 Trains on the Brooklyn Bridge ran all 
 Monday night, and until 7 A. M. yesterday trav- 
 ellers found no difficulty in crossing the river. 
 Then the usual rush of Brooklynites to get to 
 the metropolis began, and although no surface 
 ■cars were running yet the Brooklyn elevated 
 railroad supplied enough passengers, with 
 those who made their way to the bridge on 
 foot, to cause a jam at the bridge entrance. 
 Sands street before 8 A. M. was filled from curb 
 to curb with a pushing and struggling, but 
 good-natured mass of human beings— mostly 
 men, but a good many women. 
 
 The cable was not used, partly because the 
 bearing wheels on the bridge were frozen stiff 
 ■and partly because Superintendent Martin 
 •deemed it unwise to use the grip on account of 
 the accumulation of snow and ice. The same 
 prudence also governed the counsels of the 
 tnanagers in regard to the ^number of trains 
 
 permitted on the bridge. Only one train at a 
 time was allowed to burden the structure. As 
 soon as one train arrived on one track another 
 was started from the other track. In this way 
 it was possible to divide the crowds, sending 
 the passengers for ton minutes up the north 
 stairway and in the next ten minutes up the 
 south stairway. Trains of throe cars and two 
 engines were run. 
 
 This arrangement, however, while the neces- 
 sity existed of sending passengers up first one 
 and then the othnr stairway, was not suOiciontl 
 to relieve the pressure at the one ticket onice. 
 
 An arrangomtint adopted to send passengersi 
 through the ticket office to the south platform 
 caused a rush in that direction. The rush up] 
 the stairway was prevented by a rope stretchedi 
 across the promenade from the south side to 
 the ticket office on the north side, and fourl 
 policemen stood on guard to prevent the crowd 
 from breaking through. Then the crowd turned 
 lo the ticket office and performed a letter S in' 
 winding through the ticket office across the' 
 promenade to tho south platform. 
 
 Still the crowd in Sands street grew and in- 
 creased, and f!n;illy to relievo the pressure the' 
 south roadway was thrown open to pedestrians.' 
 Thousanils walked to New lork in the road-' 
 way. Grown men frolicked like kittens and 
 ran races. Eight young men procured a ropei 
 from somewhere and tied themselves to it at' 
 intervals and trotted across the bridge, pre- 
 tending that they were enduring the perils of 
 an ascent of the Alps. There was no need for 
 their precaution. 
 
 Shortly after 11 o'clock a force of seventy-flve 
 men was put to work cleaning the promenade 
 of ice and snow, and it was thrown open tol 
 pedestrians. This, with the throwing open of' 
 the roadway, relieved the pressure at Sands' 
 street, and at noon bridge travel resumed its 
 usual aspect. 
 
 Four-car trains, with two locomotives— one to, 
 push and the other to pull— kept the public un- 
 der way across the bridge all day after 12 
 o'clock. 
 
 Of thirty bridge policemen who should have 
 reported for duty earlv yesterday morning] 
 only eighteen appeared at the Sands street 
 bridge police station, and at 8 A. M. twenty of' 
 the entire platoon reported for duty. ThisI 
 compelled policemen who had been on duty, 
 during the first of the storm to remain at their; 
 post. Several pedestrians who stole their way 
 on the bridge unobserved were found during, 
 the night on Monday in a half-dazed condition, 
 and were taken to the tower stations, rubbed, 
 and escorted to land. 
 
 In the afternoon the last car of a three-car, 
 train arriving in New York, after unloadingl 
 passengers, jumped the track at a switch, andi 
 travel was delayed for half an hour. 
 
 CAMfiyG IX THE HOTELS. 
 
 Bank Clerks l->odi;ed Don-n To'n'n In Bulk 
 — 15 lu One Room. 
 
 The clerk at the Astor House says he never 
 saw anything like the jam of Monday night. 
 Most of the guests wore business men and de- 
 sirable patrons, but more than a thousand had 
 to be turned away. One lady came in about 8 
 o'clock and, after putting up with chair accom- 
 modations for several hours, she was provided 
 with a roomy bath room and finished the night 
 there. She was very grateful next morning| 
 for the accommodation and left for Brooklyn. 
 Two hundred cots were put up in the parlors 
 and halls, and even the chairs were grabbed 
 up eagerly, and a well-situated chair with armsi 
 readily commanded quite a handsome pre-; 
 mium. Men offered as high as $25 for a room. 
 An absent-minded stranger raised a laugh byi 
 asking, in a set way. for a pleasant room with a 
 warm, sunny exposure. The clerks gave up 
 their rooms to the suffering public. The Han- 
 over Bank had fifteen employees in one roona, 
 which was doubling up with a vengeance. 
 
 Other down-town hotels had a similar experi- 
 
ence. Clork Haines, at the Cosmopolitan, dis- 
 played eight pages of the big register filled with 
 the names of refugees who stopped atcthe 
 house Monday night. Many of the names 
 were written in pencil, and were evidently 
 traced by fingers that trembled with cold. The 
 hotel accommodates 400 guests, and double 
 that number were turned away. Rooms were 
 rented at the usual rates, although large pre- 
 miums were offered for them. Cots were put 
 in every available place, and the proprietor 
 eave up his private parlor. Sofas readily 
 brought a good price. At the International, 
 when rooms and cots gave out, people took to 
 the chairs in the lobby, and slept there as best 
 they could. Forty employees of the Importers' 
 and Traders' Bank spent the night there. 
 
 French's'Hotel has accommodations for about 
 200 people, and nearly 400 slept there. Many 
 of the rooms utilized were hardly habitable, 
 and one man who got a room early in the day 
 and©went to it late at night found there 
 merely a bedstead with three slats across it, 
 and nothing more. It amounted to sleeping.' 
 on the floor, and he objected. The hall boy tool. 
 him to another room where there was a bed 
 with a mattress. The porter got him a single 
 sheet for covering, and he went to bed under 
 this, wearing his overcoat and merely remov- 
 ing his hat and boots. 
 
 Snow Bound on bis Own Doorstep. 
 
 An unfortunate man who lives in one of 
 the houses that sit far back from the walk on 
 the south side of Fifty-third street, near Sev- 
 enth avenue, when he got within sight of 
 home late Monday afternoon, found a drift as 
 high as his head covering all his sidewalk. He 
 attacked it valiantly, and was buried at the 
 third step. He floundered out and stood off 
 away to consider the situation. Then he tried 
 to flank the drift by hugging the fence, which 
 was of iron and very cold. While he was 
 wrestling with the fence his wife saw him from 
 the window. She threw it up and with the 
 children stood there shouting shrill encourage- 
 ment to the man. Thus inspired he put new 
 life into his struggle, and got himself two feet 
 deeper into the drift. The neighbors came to 
 their windows and looked on, too. Finally he 
 backed out and held a consultation with his 
 wife as to the aspect of affairs. At her sugges- 
 tion he climbed the fence into a neighbor's 
 yard, and then climbed the neighbor's fence 
 into his own and so finally got into the bosom 
 of his family. 
 
 HUNDREDS CHOSS 02V FOOT FROM THIS 
 CITT TO BROOKLYN. 
 
 A. Score ot Foolhardy Men Canarht Tehen the 
 Ice went Out— Ihree Kescued with I>iffi> 
 cnlty — All Travel by Boat Stopped. 
 
 The rising tide bore up from the bay yes- 
 terday morning a huge field of ice. It wafted it 
 past the Battery before the sun was due, and 
 shot it up the East River. The lower ferries 
 saw it coming, and did not attempt to put out 
 any boats. It was Avider than the river, and 
 longer than it was wide. When it got up as far 
 as Burling slip on this side it stuck. The edge 
 scraped the Mallory steamship dock, and 
 twisted several piles out of position. At Fulton 
 ferry, just above, it caught fast, shutting in the 
 slips, and jamming hard against the next pier 
 above where the Black Ball clippers dock. A 
 long extension of ice shut out traffic almost 
 up to the Brooklyn Bridge. At the same mo- 
 ment the eastern edge, which jutted far ahead 
 of the New York side of the floe, caught oppo- 
 site Fulton Ferry. It jammed into the docks 
 for nearly a mile south, shutting in the stores 
 from Martin's to Roberts's. ^ A point ran north- 
 ward from the centre just under the shadow 
 of the big bridge. Southward another point 
 
 reached nearly to Governor's Island. It wa» 
 an enormous ice field of many hundred acres 
 and old salts had to go back a dozen years to 
 recall its equal. 
 
 All this was before 8 o'clock. The bridge waa 
 not running cars then, and even refused foot 
 passengers an entrance. Fulton Ferry was- 
 blocked. The hundreds of people who had 
 gathered at the two gateways to the city were 
 impatient. A daring spirit leaped from the- 
 bridge dock to the ice and started afoot across 
 the floe. His progress was anxiously noted for 
 awhile, and then another man tried it. Mor» 
 followed, and in a quarter of an hour a strag- 
 gling line of pedestrians stretched across the 
 river from Brooklyn to New York. At this end 
 they found three piers on which a landing 
 could be made. One was the upper Mallory 
 dock, another the Harlem dock^of Fulton 
 Ferry, and the third the Black Ball dock, just 
 above. The last was the favorite, especially 
 after half a dozen fishmongers from Fulton 
 Market, whose occupation the blizzard had 
 destroyed, let down ladders, and accommo- 
 dated climbers at 5 cents a head. The exam- 
 ple inspired people at the New York end ta 
 travel eastward, and by 9 o'clock hundreds 
 were availing themselves of the unusual pas- 
 sage. The Brooklyn Bridge was opened to 
 trafflc soon afterward, but this did not deter 
 the natural bridge passengers, many of whom 
 made the trip simply to say they did it. On the 
 bridge immense crowds stood and gazed on 
 the singular sight below. A large number of 
 these persons hurried to the nearest end of the 
 bridge and made for^he ice passage, in search 
 of adventure and glory. 
 
 About 9 o'clock some tugs made strenuous 
 efforts to break the blockade. One tried it on 
 the west side without success. The powerful 
 tug Transfer No. 1 of the New Haven line went 
 through the six-inch ice like cheese, as far as 
 the second Fulton Ferry slip. This opened th& 
 road for the ferryboat Fulton, which began ply- 
 ing between the slip and Catharine Ferry oa 
 this side. It destroyed the entrance to the ic& 
 bridge, too, and drove the people down to- 
 Martin's stores, where some 'longshoremen 
 erected ladders. They exacted one cent toll, 
 but were willing to take a quarter, and got a 
 good many of them, with several coins of larger 
 size. One man gave a dollar, and said it was i 
 worth it to walk across the East River. 
 
 Several women made the trip. Some were- 
 unattended. 
 
 Richard Raising, a ferryman at Fulton Ferry, 
 estimates the number of persons who crossed 
 at 10,000. Mr. Howell of Martin's Stores says- 
 there were only 1,000. The majority of esti- 
 mates range between these figures. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Martin discovered the ice- 
 bridge he declared the passage foolhardy, and 
 decreed that no others should make the trips- 
 from his two piers. The enterprising ladder 
 men thereupon transferred themselves and } 
 their ladders to Watson's pier, just below, and . 
 business was continued. A good many started ■; 
 from Roberts's piers, but the ice there was not 
 safe, and people were warned off. 
 
 The dogs who crossed the natural bridge ■ 
 were legion. They seemed to appreciate the ' 
 rarity of the situation. Tommy Ryan. a. \ 
 Brooklyn junk dealer, has a dog with a record. ; 
 He made the trip four times all on his own ,/! 
 account. i 
 
 Charles Peck of Brooklyn, whose wife was the--^ 
 first woman to cross the Brooklyn Bridge after jj 
 it was built, travelled yesterday's ice bridge '^ 
 twice. He had business in New York, and, as ■; 
 the ferries did not run. came over and back on ., 
 the ice. He said it was solid as a paveinent.« 
 C. R. Gone went to business in Brooklyn oqS; 
 that passage, and said he wished it were per-» 
 
 i 
 
inanent. The -wiiid blew him eiear across 
 -without effort on iiis pa»t. He tried first to 
 land at lloberts's Stores, but finding that un- 
 safe climbed up above the ferry house. 
 
 Meantime the tugs were very hard at work 
 trying to force a passage. One hugged the 
 Now York shore, another the Brooklyn shore. 
 Others attacked the floe from the south. They 
 did little good for awhile. A large tug belong- 
 ing to the Old Dominion line did the biggest 
 slice of work in the beginning. 
 
 High tide was due at 9:40 o'clock. Its efTect 
 ■was felt about 10 o'clock. The average pedes- 
 trian did not know this and did not caro. But 
 the seamen and 'longshoremen knew the fact 
 and realized the danger when ebb tide would 
 loosen the ice raft from its moorings. The 
 knowing ones therefore placed themselves at 
 the several entrances to the floe and warned 
 people back. Very many refused to obey, and, 
 the laadors having been banished, lot them- 
 selves down from the piers. The ice looked 
 strong and they thirsted for glory. Many were 
 seized by the 'longshoremen and kept off by 
 main foi-ee. 
 
 At the turn of the tide the great icefield 
 moved. Not a crack on its surface showed the 
 change, but a grating upon the ends of the 
 piers against which it was pinned told the story 
 to the self-appointed watchers along the shore, 
 and loud were the cries to get to the shore. 
 There were over a hundred persons on the ice 
 at this moment. Most of them broke into a 
 run. Some of the cranks, who felt safe from 
 having a firm surface beneath their feet, per- 
 sisted in plodding on at their own time. Sev- 
 eral minutes elapsed after the first warning. 
 Then, with some quick creaking and cracking 
 from end to end, the floe began to shift sea- 
 ward. The most imperturbable then took 
 fright, and on both sides of the river thrilling 
 scenes were enacted. 
 
 About forty persons crowded to the edge of 
 the ice at the main entrance to the Black Ball 
 dock. But the dock was passed. The ice was 
 shifting seaward. A grab was made then at 
 the end of the Fulton Ferry pier, but the piles 
 were slippery and the edges of the ice showed 
 signs of crumbling. The most intense excite- 
 ment reigned upon the ice floe, and on the 
 docks as well. 
 
 New arrivals from across the ice increased 
 the crowd at the edge e very moment. Some 
 laughed in the excitement. Some exchanged 
 cool jokes with those on the docks. One quiet- 
 ly asked to have a tug sent down for him ; an- 
 other requested a stove ; still another shouted 
 that he'd cable when he reached the other side. 
 The majority, though, were greatly excited. 
 Most of them shouted aimlessly ; one man sank 
 on his knees and prayed. 
 
 Slowly the floe drifted down. There was not 
 a rowboat accessible. Several tugs began to 
 get up steam for the rescue, but the floe grated 
 against the northerly Mallory piers, the next 
 below the ferry, crumbled and shivered against 
 the iiiers, and almost stopped. The pause was 
 only for five minutes, but in that time a score 
 of dock employees lowered ladders and helped 
 every one ashore. One man. in his nervous- 
 ness, reeled to one side and slid off into the icy 
 water. The 'longshoremen were by, and quick- 
 ly seized him and pulled him out. 
 
 Another man was found covered with ice 
 from head to foot. His teeth chattered, his eyes 
 •wore dull, his face was white. He said he'd 
 broken through some rotten ice on the Brook- 
 lyn edge of the floe, and been hauled up on the 
 firm ice. They tried to make him go back on 
 shore, but he said he'd cross that river if he 
 died for it. 
 
 Soon after the last man was landed the field 
 yielded to the tide, and moved rapidly down the 
 stream. 
 
 On the Brooklyn side more excitmg mci- 
 <Jents were taking place. There was no ci'owd, 
 for there were few gomg eastward. Three men 
 who had just started when the big fioo halted 
 on the turn of the tide seemed uncertain 
 which way to go. The tug Marehall was to 
 the southward cutting north. She had made 
 little progress, but when the tide turned she 
 made one long leg back, and in the plunge for- 
 ward cut the ice like pie crust. She went 
 faster than was expected, and approached 
 close to where the three young men had just 
 started on their]iierilous trip. 
 
 The men stopped In terror. The ice bulged 
 underneath them with the pressure and th» 
 waves. Had they rushed on they would at 
 least have stood upon the main sheet. >As it 
 was they hesitated, moved backward, forward, 
 back again, and stood still. The ice cracked 
 merrily. Then it bulged up. separated, and each 
 of the three young men were launched upon a 
 separate cake of ice. The tug had gone through 
 likean arrow, and was far up the stream. They 
 shouted frantically and waved their arms. 
 Those in the crowd on the wharves shouted 
 and waved their arms, too. Several tugs saw 
 the predicament and started to the rescue, but 
 ice intervened. Two of the young men were on 
 neighboring ice cakes. One finally made a 
 dangerous jump to the cake nearer the shore 
 on \vhich his companion stood. The crowd 
 shouted approval, told them to keep their 
 hearts, but could do nothing. The other young 
 man, who was irreproachably dressed and car- 
 ried a satchel, was on a cake scarcely 25 feet in 
 diameter. He ran from edge to edge, till each 
 time he nearly dipped in the water, and showed 
 such terror that terror was communicated to 
 those on shore. The spot was near enough the 
 big bridge to attract the attention of large 
 crowds, who shouted in sympathy. 
 
 The cakes drifted near liobert's Stores. Men 
 stood on the piers and tried to throw lines to 
 the ice-wrecked men. The distance was only 
 fifty feet, but the wind spoiled the aim. The 
 men drifted further away and their cries re- 
 douljled. The tug James Watt approached 
 them, and threw them lines, but failed to con- 
 nect. Finally the tug S. E. Babcock got near 
 enough to them for Capt. 'Lisha Morris to haul 
 them over the rail. Shouts went up from the 
 shore, and the tug steamed toward the Battery. 
 
 A fourth man was caught at the same time, 
 but. being near the shore, he threw himself in. 
 the water and was pulled up on the docks. 
 
 The last ice bridge was in 1875. when the ebb 
 and flow of the tide did not affect the ice ex- 
 cept to raise and lower it. A team was driven 
 across that ice bridge once as a deed of daring. 
 It lasted for several days. 
 
 yn/E PILOT BOATS IN DISTRESS. 
 
 Sandy Hook pilots know a nor 'west bliz- 
 zard when it comes along, and every mother's 
 son of them that got ashore yesterday with a 
 whole skin was willing to swear by the piper 
 that played before Moses that Monday's blow 
 was a blow that could give Sullivan, Mitchell, 
 or any other hard hitter a deckload of points 
 on the "knocking out" business, and come up 
 smiling for an unlimited number of rounds. 
 
 Danger in the pilot's life is so frequent that 
 nothing short of death itself, faced as it was by 
 fifty-seven brave fellows comprising the crews 
 of nine pilot boats on Monday afternoon and 
 night, can induce them to tell of the perils they 
 undergo. In that terrible blizzard of Monday, 
 between noon and midnight, no less than seven 
 storm-driven pilot boats went ashore, and two 
 others were abandoned lielpless. 
 ""It was blowing Hard from the southeast," 
 said the Captain, "when we made fast to Fisk's 
 pier, inside the Horseshoe, at 4 o'clock on Sun- 
 day afternoon. A lew coasting schooners, 
 bound east, were at anchor in the bend, and 
 others were coming in for a harbor. Jlost of 
 them anchored pretty close to the west shore 
 of Sandy Hook, so as to ride in smooth water. 
 None of them expected the wind to jump round 
 to the westward and blow great guns like it did 
 belore midnight, putting them all too close to 
 a lee shore. After dark Sunday night we 
 saw nothing till daylight this morn- 
 ing, except a howling blizzard, such 
 as I never saw before, and 1 hope never to see 
 again. Those five pilot boats must have come 
 in during Sunday night and anchored, three of 
 them— the Blunt. Williams, and Sturv— over to 
 the south'ard in the bight, and the Centennial 
 
and Cooper a few lengths apart iiist soutli of 
 Fish's pier. At noon on Monday, the rescued 
 men said, the situation was awful. The Wil- 
 liams. Cooper, and Story each had both 
 anchors out, and they were diving 
 into the furious sea, The spray froze ■ 
 on the rig^'ing, and each sea swept 
 tlieir decks, and poured below. Knocked down 
 repeatedly by the wind and sea, the men yet 
 managed to fire guns of distress, which were 
 heard by the life-saving ci-ew on shore, who were 
 powerless to help. During three hours of fearful 
 suspense the half-frozen crews heard the surf 
 getting closer astern every moment. They knew 
 that with every inch of cable out their splendid 
 craft were dragging their anchors, and must 
 soon strike the beach. Oil bags were hung 
 over the bows, and they smoothed the great 
 ground swell combers a little, but not enougli 
 to save them. The stern of the Williams struck 
 the beach first. The first sea turned her broad- 
 side on to the beach, and broke high over her 
 port side. Pilots and crew jumped overboard 
 when she struck. The yawls were useless, and 
 it was a swim for life. Encumbered by heavy 
 clothes, oilers, and rubber boots, it was 
 a wonder they reached the shore, but they did. 
 Swimming, wading, and then crawling half 
 drowned up the icy beach, they stood together 
 in a snowdrift and thanked God for their es- 
 cape. It was then about 5 o'clock. Knowing 
 nothing of their comrades' fate in the other 
 boats, these men again faced almost certain 
 death in a half-mile tramp to the boarding 
 house across the peninsula kept by Mrs. 
 Stuart. Supporting Pilot Marshall White, who 
 otherwise would have fallen by the way, 
 they reached the house by sheer luck two hours 
 later. How they accomplished it they cannot 
 tell themselves, for they were completely ex- 
 hausteu. ^leanwhile the crew of the Blunt, 
 finding th^ vessel going ashore, slipped their 
 anchors, hi: . Iieading her for the beach, sent 
 her bow on. i jumped ashore safely without 
 having to s\\ ' 
 
 The Story ;■ vl the same fate as the Wil- 
 liams, and wa; wh broadside on the beach, 
 some of the crt tting ashore in the yawl 
 and others swin "-. The crews all met at 
 the boarding hoii. • midnight, where they 
 remained all nighi . Stuart making them 
 as comfortable as ii le. 
 
 " I was ready to ._. " said Pilot Joe Rus- 
 sell, "when I saw ti. lit in that house. I 
 tell you it was a godsei 'o might have all 
 frozen to death in the sl 
 
 Russell's face was bad, -i on one side, 
 
 and one poor fellow's fa^ 'most black 
 
 with the cold. He suffered 1> Daylight 
 
 yesterday morning brought ^\ ■ 1] hands, 
 
 and this is where the tug's cre\\ ty. 
 
 Close in to the beach, looking hi oblong 
 
 icebergs with spars in them, and p. : into 
 
 the seas, the Centennial and Cooper ■ 1 up 
 
 out of the snow squalls. No tinit. -^e. 
 
 There were twenty men's lives to t ic 
 
 there. The tug's crew ran south do\, > 
 
 beach 200 yards, the nearest point to the ■ 
 Heavy ice had been driven in on the h' 
 and over this they made their way with (. 
 eulty Mgainst the wind. Deckhand Stone thi 
 a headline to the Centennial's yawl, in whi' 
 the shivering crew were standing under ht 
 stern, but the leather broke, letting the leac 
 drop before it reached them. Stone's ears wen 
 frozen, but he ran back for some planks. Ont' 
 reached the boat. The first man was blown oh ■ 
 it by the wind, but was pulled on the ice; the 
 rest came across safely. The other crews had 
 seen their comrades' peril, and now came hur- 
 rying down the beach. The Williams crew 
 hove a line over the ice to the Centennial's 
 yawl, and pulled her ashore with another 
 precious cargo. 
 
 Then all hands", assisted by the Zouave's 
 crew, turned to and got the Cooper's crew 
 ashore in much the same way. It was a gallant 
 rescue by a gallant crew, and those fifty men 
 standing on the snow-bound beach made a 
 picture not soon to be forgotten by those pres- 
 ent. The colored cook of the Blunt had to be 
 carried from the red boarding house to the tug, 
 so badly were his limbs frozen. 
 
 One of the saddest incidents in connection 
 with the disasters at Sandy Hook-Avas the land- 
 ing of the Captain's wife of the fishing sloop 
 Pocahontas: The woman, who is said to be 
 young and handsome, had her feet and legs so 
 
 terribly frozen that amputation will be neces- 
 sary to save her lit^ The little sloop camei- 
 ashore in the gale in the night, and the Cap- 
 tain's wife was thrown into the surf. She is 
 being cared for by Mrs. Stuart. 
 
 The Richards, with thirty men, left Sandy 
 Hook pier at 9 o'clock yesterday morning and 
 came direct to the city. On the way up the bay 
 the pilot boat Hope was seen ashore on the- 
 rocks just north of Fort Wadsworth, and over 
 at Bay Ridge the Nye, Harrison, and Driggs 
 were seen. From the maintopmast of the> 
 Driggs her signal of distress, the American en- 
 sign union down, was flying tattered in the 
 storm. The Harrison's anchors were both 
 down, and she was on an even keel, but the ice 
 had forced her ashore. The crews of these 
 boats, especially those on the Nye, that sunk 
 under them, had some thrilling experiences 
 getting ashore over the ice. Imi)rovising sleds, 
 they began to take out their stores and ballast 
 yesterday afternoon. 
 
 The crews of the Centennial and Cooper were 
 compelled to abandon them, as they were liter- 
 ally enveloped in ice, and with water in their 
 holds it was only a question of a few hours, 
 when they would either sink or go ashore. 
 Wrecking steamers went to Sandy Hook last 
 night to try and get all the pilot boats afloat 
 again. 
 
 Another wrecking steamer from Merritt's. 
 Clifton, will attempt to float the Hope at liigh, 
 water. It was reported last night that tlie 
 Scotland lightship was adrift about two mil-.'s 
 southeast of her station. Several steamers,- 
 supposed to be the Furnessia, Werra, Niagara, 
 and Ailsa. were anchored outside the bar. 
 
 Two coasting schooners came ashore 'on 
 Sandy Hook Beach during Monday night. The 
 crews are believed to be safe. 
 
 Pilot Frank Lincoln of the Charlotte Webb,. 
 No. 5, who left her 100 miles east of Sandy 
 Hook, to bringthe steamship Bohemia up, fear-> 
 for her safety. She has ou board Pilots A. C. 
 Markham, Frank Fennay, Harry Peter.sen^ 
 Charles Hammer, and Gus Burns. 
 
 The Phantom No. 11, which went to sea on. 
 Thursday, has only Pilot Charles Samson on 
 board. The Edward E. Barrett put Pilot W. \V. 
 Black aboard the steamer Lahm on Saturday, 
 one on the Etruria, and one on the City of Chi- 
 cago. Pilot Charles Hughes is yet on board of 
 her. Pilot Jerry Reardon, Robert Sylvester.. 
 and Edward Nichols are aboard the David 
 Carrl off Nantucket; Michael Eagan, Georges. 
 "Watson, and Benjamin F. Chapman are in the 
 J. G. Bennett, and Thomas C. Lennon, W. C. 
 Hall. John Hall, and Richard Bigley are aboard, 
 the Thomas Negus. She left New London on. 
 Saturday nieht. The Enchantress is an old 
 boat. She has Pilots Dan Jones. J. Martineau. 
 
 Seguine, and J. Johnson aboard ; J. Heaths 
 
 Fred Ryerson, Oscar Stauffrieden, and Frank 
 Metealf aje in the M. H. Starbuck. 
 
 The lower bay, with the exception of the ship 
 Revolving Light and a disabled schooner at 
 anchor on the Southwest Spit, was bare, but 
 the upper bay, between the Narrows and the 
 Battery, presented as lively a winter panorama 
 as was ever seen. 'Six tugs struggled six hours 
 with the tea clipper South America, that had 
 dragged her anchors in the ice from Bedlow's. 
 Island to Red Hook, before they cleai-ed her 
 and towed her up the Kill Von Kull. The 
 schooner W. Bailey dragged athwart the bark 
 Pettingill's " hawse " and carried away her 
 flying jibboom, while down as far as Bay Ridge 
 schooners were jammed in the ice and tutrs 
 thick as flies hovered around them for a job. 
 Trouble is anticipated on both rivers for days 
 to come on accovint of the ice. 
 
 Another day has gone, and not a train has 
 left the Grand Central Depot except as a rescue 
 train, and not a train has got in except trains 
 rescued. 
 
 "How about our road?" said President De- 
 pew of the New York Central, repeating the- 
 reporter's question. "Why, there isn't any 
 road. The roads are all gone. We have not 
 been able to do anything in the way of moving 
 trains. Six hundred men have been at work 
 since fiaylight trying to clear out the tunnel 
 between Fifty-ninth and Ninety-sixth streets. 
 
ana have made some progress. There Is no 
 way of telling when trains will begin to move," 
 
 No attempt was made to send out any trains. 
 No communication could be had by wire with 
 the agents along the lines, and there was no 
 way of learning the condition of those passen- 
 gers who were confined in stalled trains at any 
 distance from the city. 
 
 One track of the three roads that enter the 
 Grand Central Depot was clear as far as Mott 
 Haven by 5 P. M. yesterday. The tracks as far 
 as Woodlawn Junction are used in common by 
 the New York Central, the Harlem, and the 
 New Haven roads, and this one track, there- 
 fore, sufQced to bring in some of the trains on 
 the three roads that had been stalled between 
 the Grand Central Depot and Mott Haven. At 
 6 o'clock the first two of these, the Shore line 
 express and the Stamford local, had come in. 
 The day had been a particularly hard one for 
 everybody employed about the yards of the de- 
 pot. Jilarly in the morning the tracks were cov- 
 ered with many feet of snow, and it took 
 hours of labor to clean them. Sledge hammers 
 had to be used in moving the switches, which 
 were covered with thick ice. An engine was 
 sent up as far as Seventy-ninth street at noon, 
 behind the gang of Italian laborers, and tried 
 to force a way through the bank of snow piled 
 up in the tunnel. No progress was made, 
 however, and the engine was kept running up 
 and down the different tracks in the yard to 
 keep them clean. The 600 men worked under 
 the personal supervision of Superintendent 
 Toueey, and their progress was rapid after 
 passing Seventieth street. In places drifts 
 had formed seven and eight feet deep, and at 
 2 o'clock the despatcher of the New Haven 
 road said that such a drift extend- 
 ing a distance of 300 feet had been 
 encountered. Another engine was sent vip. but 
 was stalled in the cut, and it required a great 
 deal of laoor to get it back again. Late in the 
 afternoon the officials of the New Haven road 
 said that an attempt would be made to run a 
 rescue train to Woodlawn Junction. They ex- 
 pressed great doubts as to its success. A train 
 was also started from the Harlem River branch 
 of the Now Haven road at Morrisania to New 
 Eochelle. The wires all being down, it was im- 
 possible for the officials to learn Avhether this 
 had gotten through. 
 
 AT LEAST FIFTY TKAINS STILL SNOW BOUND. 
 
 The situation in the afternoon was this: 
 Seven local trains and a number of through 
 trains (supposed to be four) were stalled at dif- 
 ferent points on the road. Their exact where- 
 abouts could not be ascertained. On the New 
 York Central and Harlem Kiver roads fourteen 
 trains were snow bound around Spuyten Duyvil 
 and Woodlawn Junction and at least thirty-six 
 more detained elsewhere. Superintendent Tou- 
 eey said it was impossible to say just where 
 these trains were, but he felt certain that many 
 of thorn had been held at stations, where the 
 passengers were well provided for. The Chi- 
 cago limited, due here at 7 P. M. on Monday 
 night, was held at Schenectady. No trains 
 were allowed to move between Syracuse and 
 Albany, and all east-bound trains were hold at 
 the latter city. The snow was reported to be 
 seven feet deep on the Harlem tracks, and 
 even as far as Albany the snow lay piled up 
 for several feet. 
 
 Mr. Depew said that he had tried to employ 
 more men to clear away the snow, but had 
 found it impossible. 
 
 " Tlie present condition of the stalled trains^" 
 
 he said, " shows tlie iiecessity for stoves in cars. 
 If it were not for the stoves in these trains the 
 passengers would freeze to death, because the 
 fires in the locomotives are nil out for lack of 
 water, and there would therefore be no steam, 
 either." « 
 
 LIVINa IN THE STATION, 
 
 The New Haven road officials thought early 
 on Monday morning that they could get out the 
 5 A. M. accommodation train. Fifty tickets 
 were sold and the jiassengers got aboard the 
 train. An engine was put at the head of the 
 train, but when it came to move it the train 
 could not be budged. The engine could not be 
 taken back to the round house either, and was 
 stalled in the depot. The passengers, rinding 
 they could not get away, determined to keep 
 their places, and the oars were turned into a 
 series of sleeping apartments. The passengers 
 went out to their meals and returned. They 
 were still there last night, and said that, while 
 their anarters were not the most comfortable 
 in the world, they were the cheapest they knew 
 of. They said they would i-emain there for a 
 week if necessary. 
 
 A lank, long-bearded individual spent the 
 greater part of yesterday in making the lives 
 of the officials weary. He travelled from one 
 office to another, taking names and asking a 
 hundred different questions. "I bought my 
 ticket to Motmt Vernon yesterday," he said, 
 '■ and I want to get there. I've got some cows 
 and horses locked up in my barn and they are 
 starving to death. I've got the keys in my 
 pocket." 
 
 " Why don't you walk up from the Suburban?" 
 he was asked, 
 
 "Because I've paid to ride. I'll sue the com- 
 pany. I knew Commodore Vanderbilt, and I 
 know all the heads of the road now. I'm going 
 to get even on this." 
 
 The depot was crowded with persons anxious 
 to depart. They were allowed to stay all night. 
 
 ABOABD THE STALLED TRAINS. 
 
 The officials of the New York Central, the 
 Harlem, and the New Haven railroads sent 
 sleighs up to the nearest trains, and in this 
 way removed the nassengers, who were tired of 
 Avaiting for the tracks to be cleared. The 
 sleighs got as far as Mott Haven, and took all 
 the passengers who had remained over night 
 in the cars of the shore line express, the Stam- 
 ford local, and the Harlem locals. They were 
 taken to the elevated roads. Of these trains 
 the shore line had left Boston on Sunday 
 night and was due in the Grand Central Depot 
 at 7 A. M. on Monday, and the Stamford local 
 had been expected earlier. On both of these 
 trains the passengers had been well provided 
 for, however. To the shore line express three 
 sleepers were attached and every passenger 
 had a comfortable bed. 
 
 All the snow-bound travellers were not so 
 fortunate. Food and fuel became scarce long 
 before nightfall on Monday in many of the 
 trains scattered along the three roads, and in 
 some cases the suffering was intense. Many 
 passengers left the stalled trains and tried to 
 reach the city by their own efforts. Some were 
 fortunate enough to get sleighs at farm houses, 
 but these were very few. Then others tramped 
 through snow up to their waists, and succeeded 
 in pulling through at all only by keeping in 
 groups, so that if a man fell ho would bo as- 
 sisted. 
 
 TONKEKS FOLKS MAKE A NIGHT OP IT. 
 
 The train that left Yonkers at 7:19 A. M. on 
 Monday became stuck in a snow drift just this 
 side of Spuyten Duyvil at 9:55. The snow 
 blew and drifted around the train until it was 
 even with the car windows. It was impossible 
 to keep warm, and there was not enough coal 
 to last long. The water gave out early, and 
 the Qres in the engine had to bo allowed to go 
 out. There were only a half dozen women on 
 the train and about sixty men. When the pas- 
 sengers learned that it would be impossible to 
 get out of the drift they turned all the ears ex- 
 cept the first into smoking cars. 'The women 
 passengers established themselves in the first 
 car, and issued an order barring all the men 
 out. Before night the novelty of the situation 
 had worn off. There was no drinking water, 
 and snow was melted. Wlien the grumbling 
 was at its height one old farmer settled back 
 in his seat, and, removing li.is pipe, yelledj 
 
"••"Well, Olaauncey's boom Is Ousted now." 
 Some sandwiches were brought to the cars by 
 the trainmen, but they merely whetted the 
 appetites of the men, who had nothing to do 
 but rail at their fate and get hunm-yTf This 
 state of affairs gave some of the shTewd but 
 imDecunious passengers an excellent oppor- 
 tunity to make money. Five of them left the 
 train and skirmished around the farm houses, 
 and even went back to Spuyten Duyvil. They 
 came back in the afternoon loaded down with 
 well-filled baskets that contained all kinds of 
 provisions. These they disposed of at Del- 
 monico prices. 
 
 TKAMPING DOWN. 
 
 On Monday night the travellers took the 
 cushions out of the seats and made them into 
 beds by spreading them across the tops of th© 
 seats. Tliere was very little sleep, though, for 
 anybody. The excitement and anxiety were 
 sufficient to keep the majority aAvake, and the 
 hilarity of the few spirits indifferent to the 
 situation would have prevented sleep anyhow. 
 To the women the night was very long, al- 
 thotigh everything possible was done for their 
 comfort. Early yesterday morning twenty of 
 the men determined to make the attempt to 
 get to the city on foot. They succeeded, after 
 weary hours of drawing one leg after another 
 through deep snow drifts, in getting to Mott 
 Haven. Here they took a short rest and then 
 plodded across to the suburban branch of the 
 Second avenue elevated road. 
 
 One of this party said that a train a few miles 
 back had been completely snowed in. The 
 snow was banked up all about the engine, and 
 the fires were out. The supply of coal had run 
 short, and such wood as could be obtained by 
 chopping up the card tables in the smoker gave 
 out. '"All the passengers were suffering from 
 cold, and one man was reported to be so badly 
 frozen that it was not believed that he would 
 recover. There was considerable suffering 
 from hunger also. 
 
 At Mount Vernon the fire department was 
 called out to pump water into the engines of 
 several local trains of the Harlem road that had 
 been held there. The average number of pas- 
 sengers on each train was placed at 200. Mr. 
 Butler, one of Superintendent Toucey's assist- 
 ants, was on the shore line express of the New 
 Haven road, and left the train at 110th street. 
 He said that he suffered no hardships until he 
 began his walk down to the depot, when he 
 found himself enveloped in drifts that nearly 
 engulfed him. Several times he feared that he 
 had bitten off more than he could chew. He 
 got to the offices in the depot completely ex- 
 hausted. Another official was snowbound at 
 Mott Haven, and walked down. He was lucky 
 enough to capture a sleigh after trudging 
 through miles of snow above his knees. 
 
 MES. PEESCOTT'S BEAVE WAiK. 
 
 Mr. Prescott, one of the owners of the Con- 
 sumers' Coal Company of this city, was caught, 
 with his wife, on a local Harlem train at Mott 
 Haven. They started, with a party of three 
 men. Monday noon, to walk down. 
 
 "It was impossitile to tell," he said yester- 
 day, " where the drifts lay, because of the many 
 depressions in the road that we took. The snow 
 was seldom less than knee deep, and while 
 "walKing along in what appeared to be a level 
 we would suddenly find ourselves floundering 
 up to our arm pits. My wile was almost chilled 
 to death. The most of the time she Avas wad- 
 ing through snow tip to her waist. When we 
 finally got to the Suburban road she was al- 
 most dead." 
 
 " Why did you leave the train ?" he was asked. 
 
 "Because," he replied, "we feared being 
 frozen to death if we stayed there. Before we 
 left the train the passengers were chopping up 
 the card tables and seats for fire wood. It was 
 simply a question of staying and freezing or 
 striking out and taking the chances of getting 
 home. In fact, we did not think the travelling 
 would prove so bad as it did." 
 
 MEN SUFFERING ON A STALLED CATTLE TEAIN. 
 
 A railroad man from Albany arrived down 
 town on the Sixth avenue elevated yesterday. 
 He had left his train behind him at the Man- 
 hattanville station of the Central's Hudson 
 River branch. His train was a mixed one, 
 with a good deal of iiva stock and a. dozen or 
 
 more persons aboard when ft left Albany at" 5 
 o'clock Sunday evening. 
 
 " We got stuck along about Breakneck," he 
 said, "and lay there until a freight came up 
 behind us. The engineer cut loose from his 
 own train and shoved us along to Yonkers, and 
 there he left us and went back after his train 
 again. IVe got along somehow until wo ran 
 into a train ahead of us and smashed the 
 caboose all to splinters. It didn't do any other 
 damage though, and we got on at last to Man- 
 hattanville station. There our own engineer 
 cut loose and said he'd run ahead for water. 
 We didn't see. anything more of him, and we've 
 laid there ever since. The first ones out were 
 myself and another man. He came near dying 
 before we got through the drifts. I had to pull 
 him out two or three times, and if he hadn't 
 had some whiskey and drunk a little once in a 
 while I think he'd a been a goner. There are 
 eight or nine men left there, and they haven't 
 anything to eat, or any money to buy it even ii 
 there was any place to get it. There were 
 some of the cattle dead already when I left, 
 and the sheep and hogs especially seemed to 
 be suffering." 
 
 The story was corroborated by an Iowa man 
 who was coming through on the same train) 
 with nineteen horses, and who escaped and got 
 down town himself and brought a large satchel 
 along besides, carriedjover his shoulder bv a,' 
 piece of rope. He wore two overcoats, and was 
 otherwise prepared in Western fashion for cold. 
 He said he didn't mind this Eastern weather* 
 much, but tfiought the railroad accommoda-i 
 tions left something to be desired. Many OD 
 his horses were dead, and he expected to lose) 
 them all. 
 
 TEAINS EUNNING TO NEWAEK. 
 
 Tne Pennsylvania broke the blockade at 5:20! 
 yesterday afternoon. At that hour they sent a 
 train to Newark. It carried out about 250 
 people who had been waiting for hours to getj 
 home. This train got back to Jersey City ati 
 6:41, and was sent over the line again at 7:51. 
 It returned at 8:50. and at 9:48 it left for New- 
 ark again. At 10:30 a second crew was put on. 
 and Superintendent Crawford said that he| 
 should send trains over the road as far as New- 
 ark every forty-five minutes all night. Super- 
 intendent Crawford got to work in the morningj 
 by 9 o'clock with a large force. 
 
 The yard was in pretty good shape, and by 11 
 o'clock an attack was made on the drifts near 
 Marion. The west-boundj track through the| 
 deep cut was found to be almost clear of snow,; 
 but the least-bouud is covered up with so many 
 feet of it that it will not be touched until the 
 rest of the line is opened. Along about 4 o'clock 
 the road grew lively with trains of coaches, 
 which were brought in from along the line near 
 Marion. No snow waslfound across the mead- 
 ows, but it was well banked up just this side 
 of Newark. But the hardest job was in New- 
 ark itself. A freight and a passenger train 
 were stalled between Market and Chestnut 
 streets, and great piles of snow were found at 
 every street crossing. By 5 o'clock Superin- 
 tendent Crawford said: "The line is clear to 
 Eahway, and I shall send a train to Newark at 
 once; I hear that the line is also clear from 
 Philadelphia to Trenton and halfway from 
 Trenton to llahway. I think we may be able to 
 send a train to I'hiladelphia to-night." 
 
 The Chicago Limited, the only train sent out 
 on Monday, which left at 10 A. M., was found 
 yesterday at Harrison. The engine had run 
 its front truck off the track. It was jacked on, 
 and the train was taken into Newark, where it 
 will remain until the line is cleared. 
 
 EEIE GETS TO PATEESON. 
 
 The hundred and fifty or more passengers 
 who were imprisoned in the Erie depot in Jer- 
 sey City on Monday night where the Susque- 
 hanna left them on her last trip at lO/i, spent 
 the night in comparative comfort. Miss Phelps 
 and the married lady and her children slept 
 comfortably in Superintendent Barret's room 
 on the second floor. The lively shop and fac- 
 tory girls curled themselves up on the seats of 
 a Nyack coach, and half a dozen other coaches 
 were at the disposal of the rest of the people., 
 
 A good many people who spent the afternoon 
 and night of Monday in the depot went aci-oss 
 to the city, but nearly all retui'ned soon and 
 waited for trains home. They were not cheered 
 
tiy inis notice, whict was piil tat) early Tn IBe 
 day: 
 
 We do not expect to start any trains from here to-day. 
 J. H. Baerktt, Superintendent. 
 
 In the afternoon the west-bound track was 
 cleared ;ind a train was sent through to clear 
 the road to Paterson. The trains which were 
 stuck at Paasalc were found and all the passen- 
 gers who wished to do so returned on the work 
 train to Paterson. At 8 o'clock the first passen- 
 ger train was sent from Jersey City to Paterson. 
 It took only two coaches and had two^heavy 
 engines to take it through. No attempt was 
 made to clear the Newark branch or the North- 
 ern.' It was thought last night that a train 
 would be -^t^nt out for Haverstraw over the New 
 Jersey ani New York. This road was said to be 
 free of ba<: 'rifts for twenty miles from Bergen. 
 All the 8ta 1 trains east of Port Jervis were 
 reported t(/ o in safe places. One that passed 
 Port -Jervis rht before last got back there 
 before it wa nowed in. It is not probable that 
 any train wi. e sent out on the main line bo- 
 fore to-night, the reports indicate that the 
 drifts are tre(j 'it and too hard to get through 
 without shove. <?. When the storm' struck 
 thojroad it g;. the men hard work" to get 
 things into ehii Twenty cars of cattle were 
 
 amongthelHBt insin. It took seven engines 
 toget them Intt lo shed, but it was done, 
 although three the last cars were bucked 
 off the track In ci g it. There were a lot more 
 of cattle bound fi V^eehawken. These were 
 not so lucky. Th. were caught, and have 
 without doubt fi -en to death. At least 
 twenty engines wei . 'looked in the Erie ya 1. 
 They had fuel enout; to keep them alive, but 
 no water. Snow was melted for a while, and 
 afterward hose was run to them from the 
 street, but two of them died- 
 
 NOTHING STIES ON D.. L. AND W. OK WEST SHOKE. 
 
 The D., L. & W. E ■ "oadeot out one work 
 train to Newark yest ay, and that was all. A 
 placard at the tiokt fflce announced: "No 
 trains will be run to-d , March 13." Yester- 
 day the tracks were to ; roat extent cleared 
 through the tunnel ano r the meadows to 
 Newark. At the crossin, •. the Susquehanna 
 road, a few rods beyond i <■ tunnel, two Sus- 
 quehanna engines were st \ 'd with their fires 
 out, eftectually barring the way. They were 
 removed in the afternoon. At Sandford's cross- 
 ing four telegraph poles lay a rose the track 
 with snow drifted around them m heaps/ Be- 
 tween Highland Station and Boi.h Orange ten 
 or fifteen trains which starten on Monday 
 from Easton, Morristown, and othi r places are 
 blocked in. They carry from 800 t ( 1 .000 pas- 
 sengers. Since the blockade most ol tho trains 
 have been brought near stations whore there 
 is no danger of the passengers suffering from 
 cold or hunger. 
 
 3Iany offlie business men of the Oranges 
 got down as far as Newark yesterday in sleighs 
 or on foot, but could come no further. A gen- 
 tleman who walked in from Brick Church said 
 that from Newark the comparatively clear 
 tracks made the walking, an easy matter. On 
 the Bnonton branch the road was practically 
 open to Paterson by yesterday afternoon, but 
 <M. tiviins were rur\. It is expected that trains 
 will be run at least by to-day noon. In the 
 mean time the milk trains cannot bring their 
 freight to the city and the mails cannot bo 
 despatched. 
 
 ,On the West Shore traffic is entirely sus- 
 pended. 
 
 NO GO ON JERSEY CENTBAL. 
 
 The blockade on the Jersey Central was even 
 more complete yesterday than on Monday. 
 Not a train was run oa-anyof the divisions, 
 and the efforts of th& company's employees 
 were directed to the clearing of tracks for the 
 possible resumption of traffic to-day. Six loco- 
 motives labored all the morning and well into 
 the afternoon to release two trains from the 
 big drift in the long cut at Jackson avenue, on 
 the Newark branch, and succeeded. The trains 
 wore accommodations that started for Newark 
 early Monday morning. They were stuck fast 
 in tho snow all Monday night. Some of the 
 passengers secured lodgings in tho neighbor- 
 hood, others sat in tho little station, and the 
 rest spent the night in the bunks improvised 
 from the materials in the cai:s. They were 
 
 brought back to the city yesterday afternoon. 
 The officers of the company were so much en- 
 couraged with the success of their efforts to 
 clear the Jackson avenue cut that it was de- 
 termined to start a train for Newark at 7 P. M., 
 but when that hour arrived the tracks were 
 again covered with drifted snow, and it did not 
 seem possible that a train could be got out 
 until this morning. 
 
 On the Long Branch division no trains were 
 moved. A locomotive with a car load of track- 
 men started out on the main lino to clear the 
 outbound track, and penetrated as far as Green- 
 ville. Three locomotives had come up to 
 Greenville on the in-bound track from Bergen 
 Point. The drift at Greenville was too deep 
 for them, and they were switched to the other 
 track and brought up to Communipaw by the 
 trackmen's train, together with a handful of 
 belated travellers who had seized the opportu- 
 nity to get away from Bergen Point. Engine 
 38, drawing the trackmen's train, ran into a 
 bank of snow at Greenville so deen and closely 
 packed that the force of the collision shattered 
 the glass of the headlight and cab windows. 
 Bits of the flying glass struck the face of En- 
 gineer M. N. Clapp, lacerating it badly. 
 
 Down at Bergen Point a train with 100 pas-, 
 sengers for New York was caught in the bliz-j 
 zard and has not vet been released. At last 
 accounts the hungry travellers had devoured 
 about everything edible in Bergen Point, to the 
 great dismay of tbat isolated and needy com- 
 munity. 
 
 Four locomotives that had attempted to clear 
 the line were reported off the track between 
 Bergen Point and Elizabethport. 
 
 Tne Lily Clay blondes were still in the Jersey] 
 City depot last nigfit. determined to remain Ini 
 their special car until it is taken somewhere.' 
 Another party chartered the sleeper Earitan.i 
 ,and was very comfortable. 
 
 It is expected that trains will be moving onl 
 the Newark branch this morning. 
 
 AUSTIN COEBIN BEINGS IN A TEAIN. 
 
 The Long Island Railroad Depot was the sub- 
 ject for an artist Monday night and yesterdayl 
 morning. People who failed to connect on the] 
 home stretch, sought sweet repose on thei 
 downy floor of the waiting room. The benches 
 were filled with the weary.Two men pulled downl 
 a long ladder, which hung on the walls, and 
 slept on the rungs. Many stayed there all day 
 yesterday and slept there again last night. The, 
 hotels of Long Island City were filled to over-' 
 flowing. The lingering hone that perhaps a 
 train would move out, kept the crowd in the 
 station. 
 
 In the sheds of the station were drifts six 
 feet high, and not until night did the busy 
 workmen succeed in uncovering the platforms. 
 The whole system is demoralized. Between 
 Newtown and Corona the 6:10 train from Long 
 Island City to Whitestone Landing is stuck^ 
 fast, and has been since Monday morning. 
 Only one train left the Long Island City sta- 
 tion which succeeded in getting to its destina- 
 tion. It reached Breakneck in four hours;! 
 regular time, forty minutes. At Westbury the 
 Port Jefferson mail is stalled. Between Rock- 
 'away Junction and Springfield four trains, 
 two from liabylon and two froni . Patchogue, 
 took a rest for thirty-six hours. "At Mineola 
 the North port and the Locust Vallev way trains 
 ; still lie. '.Westburg was the sticking place for 
 , the Port Jefferson mail, and the Sag Harbor 
 i mail stopped at South Oyster Bay. When the 
 : last two started, at 7 :05 and 7 :30 Monday morn- 
 ; ing, it was raining. Three hours later they were 
 stopped by the snow. The Greenport mail stuck, 
 at Waverlv. At 2 P. M. yesterday all the trains 
 , were heard from except the one at Waverly. 
 : and that reported an hour later. Communication 
 1 was very difficult as all the wires were down 
 1 but one to Whitestone and one to Jamaica. 
 , Linemen were at work at them all day, but 
 could do nothmg in the wind and cold. On the 
 Rockaway Beach road, train No. 2, which left] 
 the beach at 8 A. M. Monday, was stalled be- 
 tween Woodtiaven and Glendale Junction. Shei 
 is still there and has no chance of immediate' 
 rescue. . , „J .,, 
 
 At 2:15 yesterday engines 55, 85, and 97, with 
 a baggage car filled wilh shovellers, started; 
 over the North Shore division. It was stalled' 
 at Newtown, at 4 o'clock, in a cut a mile long, 
 in which the snow is sixteen feet deep. At 12>i 
 
p. l\r. engines D9, 101, and 102 "started witli a 
 snow plough for Jamaica and met a like fate, 
 but late last night, when recalled, was able to 
 come. 
 
 On Monday four trains came in on the North 
 Shore division and two went out. At 2 P. M. 
 yesterday a relief train started with all kinds 
 of provisions and cooks for a tour of the whole 
 system, but was recalled at 8 P. M., as no head- 
 way cou.ld be made. It stuck at Jamaica at 
 4:10 with engines 48 and 53. 
 
 The ladies on the trains stalled between 
 Eockaway Junction and Springfield were taken 
 to the neighboring farm houses and cared for, 
 Mineola accommodated the forty passengers 
 who were stranded near that place. 
 
 At Jamaica 100 passengers, nearly all busi- 
 ness men, who started from Patchogue and 
 Babylon for New York on Monday morning 
 were chafing at the delay. Among them was 
 Austin Corbin. At his orders, at 5 P. M., two 
 passenger cars and two engines left Liong Island 
 City to go to the rescue of the belated business 
 men. It got through and arrived at Long 
 Island City at.7:60. When the train drew into 
 the station a mighty yell arose froni 100 
 throats, followed by " Three Cheers for Aus- 
 tin Corbin," which were heartily given. As the 
 company trooped to the ferry house, singing 
 and yelling like Indians, a central figure was 
 Mr. Corbin, smiling and serene. He was en- 
 Teloped in a big coat trimmed with sealskin, 
 and his legs were wrapped in pieces of ingrain 
 carpet to the knees. His first auestion was, 
 "Are any trains running on the other roads ? 
 I tell you. sir, I tried to get in the first train, 
 and have worked like a beaver all day. I kept 
 away from the boys until I made it pretty cer- 
 tain that I could get them through. We will 
 be in running order as soon as anybody is." 
 
 He seemed to enjoy the experience of being 
 snowed up immensely. The men on Mr. Cor- 
 bin's train were very enthusiastic about the 
 way in which he had cared for them. The 
 larders of the surrounding country were at his 
 command opened to the snow-bound men. They 
 were la^isJl in praise for Conductor Apgar and 
 his crew. Among the business men who slept 
 on the train and accepted Mr. Corbin's hos- 
 pitality were B. K. True, Schuyler Parsons, 
 Gil Conklin, Charles Searles, Commodoi-e Liv- 
 ingston, William Smith, N. S. Lawson, Dr. 
 Brush, Milton Thompson, and Samuel Thomp- 
 son, nearly all from Babylon. 
 
 From the upper end of the Fourth Avenue 
 Railroad tunnel up to 150th street, where the 
 New York Central leaves the Hai-lem branch, 
 taking an abrupt turn through a deep and 
 winding cut, the snow has done in a sin- 
 gle day what it will take many days to undo. 
 The further up the road one goes the deeper 
 are the drifts, and the fences finally disappear 
 from view altogether. Throughout the whole 
 distance from the Grand Central Depot up to 
 Mott Haven the up-going track on the eastern 
 side of the tunnel and sunken bed is compara- 
 tively free from embankments, so that a couple 
 of heavy locomotives had littM trouble in 
 telearing the way yesterday. But the down 
 track is one long drift. The di'ift reaches its 
 height in the main channel of the tunnel, the 
 openings of which seem to have acted as suc- 
 tion tubes. Millions of tons of snow have been 
 packed there as solidly as ice in an ice house, 
 as if it had been stored away for summer use. 
 Near the openings the embankments are ten to 
 twelve feet deep, almost touching the arch. 
 
 How hopeless the task is of trying to shovel 
 it to one side or to run locomotives through it 
 was shown by the efforts made on Monday. 
 Yesterday a gang of 200 Italians were taken up 
 to the mouth of the tunnel at Eighty-fourth 
 street.. Before they had gone very far it was 
 evident they could accomplish nothing, having 
 noplace near at hand in which to dump the 
 snow and nothing in which to cart it away. 
 The only feasible way is to carry it off in trains 
 as.so much freight. 
 
 A New York Central train stood on the down 
 track iit the 116tn street station waiting to be 
 
 pulled out and at 125th street, where tne tracts 
 bend around the station, was a Harlem River 
 train in a much worse plight than either of the 
 other two, for the drifts are deeper at this point 
 and there is greater danger of overturning. 
 
 Above the Harlem liiver the road bed, being 
 on a level with the surrounding country, both 
 tracks were but thinly covered with snow, and 
 the force of 400 Italians that was put to work 
 cleared the tracks before night. The Harlem 
 Eiver train that was snowed under near the 
 station of Mott Haven was returned on the 
 down track to the junction above and switched 
 to the up-bound track ready to go down to the 
 yards. 
 
 The junction at 150th street was a sight worth 
 seeing. Three of the snow-clad trains were 
 lying but a few hundred yards from one an- 
 other, two on the Harlem tracks and one on a 
 switch track connecting with the New York 
 Central at the point where it enters the cut or 
 gorge. The entrance to the gorge is stopped up 
 by snow ten feet deep. In the recesses of the 
 gorge, half hidden in snow banks, are three 
 New York Central trains, whose passengers suf- 
 fered much privation until the last one was 
 carted away at 10 A. M. yesterday at the ex- 
 pense of the company. Near Macomb's Dam a 
 fourth Central train lingers, and Spuyten Duyvil 
 is caring for the passengers of a fifth. Upward 
 of a score are scattered along the line to the 
 northward. 
 
 The second train that left the junction for 
 the depot was a double header, and a third en- 
 gine was at the rear end. It was a White 
 Plains special of the Harlem River road, and 
 got away at 5:12 P. M., arriving at the Grand 
 Central Depot at 5:35 o'clock, making 23 min- 
 utes. The reporter was one of a score who- 
 came down, but the regular passengers h^id all 
 been taken off early in the day. The .huge 
 drifts in the main tunnel loomed up against 
 the openings of the walls, and were plainly 
 visible as the train swept through the dark in- 
 terior. The passengers had to wade through 
 heaps of snow two feet deep in the depot itself 
 as they alighted. 
 
 LINEMEN GET AT THEIR BIG JOB. 
 
 The "Western Union Telegraph Company- 
 had a force of more than 300 men out yesterday 
 bolstering up poles and untangling wires in 
 the city. No pretence of sending messages by 
 means of city wires was made. All business 
 that came, however, was received, subject to 
 delay, and then transmitted through the pneu- 
 matic tubes of the company and forwarded to 
 its destination by messenger. 
 
 The Western Union Company was, indeed, 
 very humble in regard to the condition of the 
 city wires, and fell back, as it were, without re- 
 serve upon compressed air. The United Lines 
 had one wire open to the Hoffman House, 
 
 The scene in the main operating rooms was 
 similar to that to be witnessed in a school- 
 room when the master's back is turned. Most 
 of the operators had literally nothing to do 
 but telegraph with their eyes to their charm- 
 ing colleagues of the opposite sex. Western 
 Union was able to talk to Chicago, Pittsburgh, 
 Cincinnati, and Buffalo in the West, but in the 
 East and South all wires were reported down. 
 In the North connection was good with Albany, 
 Syracuse. Newburgh, Eondout, Hudson, Utica, 
 Peekskill, Tarrytown, and stations on the 
 West Shore Railroad. 
 
 The telephone wires were all demoralized 
 yesterday. The Long Distance Telephone 
 Company has been a happy exception all 
 through. Local telephone plants were in a 
 bad plight yesterday. Thirty men were put at 
 work to restore to the perpendicular seventeen 
 poles in West Eleventh street which had been 
 tilted against the house fronts, breaking win- 
 dow glass and smashing shutters, and also de- 
 facing brick walls. Nine poles were down at 
 Tenth avenue and 140th street, and the same 
 tale was oft repeated in Harlem and J\Iott 
 Haven. A cable belonging to the Metropolitan 
 Telephone Company was jerked out of the bed 
 
of the T^orth River Dy a steamer whioh anciior- 
 ed off Cortlandt street on Monday night. 
 
 The electric ligliting companies say they aro 
 m good shape again. 
 
 The police wires were working better yester- 
 day; Linemen repaired damages till Police 
 Headquartors was in communication with the 
 twenty-one stations below Forty-second street. 
 This was a gain of fourteen stations over Mon- 
 day, but perfect communication Was estab- 
 lished only with the stations comprising the 
 western division. The entanglement of the 
 wires mado.. it difficult to receive long de- 
 
 spatchos. ihe teiepnono wires eonnocting 
 the Central Office with the ' 'harles, Mercer, and 
 \\ est Thirtieth street stations were in order, 
 ami that mode of communication was most 
 
 The police wires above Forty-second street 
 are still in bad shape, and the fourteen sta- 
 tions beginning at West Forty-seventh street 
 and ending at Kingsbridgo are obliged to do 
 their business with the Central Office by mos- 
 sengers. >iot a_ few policemen came to Police- 
 Headquarters with despatches yesterday. 
 
 IsTe^Y Tork Itself Again. 
 
 From the gray and dubious dawn to the 
 golden and glorious sunset things were mov- 
 ing in New York yesterday. Some things were 
 moving yet earlier and latert. They were shov- 
 els. These useful implements were the most 
 restlessly active articles in all the restlessness 
 of a town th.at is tired of resting. They were 
 worked by thousands of Italians in squads 
 that had enlisted under the banners of Com- 
 missioner Coleman or of the street railroad 
 folks who were mining for the buried iron of 
 their tracks through depths of snow packed to 
 the solid consistency of ice. These squads were 
 working with the help of pickaxe wielders, 
 and were reenforced and supported in many 
 instances by a force of carts to remove the dis- 
 integi-ated mass. In other places the pick and 
 shovel brigades built high and solid ramparts 
 alongside the tracks of the mottled and mar- 
 bled blocks they raised from the pavement, or 
 cut chalk white channels through drifts and 
 piled them to greater heights on either side. 
 
 The number and size of these gangs of 
 shovellers suggested the thought that the 
 city was becoming Latinized to an extent un- 
 dreamed of. But a study of them would not 
 bear out this conclusion. Among them were 
 well-dressed and comfortable looking men, 
 kid-gloved day laborers as it were. The stag- 
 nation of business in the ordinary channels is 
 the probable explanation of this. Another 
 vast, though scattered army of shovel bran- 
 dishers were those who in pursuit of contract 
 work, scorned the $1.50 and $2 a day toil of the 
 gang laborers, and wanted $.5 for digging out a 
 west side or north side house front. Yet a trip 
 up the Bowery disclosed the usual number of 
 loungers about the cheap lodging houses. 
 These are the chronic seekers after work, so 
 thoroughly used to looking for it that they 
 have no time to do it when they find it. 
 
 Still other hundreds of tho ever-moving 
 shovels were agitated by children and women. 
 The former made up by activity for lack of 
 strength, hut the latter made a mess of it in 
 their attacks on the huge snow piles. Their 
 training and their weapons were against 
 them. There were a gi-eat many of them to be 
 seen, up town, down to^vn, and all over town, 
 but their little fire shovels and the kitchen 
 pokers for picks were not very effectual. An- 
 other trouble was their difl'erest notion of 
 work. A man wouM attack a drift with the 
 simple purpose of dislodging it. ' No matter 
 though snow remained under his foot, if the big 
 pile was over the gutter instead of on the side- 
 walk, he was content. But a woman though 
 cleaning a spot only big enough to serve as a 
 
 resting place for her dainty feet, must have 
 that spot broom clean and dry, or feel as 
 though she had suffered defeat. 
 
 BONFIEES TO HELP THE THAW. 
 
 The third day of the great blockade begar^ 
 with discouraging symptoms of another snow 
 fall, and until 2 o'clock in the afternoon ther» 
 was a straggling deposit of big. wet flakes that 
 suggested the last, and by no means the least 
 distressing stage— tho thaw. It thawed just 
 enough to help things on a little. The great- 
 drifts in the streets are bad enough, but noth- 
 ing could be worse than a sudden transforma- 
 tion of the snow to slush and water. Koads 
 full of snow may be rendered passable by pa- 
 tient work, but against slush, feet deep, ther& 
 is no remedy. The threatening rain did not 
 come, though, and at 3 o'clock the sun peered 
 through the clouds as if to tell the Signal 
 Service Department that th(3 elements would 
 do what they could to justify its prediction of 
 ' fair and slightly warmer weather." 
 An original genius on Vesey street conceived 
 the plan of building a lire on the big drifts be- 
 fore his store, and all over the lower part of 
 the city his example was quickly followed. The 
 air was full of brown smoke and the appetiz- 
 ing odor of bonfires. The method was unique 
 and interesting. A hole was excavated in the 
 drift of about the capacity of a cubic yard 
 From the top of this to the top of the drift a 
 funnel was made to secure ventilation. Then 
 trenches were dug at the sides of the drift to 
 conduct the water to the gutters. The hole 
 was filled with barrels of shavings and paper 
 and empty packing boxes and fired. The fuel 
 Durned right merrily, and the interior of the 
 drifts were speedily toasted— at least they 
 looked toasted, for the cinders and smoke dis- 
 colored the snow to a dark brown, and as time 
 passed the drifts gradually melted away. This 
 artificial thaw caused no serious discomfort 
 to pedestrians, and it greatly facilitated the 
 reception and delivery of goods at the many 
 stores where it was employed. 
 
 CLEARING THE WATS, 
 
 The things that were moving besides the 
 shovels did not include many of the street 
 cars. A few of them ran, and the cleared 
 streets which rendered that possible also 
 furnished opportunities for the movement of 
 the fire apparatus. To those who are familiar 
 with the situation, and appreciate the good 
 luck the city has had in the matter of flres, the 
 engines will outrank the horse cars in conse- 
 quence as possible travellers in tho cleared 
 streets. From the celerity of sliding poles, 
 lightning hitching up. and dead gallops to the 
 scene of a Are to the slow floundering and 
 shovel-assisted progress of Monday night and 
 Tuesday is a wide difference that is all in the 
 fire fiend's favor. 
 
 The awakened life of the city was very com- 
 posite in character. Business was a thing of 
 shreds and patches. Mails and telegraphic 
 communication were still under the embargo 
 that tho city was so vigorously shaking oft'. 
 The thousands of would-be business men who 
 thronged the down-town streets were fully 
 aware of this, and of the enforced leisure it im- 
 plied. No mails or telegrams means no orders, 
 and orders if filled could certainly not be 
 shipped. Wheeled vehicles and sleighs had 
 almost equal difllculty in getting along outside 
 of the shovel-smoothed streets, and hauline 
 
-was still a matter that could be aecomplishea 
 only under the pressure of stern necessity. 
 The moving of coal and provisions was about 
 the only thing that supplied this pressure. 
 Coal, meat, beer, and other necessaries were 
 variously toted on wheels and runners, and 
 teams three-horse, four-horse; -and tandem 
 were necessary to move either style of vehicle 
 when loaded. The development of variety in 
 sleds and sledges was almost endless. An old- 
 fashioned stoneboat was loaded with coal in 
 bags, with the driver teetering on top of them. 
 A small boy with a dry goods box on runners 
 of barrel staves also drew coal with the aid of 
 a Newfoundland dog. 
 
 The coal men, who had to stick to their lum- 
 bering two- wheeled tip carts, were very keen 
 in discovering the best cleaned streets and ave- 
 nues. They drove tandem and sometimes 
 with three horses in a string, the man on the 
 load holding the rains and going through the 
 motions of driving, though a postillion strad- 
 dled the broMd back of the lending horse. The 
 carts were ireinieni'iv wnviaid by restaurant 
 Keepers and others, who sallied out to bid high 
 for the coal for their ranges. 
 
 BOSTON PEOPLE GET HOME. 
 
 Up to last night few people who were detained 
 in town by the railroad blockade had left the 
 hotels, which were still crowded away beyond 
 their normal capacity. Those who wanted to go 
 west or north had no means of getting out of 
 town, and would-be passengers for Boston 
 thought themselves similarly shut in. But the 
 Stonington of the Stonington line arrived 
 during the forenoon, and at 2 o'clock in the 
 afternoon the Bristol of the Fall River line 
 came in. She had started from Fall River at 1 
 o'clock in the morning, and the passage, there- 
 fore, had taken only three or four hours longer 
 than usual. The officers of the Bristol report- 
 ed that on the eastern end of the Sound and in 
 Narragansett Bay there was nothing worse 
 than a severe rain storm when they passed, 
 and that the wind was abating. Up to this time 
 there had been no intention of sending a boat 
 to Boston, but the Providence of the Fall River 
 line was at once put in order and the announce- 
 mettt made that she would start at 5 o'clock. 
 There was not time for this news to be widely 
 disseminated, but enough people heard of it to 
 crowd the boat. Boats of the other eastern 
 lines also left on schedule time, with full lists 
 of passengers. 
 
 The roadways of the Brooklyn Bridge were 
 in bad condition, for little effort had been made 
 to clear away the snow. Teaming up the long 
 arch was, therefore, exceedingly difficult, but 
 there was a good deal of traffic nevertheless. 
 
 "Something happened here to-day that I 
 never saw before," said the collector at the 
 New York end. " Two different funerals went 
 over, and everv carriage in the procession was 
 a sleigh. The hearse was the only thing on 
 wheels." 
 
 MAILS STAET UP. 
 
 After noonday yesterday the prospect of get- 
 ting the accumulated mail out of the Post Of- 
 fice brightened. The mail for the South and 
 West, consisting of 157 pouches and 249 sacks, 
 that had been despatched by the Pennsylvania 
 road, had gone on swimmingly so far as known. 
 A Bound Brook way mail of the Central Rail- 
 road of New Jersey arrived before noon. The 
 New York and way mail over the Northern 
 Railroad of New Jersey, the Newark mails of 
 Tuesday and yesterday by the Pennsylvania, 
 and the stalled Orange and Newark mails by 
 the D., L. and W., and theSMorristown and way 
 mail by the same road all arrived during the 
 early afternoon. The Staten Island mails due 
 at 8:42 A. M. on Monday, arrived yesterday at 
 12:15 P. M. The Easton, Pa., mail, by way of 
 the Central Railroad of New Jersey, arrived at 
 noon, 48 hours and 25 minutes laie. 
 
 The surprise of the day was the arrival at 
 11:40 A. M. of the New York Central's mail 
 pouches carrying the Cleveland, Ohio, Roches- 
 ter, Buffalo, Rutland, and St. Albans, Vermont, 
 and Albany mails due on Monday morning. 
 
 In 'the afternoon the Bridgeport and New 
 Haven steamboats brought the Connecticut 
 mails, and the Fall River line steamer Bristol 
 arrived, carrying 79 pouches of ordinary and 11 
 pouches of registered mail from New Enjrland 
 
 or the 12th ana 13th Inst. The Fall Biver, Provi- 
 dence, Stonington, Bridgeport, and New Haven 
 Steamboat Companies sent Postmaster Pearson 
 offers to carry any mails he might desire to put 
 in their charge. He accepted all the tenders, 
 and despatched three pouches ©n the V^teamer 
 Elm City for New Haven, one pouch for Bridge- 
 port by the Rosedale, and about 150 pouches of 
 Eastern mail by the Boston Sound steamer, 
 which left the city at 5 o'clock P. M. A big 
 batch of mail was despatched to the Grand 
 Central Depot for non-competitive points to 
 await the first movement of trains. 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH PICKING UP SLOWLY. 
 
 The Western Union had direct communica- 
 tion yesterday between New York and these 
 points: Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Al- 
 bany, local stations to Newburgh and Pough- 
 keepsie, Detroit, Buffalo, and several interior 
 cities of this State along the line of the West 
 Shore Railroad. Erie lines are serviceable to 
 Passaic, and the Pennsylvania to Newark. 
 Much more business is transacted than is rep- 
 resented by these stray points. Messages for 
 Pliiladelphia are sent to Chicago or Cincinnati 
 or Pittsburgh, and thence repeated to the 
 desired point. Washington is reached 
 via Chicago. Two wires capable of do- 
 ing a very small business are open 
 to Boston via Albany and Worcester. By the 
 same route to North Sidney, N. S., the Anglo- 
 American cable is reached. Nearly all of south- 
 ern New England and northern New Y'^ork is 
 is shut off from telegraphic communication 
 with this city. Many points in the Southern 
 States are reached by repeating from Pitts- 
 burgh and Cincinnati. Up to last evening more 
 than 1,50U Western Union poles had been re- 
 ported down. The receiving offices are not 
 overcrowded with business because the situa- 
 tion is explained to all who submit messages, 
 and as a rule patrons withdraw their orders; 
 for even when points can be reached by repeat- 
 ing in a roundabout way. there is a great deal 
 of loss in time, and the company cannot guaran- 
 tee promptness or accuracy. 
 
 WE'EE out of THE WOODS. 
 
 Street cries that the blizzard had stilled were 
 again heard. The " glass pudding" and " rags 
 and bottles" men were a not unwelcome evi- 
 dence of the city's return to life. A cry that 
 seemed strangely out of season was heard in 
 Second avenue, near Fourteenth street. It 
 startled the good people about 11 o'clock. It 
 was " Strawberries, strawberries." Two men 
 were carrying a crate between them, in which 
 were two score of pint boxes full of the red 
 berries. They were sold at 35 cents a box, but 
 had few buyers, as the fruit looked shrivelled 
 and frozen. 
 
 The summing up for the day results in com- 
 fortable conclusions. The giving out of the 
 milk supply is the principal blot upon this sat- 
 isfactory condition. And as that is beyond 
 local causes and control the evil musl; be en- 
 dured. The extortions by small dealers in coal 
 and yirovisions are the chief local difficulties 
 that remain. We're out of the woods. 
 
 DAKOTA JOKES US. 
 
 Messages to Mayor Hewitt Offerins Clothes 
 and Food and Money, 
 
 It is suspected that a facetious intent lurks 
 
 in these despatches received by Mayor Hewitt 
 
 yesterday : 
 
 Bismarck, Dakota, Mareh 14. 
 Mayor Hewitt, N. T. : 
 
 Subscription papers reported passed throughout Da- 
 kota for aid of storm sufferers in New York and sur- 
 rounding country. Citizens of the Territory express 
 deen sympathy for your people, and are responding lib- 
 erally. Would you prefer clothes or food, or both ? 
 
 J. JI. QuiN-x, Bismarck Tribune. 
 HuKON, Dakota, March 14. 
 Mayor Hewitt. N. Y. : 
 
 Huron, Dakota, under a mild spring, now sends her 
 sympathy to blizzaru-stricken New York. It needed, 
 you may draw on us for $oL> to relieve the siorm suf- 
 ferers. J. H. Kent, Chairman. 
 
 A despatch signed " Chamber Commerce, Bis- 
 marck, Dak.," read: 
 
Bismarck stands ready to give substantial aid to bliz- 
 zard sufferers of New York. Let us know your needs. 
 
 M. H. Jewell. 
 
 "Many Citizens" sent a despatch from St. 
 Paul, Minn., which said: 
 
 The city of St. Paul tenders to New York her sympathy 
 for the damage to life and property occasioned hy the 
 blizzard now raging in your city. Unaccustomed to 
 Btorms of such severity as to cause railroad and tele- 
 frapliic isolation from the outside world, and never hav- 
 inv had people frozen to death in the streets, we shall be 
 glad to contribute to any relief fund which may be 
 started for your atHicted people. Weather here yester- 
 day and to-day mild and beautiful. 
 
 Mayor Hewitt had no time to be funny in re- 
 ply. *He answered in courteous matter of fact 
 Dhraise to the effect that Naw York was much 
 obliged, but that no help was needed. 
 
 News of another pilot boat disaster was 
 brought in from the ocean by the British 
 steamer Japanese yesterday afternoon. This 
 one may prove the worst of all, and the saddest 
 of the ten resulting from the terrible gale, for 
 it is reported that half the crew of ten are lost 
 with their boat. 
 
 At midnight on Monday, the Captain of the 
 Japanese reports, when his vessel under a full 
 head of steam was barely able to make any 
 headway in the northwest hurricane, she was 
 run into by the pilot boat W. H. Starbuck, No. 6. 
 No lights could be seen by the lookout on the 
 steamer, even if they had been shown, in the 
 blinding storm. The pilot boat struck the 
 steamer bow-on at a point just abaft the 
 port forerigging. Her bowsprit and fore- 
 mast went by the board, and as she 
 swung alongside on top of a sea. Pilots 
 Oscar) Stauffreiden and Fred Eyerson, with 
 three of the crew, comprising the watch on 
 deck, sprang into the steamer's main rigging 
 and saved themselves. The watch below were 
 Pilot Heath, Boatkeeper Douglass, and three 
 men. So quickly did the coUision occur that 
 by the time the steamer was slowed down the 
 disabled boat had dropped astern into the^ 
 howling gale and out of sight. All efforts to 
 And her proved fruitless, and pilots here fear.' 
 she could not have outlived the fearful weather 
 in her crippled condition. 
 
 The Japanese was about twenty-five miles S. 
 E. of Barnegat at the time of the collision. 
 " The wind being N. W.," said a pilot last night, 
 "if she was steering her course, about N. by E. 
 >4 E. for Sandy Hook Lightship, would be 5>4 
 points on her port bow, and the Starbuck must 
 have been running dead before the gale steer- 
 ing about S. E. to strike her as she did, for if 
 hove to on either tack she would not head so 
 as to strike a vessel steering as the steamer 
 was. I'm afraid there's but little chance for 
 the boys aboard No. 6." 
 
 Henry and .J. Dovere, father and son, and 
 both Sandy Hook pilots, own the W. H. Star- 
 buck. She was built for them, and launched 
 at Tottenville, Staten Island, only eighteen 
 months ago to take the place of the old Mary 
 arid Catherine, No. 6, which was run down, cut 
 almost in half, and sunk by a tramp steamer in 
 the night within a few miles of the spot where 
 her successor ha.s probably gone to the bottom. 
 Jim Devere and five other men escaped in the 
 yawl at that time. They were at sea. clad only 
 in their underclothing, for six hours before 
 being picked up. Dovere tlid not go in the boat 
 the last time she sailed. The Starbuck was a 
 handsome schooner and one of the ablest sea 
 boats in the Now York fleot. 
 
 Four more pilot boats which were out in the 
 blizzard were heard from yesterday, two of 
 which are known to have escaped the furv of 
 the storm uninjured, and a third is probably 
 in some harbor. I'ilot boat 19, the Mary Wil- 
 liams, Capt. Henry iJurnett, was in the lower 
 
 bay near Staten island on Sunday nigns. 
 when the gale came on. It M'as not until 
 morning that she could get into Prince's Bay. 
 She got there without accident. 
 
 Pilot boat 16, the J. F. Loubat, also in the 
 lower bay, was further from the shore, but she 
 weathered the gale at anchor, and she was de- 
 tailed as a station boat yesterday to tak» 
 pilots from westward-bound vessels. 
 
 Pilot Charles Hughes, who arrived on the 
 Queen yesterday, was taken on from pilot boat 
 8 off Nantucket at 4 P. M., Sunday, before the 
 storm began. He was the last pilot in the boat, 
 and he told a reporter of The Sun yesterday 
 that he had no fears for the safety of the crew, 
 as they pointed for land on the same day. He 
 saw pilot boat 21, the America, yesterday 
 morning, twenty miles S. E. of the Highlands, 
 and she was all right. 
 
 The tug Grant, which put to sea early Mon- 
 day morning, followed the New Jersey coast 
 line down as far as Seabright, but all thati 
 Capt. Davis could see was the wreck here and 
 there of a small schooner. He turned his 
 glasses in every direction, but he sighted no 
 pilot boats. Returning, he anchored off Staten 
 Island on Tuesday night, and came back to the 
 city yesterday to lay in supplies for an extend- 
 ed cruise. 
 
 The lower bay is studded with small schoon- 
 ers, partly disabled. One of the pilot boats that 
 went ashore at the foot of Sixty-seventh street. 
 South Brooklyn, on Tuesday, was pulled 
 off by a tug yesterday, and towed to 
 a safe anchorage off Staten Island. The 
 boat is supposed to be the Ezra Nye. 
 The Driggs and Harrison are yet ashore; 
 in the ice, and will probably prove total losses.' 
 Their crews were fed and kindly eared for at 
 John Speck's house, near the above. The bed- 
 ding was taken from the pilot boats, over the 
 ice on sleds, by the crews. 
 
 The schooner Mary Heitman broke adrift ia 
 the storm on Monday morning, and, dragging 
 her two anchors, went down through the Nar- 
 rows like a steamboat. The crew were unable 
 to do anything with her, the rigging and sails 
 being covered with ice. In drifting through 
 the Narrows she passed the pilot boat Loubat' 
 with three anchors out, but could get no assist- 
 ance from her as she was in trouble herself. 
 
 In the lower bay, near Sandy Hook, the Heit- 
 man collided with the three-masted schooner 
 George W. Lochuer, bound out, but anchored, 
 to ride out the gale. When the vessels struck 
 Seaman James Hennessy jumped on board the 
 Lochner. He says his shipmates tried to fol- 
 low his example, but before they could get a 
 foothold the vessels parted, and the Heitman 
 went rapidly out to sea. Hennessy says he has 
 little hopes of his companions being rescued. 
 The crew are: Mate, P. Mullany; seamen," 
 James Hennessy, Dan Carroll, John Stewart, 
 and a man named Ryan. The Captain was 
 ashore. 
 
 The bark E. L. Pettengill, bound for Valpa- 
 raiso, while anchored in the stream off Bed- 
 low's Island, at 3 P. M. Tuesday, was fouled by 
 the schooner Clara E. Simpson, which dragged 
 her anchors and drifted down on the bark, 
 carrying away jibboom and head geai\ The; 
 schooner had her stern, bulwarks, and rail 
 stove and was badly chafed. She was later: 
 towed to Jersey City, and the bart to Pier 11, 
 East River. 
 
 The schooner Lester A. Lewis dragged her; 
 anchors and went ashore on Staten Island, i 
 near Fort Wadsworth. She was rescued by' 
 two tugs. 
 
 WE HAD AX OTHER ONCE. 
 
 Monday's Storm "Wasn't the First of Its 
 Kind— There was One "When "The Sun" 
 was Younffer. 
 
 I'nmi The Son. Feb. 5, 1845. 
 
 Great Snow ^■xob.^i.— Detention of the 
 J/aiZs.— The first great snow storm of the sea- 
 ,son set in yesterday morning about sunrise, 
 with a strong gale from the East. The snow 
 jcontinued to fall without intermission for ten 
 •hours, blocking up all the Railroads in the 
 !vicinity, detaining outward-bound vessels and 
 rendering it almost impossible for inward- 
 bound vessels to pass Sandy Hook. Manic of 
 
rthe harrow streets were renaerea impassaWe 
 by large snow drifts, and vehicles on wheels 
 
 fave place to those on runners. Muffled 
 edestrians hurried to and fro, evidently in- 
 tent on reaching shelter with all possible 
 rapidity, and very few ventured out who could 
 remain indoors. We fear that the shipping on 
 the coast has suffered severely. 
 
 The Eailroads all stopped, it being impossible 
 for the trains to make any progress against the 
 snow drifts forming on the roads. As rapidly 
 as one drift was removed by the snow plows, 
 the wind blew another in its place. 
 
 The Mails from Philadelphia, due at 3 o'clock 
 yesterday afternoon, had not arrived at tho 
 hour of going to press. Sullivan & Co.'s Private 
 Express came through from Philadelphia a 
 
 grincipal part of the route on sleighs, arriving 
 ere at 8 o'clock last evening. We are indebted 
 to them for Philadelphia papers of yesterday. 
 
 Accidents. — A part of the row of four-story 
 buildings in progress of erection on Twenty- 
 sixth street were blown down yesterday after- 
 noon. Loss, $800. A number of signs were 
 blown, down during the day and evening. 
 
 The Snipping at the end of the piers in the 
 East Piiver suffered considerably by abrasion 
 against the piers, &c. A small vessel is report- 
 ed ashore at Staten Island. 
 
 From The Suk, Feb. 6, 1845. 
 THE GEEAT SNOW STOKM. 
 
 In the Oity.—'We have not had for many years 
 in this City a storm so furious in every respect 
 as the one which commenced about 6 o'clock 
 on Tuesday morning [Feb. 4]. The night pre- 
 vious had been cloudy, though not cold ; the 
 wind was veering round to the East, and the 
 flakes came down in good earnest until about 
 4 o'clock, when the stoi-m raged witli great vio- 
 lence from that hour until 10 at night, when it 
 lulled, the snow being on a level full twenty 
 inches deep, and the drifts in some streets were 
 three and four feet. Toward night, when mer- 
 chants, traders, mechanics, and sewing girls 
 were returning home from business, they were 
 embarrassed to And themselves without con- 
 veyances; the omnibuses had been using 
 wheels during the day, and their horses were 
 60 worn out that they could not come down. A 
 very few omnibus sleighs were to be seen, and 
 most of the passengers had to walk home in 
 the gale of snow and hail. The few omnibus 
 sleighs that were out were crammed inside and 
 •out with passengers. 
 
 All the Theatres were either closed or had 
 ^3ut slender audiences, all the parties and 
 soirees were given up, the lamps on the street 
 went out. The only ball actually held was at 
 Tammany Hall [now The Sun building], un- 
 terrified, as it were, by the storm. The milk- 
 men were unusually late yesterday morning, 
 having had great difficulty in crossing the rivers. 
 
 The accide7it in Twenty-sixth street, to which 
 Tve alluded yesterday, is more disastrous than 
 at first supposed. The number of houses par- 
 tially blown down is about twenty-three. Com- 
 modore De Kay is the owner. The houses had 
 only their fronts and two sides up, the rear 
 wall not having yet been commenced, which 
 caused the disaster. The wind had full sweep 
 upon the front and side walls as upon the sails 
 of a ship. The workmen, very fortunately, had 
 left the buildings at dinner time, and had not 
 returned, finding it too cold to work. The 
 builders. Messrs. Koselle and Stephens, with 
 an energy for which they deserve great credit, 
 set from fifty to a hundred men to work yester- 
 ■day morning, despite the inclemency of the 
 weather, clearing away the ruins and getting 
 ready to rebuild. 
 
 Condition of the Streets.— The first duty is to 
 level the snow in the centre of the streets and 
 clear the sidewalks. Street inspectors must do 
 their duty and enforce the ordinance for clear- 
 ing the sidewalks, or they will be impassable. 
 Passengers must look out for the avalanche of 
 snow from the roofs of houses. The wind yes- 
 terday afternoon veered round to the West, 
 and if it getsa little South the snow will melt 
 rapidly and we shall have an overflow in the 
 cellars. All these difficulties may be removed 
 by timely exertion and a little extra enterprise. 
 Now is the time for the Corpoi-ation to make a 
 little capital and show what can be done in 
 time of need. 
 
 Vessels Ashore.— Ihe pilot boat Commerce 
 went ashore on Staten Island during .the thick- 
 
 est of th« storm on Tuesday, about il o'clock, 
 having .lust come up from Sandy Hook. She 
 ran on between the Elm Tree and the Narrows, 
 9.nd was tight at last advices. A brig, name 
 not known, lies dismasted near the South West 
 epit. 
 
 The Mails.— "No mails arrived during Tuesday 
 excepting the Boston Evening Mail, whicla was 
 due in the morning, and came in before noon. 
 
 On the Goast.—'We have great apprehension 
 that it blew a hurricane. The iPilots report 
 that they saw the Princeton, with a full head 
 of steam, clawing off the shore. It is reported 
 that two ships are ashore on the Jersey side- 
 one said to be from China and the other from 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The Staten Island Ferry boats could not ply. 
 
 Sandy Hook. — Several vessels are outside the 
 Hook, among them the Sheffield from Hull. 
 
 New Jersey and PhiL Railroad. — Passen- 
 gers detained. — The 5 o'clock P. M. Passenger 
 Philadelphia trains on the New Jersey Trans- 
 
 Eortation Company's Eoad left at the usual 
 our day before yesterday from Jersey City, but 
 after proceeding about two miles were firmly 
 blocked up and arrested in the deep cut at Ber- 
 gen Hill and unable to return or proceed. The 
 passengers were compelled to pass the night in 
 the cars. Provisions were sent from Jersey 
 City. There was a good supply of fuel on board 
 and they managed to keep comfortable during 
 the night. The passengers numbered about 
 one hundred, including ten ladies. A very few 
 walked back to Jersey City. An army of men 
 commenced operations on the road early yes- 
 terday morning. At noon yesterday a sleigh 
 express came into Jersey City from Newark, 
 bringing accounts of the disastrous fire there, 
 but no tidings of the missing trains and mails 
 from Philadelphia. 
 
 Tlte Long Island Railroad is exposed to 
 greater interruptions from N. E. snow storms 
 than any other, the track running in a direction 
 to collect the greatest quantities of snow. The 
 whole road for miles together is said to be a 
 succession of vast snow banks, some ten or fif- 
 teen feet deep. It will not be cleared for sev- 
 eral days. In the mean time the mails from 
 Boston are behind. We have not a word from 
 the passengers that left here on Tuesday 
 morning for Boston, nor from those who start- 
 ed to come hither on that day. 
 
 The New Haven Boats managed to come in in 
 the worst of the storm on Tuesday, and ar- 
 rived again yesterday in good season. 
 
 The Albany Boats, via Bridgeport, did not 
 venture out yesterday morning. We have no 
 mail from Albany since that of Monday after- 
 noon, received via New Haven. The Housa- 
 tonic Railroad is probably as badly obstructed 
 as all the others. 
 
 The Boston Boats, detained here on Tuesday, 
 left yesterday afternoon at four o'clock. 
 
 The Harlem Railroad is impassable, and 
 sleighs have taken the place of Rail Cars on 
 the entire route of the road. 
 
 From The Sun. Feb. 7, 1845. 
 
 Sleighing.— The jocund tinkling of the sleigh 
 bells is heard in every direction. Broadway 
 and the Bowery are alive with them, the air is 
 clear, cold, and bracing: the ladles, without 
 ceremony or fashion, jump into the comforta- 
 ble omnibus sleighs and take sixpence worth 
 of delightful sleighing— ride down to the South 
 Ferry and up Broadway to Union Place, or ia 
 Kipp and Brown's magnificent vehicles, drawn 
 by six noble white horses up the Eighth Ave- 
 nue to Twenty-sixth street, where they land, 
 and have a comfortable parlour to sit in, and a 
 glass of mulled Port wine negus, to those who 
 are cold and have not taken the pledge. We 
 have never seen the ladies so independent — 
 wrapped up in hoods, boas, cloaks, and muffs ; 
 their feet protected, they spring into the sleighs 
 without the presence of gentlemen; have their 
 own purses and pay their own way. Some ride 
 down to the Museum, jump into the Dry Dock 
 stages, and ride over to the East River, and 
 back again to the South Ferry, so that for two 
 shillings they kill a couple of hours delight- 
 fully, and "make hay while the Sun shines." 
 Others take the Bowery, Harlem, Yorkville, or 
 Manhattan ^leighs. Hundreds pass up and 
 down in the Bowery and Dry Dock lines* The 
 English Cocknies are all out on the Third av- 
 enue, staring at the fast trotters, and declaring 
 that they have never witnessed such speed in 
 the old couutrv. For a few dava at least it will 
 
■ )o gay ana agreeauie throughout the city. 
 
 Cleau the Snow.— No\v is the harvest for 
 the Corporation Attorney. If he will only en- 
 force the ordinance, keeping the snow irom 
 the pavements, he will deservedly earn all his 
 fees. An army of sweepers is required. Mean- 
 while his honor, the Mayor, in a proclamation 
 urges citizens to level the snow in front of tlieir 
 houses, that the engines may pass in case or 
 flre. 
 
 Ay OLD-TIME SNOW STORM. 
 
 [Sr. Cotton Mather's Account of a Blizzard 
 that Occnrred In J'ebruary, 171'?. 
 
 "On the 24:th day of the month comes 
 Polion upon Ossa: another Snow came on 
 which almost buried the Memory of the former, 
 with a Storm so famous that Heaven laid an 
 Interdict on the Religious Assemblies through- 
 out the Country, on this Lord's day, the like 
 .whereunto had never been seen before. The 
 llndians near an hundred years old aflirm that 
 itheir Fathers never told them of anything that 
 iequalled it. ^ast numbers of Cattel were de- 
 iStroyed in this Calamity. Whereof some there 
 'were, of the Stranger sort, were found standing 
 Idead on their legs, as if they had been 
 alive, many weeks after, when the snow 
 melted away. And otliers had their 
 eyes glazed over with Ice at such 
 a rate that, being not far from the Sea, their 
 mistake of their way drowned them there. One 
 gentleman, on whose farms were now lost 
 above 1,100 sheep, which with other Cattel were 
 interred (shall I say, or Innived) in the Snow, 
 writes me word that there were two Sheep very 
 (Singularly circumstanced. For no less than 
 eight and twenty days after the Storm, the Peo- 
 iple pulling out the Kuins of above an 100 Sheep 
 out of a Snow Bank, which lay Ig foot high, 
 
 ' drifted over them, there was two round alive, 
 which had been there all this time, and kept 
 themselves alive by eating the wool of their 
 
 ' dead companions. When they were taken out 
 they shed their own Fleeces, but soon gott into 
 good Case again. 
 
 '-' The Swine had a share with the Sheep in 
 strange survivals. A man had a couple of 
 
 ' young Hoggs, whicli he gave over for dead, but 
 on the 27th day after their Burial they made 
 their way out of a Snow Bank, at the bottom of 
 which they had found a little Tansy to feed 
 upon. The Poultry as unaccountably survived 
 as these. Hens were found alive after seven 
 days. Turkeys were found alive after five and 
 twenty days, buried in the Snow, and at a dis- 
 tance from the ground, and altogether desti- 
 tute of anything to feed them. The number of 
 creatures that kept :a Kigid Fast, shutt up in 
 Snow for divers weeks together, and were 
 found alive after all, have yielded surprizing 
 stories unto us. The Wild Creatures of the 
 Woods, the outgoings of the Evening made 
 
 ! their Descent as well as they could in tliis time 
 
 ' of scarcity for them, towards the Sea side. A 
 vast multitude of Deer for the same cause 
 
 (taking the same course, and the Deep Snow 
 Spoiling them of their only Defence, which is 
 to run, the became such a prey to these De- 
 vourers, that it is thought not one in twenty es- 
 
 ' caped. 
 
 ■■ It is incredible how much damage is done to 
 the Orchards, for the Snow freezing to a Crust 
 as high as the boughs of the trees, anon split 
 them to pieces. The CatteJ, also, walking on 
 the Crusted Snow a dozen foot from the ground, 
 
 : so fed upon the Trees as very much to damnify 
 them. The Ocean was in a prodigious Fer- 
 ment, and after it was over, vast heaps of little 
 shells were driven ashore, where they were 
 never seen before. Mighty shoals of Porpoises 
 also kept a play day in the disturbed waves of 
 our Harbours. 
 
 " The odd Accidents befalling many poor 
 people whose Cottages were totally covered 
 with the Snow, and not the very tops of the 
 chimneys to be seen, would afford a Story. But 
 their not being any relation to philosophy ia 
 them, I forbear them." 
 
 As this book goes to press, only six days after the blizzard first swooped 
 down on New York, the snow is still piled high on the streets and the storm 
 is the Tiost absorbing topic of conversation. But the Metropolis is no longer 
 cut off from communication with the outside world, the railroad trains are 
 running on schedule time, the telegraphic facilities are nearly as good as 
 they ever were, and there is no longer any fear of a partial famine. To be 
 sure, the price of fuel and provisions is still higher than usual and rubber 
 boots are still in demand, but the worst is over, Spring is at hand, and in 
 a comparatively short time the bare memorj' of the blizzard will be all that 
 xemains. 
 
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