Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1903 — Page 3 Advertisements Column 2 [ADVERTISEMENT]

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Cold Weather AND Coal Famine

r77N/~N weather and the coal famine have canned intense sufferUUV in « throughout the Middle West. A' drop of seventeen following several inches of snowfall, is what occurred in Chicago Sunday The wind blew from the West, and it swept the prairies of Nebraska, lowa and Illinois with cruel and ley blasts. Zero weather prevailed Monday in all that country north of a line running through points 100 miles south of Springfield, 111., and Indianapolis, Ind. Freezing temperatures gave to the Gulf States what to the Southerners is a cold wave. It was as low as 32 degrees above zero at Galveston and New Orleans. The snow which preceded the cold wave delayed trains on every road, and coal cars from the anthracite and bituminous fields headed West were greatly retarded. In Chicago unspeakable suffering is reported. Thousands of homes are tireless and thousands of women and children are sick and at the point of freezing. 'There lias come no relief from the fuel famine and even the rich are with difficulty obtaining coal with which to warm their homes. The poor are abject. The death rate is alarming. According to the Health Department reports it Is 20 per cent higher than a year ago among the children and 36.7 per cent higher among grown folks. The report of the Health Department declares that 10 per cent of the city’s population were ill last week. Mayor Harrison appealed for aid to relieve the suffering.* A season of extreme low temperature means misery and distress for many of the residents of a large city even when the coal supply is normal. Under the best possible conditions the shrinking of the thermometer below the zero notch marks the opening of a time of acute discomfort for even the moderately well to do. For the very poor, of course, it means positive physical distress. This season the conditions are aggravated by the lack of coal. The effect upon the city’s living conditions of a cold snap intensified by a coal shortage is plainly shown not only in the great amount of sickness due to privation and exposure, but in the failure of certain public utilities like the street railway lines to meet the requirements of the most ordinary public comfort. The gravest evil of all just at present, of course, is the absence of fuel among those who have been unable to pay the high prices demanded for it.