Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1903 — BITTER COLD WAVE. [ARTICLE]

BITTER COLD WAVE.

COUNTRY IS SWEPT BY WINTRY BLAST. Death and Destruction Following in Wake of Worst Spell of Frigidity in Years Cyclone Sinks Steamer and Twenty-three Are Drowned. The country has recently experienced the most bitter cold wave of the season. Thirty degrees below zero in the Dakotas, zero in Texas, within a few degrees of the cipher in New York thermometers; the entire country swept by winds that add to the severity of the cold, people frozen to death in Chicago, Kansas, Georgia and elsewhere—that was Tuesday’s chapter in the story of the most widespread and lasting cold wave known in years. The other usual incidents of delay to transportation of all sorts, added suffering among the poor, injury to telephone and telegraph wires and general injury to business interests, are reported from ell the area between the Atlantic coast and the far western ranges of the Uocky Mountains. Railroads have been confiscating coal consigned to firms and individuals at such a rate that two bills were introduced In the Kansas Legislature making sfich action a crime. Even by thus appropriating shipments of fuel to their own uses and running the risk of paying big damages, many of the roads have been unable to keep trains moving. Some of tlie temperatures reported Tuesday were: Bismarck, N. 1»...-30]St. Louis —8 Duluth, Minn .. ,-24f<’levelnud -4 Milwaukee —)5 Amarillo, Tex.... 0 Chicago —lOlLoulsvllle 2 Omaha -10;.New York 12 The Eastern States got what seemed more than their share of the storm. In central New York fifteen inches of snow fell. Gales swept the coast and endangered shipping, and fewer v essels ventured out ou account of storm warnings. Pittsburg was in danger of a flood, aud municipal election day in the State of Pennsylvania saw only a fraction of voters willing to go to the polls. The cold was general. East and west from Chicago the country was frozen in its clutch. Near Children, Neb., six trains were buried in snow drifts, the imprisoned passengers including a regiment of United States cavalry. In Wyoming the worst blockade of the winter was reported, while Kansas haa been enduring perhaps the lowest temperature in its history. Ohio reports bitter weather and a serious shortage in natural gas, which is adding greatly to the suffering. In Springfield, Ohio, the street gas jets were extinguished to eke out the scanty supply of artificial gas with which the citizens were trying to keep from freezing. It is estimated that 10,000 persons who depend on natural gas have suffered, and many remained in bed all day in their efforts to keep warm. With a temperature which sank to 10 degrees below zero at 7 n. ni. Tuesday was the coldest day in Chicago since Feb. 0, 1899, when the thermometer registered 21 degrees below. Most of the mail trains entering Chicago were late, some of them being five hours behind time. The whore State of Wyoming has been In the grasp of the fiercest blizzard of the winter, and the railways are badly crippled. Cuts have filled with snow, and it may take days to clear them out. A passenger train, two snow plows, and a freight train were snowbound forty miles north of Cheyenne, on the Colorado aud Southern, seven passenger trains were tied up at Laramie and points west on the Union Pacific owing to a blockade near Medicine Bow. Two passenger trains and several freights were suowbound six miles south of Cheyenne on the Denver Pacific. In most cases the dining cars kept the imprisoned passengers supplied with food. Where there were no diners the railroad companies have sent provisions. Reports of stock losses are beginning to come in from the range, but the losses will not be as heavy as anticipated. Many cities in Ohio, among them Springfield, Dayton, Urbana, Sidney, Tiqua and Troy, have been without natural gas. It is estimated that 10.000 persons dependent upon this fuel for heat have suffered severely. The gas in scores of homes puffed out, owing to the low pressure, and many families had narrow escapes from asphyxiation. Valves had been left open aud the natural gas, when it returned, escaped into the homes. The cold wnve which has swept over southern California during the last four or five days, bringing snow and frost, is broken and orchardists are giving their attention to the work of determining the damage. It has been ascertained that lemons suffered most. In certain localities the entire lemon crop for the summer was killed and in nearly all sections of California there was more or lese damage. It is conservatively estimated that the loss will be between 10 and 20 per cent of the entire crop.