PROVISIONING THE CITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 100, 28 April 1888, Page 3

PROVISIONING THE CITY.

SUFFERINGS OF THE POOR.

8 p.m.—This afternoon things assumed a slightly better aspect, but the majority of business houses are either closed or practically so. Not a surface railroad company made any attempt to run cars. The elevated railway trains ran with irregularity during the afternoon and with a few sleighs were the only means of conveyance. Broadway and the other great north and south thoroughfares are well nigh impassable with mountains of snow shovelled from the sidewalks. The majority of crossstreets are quagmires of soft snow from one to three feet deep. At 7 o'clock this evening the snow was still falling. No milk has been received in this or the neighbouring cities of Brooklyn or Jersey City for thirty-si^' hours, or if received cannot be distributed on account of the impassable condition of the streets. All provisions are delivered by hand. Men are floundering painfully through the drifts. Coal is beihpr carried in a thousand places by the bag, basket and bnckotful, and in the poor quarters on the East side the price is nearly doubled. A number of restaurants were compelled to close their doors, being unable to get either fuel or provisions. The hotels are compelled to get most of their fresh meats and vegetables carried by hand, and some are arranging for relays of men to bring coal from the docks in bags. It is a laborious process for horaes to pull a cart with half a ton of coal. Hacks asked $30 to $50 for a comparatively short drive, and gangs of boys and men are making their own terms for relieving, householders impi'iaoned behind snowdrifts. It was impossible to gofc the New Yorkpapeis to-day throughout a large portion of Brooklyn and Jersey City. The public schools are practically closed

Midnight—The situation ab this hour is less promising than dming the afternoon. Snow is falling heavily again. The railroads made no perceptible progress toward the resumption of travel. Many ferryboats jon the Hudson and East rivers ceased runningl, being unable to get coal for their furnaces. SCENES AND INCIDENTS. March 14. A New York special of March 14th says : The fact that the business interests of this city and Brooklyn are sbill paralysed illustrates the utter incapacity of the authorities to deal with a problem thrust upon them by the blizzard. Said a gentleman to-nighc: "If this had occurred in Chicago it would have by this time been almost forgotten, while iiera we are as isolated and helpless as we were yesterday." People still follow each other along the great thoroughfares like cattle moving along a cowpath in the country. Business houses are closed and Sew ferries are running in any direction; People are crossing the river on the ice to Brooklyn and back, the bridge trains proving inadequate, and everywhere there is a feeling of apprehension and even alarm for the future. It would take volumes to tell of the sufferings of the poor and even of those persons with means, i who have been cut oil' from supplies of food and fuel. Of the vast population within i fifty minutes of the City Hall, certainly 2,000,000 people arc being subjected to almost every conceivable character of distress or annoyance. When order will be , got out of this chaos no one can tell, and at midnight more snow is predicted. It is a dear-bought lesson for New Yorkers, but they will profit by it in the end. The deaths from exposure in Monday's ' storm were fewer in fact than there was ' good reason for supposing there would be. ' Of a dozen or more roported at the Coroner's ' office yesterday many were of persons suf- ' fering from organic disease, and in these the blizzard was rosponsiblo for hastening ; their death rather than of boing the principal cause. No communication is ; established with any of the outlying towns. The streets are iilled with snow, fallen trees, telegraph poles and abandoned vehicles. It is feared that there is much suffering in i some of the smaller villages near there. ' Many people are missing and their friends are frantic over their disappearance. ' At the height of the great storm on Mon- ' day the roofs of a block of two-storey brick houses, inhabited by nine families, on ■ Greene Avenue, near City Lane, in Brooklyn, wore ripped off by the gale. The < tenants while fleeing were struck by ' bricks and timbers, and several were badly ' hurt. Tho sun is sinning brightly this morning ' and tho weather is moderating. Travel on ! the elevated roads has fully resumed, but : the surface roads arc still impassable; there is no improvement in their condition. '< The telegraph wires, South and East, are ' entirely cut off, and there is little if any ' communication with the West. ' Of the twenty-nine staunch boats that make up tho harbour fleet of New York,two ; aro safely in port, having outridden tho Storm. None were wieeked on Monday, t and eighteen which were out in the open ; sea remain utterly unheard of. The afternoon papers estimate the business loss, the contingent loss and the actual 1 pecuniary outlay which the storm will " occasion in New York City at no less than i §7,000,000, and the loss to the States in- : volved at $20,000,000. TRAIN EXPERIENCES. ; Passengers and trainmon on the mail trains last night report an eventful trip. Express- , man Collins of this city said : " We left j Philadelphia at 7 o'clock Monday morning in a terrible snowstorm. We got along the best we could till about 3 o'clock in the , afternoon, when wo arrived at Lenon, a . place fifty-seven miles this side of Philadelphia. There we were completely snowed in. The gale blew at tho rate of fifty.miles an hour and it was snowing as hard as it could snow. It was like a fine powder, and j it soon covered the ground all around and , under the train until it reached up to tho , door of my car. It must have been four , feet deep. We had to stay there until 3. o'clock yesterday afternoon when four en- i gines pulled us out of the drift." Fred Michaels,a young man from Stonington,Conn., , was the only passenger who camo from New York. He had left there at 12 o'clock Sunday night. Michaels was on his u-ay to Washington. Tho train loft Philadelphia Monday morning, and soon came into terrific snowdrifts. "I never saw such a blizzard," said Michaels, "in all my life,and I havo been living out West for the last ten years right on the plains. There were nine trains lying altogether, eacli blockading tho other. Snow was surrounding and partly covering them, nnd where the drift had been pretty strong, you could not see anything of the car at all. There was nothing to be done but to stop. The wind blow a hurricane and the snow was blinding, j Although the fires in the cars wero red hot, yet it seemed almost as cold as if they had not burned at all. We lay there for about ten hours. "A good many of the passengers began to , bo hungry very soon, and new complaints began. "Of course, there were some of us that had sandwiches and such things, but they did not last long. I don't think that , any man can cat wliile he sees somebody else starving. Then the men had to got out and buy bread. In all our misfortunes, ; however, we retained good cheer. Through the snow we went, nearly up to our waists, j hunting up bakeshops. Some of the passengers did quite a business selling what i they could nob eat themselves. The news- < boy on the train sold one loaf of bread ab 10 • cents a slice, and made $2 out of the loaf." j Several hundred passengers reached Long j Island City this mbrning. They were j forty-eight hours en route from Rockaway. i The streets are still blockaded. Twenty funerals en route to Calvary Cemetery were j stuck in the snowdrifts on Borden Avenue. ; The corpses had to be taken into the ; houses near by over night. Some of tho , mourners, the drivers and horses had to be dug out. They were nearly frozen to ; death. One hotel yesterday paid 50 cents a quart : for the last fifty gallons of milk a dealer had. Two thousand business men from Mott Haven were snowed in near Pelhamville, a suburb of New York, since yesterday morning. Over 500 bodies in New York and 150 in Brooklyn await burial. Carriages can't reach the cemeteries. Those who died of I contagious diseases were taken to the cemeteries in sleighs. Several hearses that attempted to foi'ce their way to tho receiv- , ing vaults had to be abandoned. The , horses, drivers and mourners barely es- ; caned alive. St. Albany (N. Y.) —A number of the members of the State Legislature who have been snowbound near Schenectady arrived to-day. The whole crowd of Legislators played poker for thirty-six hours without sleep. Pies cost $4 apiece, sandwiches 50 cents. A bottle of liquor was sold at auction on the train and brought §50.