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Show STORM KING HITS CITY ANOTHER KNOCKOUT BLOW Traffic Blockade Demoralizes All Business; Relief Re-lief in Day or Two Is Promised by the Traction Company. THIS snowstorm which has been holding hold-ing Salt Lake in its grip for several sev-eral days, tying up street car and other urban traffic, took a fresh grip yesterday. Conditions yesterday yes-terday morning were worse than any previous day. Any travel, except on foot, was almost impossible. Street carp, automobiles, and horse-drawn vehicles ve-hicles alike were useless. By 10 o'cocik last night, however, the prospects for relief were brighter. Every snow plow, sweeper and scraper and every man tiie street car company and the city street cleaning department could command, were hard at work all day. The street car employees worked far into Uie night. Ff. I,. Reach, general superintendent of the Utah Light & Traction company, was out before dawn, as he had been every day since the beginning of the storm. Under his leadership the car lines were partially opened, and it. ap pea ied probable, according to his predictions, predic-tions, that normal traffic could be resumed re-sumed late today, or possibly tomorrow. Everybody Walked. In the morning the street car service was so disorganized that it was almost nonexistent. Practically everybody who reached downtown before 10 o'clock walked. Even the owners of automobiles found themselves reduced to the ranks of the pedestrians. There have been other tie-ups of street cars here, but that was in the days of lighter equipment and less powerful motors. mo-tors. Never since the installation of the heavy cars has there been such a complete com-plete blockade of car service as that of yesterday. Superintendent "Beach blames tne alternate al-ternate thaws and snowfalls, and the automobiles, as the chief factors In tiie demoralization of service. The traction trac-tion company was plentifully equipped with sweep apparatus for any ordinary ordi-nary condition, he says, but the extraordinary extraor-dinary tricks of the weather man baffled all precautions. Autos Clause Trouble. The snow that fell Friday and Saturday Sat-urday was wet. More snow fell on the stusti. Then the wet snow and the slush packed hard. Sweepers removed the top of the hard mass. Then the automobiles automo-biles took to the street car tracks, as offering the only thoroughfare. The wide tires packed the snow again. The sweeper brooms could do no more than skim the softest of the snow off, and the constant work wore them out. The packed snow lifted the wheels of the cars from the rails; made It impossible im-possible for them to drive the cars and caused the cars to jump off the track. As a last measure, cars were run coupled together. to-gether. In this way the front car would partially clear the snow and lee from the rails, enabling the rear cars to obtain a driving grip. Most Lines Open. By nightfall last night the South Temple Tem-ple line was running normally. The Second Sec-ond South and Eighth West cars were running in twos and threes. The Third avenue line was operating, but giving much trouble. The Ninth East and Wan-damere Wan-damere lines were in fair condition, the Sugarhotise and depot loop lines were operating, op-erating, but were behind time. The Centervllle, Fifteenth East, Mid-vale Mid-vale and Sandy lines, however, were absolutely ab-solutely out of service. Superintendent Beach is not certain as to when these lines can be opened. The Daisy Stage line announced its line is open and that its cars are running to points along the line from Salt Lake to Murray and to Midvale. Orem Line Resumes. Through traffic, on the Orem line was resumed yesterday afternoon at 5:15, when the first car for more than twenty-four twenty-four hours left Salt Lake for Payson. It made the trip practically on schedule time. Heaw drifts between Rlverton and Lehi bad blockaded traffic since 2 o'clock Christmas afternoon. Snow plows and shovelmen cleared the drifts away by day and night work shortly before 5 o'clock today. Service from Payson to Lehi and return re-turn and from Salt Lake to Riverton and return was kept up without interruption, but the heavy wind piled the snow into the cuts between Lehi and Rlverton in solid masses, some of the drifts being eighteen feet deep. Railroads Optimistic. The steam line managers, while not without their share of trouble.-"were disposed dis-posed to be optimistic. The Oregon Short Line and the Union Pacific, trains were hours behind time, but it was announced that the lines were clear of enow and that unless another storm set In passen- ger trains would be running practically on time tomorrow. The Salt Iike Route was battling with snow drifts near Provo, but it was announced an-nounced that trains -would be running on time by tonight. Tiie Denver & Rio Grande trains were from thirty minutes to an hour and a rjuarter behind time, .but here, too, prediction pre-diction was made that passenger trains would be running on schedule today. The Western Pacific trains were all on time yesterday. The branch lines of the Denver & Rio Grande were still in trouble. The Tintic train was three hours late and the Park City train tied up for the night at Park City, arriving there seven hours late. These branches, it was announced, would be clear today, and, unless another snowstorm snow-storm should set in. traffic, would be proceeding pro-ceeding on schedule, time by Thursday. Freight Congested. 1 All the steam lines have much freight that has been sidetracked, in order to permit passenger traffic the right of way. It will take at least a week of good weather to get this freight out and the freight service again In normal order. The telephone company employed automobiles auto-mobiles yesterday to bring operators to and from work. As a result of blockades on ihe car lines and the difficulty of getting get-ting about, even down town, more business busi-ness was transacted by telephone than normally. It was necessary, therefore, to have full forces of operators at work night and day at the two exchanges the Wasatch and Hyland. More than 200 operators op-erators are employed on the various shifts at the Wasatch exchange and about eighty at the Hyland exchange. The automobiles were kept busy getting tiie girls to work at the appointed times. Thirty operators of the Wasatch exchange who lived at long distances were quartered at tiie Newhouse hotel so that there would be no delay when their services were required at the operating board. Drifts Block Canyons. A fall of thirty-six inches of snow at the city high line station in City Creek canyon was reported to the waterworks department at noon yesterday. Reports were not to be had from Big Cottonwood canyon, telephone communi-catiop communi-catiop being cut off. J. C. Southern, veteran vet-eran patrolman of Parley's canyon, reported re-ported that the storm of the past three days surpassed anything that he had known in his forty years of experience. He said the snow was drifted so badly as to make measurement of it impossible. Means Plenty of Water. C. F. Barrett, city superintendent of waterworks, said yesterday that the present pres-ent storm lias assured a sufficient supply of water for Salt Lake City nest season. The drifting of the snow into the canyons can-yons and gorges of the mountains will tend to secure it for the needs of the dry part of the season, he thinks. Protest waB made to Mayor W, Mont Ferry yesterday of alleged overcharge of patrons by taxicab sendee concerns. One man reported having been left stranded on Third avenue at 2 o'clock in the morning because he would cot pay $5 fare to be taken down town in an automobile that was returning from the hill empty. Street Cleaners Busy. Every available man and team was hired by the city yesterday morning in an endeavor to rid the main thoroughfares thorough-fares of snow. More than 200 men were put at work, and as many as half a hundred hun-dred teams. Accurate information as to the number employed could not be had from the street department officials, since many were hired by agents of the departments, de-partments, all of whom were empowered to hire men and teams wherever they were to be had. The offer of the use of the Auerbach field. Third South and Second East streets, made by Herbert S. Auerbacli, as a dumping ground for the snow relieved the street department of one of Its most perplexing problems. The wagonloads of snow gathered from the 'business section of the citv were soon thereafter streaming stream-ing toward the unloading place. Flood Apprehended. Dread of sudden warm weather and consequent melting of the snow so rapidly as to occasion a flood is felt by Commissioner Commis-sioner Heber M. Wells of the street department. de-partment. Gradual disappearance of tiie snow is ardently hoped for by all members mem-bers of the street department. The Utah Copper company mines and mills were closed down yesterday. The snow does not inierfere with the ore shovels, but has blockaded the tracks on which the ore cars run. The mills were running on a short supply of ore, and with the shutting down of mining the mills ceased automatically. As the earrings of the company run to $1,000,000 a week, this means a loss of $160,000 a day, figuring that expenses of $20,000 a day have to be met with no offsetting income. It is expected that the tracks can be cleared sufficiently to resume re-sume work tomorrow. |