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Show .'It NEW YORK, Dec. 31. A lengthen - ill ing death rH a rapidly dwindling H coal supply and weather bureau offi- :H cials predicting that the record-break- II ine c0'd sPeU would keep the mercury H l hovering about the zero mark through- H out tho next 2-1 hours made winter's II grip on Nev York and vicinity today IB a grim actuality. Ten persons had perished from the IB cold up to noon today. m Police stations, theaters, libraries, :R wLa churches and charitable institutions ! '4! havo been converted into rofugeea for l I the city's hundreds of homeless and B 1 the thousands of poor. Meals were B . served to those sheltered in municipal I ; lodging houses. Thousands of tene- B ' ment dwellera wore compelled to wait I ' their turns in "coal lines" to obtain B ) coal in1 bucketfpl quantities. B ' The thawing out of frozen water pipes and the use of oil heaters as sub- stitutes for steam heat and gas stoves K has resulted in an unprecedented num-H num-H ; bjjr of fire alarms. At the noon hour H more than a score of fires, none of iK which caused any considerable loss, IH were reported making an estimated B total of 4Q0 since the cold spell began, HD Because of the cold nnd a desire to BB save fuel tho board of managers of tho Hi cotton exchange voted to close tho ex- BIk change at noon. "When trading began Wm on the floor of tho exchange this B morning the therpiomoter there regis-BB regis-BB tcred 44 degrees. BBt Hosidents of apartment in so-called BS exclusive residential sections and Wm workers w the largest domtown office BX buildings were not exempt from hard-I hard-I m. ships. Many furnaces were hoing i W stoked at only their capacity In order R t0 mako available coal supplies last as I S- long as posslblq. Elevator sorvico in I ! -,t some of tho largest of Manhattan's I "billion dollur skyline" district was I ; i 7 suspended. t At 1, 2 and 7 o'clock this morning ll ! tho weather bureau announced the II . tomperaturo as 7 degrees below zero. I At 11 o'clock the mercury stood at 1 ll I f degree below. I j ; WASHINGTON, Dec. 31. Somo II moderation, beginning tonight of the 1 lift cold wave was foreenst today by tho -MjBt weather bureau .for the country from I IB" tbe b, valley eastward. Tho cold I In wave is now passing to sea. IhS, rbe mtCQsc cold has not been equal - IBr led in the territory south of Now York IBr along tho coast and inland since Dc- (IBr Canton,' N. Y., roported the lowest ilH teuporatures at 8 o'clock this morn-Ing morn-Ing of any point in the country. It was H 20 degrees below zero there Official HE .. tomperaturos. Bhowed tho below zero IBfc line to extend eastward of Buffalo nnd WE. north-of Philadelphia. IMr Another very cold area was around ill e3 o1105 -u wheralt waB zero. At 1 Chicago, Detroit, Louisville and Omaha it was 10 above zero; Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Indianapolis S abovo;' St. Louis 12 above and Kansas City 14 above. . Throughout tho south the range was from 4 above at Haleigh to 34 at Miami, Fla., and New Orleans, Jacksonville Jack-sonville and Atlanta reported 18 and Mobile 28. WASHINGTON, Dec. 31. Immediate measures will be taken to relieve the coal shortage in New England and in New York, Director-General McAdoo announced today. Orders, ho said, will be issued bofore night giving to coal shipments preferential movement. |