Great March Blizzard of 1888 285 



streets ; there were no trains run, and conse 

 quently no mails received or dispatched ; there 

 was no business done in shops or stores, for few 

 ventured abroad, and they only persons who had 

 work to do. 



Those who had come to their daily tasks in 

 the morning could not get home at night, and 

 the hotels were crowded with men and women 

 whose employers had to house them there ; while 

 business men who could not join their families 

 were added to the homeless throngs. There were 

 many rumours of missing children who had not re 

 ported since their schools were let out, even into 

 the evening. There was much reason to fear that 

 some of the rumours might be true in a tempest 

 so fierce and unceasing, where beside the fine, 

 light snow that the wind bore in its fury, a keen 

 sleet that cut the face was driven sharply ; the 

 eyes filled with it, and when one turned to catch 

 breath, every other minute, he wiped the icicles 

 from his eye-lashes. The wind was of such fury 

 that every breath seemed to tear the lungs, and 

 this trebled the labour of the walker, contending 

 against snow mid-thigh or waist deep, so that an 

 ordinary three-minute walk in a side-street would 

 consume a quarter of an hour. This was in the 

 middle of the afternoon ; by night the side- 

 streets were given up as impassable by any one, the 



