100 years ago in The Saratogian

Monday, Dec. 31, 1917

“With the mercury ranging from thirty to fifty degrees below zero at night and barely rising to the level of the little cipher in the middle of the day this city has resembled a suburb of the North Pole for the past three days,” The Saratogian reports.

1917 ends with the Spa City in the grip of a deep freeze that claimed one life yesterday while putting many more residents in danger of frostbite.

“At the Hayes tobacco store on the corner of Woodlawn avenue and Church street, there is a thermometer which is justly famed for its acrobatic stunts,” one reporter writes, “The mercury in this instrument can drop faster and farther than any other in this locality.”

At 7 a.m. the Hayes thermometer hits 46 below zero.

“Even with coal it was almost impossible to keep large buildings warm,” the report continues. Even with a furnace going full blast and two auxiliary oil heaters installed, one Broadway store can only raise the indoor temperature to five above.

People go outdoors at their own risk, as deputy city finance commissioner George R. O’Brian can testify.

“I started for work this morning well bundled up and felt fine all the way down to Broadway,” O’Brian tells the paper, “Just after I reached that street a friend hailed me and said, ‘Say, George, your nose is freezing.’

“I thought that he was kidding and kept right on walking. Pretty soon another acquaintance called out to me, ‘Pretty cold, this morning, you’d better take care of that nose.’

“I still thought it was some kind of new weather josh and paid no attention. My nose felt all right. A little further along a stranger stopped me and said, ‘Young man, your nose has turned white. It looks to me as if it was frozen pretty badly. You had better use some cold water or snow on it right away.’

“I stepped into a lunch room and looked in a glass and sure enough that member of my features was white and stiff. I used cold water and snow for about twenty minutes and got it thawed. No, it doesn’t hurt much now, but it is beginning to swell a little.”

O’Brian could have taken a streetcar, but the trolleys are “way off schedule” all day. People traveling by train are worse off. “Steam traffic was much crippled, the below zero weather making it almost impossible for engineers to keep up a head of steam.”

On that note, a historic year for the nation and New York State ends with a whimper.