DARKNESS AND PANIC

Probably the only men in the whole of New York who accepted promptly and
unquestioningly the fact that the entire electrical apparatus of the city
was paralyzed were those in the newspaper offices. These capable citizens,
accustomed to quick adaptations to new environments and to wide reaches of
the imagination, made two or three experiments, and accepted the
inevitable.

Within ten minutes the _Despatch_ had messenger boys on tap instead of
bells, bicycles instead of telephones, and a variety of lamps and candles
in place of electricity. Everybody else in town was speculating why in
blazes this visitation had struck them. The _Despatch_ was out after news.

Marsden, city editor, detailed three men to dig up expert opinion on _why_
it had all happened.

"And if the scientific men haven't any other notions, ask 'em if it's
anything to do with the earth passing through the tail of the comet," he
told them.

The rest of the staff he turned out for stories of the effects. His
imagination was struck by the contemplation of a modern civilized city
deprived of its nerve system.

"Hunt up the little stuff," said he; "the big stuff will hunt you up--if
you scatter."

After covering the usual police-station, theater and hotel assignments, he
sent Hallowell to the bridge; Longman to the Grand Central; Kennedy,