The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1853-05-05

l. tlllons OF the house swayed to and fro like
l. curtain. My father vas man Of gros
Y bodily strength, above the medium hei.br
and brawny and muscular beyond most pea
sous | have known. When last saA
alm, he bad put his strong arms agains
the walls that threatened 10 oyer.helm u
and was bracing himself against it, to Civ
US an opportunity to escape. saw ais
my mother, who had taken the two Young
est children by the hand, her hair stream
ing upwards in disorder, making for The
door. found myself, know not bow
without the house, and scarcely was there
when rush Of air, seemed 10 draw tho
breath from my lungs, and was llitee
from tho ground amids, whrl Of dust
and broken branches and Shingles anc
boards from the building. How high
was carried know not for | saw only the
conlusion around me, but shortly after
wards | felt myself deposited among
iboughs and leaves.
must have swooned after descended
tJr recolect slowly recovering my con
sciousness, and finding my garments we,
aud heavy, and the rain beating upon me.
| lay among the thick foliage Of mspie
that had been opcrtbrown by the whlrl-
wind. a man whose voice and mien were
familiar with me, and whom, as my senses
gradually returned, | recognized for one
If my neighbors, came aud took me off and
placed me beside him on the ground
Around me the earth was strewn with
rails, boards and splntered branches OF
trees, and looking westward TO the hill,
! behcld where tences had been swept away,
nd stone walls scattered, and wide path
nd been broken through The woods, along
which misses Of fresh earth appeared
mong the heaps Of Iro>trate trees, and
tall shvered trunks stood overlooking their
uprooted fellows. At little distance from
me was heap Of bricks aud rubbish, and
On my ngllripg what il could be, ! was
Old thai, il was the ruins OF my fathers
house Then flushed upon my mind the
recollection Of that moment Of confusion,
| fright and haste which passed before !
left il, and in transport OF anyiet5
amounting 10 almost agony, | ran to tho
spot, found The neighbors already gather
cd about il, and busy in removing the rub
b.sh, to ascertain if any Of The family were
buried beneath, and weeping all the while
assisted them as lar as my chldisl,
strength would allow, notwihsta nding the
good na,ured attempts they mlde TO pre-
| vent me. Let the h s,en over what follow
ed. said in the beginning that could
relate my story without any painful emo
ton, but was mistaken, for when come
to this part of it, lam always sick al the
heart. They were found crushed to death
by the fall Of the chimney and the beams
ofthe building-my falher--my mother,
aud the two lovely children still in her
arms. But where was my sis,er-had she
been so fortunate as 10 escape? Even the
hope was torn from me, for she was soon
! fund where the whiriwind had cast her.
| in the edge Of IA brook uow swollen by
rains, The water ripping against her check.
white as snow, and her dshevcled har
| floating in the current.
There were no expressions that can de-
scribe the bitterness Of my grief. The bo
dies were carried to a neighborGg house
| followed them. remained with them
all night. refused TO he comtorted, but
with the leverish hope, which sometimes
crossed my mind, that The dead were in a
state of insensibility from which they
would awaken. slept not, ate not, un.
til they were buried. ! struggled madi,
and with moarnings OF agony against those
who came to put them into the collins
They were carried to the grave the next
lav, amidst great concourse OF people
from a 4! the surrounding country, who fill
ed the house and gathered in solemn
and silent multitude around the door,
The hvmn given out on the occasion by
he minister, was one my mother taught
me TO repeat from memory, aud when they
sang the following stanZa, the eyes OF all
we're turned on me, by reason of my pas
sionate sobbing:
| "Man's life is like the grass,
! Or like the morning flower;
| A sharp wind sweeps the field,
| II withers in an hour"
was not allowed to see the bodies GOV,
cred with earth, lest my health should sui
fer from the excess of my grief; but when
at length they told me they were buried,
suffered myself to be undressed and led to
nv bed, from which did not rise for sew,
eral days after.
Ibycus, famous lyric poet Of Greece,
journeying to Corinth, was assaled by
robbers. As he fell beneath their murder,
Gus strokes, he looked round, to see il any
witnesses or avengers were nigh No Nv
ing thing was in sight, but flight otcranes
soaring high overhead. lie called on them
and to them committed the avenging OF his
blood. A vain commission, as il might
have appeared, and as no doub, it appeared
to the murderers, Yet it was not so, for
soon alter, as the robbers were sitting il
the open theatre, at Corinth, they beheld
This fight of cranes lowering over them
and one said scofiingIy to another, "Lo
there, the avengers of lby Gus" The words
were caught up by some one neal
them, for already the poets disappearance