The herald. (Smyrna, Del.) 1870-1871, 1871-04-22
THE WINGS OF THE WIND.
Marvellous Franks OF st. Louis Mad.
Cap Tornado.

r
A letter from st. Louis TO the Scientific
american says:
The terrible tornado which swept
through this place on the 9Th tflt., would
think, puzzle scientific men attempting
to explain some Of, its strange Freaks
How can it be accounted for that one
house in row, and the row in line
with the course of the terrible tornado,
is utterly demolished, and the others
not touched have seen two such in
stances.
Will wind alone drive the little iron
rods used to expand umbrellas, through
inch we'll seasoned poplar board? 1
have seen that; and the rods were not
even bent. Or, will the wind drive six
penny nails through similar board2-
Or, will it. drive small stones through
glass without making cracks? Will it
lift thirty-ton locomotive up and pitch
it entirely off the track -? or drive small
piece of shinglo through thick rubber
belt7i .-s- m Ge
Is it possible for wind to demolish q
building just as if it were full of steam
boilers, and they explode at once7 The
we'll built system of derricks at the east
abutment pier of the great bridge, was
shivered to atoms. The splendid
freight house of the st. Louis and Van
dalia Railroad was knocked down.
Three round houses and several freight
depots belonging 10 other railroads were
destroyed.
| have also seen piece of glass driven
into board edgeways, about an inch,
and there it remained in powder. Do
scientific men know all the elements
that are in the atmosphere?
Another correspondent, in letter to
the Chicago Mail, says:
The bridge company lost all its
mighty dsrricks, made of heavy tim
bers, and fastened. by bolts and rods,
that were snapped like thu eads. A tele-
graph mast, nearly one hundred and
fifty feet high, was made into kindling
wood and scattered over the island.
locomotive, weighing forty-two tons
| WAS DlChGu up Cdillcu bM6nbY le6l
by the wind A peii,Nan sleeping car
weighing thirty tons, was lifted from the
track and dashed down the bank. The
Wabash Valley Road had about twenty
cars blown from the rails. OF seven o
these nothing in shape can be found bn
the trucks !
Chickens and ducks were whirled
through the air, denuded of their feath-
ers and dashed to the ground. One hen,
the neither of young family, was found
impaled upon The limb of tree, thirty
feet from the ground. Where the little
ones went, no man knoweth. They have
not been seen or heard to peep SINCE
Many strange freaks did that whirling
mass perform.
A shingle blown fr1m the roof of @
freight shed was driven, sharp edge fore.
most, against a large cottonwood tree
and buried four inches into the trunk oi
the tree. When withdrawn the edge was
not bent OF broken.
A gentleman driving down the levee
in buggy, suddenly found himself sit
| LlIH III Iltb hhoby lis hOl6O ~
lying beside him with half his harness
gone. The wheels and running geai
generally were lying around loose. The
top had gone up, and the b dy with it
He offers the remains for sale, having
lost all expectation of recovering the up
per portion. 1t went away in thousand
fragments.
"A gentleman who stood upon the leveC
at st. Louis, saw the storm come up the
river. He describes it as an immense
balloon-shaped, white cloud, travelling
and whirling at fearful rate. 1t had q
long, taillik appendage, that swayed tC
and fro, tearing and lifting everything il
touched. The general course of the
storm was enthusiastically, but it die
not follow a direct line. Where is ira
veled straight, the trees were twisted of
at height of ten to twenty-five feet.-
Occasionally it made a lateral jump
and when it did, it began at the ground
and cleared everything for few rods
rising as it went, until it took another
jump. saw one tree, standing alone
surrounded by dozens that were pros
trated, some of them torn into slivers.-
The remaining tree was denuded of its
bark--cempletely skinned, from the
ground upwards, for forty feet. Yet MOI
a limb was gone! In another place
eight or nine goodly sized trees, stand
ing in clump, were all shivered from
top to bottom, and all the slivers o
all the trees twissed together like large
rope!