Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-06-03
Correspondence of the N. Y. Herald.
THE GREAT TORNADO !!
GRAPHIC DETAILS OF THE GREAT
CYCLONE IN IOWA.
A CLOUD THAT GROUND HOUSES IN
TO MATCH WOOD.
Horses Carried Over Fences and Great
Trees Upr0oted.
TWENTY LIVES LOST.
4 Baby's Head Cut Off and its Mother
Torn into four Pieces-A School,
girl Bloom Quarter of a
Nile and Mashed
to q Jellu.

AVIN 0etO JOM l. teCeS-d ScHOOt-
girl Bloom q Quarter of
Nile and Mashed
to Jelly.
BURLINGTON. Iowa, May "a, 1878.
Inc southeastern portion of this State, es-
peclally keokuk aud Washington counties, has
just been visited by tornado which deserves
mention for several reasons. Tornadoes, though
sufficiently common In the West, are Fortunate
ly almost unknown in the East, and Eastern
readers may, therefore, take especial interest in
hearing, 10 profane parlance, ''how the thing
works" The results of this aerial visitation
have been unusually fatal, and the grotesque
the pialnest possible recital of the facts cannot
fail to be. what the spasmodic press calls
thrilling"
The scene of the disaster may be described
as narrow path traced with almost geometric
eXactness, from point about midway between
the Des Moines and Skunk rivers in slight
curve to the Iowa River, Washington being in
about the centre of the track, which is some
thirty miles long. For practical purposes we
may take what is known to printers as
''brace" aud lay it thus :---. At Lam
caster, the left hand extremity, the storm com-
menced; 1t travelled from the Southwest to
ward the Northeast, to the centre of the
- brace, at Washington, then bent somewhat
more to the East, and near the Iowa River
vanished. There were manifestations of the
same storm Ia other parts of the State and in
Illinois, and as far East as Chicago. but along
this path the whiriwind strobe 10 its strength
and dealt It's most terrible blows
The day before yesterday Thursday was a
day somewhat pleasant In the matter OF tenn
perature, though considerable rain fell 10 the
morning. Towards noon the rain ceased,
though the sky was sombre and the weather
grew sultry Az Two O clock short and vio-
lent storm of hail set 10, which in some places
was scarcely less formidable than lombard
ment. At Harper the masses OF ice that we're
showered down were as large as a birds egg,
and very jagged and irregular in shape. Near
kiota, Jumps of ice fell that were from three
to FIVE inches round and weighed between three
and four ounces. La other words, the people
who ventured out were peted with blocks of
ice SO harg that they lay 10 the mire a long
time, ere they melted.
THE DEADLY CLOUD.
Just after this hailstorm the sun came out,
and was shining brightly. It was about twenty
minutes after two o'clock when the residents
near Lancaster heard low rumble, which
sounded like the noise of distant cannon or the
roar of a railroad train among the hills On
looking to the South vest thin vertical streak
Of darkish cloud was seen against the clear
sky, which, as 1t came nearer, grew louder In
its complaining and deeper in its hue. Il ad-
vauced apparently at an average speed Of forty
miles an hour, occupying minute or minute
aud half liz its passage. In width 1t covered
a space Of about eighty rods; Its height was
parativey irconsiderable. 1t was in fine.
L, -
almost consistency by the dust and water
compauied by frequent electrical discharges,
though the lightning was more frequent and
notable than the thunder, and after it came q
food of rain, whose fury no experience In the
State can parallel. Where it was prairie or
plougbed land, the earth was lett pool OF wa
ter, and the streams were swollen into torrents
that ragged within their old channels with the
fury Of so many small Niagaras, swallowing up
Overlapping banks and wooded knobs
THE PATH OF DESTRUCTION.
The tornado first declared itself little to the
west of Lancaster, keokuk county. Of the
score of houses there it hardly left one stand
ing. Thence travelling TO the northeast, it
passed above Taleyrand and south of Kiota,
fortunately avoiding the village, but laying
waste the German settlement three miles away.
1t then left the earth for distance of nine
miles. and swooped down again in Washington
county, FIVE or six miles to the north and west
of Washington town. It ploughed a furrow of
ruin here about eight miles long, then leaped
into the air at Highland township, dashing to
earth again in Midland township. This was
the expiring effort of its rage.
The path Of ruin thus traced was about thir-
ty miles in length In no place did it exceed
a quarter of mile in width, and occasionally
il narrowed itself 10 hundred yards or So
Its course was so precisely defined that at one
point farmer barns were swept away and the
trees In his yard uprooted, while his house,
though but thirty feet away, was left un-
touched.
L is we'll nigh If net absolutely impos sible to
present such an account OF the appearance OF
the tract of country thus traversed by the tor
nado as will come up to the truth and be in
telligible to the readers of the Herald Ia
New York we know less OF the force of wind
OF course there are occasional squalls hat car.
ry away signs and abstract beavers and make
the progress of female pedestrians impossible
But these puny manifestations give no ade-
quate idea of the powers Of the air." which
Milton and the Scriptures have 50 appropriate
IL bestowed upon the Prince of Evil.
COMPLETE DESTRUCTION.
The diaboical Ingenuity Of the storm and the
completeness OF Its work or ruin deserves atten-
ton no less, aud would be equally Incredible to
city readers. They have seen frame houses
knocked into cooked hat, SO to speak, or,
perhaps, even uuroofed by the force of the blast,
and those who have been at sea may have, seen
sails blown from the bolt ropes in hurricane.
But the Iowa tornado does not content itself
by hattening houses and barns into lumber
heaps lt strikes building, and the building
vanished as If it had been blown up By gun
powder, and only a ragged pit where the cellar
once was is left. With these remarks the readers
of the Herald will be prepared to believe ip, if
not to understand, some of the experiences now
to be narrated
Not far from Washington town is the most
accessible scene of disaster. Here the storm
swooped down upon some dozen houses, the
residences of wealthy farmers, and swept them
from the face of the earth as if with the Bosom
of destruction. Mr.. Cunningham house and
barn were blown into splinters and blown away,
but the storm compensated Tor the theft by
SHOWER OF sHIvERED WOOD.
boards and ratters, which fell in the fields, aud,
sticking there, made the farm look like fret
full porcupine. There was but little imagina-
ton required to make one believe that he stood
at Agincourt, Crecy OF Fiodden, on a battle
ground where the terrible clothyard shafts OF
the archers had fallen thick as bail Some of
these fragments were embedded 10 two feet of
clay, and defied the strength of man to remove