The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-01-20
A SOUATTER'S ADVENTURE.
BY CAPT. MAYNE REID.


The tornado or hurricane of the far
West" herrikin'' the 'backwoodsmen
call it's a species of tempest very
similar in character and effects to the
typhoons and cyclones of the far East.
One of its most characteristic peculiari-
ties is that it generally sweeps over a
very limited tract of country, a mere
strip of only mile or SO in width. For
tunate its being TINS confined; for in
that strip or belt its action is fearfully
destructive, and the forest that chances
TO stand in its way goes down before its
breath as if the trees were so many
stalks of grass yielding to the blade of
the scythe. Houses are prOstratedin q
like manner. and wooden ones are often
carried for miles distance from their
ancient sites, or deposited ON the tops
of trees. Towns have suffered almost
complete annihilatiOn, as was the case
with Natchez on the Mississippi some
thirty years ago.
In traversing the Western States 1t is
not uncommon to come across the track
of atornado.- If it be in a timbered dis
trict the trees will be seen all down,
their tops turned in the same direction,
lIlS lOOlS NOlll up 1lOIl bhC SlOuilIs CelNL
carrying a high, circular mass of the
surface earth which adheres to their
network of fibers. This belt of pros
trated timber is sometimes only few
hundred yards in width, the hurricane
seeming TO have shot through it like a.
bolt, leaving the trees on each side
standing and untouched. Sometimes
the line or column of destruction is
much wider, but in most cases with a
well-defined boundary, outside of which
Nature remains calm and unscathed.
Woe TO the wayfarer, be he hunter or
traveller, who chances 10 be caught in a
"herrikin'' when it passes in its Cyclic
pean strength.
The effects of such storms are often
of the most eccentric kind. There is a
well-authenticated instance of a barn
door fowl, a rooster" having been |
stripped bare of his feathers, standing
tail towards the tempest when it struck |
him-chanticleer escaping without any |
further damagei Ff-. .-..... ...... |
The results, however, are rarely of this
ludicrous character, but Oftener of a Sc
rious and tragical nature, scores of lives |
being lost in the track of a tornado. Es-
capes of a very singular kind frequently
occur-real hair-breadth 'scapes,"
one of which, little comical in its way,
we shall here record. 1t befell an old
Arkansas squatter who came into our
hunters camp and :" took his turn at
the ''yarns'' which served to knit us all !
togetherer evening when"all hands,
were in for the night. He thus gave has |
narrative:
''I'd made bout a acre o. claim, an
had got a shanty set up for the ole wo
man an myself on the edge o the stand
in thinner.
eft war in the fall seezun o. the year, |
an the corn war ripe. war all alone
by myself pOtterin' about, an tOtin' the
corn inter the crib. The ole gal had
gone that day to the cross-road store,
'bout five mile off, TO Git some grocery
fixins in change for the skin o. a baar
I'd shot the week afore. She had the
ole boss wi her, AN fort 'nitfOr both them
critters they war away. He'd eyther o.
'em been about the house reckon they'd
a been blown sky-high, as | war my
self, an moughtn't "a kun down so
safe as | did.
al war down by the eend o. the clar-
in'-that air the eend furrest away from |
the shanty. war busy pickin' off the |
yeers o. corn an shuckin' them inter a |
basket, an didn't notice ne'er a cloud in
in the sky till all at once it SUDDENLY |
darkened over, as if night had kun on
three hours afore its time. l hedn't |
moment to make speckalashuns bout |
what it Ked mean, when thar kim sich
whizzin' an screelzin' an craclzin an /
crashin' as ef General jackson wi his |
hui army-hoss, fut, an cannon war
pursuin' the Cherokee Injuns through |
the woods.
81 kedn't give the ghost o. a guess
what war up, nor he'd | any time for
coniecterin'. Afore | ked count ten | |
war heisted myself-right up into the |
ar, as eff ia suddenly been supplied !
wi a pair o. wings, am flynn like a |
eegle. | know'd war up in the ar,
but only for the shortest space o. time. |
Then all at once't didn't know whar !
was; the senses war knocked clean out
o me. -f @ r~ E'r T-lIrf O |
"When I rekiver'd them, which did I
arter somethin' ike a hour i recidn, ] /
seed / war up in tree; but, boys, pree-
haps in the most keurous preedlkament1
any man ever war in among treetops. |
1t war dead wood, one o. them grid
led the year afore cl'arin' the ground.
As thar warntno leaves onit, Liked see
all about, an whatl did see wa acan-
ton to Crockett. Thar war no c'larin'
any longer. The hui country war
crarin'-that is, thar stretched a strip |
o. felled forest a mile wide, or thar
about, to the BASTARD and west ard, fur
as my eye ked reach. The only trees
stannin' war some O. the dead-woods
on my bit o. cl'ared groun' thet, bein'
bare o. leaves an branches, he'd gin no
grup to the herrikin, the which / now
perceived to hev passed over the spot.
"I looked torst the place whar cx-
pected to see my yshanty% Tharwa'n't
one log on another, nor yit war thar al
log in sight. FFhe shanty had been clur
carried off, the clay chimbly along wi
it, an wuss still, all the sticks o. plen-l
ishin' it contained. The hoss-shed and
corn-crib he'd also disappeared. Lucky
the hoss want thar, nor my ole woman
nevther, else they'd both s'a'- been
switched up 'mong the fyin, furnitur. 4
"Wal, boys, while maxim these OBJ
servashuns / war in a fix meself, an a |
burned queery one, as I've already gin 4
We a hint. What do We serpose it war? /
Wal. needn't wait, for ye'd hev merry I
chance to guess. war in fork
"It war thuswise. The blast he'd tux |
me up an carried nv karkiss III it ]
kim in contack wi one o. the ontstritch-