The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-06-28
A FANTASTIC EXHIBITION OF THE
ELEMENTS.

FAMILY OF wHIRLwINDS WHICH
swooPED DOWN PRAIRIE IN WESTERN
KANSAS A FEW DAYS AGO AND PLAYED
ETERNAL SMASH WITH THINGS.
The Chicago Times of yesterday says
that Col. ]. 81. Dudley, of Denver, COL,
passsd through Chicago on Monday, en-
route to New York. While making the
transfer from one depot to another, he was
interviewed by a Times reporter on the
lookout fer Western news. II was sup
posed that the colonel knew something
about the recent raid of the red skins in
the Platte valley, but be furnished no
fresber intelligence than had already been
supplied by telegraph. Though a success
ful miner himself, and part owner of ar
geptiierous property of assured value, he
stoutly resisted all efforts to draw him out
on mining matters. He was disposed to
repeat, however, for the reporters benefit,
story told to him by some train men on
the Kansas and Pacific, sbont whirlwind,
or rather a bunch of whirlwinds, which
waltzed up and down the plains OF West
ern Kansas one afternoon last week. The
scene OF this fantastic exhibition of the ele-
ments was a few miles west of Brookville,
a frontier station Of 40 or so houses. There
were eight whirlwinds-a regular cotilion
set. Each one was
MATERIALIzED INTO TWO CLOUDS,
shaped like big tops, and joined together in
he center by withholding cylinder
Two or three of the larger whirl winds
were five hundred feet in diameter at the
base, and q thousand feet high. Every
thing In the track of the fiatulent monsters
was sucked up through the vapory tube,
and showered out from the top like Gin
ders from a smoke stack. Everything
that started up whole came down in par
Licles. The grinding process was worse
than that of a corn-shelling machine. The
eight distinctive whirlwInds were in
motion at one time. Some moved lumber
ingly, and seemed on the hunt for houses
and emigrsnt outfits to lick up, while
others whirled along with the speed of q
railroad train, occasionally bounding
clear of the ground for spaces of
a hundred feet or more. When the
affdghted deniz Ms of Br0okville saw the
biggest and blacklist of the clouds sp-
preaching their burgh they took refuge in
their cellars. But the cloud, with fOrtu-
nate capriciousDess, when a little hilltop
was reached, took another shoot and
danced eff along ridge. The casualties
were numerous, and in some instances sp-
pslling. A dairymsn coming TO town
with some but or and milk, was, with his
team and wagon, caught up by one OF the
clouds. Fortunately he tumbled out OF
the wagon and fell beyond the grip of the
~hIrlwind. He escaped with few bruises,
but the wagon and team went up the fiue.
The horses came down Up due season, and,
all their legs being broken in a dozen
places, they were mercifully
SHOT TO END THEIR AGONY.
The wagon came down all around that sec
ton of country. The pieces were just the
right size for kindling- The tires
were Strengthened out and driven into the
hard earth two and three feet. The air was
full OF milk, and the whereabouts of the
butter was traced by an occasional grease
spot on the prairie. There had been nine
buckets OF butter, and consequently there
were nine grease spots in that neighbor-
hood. The fate OF two children, aged re-
spectively four andlsix daughter and son of
John Erickson, was appalling. They had
been left alone in a dwelling on the open
prairie, and q waltzing cloud came along
and holsted house, children, and all. The
house sprinkled down in splinters, and the
children were found, shortly afterwsrd, In
the wake of the wind, In q deplora-
bly, manned condition. The boy,
though alive, was terribly injured
and the girl was literally broken
to pieces. Bones protruded everywhere
from her flesh. or course the child was
dead. There were other incidents OF q
thrilling nature. A mile out of Brook
Vile q cloud struck yoke of oxen at
tsched to a lumber wagon. The cattle
were cut off from the wagon and carried
up 20 the top Of the funnel and spilled out.
They were dead long before earth was
reached again. Spectators said that as
oxen went up in that convolution OF things
6 tail or head would occasionally break
through the black wall. A train of cars
bad halted to await further Developments.
A monster cloud travelled rapidly down
the gentle slope and crossed the road rs
yards ahead OF the locomotive. The bot
tom of the cloud shaved or planed of go
fet t OF the track as smoothly as IL done by
n nlanipg machine. The raiis, ties and the
mr. x.,o~o o.~~ia1 ofF G00 vorda