The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1876-03-16
UP IN THE 1IB
by nfAYNE REID.

phoons and cyclones Of the Jar east. One
Of its most characteristic peculiarities is
that it generally sweeps over q very. linn
tied tract Of country, a mere strip Of only
A mile or so in width. Fortunate its be-
ing thus confined; for within that strip
or belt It's 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 yield
ing to Che blade Of the scythe. Houses
are Frustrated in like manner, and wooden
p ones arsolten carried for a miles distance
from their ancient sites, or deposited on
the tops Of trees. Towns have suffered
amost complete humiliation, as was the
case Of Natchez on the Mississippi some
thirty years ago.
In travelling the western states, it is
not unusual to come across the track of
a tornado IF it be in timbered dis
trict the trees will be seen lldown, their
tons turned in the same direction, the
roots torn up from the ground, each car
rying high, circular mass Of the surface
earth which adheresEto their network Of
fbres. This belt of Frustrated 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 I'M
touched. Sometimes the line or column
of destruction is much wider, but in
most cases well-defned boundary, out
side of which nature remains calm and
unscathed. Woe to the wayfaTer, be he
hunter or traveller, who chances to be
caught in "herrikin" when it passes in
its cycl0pean strength.
The effects of such storms are often of
the most eccentric kind. There is well
authenticated instance Of a barn-dOor
fowl, rooster" having been stripped
bare Of his feathers, standing tail toward
the tempest when it struck him--chanti-
cleer escaping without any further dam
age!
The results, however, are rarely of this
ludicrous character, but oftener of Sc
rious and tragical nature, scores of lives
being lost in the track of a tornado.
Escapes of a very singular kind frequent
" occur-real hair-breadth escapes, one
of which, little comical in its way, we
shall here record. 1t befell an Arkansas
souatter who came into our hunters
camp and took his turn at the yarns
which served to knit us all together every
evening when all hands were in for the
night. He gave us his narrative:
"Pd made bout acre O claim, an
had got shanty set up for the ole wo-
man an myself on the edge O the standin'
timber.
1T war in the fall seezun O the year,
an the corn war ripe. war all alone
by myself potterin' about and totin' the
corn inter the crib. The ole gal had
gone that day to the cross road store,
bout five mile of, to git some grocery
fixins for the skin O. baar I'd shot the
week afore. She had the ole boss wi
her, an for'rit for both of them critters
they war away, He'd eyther o 'em been
about the house I reckon they'd a been
blown sky high, as was myself, an
moutn't "a KUN down SO safe as did.
81 war down by the eend O. the clarin'
that air eend furrest away from the
shanty. war busy pickin' off the yeers
O. corn an chuckin' them inter basket,
an didn't notice meier a cloud in the sky
till all at once it SUDDENLY darkened
over, as if night had KUN on three hours
afore its time. l hedu't a moment to
make spekalashuns bout what it ked
mean, when thar kim SIGH whizzin'
an screekin' an crackin' an crashin' as
eff, General Jackson VII his hui army,
hos, fot AN eannOns, was pursuin' the
Cherokee Injuns through the woods,
/ kedn't give the ghost o a guess what
war up, nor he'd any time for conjecter.
in. Afore / ked count ten Iwar heisted
myself, right up into the ar, as of I'd
SUDDENLY been supplied wi a pair O
wings, an flying like eegle. l know'd
/ war up in.the ar, but only for the
shortest space o. time. Then all at once't
/ didn't know whar I was, the senses war
knocked clean out o. me.
when rekiyered them, which did
,