The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-03-04
UP IN THE AIR.
BY MAYNE REID.

BY MAYNE REID.
The tornado or hurricane in the far
west-"herrikin" ae the backwoodsmen
call its a species of tempest very SINH
lar in character and effect to the ty-
phoons and cyclones of the far east. One
of its most characteristic peculiarities is
that it generally sweeps over AVERY linn
tied tract of country, mere strip of only
mile or 60 in width. Fortunate its be-
ing thus confined; for within that strip
or belt its action is tearfully 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 the blade of the scythe. Houses
are Frustrated in 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
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 strack of
tornado. If it be in timbered dis
trict the trees will be seen all down, their
tops turned in the same direction, the
roots torn up from the ground, each car
rying high, circular mass of the surface
earth which adheres to their network of
fibres. This belt of Frustrated timber
is sometimes only a few hundred yards
in width, the hurricane seeming to have
shot through it like 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-defined boundary, out
side of which nature remains calm and
unscathed. Woe to the wayfarer, be he
hunter or traveller, who chances to be
caught in ''herrikin'' when it passes in
its cyclopean strength.
The effects of such storms are often of
the most eccentric kind. There is well
authenticated instance of 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 a Sc
rious and tragical nature, scores of lives
being lost in the track of tornado.
Escapes of a very singular kind frequent
ly occur-reaI hair-breadth escapes, one
of which, little comical in its way, we
shall here record. It befell an Arkansas
squatter 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.
at war in the fall seezun O. the year,
an the corn war ripe. I 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 off, to git some grocery
fixins for the skin O. a baar I'd shot the
week afore. She had the ole boss wi
her, an for'pit for both of them critters
they war away, He'd eyther O. 'em been
about the house / 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. l war busy pickin' off the yeers
O corn an chuckin' them inter basket,
an didn't notice ne'er a cloud in the sky
till all at once it SUDDENLY darkened
over, as if night had KUN on three hours
afore its time. hedu't a moment to
make spekalashuns bout what it ked
mean, when thar kim sich whizzin'
an screekin' an crackin' an crashin' as
eff General jackson wi his hui army.
hoss, fut an cannons, was purs,ln' the
Cherokee Injuns through the woods.
i kedn't give the ghost O. a guess what
war up, nor he'd any time for coniectcr.
in. Afore ! ked count ten war heislcd
myself, right up into the ar, as eff I'd
SUDDENLY been supplied WI pair o
wings, an flying like 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 j was, the senses war
knocked clean out o me.
When I rekivered them, which did
arter somethin' like hour, ] reckin' |
seed ] war up in a tree but, boys, pree-
haPs in the most keurous preedickament
any man war in among tree tops. 1t war
asdead wood, one o them that ! girdled
the year afore clarin' the ground. As
thar warnt no leaves on it, ked see all
about, an what did see were a caution
to Crockett. Thar was no clarin' any
longer. The hui country war crarin'-
that IL, thar stretched a strip o felled
crest mile wide, or tharabout, TO the
east'ar and west ard, fur as my eve ked
reach. The only trees STAMINA war SEINE
O. the dead woods on my bit o ground
tibet, bein' bare o leaves and branches.
he'd gin no grup to the herrikin, which
now perceived to have passed over the
spot.
81 looked tOrst the place whar / ex-
pected to see my shanty. Thar want one
log on another, nor yit war thar log in
sight. The shanty had been clur carried
off, the clay climbing along wi it, an
wuss still the sticks o plenishin' it con-
tanned. The boss shed and corn crib he'd
also disappeared. Lucky the boss want