The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-01-13
A Sauatter's Hurricane Adventure.

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 peculiarities is Thai it
generally sweeps over a very limited tract
of country, a mere strip of only a mile or
so in width. Fortunate lis being thus
confined for within 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 pros
trated in a like manner, and wooden ones
are often carried for a miles distance
from their ancient sites, or deposited on
the tops of trees. Towns have suffered al.
most complete humiliation, as was the
case with Natchez, on the Mississippi,
some thirty years ago.
In traversing the Western States it is not
unusual TO come across the track of a tor
nado. If it be in a timbered district the
trees will be seen all down, their tops
turned in the same direction, the roots
torn up from the ground, each carrying a
high, circular mass of the surface earth
which adheres to their network of tibers.
This belt of Frustrated timber is some
times only a few hundred yards in width,
the hurricane seeming to have shot
| ,l,u,,-l, :, I'll , I'LL L., - .h, trans IN
each side standing and untouched. Some
times the line or column of destruction is
much wider, but in most cases with a
well-detined boundary, outside of which
nature remains calm and unscathed. Woe
to the wayfarer, be he hunter or traveller,
who chances to be caught ina "herrikin"
when it pa ses in its Cyclopean strength.
The effects of such storms are often of
the most eccentric kind. There is a we'll
authenticated instance of a barn-door
fowl, a rooster" having been stripped
bare of his feathers, standing tail toward
the tempest when 1t struck him-chanti-
cleer escaping without any further dam
age!
l"S SAi 4 Vi shAS
ludicrous character, but ottener 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, a little comical in its way, we
shall here record. 1t befell an old Ar
kansas sQuatter who cam into our hunt
er's camp and took his turn" at the
yarns which served to knit us all to-
gether every evening when all hands,
were in for the night. He thus gave his
narrative:
"Id made bout a acre o'claim an had
got a shanty set up for the ole an
myself on the edge O. the standin' thinner.
at war in the fall seezun O. the year,
an the corr war ripe. l war all alone by
myself potterin' about, an totin' the corn
into the crib. The ole gal had gone that
day to the cross-road store, bout five mile
off, to git some grocery tixins in change
for the skin o. a bar Id shot the week
afOre. She had the ole boss wi her, IN
fJrt'nit for both them critters they war
away. He'd eyther O. EN- been about the
house l reckon they'd "a been blown sky
high, as | war myself, an mount "a
kun down so safe as | did.
Il war down by the eend o'the cl'arin'
that air the eend furrest away from the
shanty. war busy pickin' off the yeers
o. corn an chuckin' them inter a 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. | hedn't a moment to make
| Spekalashuns bout what it ked mean,
when thar kim SIGH a whizzin' an
screeckin' and crackin' and crashin' as ef
Gen. Jackson wi his hui army-hoss, fut
an cannons-war pursuin' the Cherokee
Injuns through the woods.
Il kedn't give the ghost o. guess what
war up, nor he'd l any time for conjecter-
in. Afore | ked count ten | war heisted
myself-right up into the ar, as eff I'd
suddenly been supplied wi a pair o.
wings, an flynn like a eagle. l know'd
| war up in the ar, but only for the short
est space o time. Then all at once't |
didn't know whar | was; the senses war
knocked clean out o. me.
"When l rekiver'd them, which l did
arter somethin' like a hour, l reckin, |
seed | war up in a tree; but, boys, pree-
haps in the most keurous ~preedikament
any man ever war in among tree
| ,orr NAV n l,,I wood n, thnp,
girdlcd the year afore cl'arin' the ground.
As thar warn't no leaves on it | ked see all
about, an what | did see war a caution to
Crockett. Thar was no cl'arin' any
longer. The hui country war Charm
that is, thar stretched a stripe o. fellcd
forest a mile wide, or thar about, to the
BASTARD and west'ard, fur as my eye ked
reach. The only trees STAMINA war some
O. the dead-woods on my bit o. cl'ared
groun' tibet, bein' bare o. leaves an
branches, he'd gin no grup to he erri-
kin, the which l TO- preceevcd to hev
passed over the spot.
Il looked tOrst the place whar ! eX-
pected to see my shanty. Thar want one
loS VII dhptiiIi, IL " yp wal tia q US III
sight. The shanty had been clur carried
off, the clay chimbly along wi it, an
wuss still, all the sticks O. plenishin' it
contained. The hoss-shed and corn-crib
had also disappeared. Lucky the boss
want thar, nor my ole woman neyther,
else they'd both "a been switched up
'mong the flynn furniter.
oval, boys, while maxim these OBJ
servashuns | war in a fix meself, an a
burned query one, as I've already gin
ye a hint. What do We serpos it war?
Wal, l neeun't wait, for ye'd hev merry
chance to guess. l war in a fork!
at wal thuswise: The blast he'd tux
me up an carried my karkiss till it kim
in contack VII one o. the outstritchin'
branches O. the dead-wood. This branch
he'd two tines to it, partin' like a pair O.
tailor's sheers jest a leetle ways open.
The nuff n wind he'd drawn me nm atWepn