The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-06-13
THE TERRIBLE CYCLONE.
Additional Particulars of the Richmond
Disaster.
From the Kansas City Journall


All the day Monday and Tuesday the
owners of private residences were, in
many instances, engaged in searching
in the vicinity OF their once happy
household, relics only too rarely found.
In few instances the house had been
swept from the stills, leaving the boards
OF the ground-floOr in their place, the
carpets being removed. In one house
there remained a piano, in another a
bureau, and each only slightly injured,
the latter being of special interest in
having preserved the life of mother
and child who were FRUSTRATED in front
of it when the house was swept away,
and a mass of falling timbers that were
dashed downward found support in its
unyielding strength, and the mother
and child protected at its base, while
few feet away another woman, an in
mate of the same room, was crushed TO
death
The Post-oflice was entirely swept
away, not a plank of it being left in its
place. The mails were scattered to the
winds, and some have since been re-
turned from distance of y miles. the
stamps, money, books and accounts
were all lost, and the records of that
Office must be balanced by the entry Of
LOST IN A CYCLONE"
The remarkable features of the visit
of this disaster are many. Among the
first TO observe it was MIR. Jacob Childs,
editor of the C0nSerUdtOT, from the bal
cony of his office. Eight or nine years
had elapsed since he last saw one OF
81 h
its course, and had felt. as well as seen,
its effects through the utter destruction
of the upper story of his office. He at
once, with 4 fathers instinct, ordered
the office closed and started for home,
and had gone but a few rods when the
roof of the establishment he had Just
left was drawn up .into the air, forcing
from him the exclamation of, "The Cc71-
SerUator is gone this timel" Here it
moved in mid-air for a few seconds
keeping up a violent rotary motion, and
emitting q sound which he describes to
have been :" like the roar of Niagara
until, as if drawn by some attractive
force, it retraced its path to. the south
ern limits of the city, and over the rail-
road track formed a junction with a
hiultltI tlLUtS phtiiO VI ClCOtliC illtCullts
and swept on Its broad and .-I. 81.
WIDESPREAD COURSE OF DESTRUCTION.
A large tree growing on the west, and
only few feet distant, at least eighteen
inches in diameter, was parted from the
roots about eight inches below the
ground and lifted up and carried over,
the porch and deposited to the east, and
not TO exceed 30feetfromthe place where
it was growing. The sod at It's roots
was undisturbed; it was pulled up as
a tooth would be pulled by turnkey, and
broken off at the jaw. This house with
the shrubbery surrounding it was left
undisturbed save the loss of its chin
neys and few shingles. Not even the
glass in its windows were broken. A
few rods further down the street large
frame cottage was lifted from its founda-
ton, carried over the fences and dashed
80 feet away into the street, heap of
scattered ruins. The fences were I'M
disturbed, the roses are blooming in the
ward as before, but the soil under the
house is as hard and barren as a parade
ground. Another instance that this de-
structive power was not blow-n6is
mere wind-but direct lift from -eartiR
upward, and it may be an open question
if the motive power which propelled it
onward was not derived bX reSiStanceo of
the air to its rotary motion-in other
words, If the atmosphere, close and sui
try as it was, did not act as the rail be-
meath the driver of the engine. sNpthine
in the track of this monster was simply
toppled over. Every thing was lifted
up by the neck of the funnel and carried
into the body of this cyclone, to he after
ward dropped, except at those times
when it appeared TO discharge itself
with an outward explosive force, anu
then sweep onward with renewed
strength. NFN e
ITS LooPED AND JkeGEDtbGE -
on the west is instanced all along its
course, a above, in cutting all around
the house over the porch of which the
tree was carried; by many trees along
that side; by the frame house adjoining