, 1878-08-15
The Great Storm.


loss OF lite and destruction of pionor,.
instead Of being exaggerated, h,iI g.,
short of the actual truth. The storm
struck this country in the town of Perrv
which is the southwestern town, and fni'
lowed the lower tier of towns clear ocroS,
toe county, entering Jefferson Countv
near Fort Atkinson. 1t made slight
detour to the north near First Lake Suo
miles east of this city, when it aoain
took an easterly course. The eastern towns
did not suffer near as much as did Tho
three western towns of Primrose, Mont,
rose and Perry. But everywhere in its
course scene of desolation is eycrywboro
apparent. Thirty lives were sacrificed ~
its insatiate fury in this county alono
and nearly a hundred seriously Injured
while the destruction of property vii,
reach into the millions. Manv hair.
breadth escapes are narrated. This cv.
clone is probably the most destructive Of
any in the United States, through ia
whole course from Mineral Point to Mil.
waukee, which was from q Quarter 10
half mile in width. AT least tifty live,
have been lost, and from 200 to $50 seri.
Gus y injured, while scores of people are
lett homeless, many of them unable to
know where the next meal is coming
from. The whole loss of property will
be several millions. The course of the
storm across the entire State was through
a section where there was no railroads or
telegraph lines, except at few points,
and it is probable that the worst of it has
not yet been made public. The velocity
OF the wind in the limit Of the cyclone
is supposed to have been as high az sew.
enty or eighty miles an hour, and was
accompanied by fierce electricity aud the
heaviest kind of thunder throughout .ts
entire course. Your correspondent will
make ali extended IMP through thecourse
of the tornado in this county to m ,rrow,
when he will he able to give full details
Of the loss Of life and the destruction Of
property.
A special from Philips, Chippewa
County, on the Wisconsin Central Rail.
ROAD, this afternoon, says Il terrible lorna
do struck that village Tnursiay after
noon, and utterly destroyed it, only leay.
ing one house standing. The storm is
also reported to have dono much damage
through the Flambeau River region.
In company with other press represent.
a'ives, your correspondent visited part of
the dcsolate scenes of the late terrible
tornado to-day, starting in near Oregon
and following up the track of the storm
two or three miles west of Mount Yer
rn,, un,nn tyanty n,;Io, IN oil aud onn
personally testify that the reports hereto
fore have in no wise been exaggerated. In
fact, 10 be fully appreciated it must be
seen. Farms that were the abodas Of
plenty are left as desolate as if no stately
farmhouse aud buildings had ever reared
their civiiziug influences on vale and
hillside. Everything that old men had
worked thirty years to rear had been
swept completely away in less than one
minute, in some instances not leaving
shingle to tell the story.
One old gentleman, bowed down with
the weight Of years, with tears streaming
down his furrowed checks, rccited the
story of his tolls, striving and hcaitaches
to build up beautiful horne for dearly
beloved son, erectinga costly brick struc.
ture to celebrate the marriage Of that idol
only few months ago. He told how the
terrible demon had first struck that tenn
pie of u fathers love, shatleriog it to
pieces, demolisbing a wcll.iilled barn,
and scattering it for twenty miles.
A mother stood at the side of the car
rage and told how two Of her precious
babes on their way home from school
crawled under the fence to escape the
dire vengeance of the mighty storm, how
she saw them from Il window and wildly
flew to their relief, but was cast back by
the mighty wave of wind, which caught
up the house in its hurculean grasp, crush
ing it in fragments, carrying another
daughter, barely eight years old, to the
top Of small tree four rods from where
the house formerly stood, but, by some
miracle the whipping of chamber carpet
around her in the tree 80 etfectually that
it held her there till relief came, but,
alas, to find her spine 50 injured that her
future, should she live, would be that OF
cripple, the two smaller children being
mraculously preserved from harm.
A fair.haired Norseman told in broken
English how their little home had been
picked up as feather by the fell de-
stroyer-tather, mother, and brother
and crushed as with the hands OF giant
carried 100 feet in the air, and four times
as many away, and dashed to the ground,
where father and brother lay mangled
mass, and the aged and reverend mother,
with bones broken and nigh onto death
Everywhere We heard the dcsolate
story Of loss of home and friends. The
tornado has been terrible in its effects
Fully twenty people have been killed in
this county and nearly a hundred seri,
ously injured, besides those at Mineral
Point and Fort Atkinson. The loss OF
property is almost incalculable. In
places its track is only five or six rods
wide, while at others it reached out lts
mighty arms from quarter to hall
mile, demolishing everything In It's trach'
Telegram TO tie Inter Ocean,"
EvERYBoDY's making such howl
about the pacos of our daddies, that We
wish some of our subscribers woula
hand in few specimens, 80 We can tel
what they look like.--ShaSta C'u"V