San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-09-21


went sailing over the plain toward the
hill, crumbling into fragments as they
! went. 70. .a..s
I In the path of the gale stood the Ro-
man Catholic Church, hemmed in on
three sides by a cemetery. The storm,
to Judge from the appearance OF the
ruin as it looked to-day, plowed into
the foundations, pressing them away
from the framework. Then the walls,
front and back, were crushed in, and
the roof fell so as to cover all complete
ly. A more complete wreck than this
church could not have been made, ex.
cept by fire. Opposite the church were
several little tenements, all occupied by
large families. When the gale had
passed, nothing remained to indicate
that there had been houses there, eX-
cept the gaping cellars and line of
splinters leading into other lines that at
last met in an unbroken covering to the
ground of broken joists, fences, kitchen
utensils, and clothing.
In this spot, an eighth of a mile on
each side Of and opposite to the Catho.
lie Church,
THE GREAT LOSS OF LIFE OCCURRED.
1t is remarkable fact that every per-
son killed was a member of the Catho-
lie Church. In one of the houses lived
Mrs. Downs, a middle-aged woman.
She was whirled away 600 feet, and
picked up dead and almost naked.
A hay-stack on John Lynch's farm
was carried an eighth of a mile, and then
dropped upon the side Of the hill.
All this destruction was done in much
less time than it takes to write it. With
appalling violence the wind swept up
the hill towards Main Street, whirling
and eddying about, and dropping a
shower of rubbish on the tobacco-fields
below. Where it touched the brow of
the hill, the district school-house stood
in its path. The edifice cost $4,000 in
1870, and was fine brick building of
three stories and Mansard roof. The
wind struck upon its west front, pushed
in the walls of the two upper stories,
WRENCHED HUGE PIECES FROM THE
WALL
and flung them into the yard and then
passed on. In an instant the building
was ruined Two stories stand, but
they are pushed out OF perpendicular so
completely that they will never be
aightened.
Looking back from the school-house
toward the westward, about 30 feet be-
low, at the end of steep slope, is the
plain, covered with its carpeting of de-
bris. The entire work of devastation in
that direction could be seen, a plain
windrow, half a mile in width in its wild
est part, and in that dreadful lane there
were only two or three houses that still
chung together at all, and these so badly
twisted, tilted, and defaced that it will
be difficult ever to rebuild them. The
loss is estimated at $250,0O0.
THE SCENES IN wALLINGFORD
to-day were heartrending, and unman-
ned the strongest spectators. A brick
school-house was used as dead-house,
and around this the thousands gather
ed, many searching for relatives and
friends, and many curious to see the
dead. Not less than 10000 people flock
ed into the ruined village from all the
surrounding country. Twenty-Five
families are homeless, and relief sub
scription fund has been started, headed
by Gov. Hubbard with 500. Every
thing possible is being done for the suf-
ferers. Such tornado is almost un-
precedented in this section.