Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1881-09-15
A Florida TypliOOn.

Ou the apprOaCQ OF autumn Tue IlOrl-
dian quakes with apprehension. 1t is the
dread season for hurricanes. Tearing
through the West Indies. they often strike
the coast with scarcely note of warning,
houses are overtime wn, sailboats blown
from the water, and orange groves swept
bale of leaves and fruit. Some of the old
settlers say that they can detect the signs of
the storm a day before it breaks upon them.
"You feel 1t in the air before it comes"
says one. This is, however, an indefinite
sign. The devastation lining its track GER
tainly proves that you feel it after it
comes" One of these typhoons visits the
coast every year. The day may be bright
and beautiful, and the flowers heavy with
bees and humming birds. Shimmering
mosquito hawks culver in the air, and the
scarlet cardinal twitters in the acacias. A
cooling breeze plays through the the leaves
of the trees and gently swings the unripe
oranges. Clouds of gulls soar above the
dark green mangrove bushes, and the sand
bars, at low tide, are covered with pensive
curlews and willets. The drowsy roar of
the surf is heard, and the gentle swell of
the ocean is rippled. with golden sheen.
Almost impercepubly the wind dies away.
Cries of terms and water birds fail upon the
ear with painful distinctness. The mud
hens in the marshes pipe an alarm. Not a
blade of salt grass moves. The blue sky
grows hazy, and the eastern horizon is
milky white. Fitful gusts begin to ripple
the water and handle the green leaves. A
low moan comes from the ocean. Smoky
clouds roll into the sky from the southeast,
and a strong wind whitens the ruff1ed water
Every minute it increases in fury. An ON
inous yellow light tinges the atmosphere.
The sun is gone, and great drops of rain
are hurled to the ground. Within fifteen
minutes there is gale, and soon the whole
force of the hurricane is felt. Great eagles
and pelicans are swept through the heavens
utterly powerless. Sparrows and other
small birds are dashed to death by leatess
twigs, and the torn bodies of snowy herons
and wild turkey lodge in the branches of
the live oak and cypress trees.
All living things disappear. Tall pines
are twisted asnnder. The 1.-the limbs of
willows and oleanders snap like COW whips.
Lofty palmettos bend their heads to the
ground, their great fans inside out like the
ribs of an umbrella. The force of the
wind keeps the trees down until every green
fan pops like pistol shot. The leaves of
the scraggy scrub are wiped out, and the
stems whipped into little bushes. The
tough saw palmetto is blown as flat as a
northern wheat field, and the dead grass on
the savannas dashed into fine dust. Boards
in the surf are struck by the wind, and sent
spinning hundreds of feet in the air. The
sand dunes are caught up bodily and sifted
through the tops of the pine trees miles
away. The foam of the sea is blown be-
meath the houses on the main land and
comes up between the cracks of the floor
| like steam.
TO ha aec re- md hoo
| houses. At Lake Worth. the Cruiser, O
heavy, round bottomed sailboat, thirty-tw
feet long. was picked up from her way g,
rigging and all, and carried across the
lake, mile away, without touching the wa.
ter. A boat was torn from her moorings,
lifted from the water, and dropped into a
salt marsh eight hundred yards away. In
the fall of 1876 the Ida Smith, large
schooner running between New Smyrna
and Jacksonville, was torn from her an
| chors and stranded on marsh five hundred
yards from the ship channel. The coast
survey steamer, in good harbor sheltered
| by sand banks, threw out three anchors and
kept her wheels working against the wind
under full head of steam. She dragged
her anchors several hundred yards, and
barely escaped destruction.
| The hurricanes last from seven to eight
hours, even longer. During the lull rain
falls in torrents. The tide rises to great
height, carrying away wharves and boat
houses, and flooding the country for miles.
The ocean leaps the sandy barriers of the
coast and foods the Indian and other salt
water rivers, involving great damage. After
the storm, contemporaries and jibstays are
found in spruce pines, oleanders are loaded
with cordage, and deabeyes and peablocks
drop from leafess orange trees. Gardens are
destroyed, fences swept away, and tie tor
mented Floridian has three months work
and no nav to repair damages