Daily Republican., 1881-08-15
THE sTORM.

THE STORM.
A Graphis Description Of IL - th
Rranay wine Summit Camp Nee
ing Grounds BY one Who was /
it.
A gentleman from Brandywine Sun
init camp grounds gives the followin
graphic description of the Storm at thu
place on Saturday last:
There were no signs of storm In tn
morning, but there was not q praye
uttered in which there was not an earl
est appeal for rain. The dust wa
a thick and in the roads was AZ fine oil
most as flour. Every hot breath Q
air waited it in clouds down over tb
t encampment. 1t was sultr., very sui
0 try, and every body dreaded the heat, tn
dust and the crowd of Sunday withou
' rain. All eyes we're turned towards tn
west from which apparently the few lit
tie lazy specs of c'Ouds mot larger thar
, a mans hand came. About 2 o. clock IL
the afternoon these little specs gathere.
thicker and hope arose that they woIlt
finally gather in such mass as 10 ob
scure the sun which had forced the mer
curry far up amongst the nineties an
pour copious drenching Of upor
the parched dusty earth. At thre4
o'clock the clouds gathered thicker, and
out to the western horizon beautiful
undulating thundercaps were to bt
seen slowly rolling up towards the zen.
18th. At half past three o'clock, the
tsn was obscursd and in the distance
the muttering thunder WAS heard like
the long roll call Of danger. At the
close of Mr.. Quimby's sermon many OF
the audience scattered to the western
edge OF the woods to watch with pleas.
ed interest the approach of what they
hoped would be copious rain with the
wind that accompanied it.
III would be willing to stand here and
take good ducking rather than. to
have no rain" said a delicate and finely
dressed lady. They had noS long to
wait, but they did not stay for the duck
lug.
! At four O'clock the thander was roll
ing across the sky, while fierce vivid
flashes OF lightning appeared to be open
ing great carriage ways through the
clouds for the progress of the car of the
Almighty. AT fifteen minutes after four
O'Clock the storm burst upon the camp
ground as if in frenzy OF fury. The
copious shower 70 ardently prayed for
came, but with it came the wind, the
tEunder and lightning. Everybody
looked to the security Of their tents, and
every opening through which the wind
could come was hurriedly closed. The
STERN turned to hurricane, and as the
tall porlars and hickories that swayed
like tender reed in the storm bowed
their heads to the earth in obeaiance
to each other; as the lightnings flashed
and the thunder crashed; as the rain
came dashing down upon The earth; as
women and children screamed, cried,
prayed and sung; as strong men covered
before the blast, TIE truth Oftne cOuplet
came to my mind
"He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm"
The writer is tenter on the ground,
whose canvas tent sits upon the highest
point on the camp ground. The storm
had a fair sweep and was not long in
beating in the side and when that was
done tut short time was required to
level it to the ground, and the occu-
pants, two In number left, and who
: stood by it to the last, crept out from
beneath the drenched debris.
Our little temporary home dem0l-
ished l had time to look after the
welfare of others, and there we're many
who sadly neededit. Through the drench-
ing rain I sought out Or. Hughes, and
hurried him of to attend to no less
than three ladies' Frustrated by nervous
spasms. After seeing that all who
were exposed were in place of safety,
took my stand on the high ground,
being already 80 wet that could get no
wetter, to dlink in the grandeur of a
war of the elements. The scene was a
sublime one; two or three rods from me
fell half of chestnut tree across the
road, the top striking the bread tent.
Huge limbs were falling all around.
Away down across the grounds from
my elevated position I saw huge pop
lar wrenched off about fifteen feet from
the ground and fall across st. Paul's
big meeting tent, and though l could
not see, but knew it must have crushed
in tent.
! hurriedly ran down to st. Paul's
circle and found the large tent cut in
two and a wooden tent occupied by Miss
Mary Miller of Mt. Salem crushed in,
but strange to say neither her nor the
other occupants were injured. Had
they sat in any other position than the
one they occupied they would have
been crushed to death. Having enough
in my own circle to look after re-
turned to my elevated position to watch
the progress of the battle with the ele-
ments and to be near to help in case OF
need. The wind still tore through the
woods, there was flash after flash OF
lightning and crash after era 'h of thun-
der; the trees seemed to get angry and
shake their fists at each other. Down
behind the circle great giant oak sue
cumbed to the fury Of the storm, and
came down with crash, but fortunate
ly without doing any damage az it was
beyond the tent circle.
The sight was magnificent There
was an eloquent sublinity in every
flash of lighlning.and crash of thunder
The signing, surging winds playing
havoc with the trees, and tents, but
showed mans weakness. | would not
have ,.,issed the sight even to escape re-
peated er.chiDg by the rain. But as
all other storms had an end so had this
one aud as the thunder rolled away into !
the distance, and IS the clouds parted
towards the west and the SIN came
out again 80 cheerily, even
tbs timid ventured out to greet each
other on Their escapes from impending
danger ana tojoin in singing the TO-
lowingyerse
~ nd are we yet alive.
And see each others fhce
Glory and praise to Jesus give
For his redeeming gracs."