The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-06-23
The Extent of the CaIamity-An APP
peal for Aid.

DES MONIES, Iowa, June ~.
The following appeal for aid has been issued:
To the Public: After two days and nights
spent in traversng the track OF the tornado
that swept over this State with such fearful
havoc last Saturday night, and having reports
from scores of the reporters of the Des Moines
Register and Associated Press sent to all parts
Of 1t, find the condition of the stricken people
so pIteous aud so needful of instant and gener-
GUS help that send this appeal to thepeople of
the United States in their behalf. The tornado
made a swath of destruction through
the thiekly-set-led portion of Iowa some
l5) miles in length, and an average
of half mile in width, extending
from a point south of Ames, in the center of
the State, and swept in the shape of crescent
to South English, in Keokuk county, in the
Southeastern part Of the State. We have the
names now of sixty-nine dead and 500 wound
ed, half of the latter previously hurt, and prob.
ably fifth OF them fatally. Over 800 families
have had their homes totally destroyed, and
there are now at least 1900 homeless and in
want. The loss in property will exceed So, 000'
600 and may reach $4,000, 600. In the town of
Grinnell alone over 100000 in property was
destroyed, on none of which there was cent
of insurance, as in the case of fires. It will
take at least $500, 900 to put the people there
beyond need and distress. 1t will take $780,
600 at once to put the wounded people in con-
dition to be cared for. 1t will take 100000
at the lowest to keep the sufferers from want
and to help them to put the humblest of roofs
over their heads.
The people of Des Moines and of Iowa are re-
spending generously. The citizens of this city
have subscribed So, 900 this morning, and will
make it $4,000 before night, in money,
and are also sending provisions and
clothing beside. But it will take the help of
every humane city and town in the West and
every liberal city and town in the East to put
or botw ctr
pie and further suffering and fatality.
Grinnel is town of New England
people, a thrifty, intelligent people, and
with the lowest rate of crime and litter
acy in the State and the highest rate OF
intelligence and morality. The rich towns
of the East may well help these sons and
daughters of New England in the distress and
need of the utter calamity visited upon
them SO cruelty by this Moloch OF the air, which
has killed fifty of their people, destroyed $50
| of its homes, MANNED and mutilated 200 more
| of its people, many of whom will soon die, and
all of whom must be cared for for months, and
wiped out totally nearly 100000 in uninsured
property.
Iowa College has had all its buildings de-
| stroyed its 400 students made homeless, and
| has suffered loss of $4,000 in uninsured
! property.
| The condition of other towns and farming
communities is fully as pitiable and helpless.
All that the people of Iowa can do will be done
to alleviate the condition and repair in part the
losses of the sufferers. But it will take 81 00O,
| 900 to do it. even to halfway comfort and
| recompense them and the people OF the State,
| who have always borne their share and done
their part in all national caamities, may fifty
ask the people of other communities to help
| them in this hour of great calamity to many OF
the worthest of its people, and to this l end ask
my fellows of the press through the United
States to place these facts before their readers,
! and to give their timely help to its sufficient
! purpose of raising and providing aid at the
| earliest moment possible.
| The fury and power of this utter calamity
| were as indescribable in their mightiness OF
strength as their havoc and power were cruel
and complete. Many people have left of their
houses not splinter as large as finger, not
| shred of furniture as large as a skein Of silk,
and hundreds have no clothing left except the
night-clothes they had on. Cases of excep-
| tional horror add exceptional pathos to the
| plteous whole. Women in pregnancy were
killed outright, others forced to premature de-
livery, and little children had both parents
killed and left manned and wounded them
selves. Every condition exists that most
tenderly appeals to the pity Of the
human heart. The wounds inflicted by the
debris that filed the air like chaos, by the cleo
! trio balls of fire that seemed to traverse every
inch of space and that exploded with fearfully-
fatal effect, will, many of them, defy all skill
| and nursing even with the tenderest care.
The fury of the storm, which was clearly of
electric origin and which, indeed. may be
described as having been electricity ITSELF pre-
cipitated in chaos, may be understood from
the statement that, in various places, it took
up in its greater spirals or tunnels houses
a thousand feet high, and took up and carried
| large herds of cattle through the air for thou
sands of feet and dashed them down dead in
| heaps. Many thousands of cattle, horses, hogs
and other animals now lie in the track of the
1 tornado already rotting, and adding, in the
hot weather, the horror of putrefaction to the
foul and pervading doors that are being given
of by the millions of tons Of decaying matter
left in the wake of the tornado. The horrors
of the storm, the unspeakable cruelties that it
inflicted, the pitiless woe of its coming in the
night, when the dead were not known and the
| wounded could not be found and the piteous
state in which it has left hundreds Of families,
before prosperous, may not be described in
| words, but once known to generous hearts
| must command the instant sympathy Of
the liberal and immediate help.
Remittances may be made to Hon. ]. B.
Grinnen, at Grlnnell, or the Mayor Of Grin
nell
write from the knowledge Of two whole
days and nights spent on the scene of desola-
| ton and among the dead and wounded, and
tell the facts OF the multitude of horrors simply
as they are, feeling that they will themselves
best appeal to the country and most effectually
aid the sufferers. J. s. CLARKsoN,
Editor Des Moines Register.
Terrible Power and Extraordinary