The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-04-25
BLASTED BROWNSVILLE.
Further Particulars in Regard
to the Destruction by
Tuesdays Cyclone.

Scenes and Incidents Noted by q
Baxoo Man on the
Ground.
Special Correspondence Sunday Morning Bazoo.
BROWNSVILLE, No., April 22.
Before the opening of the Chicago &
Alien railway through Marshall and Hig-
einsville, there was hardly q more import
ant trading point between Sedalia and
Kansas City than the now devastated little
city of Brownsville. The county of Sa-
line is one of the very best in the whole
st Ate of Missouri and the rich farm pro-
ducts were brought to Brownsville in vast
masses, there to be sold and exchan ,ed.
For many years the busy commerce OF the
now ruined town was phenomenal. Her
merchants thrOve, and the town grew, un-
til the Chicsgo 4 Alton road made Hig-
ginsville ana Marshall competing towns.
The opening OF this line operated as q Sc
riOus check on Brownsville. but she held
her own. after manner, although her
former business was divided anu diverted.
Competition between the three towns was
sharp. 1t was free .fOr-all, In which
there was MANY dead heat. Tie winner
was often victor BY only a nose. OF an ear.
or at most length. AMI the triumph was
lessened in contemplation OF the magnit-
cent second who pounded and pushed SO
closely in the rear
Brownsville to-day is like a ruined or
ckard whose growth must be very slow
before she will, if ever, bloom as before.
kyar hn
shock Of the 18th, are taking on a manly
rebuilt. In this ambition they, OF course,
have the full sympathy Of everybody, and
the hope is natural that they may be able
to do so. But il takes money TO rebuild
Not one property loss will be Unidentified
by the insurance companies, on whom the
losers can have no kind of claim. Many
of the most stirring men of the town have
lost their all. Those upon whom the task
Of rehabilitation would naturally fall
have no money Outside help must be
depended on To enable Brownsville to rise
again. Ii is said that certain Chicago
capitalists are To send on fifty thousand
dollars for this purpose. 1t is fervently to
be hoped that they will do so; but in this
connection it might be we'll to recollect
the advice Of the lark to her young. Tine
town is full of public spirited men, as fine
class OF citizens as any place ever had,
but so mznv of them are now without
money, and without property to raise
money on, that il becomes difficult to see
how Brownsville Is ever to be again Just
what she Tas on the 18th of April.
M,ny were the scenes and incidents Of
vivid and dramatic interest which occurred
on the fatal last Tuesday. Some of them,
As recounted by the still excited portion Of
the inhabitants To the BAZoo correspondent
seem hardly credible. For instance, flock
of healthy turkeys, belonging to family in
the eastern part Of town, were taken up by
the tornado and blown several miles into
the open country and all traces of them
lost. Strange tame ducks in the sameway
Joined country communities of their fel-
lows miles away.
A boy was taken up bodily and blown
over Sim Brothers Il Spurgin's carriage
and wagon manufacturing establishment
and landed in tree across the street, and
still was not seriously injured. The piles
Of lumber in Smiths lumber yard were
whisked up BY the wind and shot through
the town like so MANY arrows, piercing
through. The dead body of a we'll devel-
oped shoat is lying nearly mile outside
the corporation to the south, and is said to
have been transported thither by the force
of the blast.
The number oi hair-breadth escapes from
humiliation can never be told. IL saw q
piece of jice about as long as q hitchin'
post a-makin' for me- said q long, lean,
and not over-truthful looking jeans-clad
inhabitant, "and l knowed that it was
a-soin' TO be mighty tight paper for me to
dodge it. 1 made for the stairway of the
Herald Office. SAYS to myself, Il am
a-goin' to bust q INTESTINE, or git thar,
Eli l got thar. and here am, without a
scratch"
Chris. Brunckhsrst, partner with Meyer
e. Duensing in the lumber business, was
with Mr.. Meyer ONLY few minutes before
the storm came On, and the latter gentle
man met his death. He parted with his
Inflated partner to 20 into a beer saloon
and play game of ball pool. He heard
the terrific crash, and, soon afterwards, the
heart-rending cries and groans OF the
wounded and dying, was one Of the first
TO gather presence of mind enough to
fly to their assistance.
The escape OF Captain Harry c. Demuth,
one Of the best known young business men
Of Sedalia. where he was, until the new
appointee assumed the duties OF the Office,
the most efficient deputy postmaster that
city ever had, was altogether phenomenal.
Happening to recollect, when he saw the
funnel-shaped cloud swooping down on the
town and fragments of wooden structures
begin to fly through the air, that he had
read some where OF persons escaping death
under similar circumstances by throwing
themselves on the ground, he acted on this
mental suggestion without loss OF time
He threw himself into kind OF shallow
gutter and held fast to the end of wooden
spout which projected from the ground
He saved himself, suffering but few
slight cuts and bruises. Two men, Meyer
and Miller, were killed instantly almost, by