The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-06-20
Yesterday Morning in This
City--The New German
Catholic Church
Is Completely Demolished
The Walls of the Gas
Works Tumble.
John Conner, the Engineer at
the Works Buried Be-
meath the Debris,
And is In a Very Critical Condi-
tion-Other Damage
Incidents.

= About two Uciuck, Yesterday morning, a
dark, heavy cloud came moving maJc>-
tically up from the northwestern horizon
Now and then the darkness oi the night
was lighted up with the light of the dis
taut lightning Hash, followed by the low
grOwl of the thunder.
Surely and swiftly the awe-in>piring
mass of blackne>> moved un owar,iS tins
city. Nearer and nearer il came, the
lightning growing m"Ie frequent and
vivid and the peais Oi thunder more ter
rible
! With terrific force amt dralening din,
the storm struck this city, accompanied bv
torrents of rain and bowling. maddened
winds. Every building in the city was
shaken to its foundations, the inmates, sud
denly awakened from their slnmber> leaped
from their beds and rushed frantically To-
and ira, frightened almost ont of their sens
a.; some put un their clothing and made
for the open street, others stood IN their
rooms silent. with bIanched cheeks, ex-
pecting every moment in he crushed te-
Meath falling wall or laid dead by the
lightning swift aud deadly blow.
The storm swept rapidly over. aud by :;
o'clock the heavy cloud had lpwn past.
the deluge had ceased. and the angry grow
of tire thunder grew fainter and fainter in
the distance.
THE DAMAGE
: To- this citv WI, extensive. and IL i mat
Ter al wonder that il Was not much
greater. but IL seems the wind concentrated
into currents. aud not much harm WAS
done outside al those currents.
Tie German Catholic church. which
l. i'm course al erection Ou West Third
street. and Just about ready Tor roofing.
was
COMPLETELY DFMOLISHED.
There was nothing LEFT al the frame
work, this morning, but Il tangled, broken
mass al scantling>. jni>IS, shingles and
boards This binding ha, been going mp
under the dir,cI >uperintehdency 81 the
denomination ior which IL was being buiit,
! and there was uu CON actor To- ne the loser
ri his Labor anil material. The loss,
which i a.,oui y 900, will be distributed
among MANY. AMI will not he felt To any
extent ~ we'll a. could we learned. there
Wis no insurance IL l. rnmnred that the
debris will be cleared away, ana probably.
the building ci a brick edi;ice instead al
. the frame blown down. will be cummenc eel
soon.
About :I:iu this morning Mike Murray.
who lives near the gas works, IN north Sc
dsiia, was awakened by u negro woman
/ who informed him that the walls of the
as WORKS WE'RE DOWN.
MURRAY Immediately arose and hurried
+ To- the works when. sure enough. the whole
west end of the tire house wall. sixteen
inches III thickness, had been blown in.
Z The roof had also been
LIFTED CLEAR
and carried over and dropped on the ROOF
/ adjoining. The fire department was badly
smashed mp. the stand pipe being broken
off i'm the hydraulic main. and various
other portions a! the works damaged.
Murray passed around AMI entered the tire
house To get u better view of the ruins and
damages, when his eye fell upon the
HEAD oF AMAS
protruding above the HAS of brick and
! mortar which had tumbled inside. He
Immediately recognized the face To TIE
I that al
JOHNNY COMMON
who was OH duty last night tn keep up the
/ fires. MURRAY did not wait moment but
: rushed up town Tor help To aid I'm extri-
eating Common. let him be dead or alive.
! He met officers Joe GOssage and George
! Pieifier, who accompanied him tn the
works and they Immediately proceeded to
\ dig Common out. Ii was found that he was
/ NOT DEAD.
but badly hurt. As soon a. he could he
I gotten out he was placed upon an impro-
vised litter AMI carried To- his home. on
; Pettis street.
! Medical aid was summoned immedia-
| telv, and Common WAS found To he in a very
critical condition, indeed. The bone of
one Of his hips was crushed. his back was
/ hurt, probably the v-rtebrr broken, and he
was
TERRIBLY BRUISED
all over the body. When seen by the re-
porter he was suffering great agony, al
though the physicians, his wife and the
Kind neigi bors, were doing al; i'm their
power to lessen his pain.
| Connor is man apparently about forty
years of age, an freshman. and hale and
strong in BODY His good constitution
NAV withstand the battle with death, and
he NAV live He was conscious when seen
by the reporter but too weak and IN too
much misery Ia talk.
Connor WAS buried beneath the ruins of
| the wall at near > o'clock, and remained
crushed in a hali-bent posture, beneath
probably half ton OF brick and mortar
for three lorg, weary, agonizing hours. M
one can know how much he suffered in
that time. He was all alone when the
storm began, no one else being about the
works at the time. He had just stopped to
lift shovel full of coal when the wall
fell upon him. His
SUFFERING AND SUSPENSE
Is beyond imagination. Crushed beneath
load OF debris, not able to move hand Or
foot, no one near to lend helping hand,
shrouded in utter darkness only illumin-
a,ed by the death dealing flashes of light
ming, deafened by the roar OF the rapid