The weekly clarion., 1882-05-24
CO.. s''!aN.
DuNBAEroN PLANTATION, May Z, 1857.

DuNBARToN PLANTATION, May z, 1882.
EDITORS NATcHEz DEsfocRAT-Tbis. i'll
be not mistaken, is the anniversary of the
memorable Natchez tornado, 42 wears ago.
1t has been blowing gale here all dav. ana
at this hour g P N Is so dark / am writ
ing by lamp light
During the forenoon Of the day referred
10, was at my mothers residence. Sol
diers' Retreat, fourlmiles out oftoww. bottline
on c8sk OF Chateau Margaux / had lust
imported from France. AT 1880 p N.
was called to dinner, and it became so dark
the lamps had to be lighted. There was a
violent wind, tremendous rain, severe thun-
der and lightning, aud continuous roar.
such as the sea makes on the shore after
long and heavy gale. 1t did us very little
damage; i'll an hour or 50 the sun came ont
and l resumed my work.
My claret, which We had tested At dinner
was delicious. / had corked and sealed
about one hundred bottles When resum-
ing work, | gave my assistants a quart. and
they, after tasting it, threw it away and de-
clared it undrinkable. / Immediately tried
it, and found the taste of sulphur so strong
| could not swallow it, BY some singular
process the contents Of the cask had become
saturated with sulphur, and we could not
even make vinegar out of the wine Ii re-
mained with that odor aud flavor in the cask
for three months, and was finally thrown
away.
That evening when tea was being prepar-
ed il was noticed that the Cistern water was
affected in the same way, and for three
months we had to discontinue its use and
haUl water from the creek,
The most singular phenomenon about
v-9s haf ha win hat L.
Stroyed the city seemed to be inside, and
not outside, the houses. The walls fell out
ward. Hence the comparatively small loss
of life. Take, for example, the Agriculture
al Bank building, on Main aud Commerce
streets. The officers aud clerks had locked
up their desks and gone TO dinner When
the storm was over they returned, found
their desks burst open, the papers scattered
about and large circular hole in one Of
the gable ends Of the building, as though
the winds had been chained inside and
burst out and made their escape. The bricks
all lay outside, rs though pushed out by
some force within the building.
Take the case of Hon. Levin Covington,
Probate Judge OF this county. He and his
family and two friends were mt the dinner
table, in his new and substantial brick house.
1t suddenly became dark, there was dread
lul crash, ard when they could see they
found themselves seated at the table, the SER
vice on it uuinjured, and the roof and tim
bers and walls of their house lying all round
them outside, and nobody hurt
Parker's Hotel, on Canal street, large
three-story building, fell in the same way,
and, if | remember, out of forty or fifty per-
sons in the building, only one was found
dead. There was gentleman sick in bed.
His servant had crcpt under the bed and
gone to sleep, and the bed had, in some way
or other, fallen on him, and he was sutloca-
ted, while the gentleman was uninjured.
The loss of life would undoubtedly have
been very great, but for this remarkable fea-
ture of the tornado-the materials of the
falling outside. Most Of the cit
zeus were at dinner; very few in the
streets and the winds seemed to have been
inside, and burst out, carrying the brick,
mortar and timber with them.
Yours, truly,
j. f, H. CLAIBORNE