The Red Cloud chief., 1882-08-18

The tzie torn.do q, Grtnnell. Io~a
5~rTeIoTcd some wonderful freaks
which are thus related in ttse fora STATE
| Register
The drove 81 thirty cattle belonging
q" Mr.. A. A. Poster. west az Grinn.iI.
IL at wer. killed w.rc lifted out oi the
barn yard. carried sixty rods. and were
seen by SOHO of the family IN the fash
Of IRE NJ n height os three or four hun
drcd feet. They wee dumped down
in q gully. In \ pile. and nj; clio e To-
geiher. snd looked n though ihey were
dead before they touched the earth
IL il asserted BY many reputable r-o-
pie that in the cenier 81 the awful cir
Gle or loop that the tornado made a;
Grinncii objects were carried a thou-
sand fee; high. and one small house
was taken up bodily some four or fse
hundred feet. and thea dropped in n
lump sorne two hundred feet from its
original site.
Many people state thai they saw the
balls Of IRE OF electricity during the
tornados time. and report them 10
have been III sizes varying from one
foot I % five i'm diameter. and exploding
with n strong smell Of sulphur. or mor
ike a smell Of hot copper. Others re-
port n dense and sitting odor more Of
fensiye than sulphur. and as foul. al
m st. rs that 81 putrid flesh
The rain fall vas phenomenal. - all
report. At the college il was heaviest
Of all. The earth there still bears evil
dence of this.
One gentleman says that he saw
Deacon Ford. during n livid and pro-
tracted flash OF light. up in the air at
least five hundred feet high.
The storm of mud was phenomenal
The pouring water made soft mud Of
the earth. and the wind took this up and
filed the air with IL in places and plas-
tered il over everything.
Everything tends I % confirm the thcoH
that the tornado is Of electrical origin,
and that il is the marvellous power "a
electricity alone that a apply itself 10
such small surface and work such havoc.
Against its resistless force. a house Of
stone walls ten feet thick. or walls ten
feet Of wrought iron. would stand no
more than n house of frame. Its power
Is the impossible made possible. No
force that is known could have the power
in small compass that this has but cleo
tricity.
We saw to-day several large lumber
wagons that were dashed tn pieces. all
the spokes broken out OF the wheels, q
hub split open. and the tires broken and
lsttened out as straight as though they
bad been Strengthened on an anvil.
j. NJ. Wishart's horse stood i'm the
harm. This was a stallion weighing L.
600 pounds. The barn was broken up
and carried off in one direction. while
the horse and part of his manger 10
which he was battered were carried of
in another direction from the barn. The
two lines of travel may be described AS
on sexangular sides eastward. The
horse vas found q thousand feet from
the stable, and unhurt.
George Toney's house, at the north
west corner of q square northeast from
the depot. was lifted by the air current
and deposited on the southwest corner
of the square east. while the house nj
the northwest corner Of the square in
which had stood Toney's house, WIS
carried to the northeast corner of TIE
square east. This will be understood
by using the letter X as an illustration.
and surprising that the two houses
originally stood each at the foot o: .
stem Of the letter. and met in the cente,
to be deposited at the top Of its ows
stem.
The freakish work of the unloosed
devil Of the upper air was well shown
in one street. On n side a dwelling.
house was o to fragments and left a
mass OF splin>ered ruin. while the OPP.
posite house was unframed below the
cornice but was entirely stripped of it.
shingles.
An iron pump. with a two-inch pipe.
was twisted off five feet below the level
of the ground and carried off fully ter
rods.