Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-08
THE ROCHESTER, DISASTER.

ton of leases of the Chicago d Western
Indiana railroad.
TEE ROCHESTER, DISASTER.
The Wounded ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of
Storm Effects-Dr. Mayo's Observations
aod Theories.
H. q. Young, Esq, secretary of the state
board of immigration, just returned from
Rochester where he formerly resided and
for number of years edited an influential
weekly paper, reports that the survivors
among those who were wounded by the
late cyclone are doing we'll and are all
likely to recover. ALI who were under
treatment in hospitals have been dis
charged, cured. A few are yet under ply
sicians' care at their homes. Rebuilding
of the wrecked portion of the city is going
on lively with large force of mechanics
and laborers employed. Yet it will re-
quire months of labor for removal of the
debris. Some of the streets which were
blocked up are not yet opened.
Among many incidents of the passage
of the storm which were related to Mr.
Young by reliable persons were the fol-
lowing: One man Lay in the brush by
which he held fast, holding his two chill
dren under him and saw Mr.. Cole just be-
fore the tornado struck him. His first
thought was to go to Mr.. Coles relief or
near enough to shout to him to do as he
was doing but in an instant it was too
late. He clearly saw Mr.. Cole carried up
over 100 feet from the ground. A railway
car loaded with flour, standing on the
west side of Coles mill, was lifted about
half way up the building and dashed
through corner of it, cutting through the
heavy timbers of a wheat bin as clean as if
they had been sawed through and
leaving the building above and
below but little damaged. The car was
dropped on the bank of the mill race,
partly in the water, on the south side of
the building, and, though bruised and
broken, held all of its cargo. In contrast
ing proof of this evidence of the resistless
in which wheat straws were driven, butts
first, half an inch into pine boards.
DR.. @. E. Mayo, of Rochester, from a
safe distance and unaware of the destruc-
ton going oa, saw the distant formation
of the cyclone, or whirlwind, and observed
its passage. First he saw indications of
two storms apparently moving on parallel
lines, one coming from east of north and
the other from west of south. Both were
moving very fast and as they approached
and partly passed each other the front of
the storm from the south turned in circle
westerly more than half way to the other,
which in like manner turned easterly more
than half way, thus forming the cloud
like envelope of the cyclone, which started
out on line nearly due northeast from
the point where the two storms had united
to form it. AS the cyclone passed along
the doctor closely observed it and noted
that it was carrying objects, but as its
contact with the earth was hid from his
view by intervening hills he did not i'm
agine it was near enough to be touching
any part of Rochester. His careful OBJ
servations, then and afterward, confirmed the
theory that in the centre of the whirlwind
was a force which twisted and pulled up
from the earth all objects over which the
center passed, while objects swept
over by the whirling envel-
ope were dashed down and
thrown outvardly and in the vacuum
created outside by the motion of the whirl
wind, houses collapsed and fell inwardly
as the heavier air rushed in to fill the space
Immediately the whirlwind had gone by.
As the revolving cloud moved along there
were intermittent blaZes of electricity and
great explosions which threw out debris
from the center of the storm with tremen-
dous force. On this the doctor bases
theory that at the instant of these explo-
sions occurring in the condensed air in
side the enveloping cloud, and which he
attributes to the instantaneous burning of
oxygen by electric action, there was devel-
oped intense heat which consumed every
object within Its range. He accounts for so
many light and combustible articles pass
ing through the storm cloud without harm
fire resisting bodies, have utterly disap-
peared, by supposing that the articles and
objects which, though lifted up, have been
found unframed were taken up after one
explosion and were carried out from the
center before electricity had been gener-
ated or collected to cause another.
It was not long before man came to
the doctors gate crying to him to come in
haste for half of Rochester was destroyed,
a hundred people killed and hundreds
more wounded and dying. DR.. Mayo
started quickly and drove furiously until
he found that he could not enter the de-
vastated district by any street from that
side Finally he found guide to conduct
him in FROM the other side, through space
left clear of wreckage, and then he found
that though the messenger had in his ex-
element exaggerated the destruction of
property and loss of life, the reality was
enough to excuse all the terror and horror
of those who first saw what ruin the storm
had wrought.
State Board of Equalization.
The state board of equalization adjourn