The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-05-01
SSSIPPI AND TIE HORROR
OF ITS HURRICANE.

The stories told of the tornado's
work in Mississippi are simply fright
eul. Something came ont of the sky
fine night, something unknown to a
great multitude of the people there,
and when the morning came the dead
were everywhere. Desolation and
destruction were everywhere.
What was this unknown thing
Nobody knows. Science stands dumb
in its presence as though stricken it.
self bv this monster. 1t has as many
transformations and transformations
IA a world night have in lis passage
from, chaos to fruits, and fields, and
swelling nplands, and winding rivers.
Some see it as huge, oncoming, liv-
id mass, eruptive like a volcano, and
swift like pigeons flight. Some see
it like one tremendous funnel, the
mouth in the sky and the spout
On the earth. Some only hear in it
one mighty roar, oncoming. overwhelm-
ing, and indescribable. Some see
hear nothing at all except that there
is the blackness of darkness every
where, a terror that can be felt in the
air, horrible smell of sulphur, del
uge of mud, ooze, debris. hail, rain,
and pieces of ice and then an awak-
ening to whole town crushed, or a
whole stretch of country or territory
moved over as clear as stalwart NOW
ers might NOW level meadow.
Mississippi has suffered much in
many ways, but in no way like this.
The waves of civil war have swept
over it, but what of that? Only men
SIGHT, and only men fall. Great floods
have inundated its lowIands, and rose
against aud wasted the accumu.
lation of years; but whar of
that : To lose property in manifold
shapes is the common lot of oil. Ener-
~ and capacity can rebuild and i'm
prove again. Pestilence has stricken
it here and there with an invisible
hand, none ii e less deadly because it
was thrust out all unseen from the
river mists, and from the swamps
where the poisonous exhalations are;
but yellow fever has had medical
science and skill to fight it step by
step and finally drive it back, a vast
cd specter, to It's jungles.
But where is the help. or guard,
or succor against this other thing which
is variously named-the hurricance,
the cyclone, the tornado ? There ap-
pears to be none. Nothing is exempt. |
It is Impossible to read the details Of
the late series of these mysterious
hurricanes which have just struck |
Mississippi in various sections without
upon the appalling nature
Of the work done. Mothers in ira
vail, infants at the breast, the aged of
either eek, strong men, young girls
and boys. whole families-age. every
human thing on q plantation, every
animal, sometimes every foul, and Of
ten every house, or barn. or shelter
Of any kind, have been literally
swept from the earth. Already the
list If the casualties discovered pres
ents this CHASTITY and terrible array
Men, women and children killed-one
hundred and fifty-eight;. men, women
and Children wounded, more or lees
Eve hundred and nine.
In battle, no matter how fierce, the
average proposition of the killed to
wounded is only one out of every five.
Here it is woree ; it is more than war.
What is to be done ? Nothing
that can be told by any man to-day.
Should one of those unknown mon
sten ever make its appearance in
the boldest. the bravest, or
the strongest in our midst would be
ust as powerless to avert calamity to
himself Or those about him az the