Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-18


 out on the porch to look at the grand play of 1 the clements performed before us. Around 1 in the horizon there flashed lightning upon 1 lightning. and it 'thickenea and darkened more and more. We foresaw a violent tenn pest. It seemed as if She storm moved away from us in the direction of New Ulm, and we wondered if that poor town should be drown cd to death for the second time. It was swept away by cyclens two years ago, you remember. 4 cloud, black as the ravens wing, appeared in the west. Suddenly it split and between the two black trains ex- banded the most fearful, dismal sky I ever saw. The color was green, gray, yellow and it darkened the sun so it became dim as twi- light. The carpenters had by and by gath cred together with us on the porch. This
 must be a hail storm one of them said; now we will pretty soon hear of disasters' Suddenly the cleft widsned between the two black eloud-wings. and the upper one came with terrible speed, hurrying back toward us Let us walk in said: It seems as if we, too, shall get taste of it. We went in, and our parlor looked quite dark. We had scarcely locked the door before we heard the roaring of the storm csming. In moment we were surrounded by 8 white cloud, and the wind and rain lashed the house, which groaned and shivered all through. It was not rain, it was furious torrents of water mixed with heavy hail. which poured down from heaven. The storm tried to burst open the door, put nVe men pressed against It with all their might. The wall seemed to give way and stood in bow, the building shook as in conyulsiens I felt like @ tightening of my heart every time the house seemed to be lifted from the ground and dropped down again. Twice we had these terrible shocks, then in moment house, men, furniture were hurled through the air 100 feet away. do not remember anything before I found myself on the ground crawling among the debris of my new home The first-I discov- cred was my wife with child in each arm lying at my side. Men and children were scattered around among lumber and sidings whether alive or dead nobody could tell A table and staircase came flying through the air some men met them and pushed them away, so they did not kill my wife and chil- dren; bits of wall and roof whirled round us :; here it was impossible to remain. We crspt and crawled and ran for our lives down to the forest. As we found each other there, were only six; a friend of ours, a farmer had one of the small girls in his arms, my wife another, and ono of my sons clung to me. But where were the rest of the children? I had myself seen one of the carpenters run with my third little girl-but the eldest and youngest boy? Killed. perhaps, or lying nutilated among the ruins and impossible to look for them. The hurricane would have swept us away as soon as we had moved from the wood. The only thing to do was to press the children to us and give them so much shelter as we could with our broader backs The rain and the hail Iashed us. the oak shrubs were blown fiat to the ground and their limbs struck our heads and shoulders like whips We were obliged to change places twice to get more shelter deeper into the brush. Four other men came to us in the wood. They could tell that my eldest son was seen following the man who carried my little girl. but the youngest boy nobody had seen. One ofthe men-it was the con froa of hnI1 inA- fhof ho ho6 been out in the other wing of the church, the kitchen, when the storm carried that wing away, and he had just saved his life by jumping into the cellar. From this shelter he had seen his pride-ths chureh-splin tered It was lifted from the ground twice and sailed like Q ship down hill till the roof burst, and then 1t was torn to pieces.
 'sThe lips of the children became quite blue, and they shivered all through we must try to escape to the nearest farm down in the larger forest Two of the men car ried the two small girls then followed I my self with my son and one of the carpenters, I hand in hand, and at last came my wife, sup ported by two other men. We waded through the grass and underbrush and mud, while the wind howled and the rain lashed and chilled us. We saw at distance the house sof our nearest neighbor, the man who had made his escape with my little girl 1t was moved from its ground, but not tipped over; but it was impossible to stop and investigate shether the Fest of theohiidren were there ArS not; .1a mnst run all Ma conld1zzI lshaa never forget the calm but pale face of nay wife, with Ter hair whirling round her head in wet tatters, and with the water streaming from face, hands and dress, dragged along between the two men. As long as we had shelter in the wood it wont on pretty we'll but soon we had to pass shelterless road. Then came a lightning and a thunder crash, so that believed the heaven would crack, and bowed down; I did not dare to look back, whether my wife was struck or not At last we reached the farm. God be praised Saved, and with unbroken limbs But the rest of the children!
 AS soon as possible the men went cut to search for them. In less than half an hour they came back with them all alive; they were found on the neighbor's farm. My little girl had got some slight wounds round the eyes from hail; she had cried for her mother the whole time, and the man who saved her was compelled to take her by the neck and keep her to the ground. The youngest boy had lain down, grasped the grass and cried: I shall diet shall diel As soon as possible our neighbor had moved from his shelter among the shrubs and tried to reach his farm. He had not moved far away before the roof of the church came fly ing and dropped down just where he had been with the children. The kitchen wing had been ground to small pieces. We were sixteen together in the house and nobody is seriously hurt. It sounds like miracle"