The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-05-18
The Tornado Season.


The tornado season has fairly COM
menced, though not in the section of
country where its most terrible ravages
are usually experienced. Those which
occurred early in the month at Hot
Springs and Ozark, Ark. were compar-
atively harmless, though thirteen lives
were lost and much property destroyed,
but the Mississippi and Georgia affair
was on scale sufficient to entitle it to
be called the inaugural of the season,
! and from now until August, or even
| September, we may look for similar
occurrences in the southwestern part of
the country. The signal service has in
vestigated over six hundred tornadoes
with the result of the dis
covery that the late spring and summer
are the periods when they are to be ex-
pected, the larger number occurring in
June. This year they have commenced
earlier than usual and at points further
east than usual, for Kansas, Illinois,
Missouri and Iowa are the principal
sufferers. Mississippi, Georgia and AL
ALBANIA, and the borders of Tennessee
and South Carolina are more or less
raVaged by tornadoes, but-this spring
| being an exception with such dis
astrous results as attend those which
originate in Texas and the Indian Ter
/ ritory, and travel their northeastern
course through the States above men
toned
Although it is early in the season,
the recent tornado is one of the most
destructive ever known in this country.
AS nearly as can be ascertained from
the conflicting accounts this tornado
entered the continent from the Gulf of
Mexico, crossing the Mississippi short
| distance below Natchez without doing
any special damage in Louisiana; at
this point it divided, one branch going
southeast, the main funnel, however,
keeping on its northeastern track, and
inficting the most terrible losses of life
and property at Wesson and Beaure-
gard, in Copiah County. 1t passed Alb
erdeen, in the northeastern part of the
State, crossed Alabama obliquely with
out much damage, and entered Georgia,
in Harris County, crossing the Chatta-
hoochee River, curiously enough, at the
/ very point where every storm has en-
tered Georgia since 1904, the first year
in which tornado was recorded. 1t is
also curious that it divided on the
Georgia line, just as it did on the Mis-
sissippi line, one branch keeping on its
northeastern course, spending itself
in South Carolina, while the other
veered into Southwest Georgia. 1t
will be seen, therefore, that it
traversed an immense area of ter
titory, its damage being spread over
FIVE States, though the heavy losses are
confined to two. As compared with
the damage occasioAed by tornadoes in
1881 and 1882, the results are frightful.
| The whole number of lives lost in 1881
was 1877. Last year they amounted to
1863. By way of comparison a state
ment showing the loss of life occasioned
by the worst tornadoes of 1882 will be
of interest. In April fifty lives were
lost at Brownsville, Mo-, and Monticel-
10, La; in May, eighteen at McAllister.
Tex; in June, 100 at Grinnell, Ia. and
thirteen in Kansas; and in July, TWEEN
ty-fve at Coalville, Pa. AS we have
said, 369 lives were lost in all last year,
and 1877 in 1881. The complete reports
of the loss of life occasioned by the re-
cent tornado have not yet been sent in,
| but it is already known that 100 per-
sons were killed. AS of the 283 injured
many will die, and many counties swept
| by the tornado have not yet been heard
from, it is reasonable to estimate that
Uhe total loss of life Will reach at least
$50, which is much larger than that oc-
casioned by all the storms of 1881, and
| only one-third less than those of 1882,
which was considered an exceptional
| tornado year. 1t will also be observed
that it has inflicted loss of life more
than twice as great as that at Grinnell.
In view of such disasters as these
and the certainty that they will occur
in specified sections of the country at
specified times, it is not creditable to
| science that these terrible phenomena
| of Nature are not better understood,
and that some means for the protection
| of human life in the tornado area have
not been suggested. Now that science
says it has exploded Scriptural revela-
tons and pretends it has made myth
f an everything Providence, it would
seem as if it might understand these
natural phenomena and strip them of
some of their destructive power, and
no longer let the wind blow where it
| listeth. We fear, however, that it will
always remain true that no man can
/ tell whence it cometh or whittier it
| goeth. The most the signal service has
! done is to recommend the building
of underground dwellings as places
of refuge, which is not always
practical, and it may be remarked
they do not always constitute places
of refuge. The only man who has
made practical, well-sustained sug-
vestion with regard to the origin of the
tornado is Prof. Tice, of St. Louis,
who, notwithstanding his vagaries as a
weather prophet and his unfortunate
! place of residence, is man of scien-
tifc attainment. His theory is to the
effect that the tornado is display of
electrical energy, and that the mani
festations of every tornado, such as
denuding trees of their bark and re-
ducing wood to fibres, are electrical in
character, the splintering being oc-
casioned by the passage Of the electric
current through the sap, which de-
composes it into its constituent gases,
expanding with terrific force. Whether
Tees theory be true or not, the sub
| ject deserves more thorough treatment
than it has yet received from the hands
of the savants. Who is the future
philosopher who will bottle the tornado
as Franklin Nottled the lightning?-
Chicago Tribune.
/