The daily gazette., 1883-08-15
APOET Ia a ToRNApo.
KristOfeF JanHen's Word Picture OF tine
Recent Minnesota Hurricanes


madison Wis, urnal.l
The popular Norwegian poet, novelist,
preacher and philosopher, kristofer Jansen,
describes the recent tornado in his character
stic sweet, simple, quaint and graphic style,
Here Is bit OF description well worthy OF
Jean IEgelow
"The weather had been turbulent for
many days, every night lightning and
laundering and violent showers 1t was in
the morning on the 2lst. We had just taken
our breakfast and had gathered out on the
porch TO look at the grand play of the ele-
ments performed before us. A cloud, black
as the ravens wing, appeared in the West.
Suddenly il split and between the two black
trains expanded the most fearful, dismal sky
| ever saw. The color was green-gray
yellow, and It darkened the sun so 1t became
dim as twilight, Suddenly the cleft widened
| between the two black cloud wings and the
upper one came with terrible speed hurry
| ing back towards us. Let US walk in
said. 1T 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 coming. In
| a moment we were surrounded by white
cloud and the wind and rain lashed the
| house, which groaned and shiyered all
| through 1t was not rain, 1t was furious
torrents OF water mixed with heavy hail,
which poured down from heaven The storm
tried TO burst open the door, but five men
pressed against it with all their might, Tn"
wall seemed to give way and stood IN bow;
the building shook as In commissions | fell
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 / found myself on tho
ground crawling among the debris Of my
8 new home. The first | discovered was NV
{ wife, with a 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
c table and staircase came fyiuq
z through the air; some men met
r them and pushed them away, so they
did no. kill my wife and children; bits
;, Of wall and roof whirled round us; here il
1 was impossible to remain. We crept and
S crawled and ran for our lives down to the
/ forest. AS we found ach other there We
# were only Ska friend Of ours, a farmer
. had one of the small girls in his arms, my
y wife another and one of my sons cluug tt
e me. But where were the rest Of the chill
i dIen2 | had myself seen one Of the carpen
y ters run with my third little pirl, nut tn
i eldest AID youngest boys Killed, perhaps
" or living mutlated among the ruins and i'm
u possible to look for them The hurrican
would have swept US away as soon as W
o had moved from the wood. The only thin
;, to do was to press the children to us an,
S give them so much shelter as we could wit
= our broader backs. The rain and hai
g. lashed u.s. tht oak shrubs were blown fiat t
ie the ground and their limbs struck ou
| nd sho iEa tphi
y were Obliged to change place twice t
ne get more shelter de per into the brush. Fou
he other N n came to us in the wood. The
TX could tell t1at my eldest son was seen TO
o. lowing the man who carried my little girl
tx but the youngest boy no ody had seen.
&c tThe lips of the children became quit
ct blue, and they shivered all through "
must try to escape to the nearest farm dow
te in the larger forest Two of the men ca
n ried the two small girls. then followed ! m,
- self with my son and one of the carpenter
he hand in hand, and at last came my wi
be supported by two other men. We wade
is through the grass and uuderhrush and mt
to while the wind howled and the rain lasht
ho and chilled US. We saw at a distance Il
.et house of our nearest neighbor, the man WI
had made his escape with my little girl;
la was moved from its ground, but not tipp
,Ia over; but it was impossible to stop and
vestigate whether the rest OF the chidrt
og were there or not; we must run all we coul
ry, shall never forget the calm but pale ia
ex- OF my wife, with her hair whirlng aroul
,er her head In wet tatters, and with the wat
streaming from face, hands and dre
dragged along between the two men.
long as we had shelter in the wood ii we
ers on pretty WE'LL but soon we had to pass
al shelterless road. Then came a lghtni
tn and thunder crash. so that | believed /
- heaven would crack and bowed lown;I d
not dare look back to see whether my v
: 10 was struck or not. At last we reached I
nes farm. God be praised! Saved and "
lot unbroken limbs! But the rest of the chi
ol.s | ren!
ing seorab ior tbc,5 Il, less t,an halr an y,
ing they came back with them alive; they "
leir found on the neighbor's farm.