The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-10-02

Il
tent on our own race against the cloud.
The lightning was playing through the
black Vapor necessarily. More clouds,
having the appearance of common
thunder heads" rose and dispersed
themselves over the sky, and at last OBJ
scured the sunlight. 1t was relief to
me when the sun ceased to shine, for
the scene seemed less abnormally ter
rife. t.st
Within a few rods of the opening oil
the gulch | heard roar, as of oncom-
ing wind. Nan cried out again to her
horse, the animals lurched forward yet
faster, and in a moment we were al
entering the rayine. 1t was extremely
uneven ground and covered by broken
sharp stones. My sister and | were
watching Nan; she slipped of the sad
die and hurriedly motioned to US to do
the same The instant we were dis
mounted the horses scrambled rapidly
forward into the gulch, and we did the
same, Nan now in the rear and driving
us along. That night | found my shoes
cut and a cash in my foot, but did
not feel the wound when | received it.
While we were thus hurrying to get to
the deepest shelter of the gully, the roar
above us was awful, and was increasing
every moment. 1t reyerberated strange
ly through the rayine. We could not
have heard word had we spoken. We
all stopped simultaneously and looked
at each other. They were two very
white faces that / saw, with strained,
frightened eyes. Nan made a move
ment with her head that we were not to
go on; and we crouched down against
the rocky sides of the earth The next
instant Emma leaned heavily upon me
and silently pointed upward toward
the chasm's opening, where we
had entered. The black cloud
was just going past our point
Of vision; it had dilated to twice its
former size, but still retained its cylin-
der shape. If it could be possible, it
was more dense than ever, and boiling
in its blackness.. Balls of fire sped back
and forth in. the air; or my sight was
under an hallucination to that effect.
All the phenomena seemed to have
their center in that cone of black cloud.
The strangest, the most awful thing of
all that fearful experience was what
saw now. Behind that black cloud,
whether followingitor drivingit / know
not, came tall cloud of intensest.
most dazzling white "a pillar of glory,
growing every instant more like pillar
OF lire, and soon appearing to control
the inlSy shape The raving noise was
now at its height In moment the
two mysterious shapes had passed from
our contracted line of vision; they
marched on, destroying as they went.
The crash of timber along a stream not
far of, the cannonading Of the thunder,
which had now opened its forces, and
above all the overwhelming roar of the
wind, made us shrink and cover closer
together. A fiercer blast caused us to
throw ourselves flat on the stony
ground, grasping at each others hands.
SO ignorant was that believed at the
time that we were in full power of the
tornado, instead of being comparative
ly sheltered by the walls of the gulch.
Afterward knew that we could hardly
have saved our lives had we not been
able to reach this ravine.
Once | felt touch on my head, from
which my hat had long since gone
found that it was one of the horses.
They had all come back from their first
run up the gulch to be near us; the three
stood huddled close by, when we had a
chance to look. As recall things in a
dream, so | recall the incidentssof the
time while we remained in that refuge
Once, in q glare of the lightning, and
while my eyes were open and my head
raised, i saw several objects flying over
the top of the gulch They were Sheep,
and their dead, bruised bodies were
found, as if they had been flung hard
against the ground after the stolm.
Once something came down close by
me, hitting my hand where l had dug
my fingers ANONYMOUSLY down into the
earth. 1t was a small prairie dog, and
it lay still in death, near me. Many
prairie hens, the next day, were found
dead, with almost all their feathers
stripped off by the wind. While the
terror lasted there was hardly a lull in
the feroeity of it, I thought we had
been hours hiding there, when at last
the rain began to come down heavily,
and a moment after the wind sensibly
diminished to hard gale. We were d.
rectly soaked thoroughly, but I think
none of us cared for that. The hurting
noise of the storm was still deafening,
but we felt that the worst was. over, for
us at least. That demon cone of cloud
was flying further on its road of de-
struction, but it had left us.
We Immediately got upon our feet
our horses keeping their heads close to
our shoulders as we did so. By the
time we had CROPPED and stumbled our
way to the entrance of the gulch there
was blue skyin the north, and the rain
had dwindled to few heavy drops.
We stood a momeat breathless, look
ing about us with scared eyes. 1t was
a wide plain where we were, and all
the devastation we saw at first was
that the row of cottonwoods was lying,
torn up, some of them halfway across
the stream they had bordered.
81 am afraid of what | shall find at
home, said Nan. AZ
i 80 oiio . pOh0j SiIc tUTH6u 10 nSr morse
and swung herself up into the soaked
saddle. These ponies are not tall, and
it is possible for a woman to mount
without help. We both followed her
example. and the horses gladly turned
homeward. Our soggy, dripping clothes
chung clammily to us, and the heavy
skirts Tapped duh against the horses
wet sides. aer.sgg arg nmr
While we were within mile of the
house we saw man riding down at a
furious gait toward us, and a few rods
ahead ran dog. We knew the horse
man could not be Colonel Stewart, for
he had gone away in the morning and
was not to return until the following
day. As we looked, the sun burst out
splendidly. The man took off his hat
and waved it with unmistakable ioy-
business. A few yards more and We
saw that this was Valyerde. He rode
up, aud turned his horse TO 60 with us,
eXclainling:
Z" | don't think was ever much glad
der in all my days than | be to see you
Folks tosthe house are bout crazy bout
We. That was as stable a tornado as we
seldom if ever git in these diggin's 81