The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1886-05-14
ANOTHER CYCLONE.
Terrible Disaster at Kansas City,
Number of Lives Ioat

Terrible Disaster at Kansas City-A
Number of Lives Lost.
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, May 11.-Shortly after IL
O'Clock this morning terrible wind and rain
storm struck this city and caussd great loss
OF life and property. The Lathrop school, SIT
uated at the corner Of Eighth and May streets,
was the scene of terrible disaster, the build
ing falling to the ground and entombing
hundred hapless children. The grain and paper
house at No. 106 West Third street was also
blown down, and great less Of life resulted.
The space between the clouds ana the earth
presented an almost perfectly white appear
ance, made by the rain, and blown In every
imaginable direction by the wind. As the storm
advanced 1t swept every small object away
from its path. These filled the air and fell to
the ground only to be lifted up again and car
rled to a still greater distance. Many people
in the city, not aware OF the seriousness Of the
storm, were caught in it and lifted bodily from
their feet. Many were hurled fifteen OF twen-
ty feet, receiving terrible bruises.
In the suburbs Of the city largo number Of
frame houses were blown down and the in
scene around tho Second street courthouse is
one terrible to describe. The full force Of the
wind fell upon it with terrific effect. Opposite
the courthouse the old Santa Fe company
building and the Smith .& Moffat spice mills
were totally demolished. A large number were
rescued from this building. Several girls were
pulled out in selni-conscious state. None of
the prisoners in the courthouse were injured.
At IL O'Clock, during the heaviest part of the
great storm, the factory of Thomas Kerr, 110
West Third street, was completely destroyed
and razed to the ground. 1t was scon found
that twenty-five employees, malo and female,
were missing, and search was Immediately be-
gun. By O'Clock five bodies and fifteen dying
and wounded people had been removed from
the ruins, leaving five still missing. Besides
these there are two others dead. Fifty-six
persons have been taken out of the ruins of the
Lathrop school, and seventeen Of them are
dead. The building was entirely destroyed,
burying in the debris the majority of the chill
dren within its walls. BY 1:3O O'Clock all tho
Imprisoned were removed and taken to their
homes in carriages or attended to at DR.. Kel-
logg's natatorium. One span Of the Hannibal
& St. Joe bridge over the Missouri river was
washed away and all traffic over the bridge is
now transferred by way Of the Missouri Pacific
through Leayenworth. The damage in Kansas
City and Sedalia will reach AL enormous sum.
-------+<o+<--
How Coal Made the bad Lnnd.''
The ''bad lands'' of Dakota are said to owe
their origin to tho burning Of the coal deposits
that once existed there. They are situated
principally along the Sheyenne and Grand
rivers and tho Little Missouri. They are from
two or three miles to, say, twenty-five miles in
width. In the long ago, the valleys Of these
streams must have been filled with drift wood.
Then followed a period Of drift, which buried
the accumulation of wood under two or three
hundred feet OF sediment, sand and gravel.
The buried wood in time became coal, tho
veins being in some cases twenty odd feet in
depth. Either from spontaneous combustion
or from electricity, fires were started in these
veins, and they gradually burned out, restoring
IN part the old water courses by means of the
overflow from the accumulation of water in
these newly formed basins. Looking upon
them, here you see patches Of Stag, there great
powders, showing unmistakable evidences of
great heat, and on every hand scoria or burned
clay, resembling broken brick Where the fires
were checked by the caving earth and the coal
did not burn, mounds two or three hundred
feet in height stand. And according to the
Black Diamond, a newspaper devoted to the
coal interests, published in Chicago, in parts Of
Wyoming the same process is now going on !;
vast fields are undermined by subterranean
fires, and the blackened, smoking plain is
filled with desoatlon. Trappers say these fires
have been in existence for a long time, and the
traditions Of the Indians point to the same
conclusion.