Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1886-10-28
@ai1g eagle
AN UNSHACKLED FURY.
VIVID DESCRIPTION OF WIND STORM
ON THE PRAlRIES.

n Hurricane Rushing Over the Plains
in Searcl, of victims-Men suffocating
Reached.
We were camped on the open prairie,
seventy miles from the nearest range Of hills,
with not a tree or bush in sight as far as the
eye could range A few rods to the cast was
dry ravine, perhaps six feet deep 1t was
one Of those queer freaks of the prairie,
beginning nowhere, ending nowhere, and not
TO be seen until one rode into it. 1t crooked
and turned like the trail Of O. serpent, but one
looking across the prairie saw nothing but
dead level
Night shut down rs soft as whisper, and
the stars came out and looked cheerily down
On the faces of the man who rested after a
hard DAVIS work There was not wind
enough to turn feather There was no sign
in the heavens that danger. menaced. At mid
night the wakeful sentinel felt gentle puff Of
wind lifting his long hair, ard from distant
point the bark of coyote was waited to his
ears. Ten minutes later the grass about him
was bending to a breeze and the unsecured
flaps of tho tent began to whip. One of the
sleepers was aroused TO make things secu&e,
and he was none too soon. Away off in the
west was heard mighty rushing as the grass
swiSbed in the wind, and dozens of dark forms
skurried past the tent in the ravine. The ami
nal life Of the prairie had become aroused
THE WIND FROM THE WEST
MOI in puffs, but with q front like wall,
the wind came out of the west, increasing in
strength every moment. An hour after mid
night the sentinel could no longer stand
against it, and the sleepers had been aroused
to hold the tent III place By main strength A
quarter OF an hour later it was picked up as
the human breath blows q feather away
Men shouted ard screamed at each other, but
the wind took tSle words from their lips
and Whirlcd them away unheard. Blown
along like 50 rlany puppets the band fell into
the ravine for shelter, followed two minutes
later by Ell the horses. The alarmed animals
crowded up close to their human friends, ard
they all lay down for further security. The
wagons were heard rushing away to tumble
into the ravine further down, and now and
then saddle or blanket o. cooking utcnsil few
over the ravine or fell among the fugitives.
Altar mp the mighty mountains q vial Of
wrath had been uncorl.ed. Through the
gloomy canyons--down tie awful prccipices
over the pine-clad slopes rushed hurri-
cane in search of victims. 1t leaped down
from mountain TO foot hills with the roar Of
an angry sea, ard it left the foot hills for the
level prairie bent on terrible destruction
Across the seventy miles Of level it dashed at
lis with its fury, and at 9 o'clock no living
thing could have faced il. At the storm
swept prairie kept up a continuous trembling,
rs if q volcano was about to break forth near
Us. At 4, when daylight broke, the air Was
choked with grass torn up by the roots and
the roar was appalling. Men chung to each
other and to the grass, and now and then, rs
the roaring died out for q few seconds, the
frightened horses neighed their terror When
the wind blows sixty miles an hour it is q
hurricane 1t was blowing harder than that
TO tear up the strong prairie grass ont Of the
soil When the wind blows seventy miles an
hour great trees are uprOoted and barns are
blown down It was blowing harder than
that to swoop up and carry off our heavy
picks and axes. More than seventy-more
than eighty-lnore than ninety-aye, that
mighty wrath was dashing over the prairie
at the rate OF 100 miles an hour.
DESPERATE STRUGGLE.
We felt ,lfTocated for the want Of air. We
were deafened by the continuous roaring.
We were exhausted by the desperate struggle
10 prevent being scooped up bodily and car
ried out OF the ravinc. If it was SO with us,
shelteres from the fury us we were, how must
it have been with those exposed to its full
force? \ great wolf, from whom life was
beaten out, rolled down among lis. The bodies
Of dozens of coyotes and rabbits, i'll which
every bore seemed broken. dropped into the
ravine The wagons were caught up at day
light, Nhrled in the air for moment and
then disappeared forever. Even the iron aXlcs
were not TO be found. Two or three objects,
which no one could make ont, tumbled ever
the bank below the horses Some hours later
we found them to be mauled and pounded and
bone-broken bodies of buffaloes.
At O'Clock the climax was reached. 1t APP
reared as if the earth rose and fell under us.
One of the horses struggled to his feet, anu
the next instant he vanished TO the east. The
force of the wind bruised and panied. rock
weighing tons. blown, perhaps, from the foot
hills, plougle1 down one bank and rushed
up the other to continue plaything for the
wrath Our breath came by gaS!rS The air
thickened until it became twilight. Half an
hour later the wind begun to lull, the roaring
to die away and the sky to Tighten up and at
o'clock we were searching the prairie i'll
hopes of recovering some one article belonging
- to what had been well stocked camp. Tn
the prairie we found absolutely nothing. In
the ravine couple of axes, two or three sad
dies. an iron kettle and portions of harness.
The mighty wrath had hungered for our lives,
and falling to get them, had vengefully
so,,cht TO rob us of our all-Detroit Free
Press