Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-08-09
WHAT HE SAW.
/, GIPrBD CHICAGO REPORTERS DEsCRIP-
TON OF OUR LOCAL CLIMATE.
Last Sunday Evenings Ride Over the "Hsmphsld
With aGrowd Of HOOdlums" and a
Big Storm.


Big Storm.
The REGISTER of day-before-yesterday
contained something about tor;ential rain
approaching >cloud-burst in the volume
of water suddenly tErned loose upon the
earth. which struck q small section OF
country out near the Pennsylvania line,
on the route of the Pittsburg division OF
the B. & o. road. The storm was really
a very bad one, but partly because OF the
comparatively small area of country
covered, and partly because it was 30 much
less severe than the big rain Of three weeks
ago. it excited little attention from the
"natiyes." The Chicago base bail club
was on the train which swept through the
storm, and with the club was the usual
detachment of reporters. One OF these
gentlemen, of fine descriptive turn OF
mind, wires the following account of his
adventures from Philadelphia to the Chi
cago Herald He is probably still nervous
over his encounter with our local climate:
cat Ballaire day coach was coupled to
the Philadelphia sleeper. 1t was soon
filled with Pittsburg hoodlums, who were
spending their Sunday in carousing at Bel
laire. They were not cheerful looking
lot. Some of them looked rs though they
were spelling to shake dice for an innocent
mans life. The train started east amid
ribald songs from the hoodlums behind
and the roaring of thunder overhead.
There was no relief at the open car win
dows. The rush of the train did not ap-
pear TO create any breeze. The day was
strangely dead. Once an explosion OF re-
yolver
STARTLED THE PASSENGERS
in the sleeper, but this incident was soon
forgotten in the general interest awakened
by the grinding, twisting clouds which
were at war overhead. The little mining
towns east of Bellaire were passed by the
score until dusk fell, and then what
night! A storm upon the caps of the Alps,
a roaring tornado through the canons OF
the Sierras, or the sweep of cyclone over
a Western prairie, are the only terrors I'll
TO be associated with the wonderful storm
which burst upon the ragged and tlinty
foothills of the Allegheries. The clouds
fought their way to zenith, where they
seemed to hang like an immense black
caldron kettle. Every passenger was
watching the phenomena. Even the hood
lums stopped their cursing and singing.
Meantime the air was split by deatening
explosions Of thunder which seemed to
shake the train from the rails. Ribbons Of
lightning chased each other through the
clouds, and high up on the hills the tops
of the trees were tossing wildly in the
wind, which had not reached the valley.
"The conductor lighted the lamps in the
cars. The negro porter was scattering with
fear. Suddenly the great caldron OF
clouds
BURST ASUNDER
as though they had been divided by two
furious currents of air. The rift was white,
There was dazzling flash OF lightning,
roar of thunder that shook the windows of
the cars rolled through the ravine, and
then curtain of water 30 heavy and solid
as to look like a moving wall fell upon the
earth about half mile back of the train.
A cloud had burst. The valley was i'm
periled as Ii had been three weeks ago.
From the windows of the cars the waters
could he seen coursing down the hillsides
in torrents and rushing over the tracks
over which the train had just passed. The
effect was terrible The hOodlums were
crazed with fear. They fought each other
like wild men in their efforts tn reach the
forward end of the car. Back Of them was
THE MOVING WALL OF WATER
roaring and leveling everything in its
wake. 1t was moving up on the train
with restless energy. Fields Of corn which
one minute before were as luxuriant as Il
farmer ever saw were now covered SO deep
with water that the heads of the plants
which had been beaten down by the flood
were obliterated. The speed of the train
began 10 slsken. A man stood outside
waving lantern in the gloom. He was
near the depot of a small village. No
body heard what was spoken, but the next
instant the passengers were aware
that they were being hurled away
with incredible speed. The conduc-
tor said that the man with the lantern
was the depot master, and that he had
yelled to the engineer that there had been
a cloud-burst further up the track. The
engineer knew there was one behind him,
for he could see the wall of water rushing
toward the train. With the lever drawn
back to the last notch the engine dashed
away from the coming deluge into the ruin
left in the wake of the terror which was
travelling somewhere in advance Of the
train.
at was wild race. 1t made men hang
to their seats and stare out into the gath
eripg darkness. One elderly lady, who
said she was en- route for Washington,
clasped boy in knickerbockers in her
arms and
WAITED FOR THE SHOCK,
which everybody seemed to expect. The
train rushed through water 80 deep that it
crept into the fre-box of the engine and
splsshed against the sides of the hills as
the pilot cut ii. Between the explosions
of the thunder could be heard the roaring
of streams which had been made in an in
slant. A glass factory, with its bullying
chimney shattered, was passed, and further
on hundred sheep were huddled together
on an island, which had been their pastur-
age before the storm burst. There was
danger OF a washout, of broken rail, or Of
wreckage on the track. But the engineer
WAS fir. His nerves must have been of
steel. The train dashed through the roar
ing flood
LIKE GRAY HOUND.
"There was no time to be lost. II was
probable that the storm in rear of the
train would wreck everything spared by
the deluge in front OF it. That is why the
engineer drew his lever back and hung his
black raip-bespattered face ont of the cab
window. A boy on raft made of piece
of fence was seen near the track. His
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