Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-21
THE EWHIRLWIND'SVICTIMS
FURTHER DETAILS OF THE CALAM-
 ITY AT MT. VERNON.
Homes Filled with Dead and Wounded. The Court House Converted Into Morgue-An Appalling Scene of Devas- tation on Every Hand.

tation on Every Hand.
 MOUNT VERNON Ills, Feb. 21.-While the death rate from Sundays cyclone IS not so large as at first reported, the horrors or the wreck have not been exaggerated. The search for the victims was prosecuted all Sun- day night, and when morning came thirty two bodies had been recovered Nearly all the fatalities were in the east end, where houses were moved down in swaths. Scarcely a stick of timber remains standing in the path of the tornado, and in some places the folln- dation stones of buildings are broken and scattered for 200 yards around. Sturdy shade trees were uprooted and ground to fragments, picket fences were broken as though they had been sticks of maccaroni, and small outhouses were swept out of sight, leaving scarcely splinter to mark the place where they stood.
 In the light of the conhagration, started by the collapse of the big buildings on the square, the east end looked like city riven by shot and shell. Faces that were crushed, and arms and hands that were white and rigid, lay exposed ill the plain of wreckage, while the air was burdened with the groans of the wounded, and the cries of women whose rela- tives were buried somewhere in the wide spread ruin. Surgeons and policemen did noble work amid these terrible surroundings, but to the firemen is due the greater honor
 When the cloud had passed from sight in numerable tongues of flame sprang from the wreckage. The upsetting of stoves started fires in the remnants of nearly every home, and for hours it looked as though frightful fate awaited those pinioned to the ground But the heroism of the firemen, it is believed spared every victim from the flames.
 When morning came it found the searchers still toiling among the ruins Smoke was rising above the blackened ruins of several buildings, but men stood ready to extinguish the flames whenever they should appear. The dismantled court house, with it's massive pill lars and girders strewn about as though it had been shaken by an earthquake, was now a morgue. A dozen bodies swathed i'll white sheets, lay ill one of the rooms of the great building. Some of the victims were relatives of prominent citizens whose homes had been demolished
 Grouped about the bodies were many men and women, whose sobbing sounded peculiarly distressing in the shattered corridors of the big ruin. A policeman stood guard at the door, while undertakers fitted in and out O. the room. The homes in the west side are filled with dead and wounded. The wounded, it is said number over 100. Streams of crspo futter from the doors of twelve houses in the district spared by the cloud.
 New features and incidents of the calamity are reported every hour: John Maxeys mis- fortune is overwhelming. The cloud tore hi house into fragments, and from the pile ot timbers and bricks scattered in his door yard tbe rescuers dragged his seven children, all of whom were covered with blood and dirt. Even Maxey himself did not escape. For all hour he lay pinioned in the ruins, while all about him arose the cries of his children, whom he could not aid ill any way. When the man was finally released from his prison he was unconscious. His legs are one mass of bruises from the hips to the ankles, and his face is badly cut. All the children, it is thought, will recover.
 Mrs. Albright and her daughter were read ing ill their parlor when the roar of the ap- preaching cloud alarmed them. The girl sprang to her mother. Before either could speak the building collapsed, and mother and daughter were driven before the cloud in a shower of timbers and brick. Neither was blown from the other in their wild flight, and both were found in each others arms 100 yards from the spot where they sat when the storm overwhelmed them. The daughter is Stili unconscious and may de. The mother will recover.
 The escape of a passenger train bound for St. Louis was merely due to the eccentricities of the cloud. The train lay almost squarely ill the path of the destroyer, and would have been hurled from the tracks had not the cloud lifted just it reached the rails. The pass engers were ill panic. They clung to one another but all were too scared to scream. The cloud smashed building on one side of the train, and then, rising above the roofs of the coaches, dipped again and demolished another building the other side of the terrified travellers. Train and cloud then moved in their respective directions
 The city officials are doing all in their power to relieve the sufferers, but is feared the bur- den is too great. There are at least 1 ,O0O per- sons in the city who are without homes, and many are ill pressing need of food and cloth ing. Appeals for aid have been sent to the outside world, and it is hoped there will be a generous response.
 The committee of reief is in communica- tion with the large cities of the country, and q systematic appeal will be made to all per sons to assist the city in its aff1ctiOn, which is indeed beyond parallel among the tornado disasters of this country. Those of western Missouri, Jamestown and Washington Court House did not equal the loss of this place.
 Alighting at the Louisville and Nashville depot the visitors attention is first directed to the supreme court building, few yards from the depot, without dome or roof, but shreds of tin hanging from its side, marking pivot around which the storm seemed tC swing. All else in this direction is untouched A few steps eastward along the railroad dis closes to the southwest an appalling sight o1 devastation It is in this direction that the laboring classes have built their little one story cottages, among the timber, and here il was that the cloud first dropped down and ir whirling fury twisted immense oaks from the ground and mashed the homes flat; then gathering the clinging pieces, strewed them all along the path, tearing down the fences and wiping out landmarks. Scarcely can the direction of the streets be traced, for in this poorer quarter grading had not been at tempted. How many houses were here de stroyed is not known, for nothing is left ir many places to mark the lots. Fiftee1 foundations still remain. In six acres for merly well built up but three houses are standing in the path of the storm, and thest are wrecked. On the right and left of the path the debris plunged like catapults.
 Looking northeast across the railroad, tht ruin appears more terrible because the build ings were larger, heavier and more compact The wave made for 600 yards a clean swath tearing down fences and trees, piled up tht debris on either side, and leaving naked fence posts and foundation walls to mark the spot of residences There still remain on either side of the path dismantled outhouses, hall y,r,,.iod with ofhar ro0fc To tho co1thea S1