The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-01-17
THE DEADLY CYCLONE


At READING, Pa


DEATH like pall hangs upon the city as the
result Of the most horrible disaster in its his
tory. A hundred households are in mourn.
ing as the result of one of the greatest ca
la1nities in Pennsylvania. 4 cyclone swept
over the northern section of the city this af-
ternoon and laid waste everything within it's
reach and with q terrible loss of life. The
lives that have been sacrificed and the num-
Der that have been injured can only be esti-
mated. The most reliable computation is
that not less than sixty persons have been
Killed outright and 100 injured. How this
terrible calamity occurred is about as fol-
lows:
1t was raining very hard all morning.
Towards noon it ceased almost entirely and
10y O'Clock there was every indication that
there would be entire cessation of the rain
storm. Hall an hour afterwards bright sun
made every effort to penetrate the clouds.
The tints of rainbow were seen in the
eastern sky. 1t portended II beautiful sun
set. There was Il clear sky overhead. This
continued for half an hour longer. Then the
scene changed with suddeHness that was.
appalling. The feecy clouds gave way to the
ominous signs of coming storm. Dark
heavy clouds marshaled themselves toward
the town and soon gloom seemed to have
settled over the city. There was a stiffness
as of coming danger. Then the wind whistled,
roared and in mad confusion The storm
clouds grew heavier still and louder roared
the wind. In the western sky
the storm was seen approaching
with laundering noise. The
swath it cut was narrow, but its effect was
terrible. Persons residing along the track of
the storm say that they saw the first signs of
danger in u funnel-shaped maelstrom which
seemed to gather up everything within its
reach and cast it right and left. Out in
the country houses and barns were unroofed
farm outbuildin2s were overturned, crops
uprooted and destruction spread in every di-
rection. The track of the destructive ele-
ment was not more than two hundred feet
wide, and it is lucky that it only touched the
suburbs of the city.
Meanwhile the rain poured down in tor
rents. The atmosphere became heavy and
oppressive, and it was almost as dark as
night. Directly on one side the track of the
Reading railroad was situated the paint
shops of the company. 1t was One-stOry
building about 60 by 100 feet in size. Here
about thirty men were employed in painting
passenger cars. There were eight or nine of
these cars in the building. They had been
built at the company's shops in this city at
a cost of $4,000 each. The building was
struck sQuarely in the middle, and the bricks
scattered about ifthey were playthings. The
cars were turned topsy turvy, while the men
were buried under the debris. Some of the
bricks were carried away. The chamber ofeach
of the passenger cars was already filled with
gas as they were ready to be taken out on
the road in few days. They exploded one
after another with the fearful bang ofcannon
Bang, bang, bang. they resounded ed over the
city, causing the people to run out from their
houses, thinking it was the sound of an
earthquake. There was a cOnSiderab BILE
quantity of gasoline in the building and this
added fuel to the flames. A sheet of flame
shot upward with the roar of musketry.
Some twenty of the men had a chance to
saTulS f,Nf16 Al an1.fc hrfG ,Nf tI,asn
companions were enveloped in the flames.
While this was all going on the storm was
travelling forward with fearful rapidity.
1t must have Travelled at the rate of one hun
dred miles an hour. 1t struck some more
private houses and unroofed dozen private
residences. The huge sheets oftin were carried
half square away and deposited in q lot.
Then the storm proceeded in its full fury.
Directly in it's path, at the corner of Twelfth
and Marion streets stood the Reading silk
mill one ftheiudustries ofthe city in which the
citizens took the greatest pride. Here about
175 happy girls were working. The building
was a huge structure most substantially
built, four stories in height and had n base
ment besides. 1t occupied an entire block of
ground. The 81 ze of the building itself was
nearly 800 feet in length and about $50 feet
wide 1t was by massive tower,
fully 100 feet from the ground. The funnel
shaped storm clouds truck the building direct
ly in the center on it's broadest side, which
faced the west. 1t fell to pieces as il
composed of so many building blocks
Nearly two hundred human beings went
down in the awful wreck. Human tongues
cun never tell the terrible scenes of thathour
The walls gave way, the floors fell down, one
on top of the other, and carried their great
mass of human beings to the bottom. The
bricks were piled up in the greatest confusion
while, amid the hurricane and whistling rush
ing, roaring wind, terrible cries for succor
were sent up to heaven. 1t was a moment
that tried mems souls, and almost stimuli
taneous with the fail of the building came
the awful cries for relief Girls with black
ened faces, bruised and broken limbs their
clothing tattered and torn, dragged them
selves from the ruins. So probably rs to
100 escaped, or wern dragged out by their
friends. These, of course, worked on the
upper floors, and were thrown near the top
of the debris At some place the bricks
were piled twenty feet deep, and under
meath are lying tonight human bodies by
the score. About $50 girls and young wom-
en- are usually employed in the mill, but
at 4 O'Clock about eighty were relieved
from duty for the day. They returned
to their homes before the storm came. The
most reliable estimate of tonight places the
number in the building when it went down in
| the neighhorhoOd of It's, and, as before
stated, 100 of these were rescued by friends
or dragged themselves out Immediately after
| the accident The alarm for relief was i'm
mediately sent out. and in short time thou
| sands of citizens arrived to help out the dead
| and dying. The scene was narrowing one
| and beggars description. i ..
The work of rescue will be pushedall night,
| but itmay be far into tomorrow before all
| the bodies are taken out The rescuers still
have the greatest hopes that some of those
| inside are still living, and there is every rea-
son for saving them, and the persons who be,
| lieve that way are right. All Is chaos and
confusion around the mill. The managers
are missing, and the correct number is mere.
| ly guess work. 1t may not be over forty,
and then again, at this hour, there is like,
lihood that it will reach sixty or eighty.
THE STORM AT PITTsBURa.
PITTsBURG, Pa. Jan. "a. terrible storm
of wind and hail, the worse known for years,
| swept over the city shortly after noon to-day
carrying with it death and destruction. The
storm was formed with suddenness that
| was overwhelming, and as the wind, accom-
| panied by hail and torrents of rain, swept
| along the streets, pedestrians were hurled be
| fore it, and barely escaped being crushed IN
der vehicles passing along the thoroughfare
| Suddenly, in the center of the city, there was
| q terrible crash and q few minutes later tht
| central fire alarm sounded from the corner o
| Diamond and Wood streets Hundreds O
| people hurried to the scene, when it was sfoune
| that the cyclone had caught the new building
on Diamond street, owned by G. L. Wiley
and hurled it to the earth, covering up two
score of human bodies. - e
/ Within five minutes after the collapse o
| the building the streets were filed with al
excited crowd, notwithstanding the fac
that the rain and hail waspouring down in I
perfect deluge. With the arrival of the fire
men the work of rescue was begun. Ladder
were run up to the second and third stories
of the Weldin building and the first one taker
out was young lady employed as q type
| writer, who fortunately had sCapet
serious injury. Crowds of willing hand
eagerly took up the work of rescue, ant
| every little while fresh localities where mel
had been caught were found. At the time 0
the disaster about twenty-five men were q
work on the building and none escaped in
| jury. The list of dead identified upto Il
O'Clock was as follows: Samuel Stringer
/ aged sixteen years, printer; Thomas Jones
bricklayer; Charles Fritch, aged sixteel
| years; George Mason, carpenteE cplored ,bo1
named Tergge, bootblaek in the barber shop
George Kirsche, barber, aged eighteen years
| The remains of one man havenot yet beef
identified. Inspeetoras,of P0licessA ALeAlees