Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-01-16
A CYCLONES WOkn.

Palm the same City an Immense Silk
MIL Ia Blown Down Burying 900 Peo-
! Pc ~ the Ruins 49, Eighty 1T Them
Thought to Have Been Killed, and
Nearly All of the Rest InJured-seven
Lives Lost and Over Thirty Persons
| Wounded by the Demolition Of Several
Butlnlngs at Pittsburgh--l.oss Of Life ut
Sunbury - The Storms Work in Ohio.
Illinois and Indiana.
READING, Pa. Jan. 10-A cyclone swept
over the northern section Of this city
"wednesday afternoon End laid waste
every thing within its path. with terrible
| loss OF life The number Of lives that
have been sacrificed and the number of
persons injured Can only be est.mated.
The most ,eliable oomput ton ut m dnight
Is that not not less than sixty and perhaps
eighty persons have been killed outright
and 100 Injured.
1t rained hard all day until about 4 p.
M, when the sun shOne for about half an
hour. Then the scene change with a 81 l.
denness that was appalling. The aeecy
cloud" gave way to the ominous signs Of a
coming storm. In the western sky the
storm was seen approaching with a
numbering noise. Persons residing along
the track Of the storm say that they
| shaped cloud which seemed TO gather ND
| every thing within it's reach and cast it
right end left. Out In the country uses
| and barns were unroofeI, farm outbuild-
! lngs were overturned, crops rooted up
and destruction spread in every rection
The track Of the storm was not more
than 2OJ feet wide, and it Is lucky that IT
only touched the suburbs of the city. It
came from the west and passed along the
northern border of Reading.
First 1t touched the Mount Penn stove
works. Here the corner Of the building
Was struck. and portion of the roof was
cut off as cely as If done by pair Of
| SCISSORS. Then the storm crossed some
ii ids and took Off portion of tho root
OF J. II. Sternberg's rolling mill
A number of dwellings, were I'm.
rooted as readily Us if their tin
roofs wore paper. The storm hurried
across the property OF the Reading
Railroad Company and crossed the rail-
| road. A passenger car was overturned
as quickly us if it had been u toy. and it's
splnters scattere in every direction.
Meanwhile tho rain poured Town in tor
rents. The atmosphere bee mo heavy and
oppressive, and 1t was almost as dark as
night.
On one side of the track OF the Reading
railroad was tuated the paintshop Of the
| company. 1t was one-story building
about 60 by $50 feet in size Here
| about thirty mon were employed in paint
ing passenger cars. The build ng was
struck sguurely In the middle, and the
bricks scat cred about "a if they were
playthings. The cars were turned topsy.
turvy, while the men were buried under
tho debris. Some Of the bricks were
carried away. The chamber of each of
the passenger cars was alrea ~ filled with
gas, AZ they were really to be taken ont on
the road in few days. They exploded
one after another with the fearful b ug of
cannon. Bang, bang, bang, they re-
8, unded over the city, causing the
people to run out Of their houses
thinking that It was the sound Of
an earthquake There was a con-
siderable quantity Of gasoline in the build
ing. and this adued fuel to the flames A
sheet Of fl me shot upward with the roar
Of mu>ketry. About twenty Of the men
had chance to crawl out of the debris,
but four of their companions were en-
veloped In the flames. Their cries were
heard for moment by the terrified work.
men and then their voices were hu she'd
forever. They were quickly roasted to
death.
The department was called out, but it's
services were unavailing. The building
and cars were consumed in fifteen minutes
and nothing left but Liackencd, smoking
ruins, under which lay four hum n beings
burned to a crisp. Their names are:
joan Kaller, Albert Landberger, Sheri-
dan Jones an George Schaffer.
it was rumored that several others had
been killed. but these are the only ones
known to have lost their lives. Aaron
Dewalt, one of the employees Of the pa Mt
shop, had his arm broken, and George
Knabb was injured internally, no doubt
f.tallv. The loss to the railroad company
is fully $4,000
When this was going on the storm was
travelling with fearful rapidity. 1t mu st
lave trave cd at the rate of 100 miles an
hour. 1t struck some more private houses
and unroofed dozen private residences
The huge sheets Of tin were carried half a
square away and deposited in a lot. Then the
storm proceeded in it's full fury. Directly
in its path, at the rner Of Twelfth and
Marion streets, stood the kea ling silk
mill, one OF the industries Of tho city in
which the cit zens took the greatest pride
Here about 175 girls were worixing. The
building Was Is huge structure, most sub
stant ally built, four stories in height, and
had a basement besides It occupied IN
entire block uf or und. The building
itself was nearly 500 feet in length and
about $50 feet wide. 1t WAS surmounted
by massive tower fully 100 feet from the
ground. The .fuunel-shared storm-cloud
struck the building directly in the center
on its broadcast side, which faced the west
1t fell to pieces az If composed of
50 many building blocks. Nearly 200
human beings went down in the
awful wreck. Human tongue can never
tell the terri. bic scenes Of that hour The
" alls gave way, the floors fell down, ono
n top Of the other, aud carried their great
mass of human beings to the bottom The
bricks were piled up in the greatest con-
1us on. Amid the hurricane, the whistling
and roaring of the wind, terr BILE cries
for sucoor were sent up to Heaven.
1t was moment that tried mems
uls. Girls with blackened faces bruised
and broken limbs, their ell tn ug battered
and torn, dragged themselves from the
ruins So, probably, Is to 100 escaped
or were dragged out ~ their fir ends
These worked on the upper floors
and were thrown near the top of
the debris. At some places tho bricks
were piled twenty feet deep and under
meath are lying human bod es by the
score. About $50 girls and young women
were usually employed il the mill, but at
O'Clock eighty were relieved from dutv