Morning journal and courier., 1889-01-10
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. FRIGHTFUL cATAsTROPH|Es. A Cyclone Visits Pittsburg
 And Reading. STEAMER GEORGE APPALD ASHORE Three Large Tanks Explode
 At Brooklyn. OLB VESUvIUS AGAIh LIVELY. DOings In House And Sen-
 ate Yesterday.
OLB VESUvIUS AeAIA LIVELY
TERRIBLE Loss OF LIFE.

Reading, Penn. Visited by a Cyclone Behind It-One Hundred and Seventy Five Girls Buried 1n the Ruins of a Demolished Building.
 READING, Pa, Jan. 9.-A cyclone swept l over the northern section of the city to-day, and laid waste everything within it's reach, l with terrible loss of life.
 The most reliable computation at 10 o'clock tonight is that not less than sixty persons have been killed outright and one hundred injured. The story of the calamity is as fol- lows:g
 It rained very hard all the morning, but ! eased almost entirely toward noon. About 4:30 o'clock the sun tried to penetrate the clouds and a rainbow appeared in the eastern skies, pretending beautiful sunset. There was 8 clear sky overhead. This continued for half an hour and then the scene changed ! with suddenness that was appalling. The | deecy clouds gave way to the signs of com- ! ing storm. Darkness and gloom settled over | the city and there was an ominous stiffness. Then the wind whistled, Toared and tore in mad confusion. In the west the tornado was ' seen approaching with noise of thunder. | The swath it cut was not over 200 feet wide, | but it's effect was terrible. Persons residing I along the track of the storm say that they saw the first signs of danger in funnel ! shaped maelstrom which seemed to gather up | | and left. Out in the country houses and barns were uuroofed, farm outbuildings over ! turned and destruction spread in every direc- l tion.
 It passed along the northern border of Reading. First it touched the Mt. Penn stove works, cutting off portion of the roof ! as nicely as if it mad been done by pair of scissors. Then the storm-eloud seurried across some fields, took off portion of the roof of the B. H. Sternberg rolling mill and ! unroofed 8 number of other dwellings. It hurried across the property of the Reading l railroad company and crossed the railroad overturning passenger car and scattering it's splinters in every direction. Meanwhile the rain poured down in torrents. The ats mosphere became heavy and oppressive, and it was almost as dark as night.
 Directly alongside the tracks of the Read- ing railroad was the paint shop of the Read- ing railroad company, one story building | 60x150 feet. Here about thirty men were painting nine passenger cars that had been built at the company's shops in this city al a cost of six thousand dollars each. The building was struck and the bricks things. The cars were turned topsy- turvy, while the men were buried under the debris. The chamber of each o1 the passenger cars was already filled witt gas, as they were ready to be taken out or ! the road in few days, These exploded, one |
 Bang! bang bang! they resounded over the city, and people ran out of their houses thinking that it was the sound of an earth ! quake. A quantity of gasoline in the build ing added fury to the flames. A sheet o
 flame shot heavanwsrd with roar. Some twenty of the men crawled out of the debris
 but four of them were enveloped in the flames Their cries were heard for a moment 1 and then were hushed forever. The meI
 were quickly roasted to death, and the fir from the nine passenger cars lit up the heav ems for miles around. The fire departments services were unavailing. The building and ! cars were consumed in fifteen minutes, leav l ing nothing but the blackened, smoking | ruins.
 The men burned were John Kahler. Alber
 Landberger, Sheridan Jones and Georg Schaefer. It is rumored that several other were killed. Aaron Dewalt, another em l ploye, had his arm broken and George Knabl
 was injured internally, no doubt fatally. Tn
 loss to the railroad company Is fully $75,
 GOO.
 While this was going on, the storm tray | eled on at the rate of one hundred miles al l hour and unroofed dozen private resi- ! dences.
 M Next in its path was the Reading silk mill
 huge structure most substantially built
 four stories in height and with a basement It occupied an entire block ot ground an ! was nearly three hundred feet long and on
 
 mounted by a massive tower, fully one hun ! dred feet from the ground. About 175 girl
 were working in the mill. The funnel shape
 storm cloud struck the building directly i i. the center of it's brosdest side.
 fell to pieces as if composed of s
 many building blocks, carrying down nearl
 200 human beings in the wreck. The wall
 gave way, the floors fell down, one on top ( e the other, and all went to the bottom. Ami
 the hurricane, and almost simultaneous wit
 the fall of the building came the awful erie
 for relief. Girls with blackened faces, bruise
 and broken limbs, their clothing torn an tattered, dragged themselves from the ruin
 So probably 75 to 100 escaped or were drag ! ged out by their friends. These worked c
 the upper floors, and were thrown near tf
 top of the debris. At some places the brick
 were piled twenty feet deep, and underneat , ! are lying tonight human bodies by the SCOT :. About 250 girls are usually employed
 the mill, but at o'clock about eighty wel - relieved from duty for the day and returnt m to their homes The most reliable estima Il of tonight places the number in the buildir when it went down in the neighborhood 175. The alarm for relief was immediate
 sent out, and in short time thoussnt
 of citizens arrived to help out u " dead and dying. Everything was e 6. veloped in darkness. So huge bo h. h. fires were built which east dismal glare e- the surrounding scenes. The fire compani
  n the rescue of the dead and the dying. IT n, entire police force was called cut with u I ambulance and relief corps, and thousar ut ut people were at work among the debri CT Here young woman was taken out bruis' m and suffering with outs and bruises. Ol te | body, as it was dragged out, was headles ,e' Others were in various postures, the Hvii IT, all suffering from terrible wounds. An A ra sociated Press representative entered wh 'g l was once the basement of the building, al ny gropins his way through the debris notic ve five bodies of young girls lying close toget 45 th CT. He tried to pull them out, but tn .n- were held tightly in.
 at Up to 10 o'clock to night probably t ay bodies of dozen dead have been taken or ar while the greater portion Of the remaind
 were still under the ruins The work of re cue will be pushed all night. It seems pro ee eighty.
 At Il o'clock about dozen dead bodi n. had been taken out of the wrecked silk m an as follows: Henry Crocker, foreman of t nd silk mill and married, aged 20, head crush ,es in, neck and arm broken-came here fro ,g, New London, Conn.,; John Riber, the enl of neer, his head being cut of; Laura Kers
 ner, Eva Leeds, Tillie Grove, Katie Bowms
 Krte Leas, Amelia Christman, Sophie Wi ,p, kleman, Ella Long, Willie Snyder, Willis
 Robeson, Rebeeca Prouse, Kate Ridenear 64 Rose Clemmer. Clerk Aulenback stat
 | At mlQnlSQI bQAt uo poll6V6Q LI -,n fully sixty bodies were in t
 ruins under the three floors. - list of employees is lost, and owing to t
 confusion in taking out the injured he N
 unable to furnish list of the killed. B 'ssa, eighty is 8 conservative estimate of tho m who lost their lives. Among the wound in ones are Geraldine Glazie., Annie Leet
 Bertha Kuser, Ella Lamm, Emma Raue - sahn, George Neiman, Ella Karl, Mini Merkel, Sallie Harson; Lizzie Owens, Bert Herman, Mary Mellon, Ellie Salmon, Fl Pflum, Kate Hepler, Mary Cunning, Ms ) Evans, Fife Ebright, Howard and Am ) Bricker and Annie Fry.
 P1TTsRURG GETS HTS SHARE
 Of wind and Hail, Causing Sadness : Many Homes-FOrty MaRgled a $ Bruised Bodies Extracted From { 5 Ruins of the Wiley Building. r PIrrsBURa, Jan. 9.-A terrific storm
 wind and hsil, the worst known for yes ,. swept over this city this afternoon, carry
 with it death and destruction.