The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-01-16
VICTIMS OF A CYCLONE.
TWO HUNDRED GIRLS BURIED IN
RUINS OF A FACTORY.

lheadfng tPa) special
A cyclone swept over the northern
section of this city Wednesday afternoon
the 9th inst, and laid waste every
thing within its path, with terrible loss of
sacrificed and the number of persons in
jured can only be estimated. The most re-
liable computation is that not less than
sixty and perhaps eighty persons have been
killed outright and 100 injured.
1t had been raining very hard all the
morning. Toward noon the rain ceased
almost entirely, and by 4 o'clock there was
every indication that there would be an en-
tire cessation of the storm. Half an hour
afterward the sun began to penetrate the
clouds, and the tints OF a rainbow were
seen in the eastern sky. 1t portended a
beautiful sunset. There was clear ky
overhead. This continued for half an
hour.
Then the scene changed with a SUI lden-
ness that was appalling. The fieecy clouds
gave way TO the ominous signs of coming
storm. Dark heavy banks of clouds mar
shaded themselves and soon darkness seemed
TO have settled over the city. There was
stiffness as of coming danger. Then the
wind whistled, the storm clouds grew
heavier, ard still louder grew the wind. In
the western sky the storm was seen APP
preaching with laundering noise. Per-
sons residing along the track of the storm
say that they saw the first sign of danger
in funnel-shaped cloud 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
outbuildings were overturned, crops rooted
up, and destruction spread in every direc-
ton.
The track of the storm was not more
than two hundred feet wide, and it is lucky
that it only touched the suburbs of the city.
1t came from the west and passed along
the northern border OF Reading
First it touched the Mount Penn stove
works. Here the corner of the building
was struck, and portion OF the roof was
cut off as nicely as if done with a pair of
scissors. Then the storm crossed some
fields and took off portion of the roof of
D. II. Sternberg's rolling mill a number
of dwellings were unroofed as readily as if
their tin roots were paper. The storm
hurried across the property of the Read
ing railroad company and crossed the rail
road. A passenger car was overturned as
quickly as if it had been a toy, and its
splnters scattered in every direction.
Meanwhile the rain poured down in tor
rents. The atmosphere became heavy and
oppressed, and il was almost dark as
night
On one side of the track of the Reading
railroad was situated the paint shop of the
company. 1t was a story building
abOnt 80 by $50 feet in size Here about
thirty men were employed painting paSsen-
ger 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. Tho building was
struck squarely in the middle, and the bricks
scattered about as if they we're playthings.
The cars were turned topsy turvy, while
the men were buried under the debris.
Some of the bricks were carried away. The
chamber of each of the passenger ears was
already filed with gas, as they were
ready 10 be taken out on the road in few
days. They exploded one after another
with the fearful bang of a cannon. Bang,
bang, bang, they reSounded over the city,
causing the people TO run out of their
houses, thinking that it was the sound of an
earthquake. There was a considerable
quantity Of gasoline in the building, and
this added fuel 10 the flames A sheet of
flame shot upward with the roar of mus
kerry. About twenty of the men had
chance TO crawl out OF the debris but four
VI lltsl companions WE'RE tIlNel'lDcu III the
flames. Their cries were heard for a mo-
ment by the terrified workmen and then
their voices were hushed forever. They
were quickly roasted to death.
The fire department was called out, but
its services We're unavailing. The building
and cars were consumed in fifteen minutes
and nothing left but tlackened, smoking
ruins, under which lay four human beings
burned to a crisp. Their names are:
JOHN KALLER.
ALBERT LANDSDERGER.
sHERIDAN.JOh
GEORGE SCHAFFER.
1t was rumored that several others had
been killed, but these are the only ones
known TO have lost their lives. Aaron De-
walt, one of the employees in the paint shop,
had his arm broken, and George Knabb
was injured internally, no doubt fatally.
The loss to the railroad company Is fully
S15,000.
When this was going on the storm was
travelling with fearful rapidity, and I'M
rooted a dozen private residences. Directly
in its path, at the corner of Twelfth and
Marion streets, stood the Reading silk mill.
Here about one hundred and seventy five
girls were working. The building was a
huge structure, most substantially built,
four stories and basement occupying an
eutlre Diock OF BTOunu. III was SuTmOunted
by massive tower fully 100 feet high
The funnel-shaped storm cloud struck the
building directly in the center on its broad
est side. 1t fell TO pieces as if composed of
so many building blocks Nearly 200
human beings went down in that awful
wreck. Human tongue can never tell the
terrible scenes of that hour. 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 Amid the
hurricane, the whistling and roaring of the
wind, terrible cries for succor were sent up
20 Heaven. 1t was a moment that tried
mems souls. Girls with blackened faces,
bruised and broken limbs their clothing
tattered and torn, dragged themselves from
the ruins SO, probably, seventy-five to a
hundred escaped or were dragged out by
their friends. These worked on the upper
floors and were thrown near the top of the
debris. At some places the bricks were
piled twenty feet deep and underneath
are still lying human bodies by the score
The alarm for relief was Immediately
sent out, and in short time thousands of
citizens arrived to help out the dead and
dying. The scene was narrowing and
deies description. The mill Is situated
naar tho foot IF Mount Pam, a. ,,,,,,,.o;..