Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-03-31
EXAGGERATED.
The First Reports of the Loss of
Life at Louisville.
The Number Now Estimated to
Be Less Than 200.

The Greatest Loss of Life Was at the
Falls City Hall Building, Where Nearly
One Hundred Perished-Five Churches
In the Path of the storm-ofers of
Relief From All sides-Other storm
News.
CINCINNATI, March 81 The Evening
Post Saturday published the following
from its special correspondent in Louis
vile:
The disaster at Louisville is the worst
in the history of the city. Happily, the
loss of life is not near so large as was re-
ported when excitement bereft men of
their sober Judgment and rumors were
flying thick ard fast. Conservative es-
Inmates place the loss of life at from 100
to 70 souls, while others say it will
reach 200. Some time must necessarily
elapse before the exact facts are known.
The Property Loss.
There is no doubt that the business of
Louisville has received a severe blow
from which it will take some time to re-
cover. Estimates on property losses run
from 81 ZOO, 900 to 1000, 600.
Almost upon arriving in the ill-fated
city the visitor was impressed with the
fact that something unusual had oc-
CURED to interrupt the routine of daily
life. Great excitement was visible
everywhere Business was practically
suspended. Merchants gathered in
groups here and there and discussed the
horror. Great crowds lined the streets
all going in the direction of the de-
vastated district.
In the neighborhoods where death had
reaped his richest harvests intense anXi-
ETY. was depicted on the faces of those
whose relatives or friends were buried
In the ruins.
When the destroying demon of the
winds had stated his maw by razing the
frail little cigar building he took curl
Gus freak.
Bounding up at an angle of 45 degrees,
the upper floor only of the west wing Of
the hotel was carried away. Here
Thomas Ayers, proprietor of laundry,
his wife and little girl, had quarters,
The wife and child, thoroughly terror
lied. stood rooted to the spot, and would,
no doubt, have perished, had not the
husband, with presence of mind, seized
them and dragged them to place of
safety at the opposite side of the house.
The scene on Main street. from Sixth as
far as Twelfth street, presents scene of
indescribable confusion. Heavy timbers,
piles of brick and stone, huge pieces of
roofing and cornice, telephone and tele-
graph wires are commingled. Pedes-
trians pick their way charity through
the deep mud, and their progress is often
nf HrIu
ers of teams bearing merchandise to
places Of safety
Here, leaning up against a tobacco
ware house, is dismantled street car.
The mules, car driver and one passenger
were lifted by the wind and tossed a con-
siderable distance. Nothing but the
platform of the car remains. The passen-
ger escaped.
The Greatest Force.
AT Main street, the storm seemed to
spend its greatest fury and the destruc
ton is the most extensive. Breaking
through breaks in the knobs which
shelter the city the whirlwind passed
through the pretty suburb of Fairland,
and proceeding from southwest to north
east. struck the city at about Eighteenth
and Maple,
Thence ii proceeded in narrow con-
fines, alternately dipping to the earth
and causing havoc or bounding high
into the air over the roofs of buildings.
When Baxter square was reached at JEFF
ferson and Twelfth the storm spread
and covered a wide stretch on Jefferson,
Market, Main and down to the river at
Sixth street, where it disappeared.
The Tobacco Ware Houses.
IN e T o,,;.v;Ila ;s stc inv, o,,ea
tobacco ware houses on Main street.
Of these only three remain. -Four
thousand men are employed in this
industry. and most of them
are thrown out of employment,
Here ware house was to be seen in an
utter state of collapse, with hundreds of
hogsheads piled upon each other amid
the debris.
The new Phoenix ware house, just
completed. is a mass of ruins. The oc-
casion of its opening was made a gala
one, and on the day before the disaster
= large delegation of visitors of eastern
Kentucky were royalty entertained.
The worst injured buildings on Main
street are Watkins, Pease q Company,
sash doors and blinds; Great River to-
bacco ware house, Falls City ware house,
Kentucky Scale company, and Louisville
Wine company.
At the Fails CITY Hall Building.
1t was at the Falls City hall building,
on Market street, near Twelfth, that the
| tornado dealt most harshlv with human
lives. The building was a three-sUory
| brick, and lowered above its fellows,
thus re ceiving the brunt of the storm. 1t
was completely destroyed, Over 200 peo-
pie are supposed to have been in the
| building, but the number cannot be
known definitely for some time.
Ropes had been stretched at Eleventh
and Twelfth streets, and members of
the Louisville Legion, the crack military
organization, and police kept back the
immense crowd which swayed to and
fro and with morbid curiosity feasts on
the terrible scene.
"Now, altogether, pull r is the shout,
and all hands pull at the long rope at
tached to a heavy timber and rush into
the street. Men with picks cautiously
| feel their way in the ruins, expecting
every moment to bring to view man
| gled form. Among these are relatives
of lost ones, and their deep anxiety is
manifested in the intensity of their
work.
| Some twelve bodies were taken out of
the front part of the ruins on Friday
morning and taken to the improvised
morgue in the rear of BuCkley's saloon,
| lust across the street.
Persons enured to viewing the re-
mains of victims of accidents declared
that the dead bodies presented the most
horrible sights in their experience, and
the stoutest hearts quailed. Heads were
crushed and some almost cut in two.
Trunks and limbs were tiattened and so
coated with dirt as to give a mummitied
appearance.