The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-29

A TORNADO IN A CITY.
John McGovern Writes of the Deadly
Work of tho Cloud Funnel.
Especial CorresSDondenca

John McGovern Writes Of the Deadly
Work of tho Cloud Funnel.
Especial Correspondsncel
CHICAGO, July 15.-Tornadoss have gone
up and down America forever, but this
generation of human beings has done no
such thing. AS boy l read of water
sPouts in the Indian ocean, but from 1857,
when began to take note of events, until
about 1878 heard nothing of tornadces,
though always in printing Office and al
ways an oronivorous reader of news. Per
haps, toe, the toraadees OF oil speculation,
war and westward no filed up the theatre
of the mind.
The first tornado that made its actual ap-
peaEance ON the horizon of our intellects
was tho calamity of Hazel Green, a hamlet
on Hill north of GaleRa, dis. Stanley Hunt
ley, the author Of "Otd 6poopendyke," was
sent out to gather particulars. Some of
these gatherings, l verify baheye, were at
the basis of poor Stanley's fame as an i'm
aginary writer. / remember that he re-
ported this incident: 4 fagstone, for
pavement. lay on the ground at the foot of
the hill 1t assembled the funnel and be-
came the capital of the column, riding ma
Jestically over the town, slowly revolving,
like some plate on the finger Of juggler.
The next funnel came to Mt Carmel, Ills,
and d second one followed fifteen years or
so later. l do not believe that the news of
battle itself so deeply moved western
Americans as did these crashings of the in
visible chisel and lathe of heaven. In 1881
the great disaster of Grinnel, Ia, arrived
Let US suppose you have charge of the tel
egraphic news OF great paper. At
o'clock a dispatch is brought stating that
the city of Grinnel is in ruins. Then fol-
lows beating of the entire Geographic
bush. News OF storm at some town adj
Jacent to Grinnel gives the editor his path
of the tornado. for he then lays down his
map and draws a straight line across the two
towns. He sometimes thus finds tornado
where mono had been reported. He begs
New York and Boston to give him all their
preliminary information. He strives until
O'Clock a. N. and always has a terrible
story by that time.
There is a goriness about cyclones that
the roaring rivers never offer TO the news
paper man. Let the Mississippi roll seven
ty miles wide, there is no Sodom or GomOr-
rah at its bottom New Orleans is to go
under, but it never goes under. If a dam
break, all! that Is dilferent-in Connecti-
cut, in Pennsylvania, in Arizona. But the
tornado not only kills instantly, it shoots
poisoned arrow. Its wounded are badly
hurt. l remember the funnel that went
north in Mississippi in 1882, I think About
half the wounded died i terrible year
was that 1Ss2-a year of telegraph editors
drawing lines across the map until the
thing was gridironed and annotated into
illegihility In one night dozen tunnels
crossed the Mississippi eastward, and one
of them reached Lake Michigan at Racine.
Another stopped south Of Chicago near
Joliet.
At last the cyclone became familiar to
our slaughterous thoughts. We bought
books which showed that Omaha and Kan
sas City had in 100 years shown the larg-
est number of these tunnels. We found
the cyclone theory-how the~-eold air
swings around on the southwest arc OF the
big circle and explodes into upper heaven,
becoming electriCity-and we turned our
attention from tornado to tariff, from woes
to weddings
Yet this North American wheel, gyrat-
ing over our cities with its southwestern
spokes carrying maelstroms, impresses me
more deeply than weddings-for what is a
marriage bat novel, and what is this
black. funnel but a fact? Some time be-
fore the date of the lesser tornado that re-
Gently devastated Fargo went to Louis
vile as a bird to its charmer.
l wanted to put my fingers in the wounds
went where the thing began. | looked
over to distant point where it ended. The
only expression of irresistible force TO be
seen in the wreckage was the clean section
Of brick walls. You can build on the part
that Is left; it is not sprung or cracked
Churches are a complete wreck, because
they haFs hat one room and are weaker
than ether buildings. Houses with many
partitions make good resistance. Wooden
houses waveped, and by giving an inch re-
manned intact. About four tunnels went
over the city side by side. The lesson
should be TO avoid large rooms, for the
studdins did great salvage a. Louisville.
Twas most DESTROYS to touch tho moral
effect An old friend c. mine was proteo-
tor of Jewel lodge when the Falls City
hall wenI down, killing nineteen persons.
Tho floor sank softly, like steam eleya-
tor. lie prepared for death, was struck,
covered, felt heavy rain, uncovered himself
and climbed out of ten feet OF debris. The
event has conquered his imagination.
Thoughts of history, of slavery, of war, OF
have all vanished before the memory Of
tho monster that few in on Louisville the
night of the 9th o. March Sleep is fitful.
A survivor at Louisville greats the returned
companion Of his yo1pth politely, but falls
with tears on the neck Of every fsIlow suf-
ferer. All dates begin at March q. A
wounded victim dies at homo or at the hos
pital; the news recalls the blackness, the
departing fury, the terror, tho window
glass smoking outward, tho grocer's bill,
written as the glass crashed, and next
found at Cincinnati.
Now in July the bricks are piled neatly
in Louisville. the negroes quarrel as to
thei<A alarive quality, tho funnel lanes NIL
with new buildings, and the mSterjal world
is nearly repaired there; but the wheel has
got In It's deadly work afresh at Fargo.
Ind perhaps here is food for reelection for
800, COO Chics.gOaHs, who build thirteen
stories ard project Eilfel towers 1850 feet
high. JoHN MCGoYERN.