The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-06-04

caused by a sort OF attendant whil lwind-a
baby offspring from the main monster.
which. having sprung away from the chief
disturbance, scoops n hole in ,the woods
ana then expires or reJoins the original
movement.
have seen one OF the most violent. and.
so 10 speak. compressed OF these storms.
cut road through thick woods so that At
distance the edges stood out "a clear and
sharp against the sky AS would tn osa OF a
railway cutting through earth. Trees
standing at the edge OF the track hal their
branches clean-swept on one side. while on
the other there was perceptible disturb
ance of the iolia1e.
Sometimes the tornado acts like an enor-
nous SCOOP. catching up every movable
thing and sweeping 1t miles away: and
again IL becomes depositor, as If. tired OF
carrying so much dead weight. it dumped
II upon the earth preparatory t) grabbing
up "a new cargo. These effects are particu-
larly noticeable in the tornado that goes by
Jumps. When IL strikes and absorbs a
mass o. debris IL seems 10 spring up again
like projectile that grazes the sulf lce.
or space there will be Very high wind
and some damage. but no such disaster as
the tornado has previously wrought. Out
OF the clouds will come occasional heavy
missiles and deluges of water. Then down
goes the tornado again, crashing ana scat
tering by its own iorce and adding % its
destructive ROVER by battery Of tlmbers
and other objects brought along from its
previous impact. Relieved of these masses.
1t again gathers up miscellaneous movables
and repeats its previous operation,
The force with which these Oh iects strike
is best seen when they tall outside OF the
tornado's path, since the work done by the
missile is not then disturbed by the gene al
destructive force OF the storm. Thus. near
Racine. Wis. l have known an ordinary
fence rail, slightly sharpened on one end.
10 be driven against a young tree like
spear and PIERCE it several feet. The We
locity OF the rail must have been something
enormous. or otherwise the rail would have
glanced from such a round and elastic
object.
Many OF the settlers in the tornado dis
tricts OF Southern Minnesota. Iowa. Kan
saS. and Nebraska, eXcavate a deep cellar
beneath their houses and cover il with
heavy timbers as a place OF refuge for their
families when a tornado threatens 70 strike
them. While these dugouts are usually
effective, they are not always So. There
have been instan ces where families having
only time 10 descend and not time enough
10 close the trap-dOor. have been exposed
10 the storms full fury by the tornado get
ting into the opening and lifting of the
whole oof. alter having first swept away
the house above. Another pathetic case
resulted in the death OF whole family by
an eXtrao binary freak OF the tornado. The
storm 4 st struck larye pond and swept
up all the W iter in it. It's next plunge de-
posted this water on one OF these dugOuts
the house above which had he.n destroyed.
The family were drowned like chipmunks
in hole.
Some OF the Western tornadoes are ac-
companied by electrical mani estations 10
an extent that has orig mated belief in
electricity as their cause. hese disturb
ances are very ma ked in some cases. while
in others they have not been noticed. In
one tornado in Central Ill nOis electricity
played very peculiar antics. not only in the
tornado's track. but also at some distance
from it. In the ruined houses all the iron
work was found 10 have been strongly