Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-04-06
TORNADO FROLICS.
Miniature Cyclone at the Co..
umbian Fair Site.
DAMAGE DONE FOOTING UP $4,000.

The Illinois State Building Catches the
Worst of the Blow and viii Cost Se3.-
900 to Observation-Disclosures Pleased That
1t Was No Worse, and Satisfied of the
Strength of the MISUNDERSTANDING
House Wrecked Completsly-Capric
of the Wind.
CHICAGO, April GA small sized cy-
clone tore through the Worlds fair
grounds yesterday morning. 1t was $50
O'Clock when it hit the pumping station
at Sixty-ffth street. At nine minutes of
z, after it had sucked water out of the
lake at sFifty-sixth street, its passage
sacross the grounds was marked shy $4,000
sworthof destruction. 1t knocked the pump
ing station-of Brick and stone-out of exist
ence, leaving only one corner of the wall
standing. The wind smashed panes Of glass in
the windows of the woman's building tossed
.forty-fiye feet scantling about machinery
hall into the air, daintily stuck splinters into
heavy joists and then bored a hole through the
tower of the beautiful building of the state of
Illinois.
What the Incident Cost.
The damage to the Illinois building is esti-
mated by Contractor William Harley at Sl5-
90 or S20,0O0. The wreck of the pumping sta
ton represents an outlay of $1,000 the injury
to machinery hall will cost $780, and the nom
inal damages in other parts of the grounds
will make up the rest of the $4,000 But it
proved that the Worlds fair buildings are
firm and solid, for it could only twist the steel
trusses of the Illinois building and affect
those portions of the structures which are still
deriving their support from guy ropes. This
important fact was pleasing to the architects
and contractors yesterday, for if that wind
could not tear down the Worlds fair build
1ngs in their present shape they are safe.
How 1t Struck Illinois.
The cyclone hit the IL inois state building
the hardest belt. 1t came from the south, or
about southwest by south. 1t ripped through
the upper portion of the great open door at the
south end OF the building and struck the south
wall of the memorial hall. which is of brick
The wall did not totter; it collapsed, and the
12,WO bricks fell in q heap where it had stood
The cyclone cut down the tall structure OF the
dome as a hired man cracks a weed in two
with whip. The tower was reared to "a
height of l3s feet. Above it stood staging
twenty-four feet square, and on this was guy
ed stiff legged derrick. And the whole mass
was cut OFF even with the roof.
Wasn't Any Sort of Zephyr, However.
When those huge timbers struck the floor
they ploughed great holes in it. The brick wall
OF Memorial hall crushed Il broad space of the
flooring as If 1t had been the ice film formed on
u pool III a frosty night. Some of the huge
ure of the walls about the corridor beneath the
dome was bent and broken. The first huge
steel span next the dome that sweeps with a
dozen of its sturdy fellows in great arch above
what is TO be the main hall was twisted and
twirled and wrenched and wrung by the wind.
but ii held firm. Had it gone, all the trusses
would have gone. and the beautiful building
would have been wrecked.
Caprices of the Storm.
In a capricious way the cyclone shot 2x4
scantling at q two-inch plank and it cuts lis
way through it, leaving mortice as clean save
for the splinters on the under side, as a car
penter could have cut it with keen chisel
Loose boards that were lying about in the
wings Of the buildings not fifty feet away were
not moved. Spinters stuck in the floor as
needles might have been Men we t put at
work Immediately clearing away the debris,
and the repairing will at once begin.
The Hurricane Still at Work.
kilograms from the northwest say that the
snow around Miller, ). D.. is drifted eight feet
deep. eluges are reported from Vandalia
and other places in Illinois. At Platteville
Wis, and the neighborhood tornado did
much damage to houses and killed some stock
Ten houses and q church were wrecked at
Clean, n. Y; one woman was killed and many
persons seriously injured.