The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1892-06-09
WAILING AND WEEPING,
A TORNADO PLAYS HAVOC WITH TWO
KANSAS TOWNS.

Death List Continues to Grow -DIarvol-
| loua Freaks of the Wind.
w ELLINGTON, KAN, MAY 2O.-lt is
now known to a certainty that twenty
lives were lost in Friday nights tor
nado in this city, and the fatally in
Jlred list is adding hourly to tho list of
OF dead. There are half a dozen per-
sons known to be missing, but no trace
OF their bodies can be found until the
Wreckage of the Phillips House and the
stores on Washington avenue have been
removed.
Among those killed Was bride of
only three months, burned to death.
ller husband is insane from grief, and
has been placed under restraint. A
piano tuner, who was reading his Bible
when the Phillips House collapsed, was
| also killed. The tornado was not ex-
ceeding two minutes in accomplishing
its terrible destruction and death.
The residence portion Of the city that
was in the line of the storm, which was
about two and a half blocks wide, is
| laid low. In Its path were located
many of the best residences in the city,
as well as hundreds of small homes.
All are laid on a common level, and
their late occupants form wandering
army of homeless, clothless citiZans
Every home left standing is a hospital
for the reception of the injured.
There are many incidents of the
storm that are remarkable. a ball
that was in progress at the Phillips
llouse had just begun. The music had
scarcely struck up when the storm
came Ladies in evening dress fled
terror stricken into the street, where
the rain of mortar and bricks were
falling. Strange to say not one Of
these who ran out of the hotel was
killed outright, although nearly all
were injured to some extent. Where
the ball room stood is dense pile of
brick and lumber twelve feet high.
Two hundred men were working at
the ruins all day, rescuing one man,
who was found in a box, where he had
taken refuge. There was two feet of
bricks above him, but he had air, and
was hardly hurt at all, although he was
frightened into state bordering on
imbecility.
Another strange freak of the tornado
was its method Of handling the infant
child OF Henry Bower. The Bower
home was unroOfed and the baby taken
from its crib, carried four blocks, and
laid on the green grass in the mayors
yard, where 1t was found, crying, in the
heavy rain storm early Saturday morn
Ing, unhurt. 1t did not even have a
cold, and was not at all hurt from its
al! nights exposure on the wet ground
with chill wind blowing a regular
tornado until daybreak.
Twenty freight cars were standing
IN the Rock Island yard. Ten of them
were taken in one direction and ten in
another, the two punches being found
a mile apart, smashed to smitIereeus
1t was In one OF these cars that Henry
James, a boy tramp, was found killed.
The Rock Island lumber yard was
one of the biggest yards in Kansas;
now, not enough lumber remains in the
limits OF the yard to build a hen house.
The telephone system, except one
TO end, is completely ruined, and the
switchboard at the central Office was
taken a mile and dropped in pond.
The electric light dynamo and Il pom
derous Westinghouse engine were
picked up like shingles and carried
over the town and deposited not far
from the Phillips House ruins.
Another freak of the storm was The
manner in which plate glass was
taken from the elegant SpicknalI block
and carried several yards. set up against
frame house, and, aside from losing a
few chips around the edge, was not
broken.
Trees were torn from their roots and
houses were turned right-about face.
Stoves were lifted until they finally
landed in the upper floors of the ruins.
How this was done is beyond explana-
ton. but 1t is fact, nevertheless.
| In one instance horse was actually
taken from his stable and dumped on
top of a two. story building.
The Lutheran church, massive
frame building, one of the most sub
stantial of its kind in the city, was
taken up, turned completely over, and
now stands with the floor upward, as
solid, apparently, as if it had been built
IN That way. 1t is not small building,
either, for it has seating capacity Of
700 people.
| The old court house, a solid tWo-stOry
stone structure, was completely demol-
iShed and reduced to SplinterS, with the
exception of one little frame Office that
pair of dOnkeys could drag from its
foundation, which was left standing
intact by tho side of the ruins of the
old court house.
THE TORNADO AT HARPER,
HARPER, Kan, May 29.-The tornado
that devastated the city of Wellington
at o'clock Friday night reached this
town about thee hours later. The
| NNPoo "sto Oio"h away, dllu dill pleCUIlC
communications with the outer world
was cut off. At present nine persons
are known to have been killed and
| many more are not accounted for.
There are scores Of injured and at least
thirty are missing.
The scene in the devastated town is
| one Of ruin and destruction. Hardly a
building in the entire town escaped de-
struction, and the place Is strewn with
debris from end to end 1t is almost a
miracle that more lives were not lost.
In the Ebbitt Hotel there were at
least thirty guests, and many of these
! cannot be accounted for. The tornado
came without any warning whatever.
There was small cloud in the south
west, but no one noticed it particularly.
All OF sudden, with mighty roar,
the work Of destruction was begun.
The big Rothschild building, lust
completed, and the pride of the town,
was torn to pieces in an instant. Fifty
dwellings were smashed into kindling
wood, and most Of them were piled in
one spot near the opera house, which