St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-26
A COSTLY BLOW.
Philadelphia Structures Leveled
or DAMAGED.

OF O0inaScu.
PHILADELPHIA, } uly 25.-At 4 o'clock
this afternoons The thermometer in the
United States signal office at the top Of
the postoffice building registered 93
degrees, one degree higher than it has
marked any day so far this summer.
The mercury Started on its record
breaking course early this morning and
at So'clock it had reached 80. 1t con-
tIpued its upward movement and at
II: 80 it was Oh. gsss-
Just before noon violent thunderstorm
broke over the city, and in Is minutes
the mercury had beer driven back to 81
deg. The duration of the storm was not
above forty minutes, but in that time it
did nearly 100000 worth of damage.
The southern section of the city escaped
with heavy downfall of rain and some
sharp lightning, but in the northern sec
ton the rain and lightning was accom-
panied by fierce wind which created
great havoc. AT Twenty-ninth and
York streets a row of twenty-five three
story houses that were in course of con-
Az tWO-stOry stone stable at Thirty
fourth and Harold streets met the same
fate. 81
The storm advanced eastward over
the city, leaving trail of unroofed
houses in its wake, until it struck the
great manufacturing districts of Ken
Sington and Richmond. Here its great
est fury was vented. The tall mill
buildings furnished good mark. and a
score of them were stripped of their
roofs. AT Richley avenue and Gaul
streets five small houses that were
being built were almost destroyed. The
roof of the North Pennsylvania rail
road station was blown Off, and with it
went over hundred wires of the Phil
adelphia IL Reading Telegraph company
and the Western Union company.
The roof of the Catholic Church of
the Nativity was ripped off. AT Clear
field street one of the repair
shops of the Philadelphia & Reading
Railroad company is located, or rather
was located. The building was 400 feet
long, 700 feet wide and so feet high.
AT the time the storm broke the 1870
men employed in it were eating their
dinner. The frightened men had barely
time to escape when with crash the
mass of brick and wood that formed the
building fell in. With the exception of
six men who were cut and bruised by
flying bricks, all the men in the
shop escaped uninjured. Cars beneath,
almost to kindling wood. There we're
seventy cars in the building being re-
paired and the loss upon them and the
structure itself is estimated at $4,000.
In addition to the above damage,
nearly fifty dwelling houses in the two
districts were unroofed and partly de-
mOlished. The suburban sections of
the city also suffered heavily. At Man.
ayunk, three mills and fifteen
dwelling houses were unroofed.
After the passage of the
storm. the GOODNESS that had come with
itpassed away and the heat became more
intense than ever. The mercury and
the humidity rose together, and at A
O'Clock they formed combination akin
to that of the steam room in Turkish
bath. The thermometer at that hour
marked 9o deg. and the humidity was
81 per cent Tonight at s o'clock the
thermometer marked 81 deg, and the
humidity had fallen to 67 per cent.
Notwithstanding the extreme heat not a
case of sunstroke was reported by the
police, and there were but four entries
at the hospitals of heat exhaustion.