Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-19
THE CYCLONES TRACK,
Where HID Been Life and Hope was
Only Sad Desolatfon.

From the Detroit Free Press.
About noon a party OF emigrants
reached the Red river half a mile below
US. We counted twenty-six white-topped
wagons. Texas-bound, and there must
have been on to hundred men. women
and children. The Red was over its banks
and mile wide at that point, and the
party encamped on the bluffs to wait for
a fall. The horses were turned out fires
lighted and the voices Of the children and
the songs of the women loated UP to us
as the MONDAY meal was prepared
1t was a summers day and almost cloud
less. The grass on the bluff was green and
thick. and forty feet below ran the food.
There was nothing to fear-nothing to
cause the slightest anxiety. The flood
would subside in a day or two and make
the crossing safe In the meantime they
laughed and were happy.
Look there
On a dead tree to our right. sitting eide
by side with folded wings and necks OFT
engers of plain and prairie. Never an hour
between sunrise and sunset when you can
not see them circling in the air-nerer q
days travel when you win nct hear ihcir
croak, croak! croak! as they call each
other to feast.
These birds have come on silent wing
ment except of their necks as they iock
down into the emigrant camp. 1t gives one
a creepy feeling to watch them. The all
has brought them no faint. There are no
worn-out horses waiting 10 die. III there
was a human being sick unto 'i.ath Gown
there the songs and shouts would he hush.
ed. Have the horrible birds Toasted ard
alighted up there to rest and sleep No
They are lean and hungry looking AMI tbs
vulture never tires. Our camp as much ths
nearest, but their attention is wholly &C
cupied with the other. They have erei.
living thing under their eyes. IL Is like the
silent, ceaseless watch over merociei
condemned to death.
"See-what's thatr
The emigrants have approached the rfvei
by long and narrow valley. We saw theii
wagons while they were yet miles away
Altar or on their trail. where sky and plain
seem to meet, is a black spot, looking for q
moment like bruise on the white skin Of
babe. At first a hand would cover IL, bu
as We look it grows larger and larger ant
darker and darker. 1t is cloud which
seems to have risen from the earth as Il
following an explosion. IL spread out C
take in the width of the valley-it mounts
UP until IL stands like a great wall against
the sky, and We watch and wonder and
as the grave. Down in the camp Of the EN-
igrants group Of children are singing
Harki
There's a land that is fairer than day
And by faith we can see il afar;
Our Father waits over the way"
1t is the words of the Sweet Bye and
children. 1 turn my eyes from the clouds Il
the vultures. They still occupy the limb
their horrible necks are still outstretched
Back to the cloud. which has now assumed
q strange. menacing appearance.
1t seems to be whrling round and rounc
for a few seconds. Then. with a rush OF g
cannon ball and the resistless force OF O
tidal wave. IL comes sweeping up the val
ley and strikes the camp. We hear a moan
wild. weird, awful-a roar-a crash. Fo,
q minute IL is as dark as midnight down
there. There is a breath of wind like ice
We hear a crashing and grinding on the
other side of the river.
The darkness slowly drifts away. Where
Is the campfire wagons-horses-men
women and little singing children? The
bluff il bare. There is not living thing In
aght-not the slightest trace of what was
there five minutes ago. 1 glance up at thu
tree. The vultures are just taking wing &c
follow the current Of the stream. They
have not waited in vain. We rush down
to the sight OF the camp and ask eacf
other II 1t was all a dream. With a power
which would have shaken the foundations
of a noun tain-with a clutch which woulf
have lifted the grandest oak clear Of tht
soil-with a rush which would have crum.
bied stone walls the cyclone had swept
everything over the bluffs into. the flood
Not a soul escaped. Not an animal was
left behind. Not the fragment of a brok er
vehicle. not the strap of a harness. not
even a firebrand from the camp fires
could be found. 1t was as Il man had
never rested on the spot.