The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-10-25
Capers OF a Georgia Storm.

Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnston,
the writer of southern. plantation
sketches, tells some wonderful stories
about Georgia weather. He admits
that he would not believe them him
self were it not for his unhounded
faith in everything Georgian in gen.
cral, and his personal knowledge and
unlimited confidence in the veracity
of the men who told him the stories in
particular.
visit to my ola home in Hancock
County, Georgia, some years ago, and
I know that they are true. We had
big storm down there about ten years
ago the folks called it hurricane,
the weather men said it was a tornado.
But hurricane or tornado, it cut some
queer old capers. Colonel Humber,
over in Putnam County, saw the storm
| coming up, and knew it was going to
be big one. There were number Of
ladies at his house, and Of course his
first thought was for them, so he get
| them all safely in their rooms and
| went down into the large hall which
| ran through his house, and shut the
| door. Now Colonel Humber is a big
| man-weighs about two hundred
| pounds. When he got down stairs he
found the storm was blowing through
his hallway, and before he knew what
had happened it had picked him up,
| carried him out on his lawn, and laid
him down-not rudely but gently.
At the same time it took heavy
| stone and brick chimney off the house
| and laid in on top Of him to keep him
! in place. 1t didn't throw the chin
ney on him, but laid it down with 30
little force that only his leg was
broken. In moment or two another
gust came along, picked up the chin
ney, and carried it off, and Col. Hum
Der crawled back into the house.
''That same storm went little fur
ther on till it came to a barn in which
{ were two horses, two mules and two
| COWS. These were in separate COM
partments. With a whirl the roof of
| the barn was taken off as clean as a
whistle and carried away, and while
the stock was wondering what had
happened, section Of the storm went
in the top Of that barn, lifted those
horses and mules and COWS high up in
the air and set them down again with
out hurting one of them. But the
oueer part of the proceeding was that
when it had those animals in the air
the tornado changed their positions so
that when it set them on their feet the
mules were where the COWS had been,
the COWS were 'the horses apart
ments, and the horses were occupying
| the mules stalls.
ssBut that storm hadn' t finished cut
ting it's capl:s. 1t struck a house in
the same County and made it's way
linto a lady's chamber. A bureau was
standing against the wall, having on it
La lot of such traps and trinkets as la
dies usually have-cesmetics, bottles
and so on. A bandbox with few
Ilaces inside was standing by it's side.
The wind took that bureau, moved it
to another part Of the room, but didn't
disturb the bandbox. It went into
another lady's room, picked up q
trunk filled with clothing, carried it
out into Hancock County-my own
County-and deposited it in field
forty miles away from the house from
which it had been taken. 1t was
found there unbroken next day and
returned to the owner, whose initials
were stencilled on its end. l am glad,
however" remarked the genial colo
mel, as he wiped his forehead, THAT
the, storm didn't carry that trunk !
more than forty miles. 1 couldn't
have believed another mile.
Georgia is great State he con-
tinued, "but even such storms as that
do not occur often. To prove that
such queer things do happen, there is
a section of a telegraph pole in
| the museum of the State University.
This pole has light cypress shingle
sticking through it, about half Of it
projecting from each side. That shin,
| gle was picked UP in storm and
blown clear through the telegraph pole
and left sticking there. Baltimore
I Sun.