The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-12-26
CHASED BYA TORNADO
A LOCOMOTIVES TERRIBLE RACE
WITH A BLACK TERROR.

Jersey Central railroad, told a reporter his
experience with tornado in Kansas and
said that il fear always turned mans
hair white his locks ought to be like snow.
1t happened this way; 1t was some time
in July. The weather Ind been pretty hot,
and 1t was just the sort of n day for breed
ing tornado. l was working on n one
horse railroad in southern Kansas. Tho
superintendent wired me to fetch my en-
Gine IL distance of about 20 miles to place
called Peterstown.
Well | got fuel and water aboard as
quickly as possible and started for Peters
town taking II rather easily, because the
truck wasn't in condition to stand fast run
ming well. 1t was an hour out from my
starting place, and Ind gone 16 miles per-
haps, when | noticed some queer looking
clouds on the western horizon.
The day was extremely sultry, and there
was u curious sort of glare over the land
scape which made it look sort of feverish.
can't think of better cord for describ-
ing it. There was something unnatural
about the appearance of everything. My
fireman was boy who had been brought
up in that region, and he said that 1t looked
like tornado coming. He ought to have
been good Judge of the symptoms because
the whole Of his family, together with nil
their property and live stock, had been
wiped out by such "twister"
By the time we had gone maybe eight or
nine miles farther dense bank Of clouds
had spread around toward the southwest.
1t was back as ink, but beneath it was a
blink streak Of white I had never seen
anything that looked quite like it before
1t seemed as II something awful was go
ing to happen. 1t was the boy who called
my attention to the pointed cloud, and he
said it was a tornado beginning,
"Then wen run away from it, guess"
said l. pulling the throttle wide open. But
the boy he said nothinR-only watched the
clouds in the distance.
By this time the pointed cloud had got
very much bigger, the lower end of it near
ly touching the ground. 1t grew rapidly
larger and larger and seemcd to be ap-
preaching at great rate of speed, while
the rest of the view toward the west and
southwest became blurred to the eye, so
that nothing could be made out very clear
ly. ! saw that it was tornado that was
coming, and no mistake, for the strange
cloud which had the shape of a gigantic
peg top, wns distinctly outlined in its inky
blackness against the general blur. I be-
gan to feel pretty badly frightened myself.
Now and then, when I could take my eve
of the cloud, looked at the boy, but he
only SHJ blltnt III lle CuD, AU IDe
great peg top with starting eyeballs and
white lips. Finally said;
"Do you think we are going to escape itS"
Eve are right in its track" he said,
without looking at me.
You see, we were running in an air line
over the prairie, directly northeast, and
pursuing the very path in which the torna-
| do was coming. Any other course, with the
steam had on, would have carried us out
OF the way.
The boy shoyeled more coal on. He had
already done SO three or four times since
the strange cloud was sighted. But it was
no use The engine was doing its best and
she wasn't capable of more than about 80
| miles an hour.
hts gaining on us" said. GLOW fast
does such thing ns that travels"
about hundred miles an hour" re-
| piled the boy, white as a sheet
| If that had been true, would not he here
to tell the story. have since learned that
| so miles an hour is supposed to he the best
| n tornado can do. My belief is Tint this
one was going at about GO miles Anyway,
it wasn't more than six or seven miles dis
tant by this time, and gaining ON us rapid
| ly. If my reckoning was correct, it would
catch us in little more than 20 minutes
| il was the most frightful spectacle to look
at that can possibly he imagined 10 me it
seemed to be monstrous giant, pursuing
us with an evil intention 70 destroy Now
and then its blackness would betransform-
ed into dark green, and it WIS constantly
| lighted up by flashes, us if it were an i'm
| mense balloon illuminated from Within 1t
| appeared to whirl around with incOnceya-
| bic rapdity,and from it came sound across
| the prairie US OF following, with n voice SO
| awful that the rumbling of the locomotive
| was lost in It, OF the destruction ii was nc
| complishing could get no notion from my
| point of view. Fortunately there were few
| settlements in that part Of the country, but
as we passed two or three hnnlets at full
speed could see the people running about
| trying to find some place of safety.
The boy staggered at my side-thc rock
ing Of the engine made it difficult to keep
ones feet-and clutched my arm / stopped
my head, and he yelled into my ear the
words, Make the bcndn
! knew what lie meant on the instant.
| Less than 10 miles ahead of us was q bridge
| over n river, after crossing which the read
| turned abruptly outward 1t was II freak
railway anyhow, and its 2igzags We're III
| tended to pass through as many supposed
| centers Of future population as possible
| The only long stretch Of it in a straight
line was just where we got caught by the
tornado, If %e could get TO the bend ahead
| of the monster, we might be saved
| As you may well imagine, | had no op-
| portunity to consider the plan calmly and
in detail, but it struck me like flash. 1t
| was a race for life sure enough. If that en-
| gine never did her 40 miles TN hour before,
| | think she must have done that and more,
| too, then With the great funnel cloud
| racing IN behind us steadily approaching,
we tore over the rails.
| Six miles passed as we'll Rs could esti-
| mate, aud the monster was only four miles
behind. Three miles more nnd it lcssened
| the distance by mile at least. Bat We
were near the river. minute later and
we were crossing the bridge. No time then
to heed the warning that trains must run
slowly over this stream"
| We dew around the curve and dashed
touthward, just in time to see the mighty
balloon pass by with a whirl and roar as
| If all the demons in the internal regions
| were let loose, We could not make out
| anything very distinctly, the sky being
| darktned and the air filled with dust, but
| we knew that we were sufe. A few min
utes later the clouds rolled away. and
everything was as quiet and peaceful rs be-
| fore the storm. We ran back to The bridge,
| but 1t wasn't there. 1t was clean gone.
| The road was 80 badly torn up, the track
| FOR considerable distances being twisted
| and broken To pieces, that the expense of
repairing it nearly bankrupted the compa-
ny Eleven people lost their lives by that
tornado, which afforded me an experience
which | would not repeat for all the money
] in the world. Washington Star.
N Agricultural News and Notes.
| X Bradstreet's estimates of domestic
wheat crop this year, amounting to 40,
100000 bushels, has been accepted by
Beerbohm, the first European authority
on cereal statistics.
In Now York state the largest bean