Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-10-31
A CRACKER TORNADO.
rh. PLAYFUL Georgia Twister Cut Series
Vl~alv Gamers,

Lively NSFSAS'
Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnston, the
writer Of southern plantation sketches tells
some wonderful stories about Georgia
weather. He admits that he would mol De-
lieve them himself were it not Tor ms uh-
bounded faith in everything 1eors'an II,
general and his personal knowledge ana
unlimited confidence In the veracity OF ,he
men who told him the stories in particular.
~ heard them" he said. while ON avisit
IN nv old home in Hancock county, Ga,
some wears ago, and l know that they are
,rue We had a big storm down there
ah,ut 10 wears ago The folks called 1t =
hurricane: the weather men said II was
tornado But, hurricane or tornado. 1t cut
some o,,eer old capers. Colonel Humber
over in Putnam county saw the storm com
ing up and knew it was going to be plS
one There were "A number OF ladies AT MS
house. and of course his first thought was
for them, so he got them all safely in their
rooms and went down into the large nail
which ran through his house and shut the
door.
snow, ,lonel Humber is big man
weighs ABOUT 200 pounds. When he got
down stairs, he found the storm was-blow
ing through his hallway, and before he
knew what had happened it had picked
him up, carried him out on his lawn ana
laid him down-not roughly, but gently.
At the same time it took II heavy stone ana
brick chimney off the house and laid it on
top of him to keep him in place. IL didn't
throw the chimney on him, but laid 1t
down with so little force that only his leg
was broken. In IL moment or two another
gust came along, picked up the chimney
and carried it of, and Colonel Humber
crawled back into the house.
THAT same storm went IA little farther
on till il came to a barn in which were two
horses, two mules and two cows. These
were in separate compartments. Win
whir the roof OF the barn was taken of as
clean as u whistle and carried away, ana
while the stock was wondering what had
happened a 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 without hurting one OF
them But the queer part of the proceed
ing was that when it had those animals IN
the air the tornado changed their position
so that when il set them on their feet the
mules were where the cows had been, the
cows were in the horses apartments. and
the horses were occupying the mules' stalls.
But that storm hadn't finished cutting
up its capers 1t struck "A house in the same
county and made its way into a lady
chamber A bureau was standing against
the wall, having on it n lot of such traps
aud trinkets as ladies usually have-cos-
metics, bottles, and SO on. A bandboX with
a few laces inside was standing by its side.
The wind took that bureau, moved it to
another part of the room, but didn't disturb
the bandbox. 1t went into another lady's
room, picked up a trunk filled with cloth
ing, carried it out of window and waited
it over into Hancock county-my own
county-and deposited it in a field 40 miles
away from the house from which it had
been taken. 1t was found there unbroken
the next day and returned to the owner,
whose initials were stenciled on its end. i
am glad, however," remarked the genial
colonel as he wiped his forehead, that the
storm didn't carry that trunk more than
40 miles. l couldn't have believed another
mile.
Georgia is n great state" he continued,
"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 a light cypress shingle stick
ing through it, about half of it project
from each side. That shingle was picked
up in storm and blown clear through the
telegraph pole and left sticking there. ~
Baltimore Sun.