The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1893-05-30

When in public, hut law. -
The men were too scared To- tell what they
Scores of Sedallans had experiences
last night which most of them will
likely remember long after the
Worlds fair has become only faded
tradition.
The morning opened cool and
cloudy and the sunbeams broke but
fitfully through the unpropitious sky.
The day was anything but promising
for the Ringing Bros, whose great
shows arrived early.
Hundreds of visitors came to town,
however, and thousands of people wit
messed the grand parade at ten o'clock.
The afternoon exhibition was largely
attended, but by the time the perfor-
nance had closed a DRILLING rain
set in.
At seven o'clock in the evening,
when the doors opened. the rain was
coming down at a lively rate and was
beating through the seams of the
splendid canvas. However. 800 or
400 people had passed in and were
making the rounds of the menagerie.
Far along the western horizon were
dense masses of dark and ominous
clouds. The experienced circus men
on the outside looked uneasy, for
their practiced eyes seemed to see
something more than rain. y tornado
was brewing.
The spectators hoisted their UNI
brellas and circled around the cages,
viewing the huge hippopotamus, the
laughing hyena, the long-necked
giraffe, the lions, the tigers, the par
rots, the monkeys. the sacred COW,
the herds of elephants and drome-
diaries.
The relocated band in the man.
moth circus and hippodrome pavilion
struck up an inspiring air and about
200 persons had taken their
seats while the rain beat upon them
and the wind was growing stronger.
Then the vivid lightning began to
fash and play around the horizon,
the wind still growing stronger
and the great pavilion sway
ell to and fro fearfully.
The band men held to their seats and
kept playing, hut when the large
poles encircling the hippOdrome track
began to lift and swing and plunge,
the people sitting on that side and
those in the reserved seats on the east
side commenced 4 mad stampede. MIR.
Alfred Ringing appeared promptly
on the scene and told the panic-strick
en- crowd to run out the main entrance
and westward.
The musicians maintained their po-
sitions and kept playing, thei music
with the roar of thunder ard
sounds of the terrible tumult.
In the next instant one of the mas
,ive center poles snapped in two, the |
west wall of the huge canvas was
lifted from its moorings and came |
down with crash. Then the next
the whole pavilion, heaving |
like some mighty balloon, was lifted
high in the air and collapsed, falling
in great shapeless mass. Lights
were extinguished, the darkness was
pitchy, the rain WAS falling furiously. |
The screams of men, women and chill
iren, the crash of poles and seats and
scenery, the thunders roar and the
keen flashing of the lightning made
up thrilling scene.
y BAZoo representative and a
young printer from the same office,
had come down from their reserved
'eats and were standing conveniently
near an opening in the canvas with
Mr.. +. Ii. Quisenberry, the stenogra-
Dher, who was kindly sharing with
hem his umbrella, and watching the
When the crisis came, the
hree friends did not pause TO say good
I'VE, but made a frantic dash for the
outside.
Whatever became of Quisenberry
'emains a mystery. The last seen of
lin he was headed for Flat creek.
Trent struck Nancy Hanks gate,
feared, like deer,a barb-wire fence.
which stood in his way, and was found
canning around on the prairie in the
ain, in a sadly dazed condition.
Capt. 7. G. Holland and two other
men were standing together, when
hey were knocked down by plung-
ng pole and caught under the canvas.
The Captain, who distinguished him
elf in Pickett's charge at Gettys-
'urg, says that he doesn't want
mother such experience as last night.
lie craw1ed about half way round the
track, through the mud,
boxing for an air hole or place of
scape. Finally he found one. His
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