Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-22
PURSUED BY A TORNADO.
How q Funnel-Shapeo Cloud Chased Two
Men on an Engine.
A Chase for Life-Directly In the Pash Of the
Tornado-They Made the Bend
just In Time to Eseaps,

now, for will venture to say that no man ever
went through q more fear-inspiripg expsrie.ce
than did once. Tell you the storys Why,
certainly. But am not very good at yarn,
and can oniy-give you the bare facts without
descriptive ornamentstion.
at happened this way. The year was 1878
or 1879, forget which. Anyway Ii was some
time in July. The weather had been pretty
hot, and il was Just the sort Of day for breeding
q tornado.
"But am getting ahead Of my story already,
not being very expert In the way Of anecdote.
| was working on q one-horss railroad In south.
ern Kansas. The superintendent wired me to
fetch my engine q distance Of about seventy
miles to q place called Peterstown. 1t was
wanted to haul lot Of perishabls freight, mostly
market produce, which had got shunted OF BY
| some accident on to a side track and was In
danger Of spelling. A suit against the company
might have followed, and the business had to
be attended to in . hurry. There were only
| three that were disabled.
well, not to be too long winded, I got fuel
and water aboard as quickly a. possible and
started for Peterstowu, taking It rather easily,
because the track wasn't in condition to stand
| fast running well. l was about an hour out
from my starting place, and had gone sixteen
miles perhaps, when noticed some queer-look-
ing clouds on the western horizon.
Unnatural Appearance OF Everything.
"The day was extremely suItry, and there
was curious sort Of glare over the landscape
which made il look sort of fevsrish. can't
think of better word for describing IL. There
was something unnatural about the appearance
| Of everything. Ny fireman was boy who had
been brought up in that region. and he said
| that il looked like a tornado coming. He
| ought to have been good judge Of the symp-
| toms, because the whole Of his family, together
with all their property and live stock. had been
| 49, II sxxw,.x xbA,
| when he WAS hardly old enough to toddle.
'By the time we had gone may be eight or
| nine miles further q dense bank Of clouds had
| spread around toward the southwest. Il was
black as ink. but beneath it was blank streak
of white. / had never seen anything that
| looked quite like it before. As looked at IL
| the bank rose higher, and presently Isaw some-
thing like sharp point Of cloud project itself
downward from the black mass. All this time
there was no thunder nor lightning, but only
a look about the sky that was dreadful 10 zee,
because 1t was so unnatural-like. Il seemed as
II something awful was going TO happen. II
was the boy who called my attention to the
pointed cloud. and he said it was tornado
beginning
if it WIS 'twster' it would not be likely to hit
us. But he WAS as pale as ghost. Says he:
Don't you see that it il directly southwest
Of us2'
"'why, certainly replied. What Of thatp
|
| and we are right in the track Of 1t"
| =. Then wen run away from il, guess says
I, pulling the throttle wide open. But the boy,
he said nothing-only watched the clouds in the
| distance.
'.By this time the pointed cloud had got very
much bigger, the lower end Of 1t nearly touching
| the ground. 1: grew rapidly larger and larger
and seemed to be approaching at agreat rate Of
speed, while the rest OF the view toward the
| west and southwest became blurred to the eye,
A. Al les
| l saw that it was a tornado that was coming,
and no mistake. for the strange cloud. which
! had the shape of a gigantic peg-top, dis
tincty outlined in its inky b!sckness against the
general blur. l began to feel pretty badly
frightened myself. Now and then, when could
take my eye of the cloud, looked at the boy +;
but he only sat rileut in the cab, staring at the
great peg top with starting eyebal.s and white
lips. Finally said:
do you think we are going to escape it2'
1--WE are right In its track be said. without
looking at me.
You see, We were running in An air limo over
the prairie, directly northeast, and pursuing the
very path in which the tornado was coming.
Any other course, with the steam had on,
| would have carried us out of the way.
Tho boy shoveled more coal on. He had
already done SO three or four times since the
strange cloud was sighted But IL was no use.
| The engine was doing its best. and she WASH I
capable Of more than about thirty eight miles
| al hour
"'Its gaining on us, 1 said How fast does
such thing that traveil'
"'About a hundred miles al hour replied
the boy, white a sheet
Chase for Life.
.'If that had been true would not be here to
tell the story. have since learned that eighty
miles an hour is supposed to be the best tor
nado can do Ny belief Is that this one was
going at about sixty miles Any way IL wssn't
l tho, a. Az. v,N No. a
time, and gaining on us rapidly. II my reck-
| oning was correct it would catch N in b little
more than twenty minutes. The way caicu-
lated it was that the great peg top was moving
at the rate Of three miles to our two
sit was the most frigatfui spectacle 10 look
at that can possibly Be imagined To me il
seemed to be q monstrous giant, pursuinR us
with an evil intention to destroy. Now and
then its blackness would be tranSfofmed into
dark green, and it was constantly lighted mp
illuminated from within. II appeared 10 whirl
round with uncomfortable rapidly, and from il
came Q sound acfoss the prairie a. Of believing,
with q voice awful that the rumbiing of the
| locomotive was lost in IL. or the destruction
it was accomplishing Iconid get no notion from
my point of view. Fortunately, there we're few
settlements in that part Of the country, but ~
we passed two or three small hamlsts at full
speed / could see the people running about
trying 10 find some place Of safety.
Of the engine made It difficult 10 keep onss
feet-and ciutched my arm. stopped my
head, and he yelled into my ear the words;
i "'Make the Bend.s
81 knew what he meant on the instant Lea
than ten miles ahead Of rs was bridge over q
river, after crossing which the road turned
abruptly southwark. Il was q freak railway
anyhow, and its zig sags were intended 10 pas
through as many supposed oentsrs Of future