The National tribune., 1894-03-22
THE KANSAS CYCLONE.
An Awe-inspiring Sight is this Messenger of


An Awe-inspiriDg Sight is this Messenger o
Destruction.
Being an enthusiastic wheelman, I frequently
take long rides into the country. The evening
of June u found me on the road from Topeks
! to Lawrence, says writer in st. Nicholas The
heat of the monday sun had given way to q
slightly cooler temperature and the blue dome
WAS dotted here and there with floating white
clouds There was scarcely breeze enough to
move the whiting foliage of the lofty trees on
the bluff north of the road. The whole world
seemed at peace. ! could hear in the distance
the peculiar cry of the farmland calling the
pigs TO their evening feeding The milkmaid
was busy with the cows.
As moved slowly along. delighting in the
glorious beauty Of the landscape aud in its
peaceful activity, noticed that the air felt so
close and sultry that found exertion difficult /;
and this, with the rusting in the trees and the
valllng of the suns face, prompted me to turn
to the west, where it seemed that thunder
storm was gathering
1t moved along rapidly-onIy a Summer
shower. To the left, along the bluff, the gentle
drops of rain were falling with lullaby-like
patter on the thiekly-clustered trees of the
hillside forest l had dismounted from my
wheel, and was watching the progress of the
storm that, passing SO near me, had not touched
me.
But all at once, with a mighty roar like the
rending OF the heavens, dark greenish cloud
with tints of yellow and black, its massive folds
writhing in and out like serpents at battle,
emitting vivid flashes of lightning came over
the bluff quarter of a mile east of me. It was
shaped like huge top, its rregularly-forned
upper half revolving rapidly, while the lower
end swept the earth along path quarter of
a mile wide.
Startled as was, 1eOuld not take nv eyes
from this awful messenger of destruction. The
crash OF the buildings first struck filed the air
with flying debris, in which fragments of
bonses, furniture, trees, farming implements
haysiacks, and telegraph-poles, all were pro-
pelied by wonderful, irresistible current of
ruin and disaster.
Eighty rods wide the death-dealing cyclone
swept along. skirting the bluff, where it stripped
foliage and bark from the trees, and now and
then swooping down on some farm So sudden
~ did the storm burst that many had to Gee
WIN ali speed TO their cyclone-cellars, the only
safe refuge from these fearful storms.
Alter course of half mile along the blnff
the iunnel-shaped monster swerved to the
right 1t swept through huge wheat-felds,
where 1t snapped off the dropping heads of the
almost ripened grain, and then tore on through
the little village OF Williamstown, transform
ing what was the moment before "a lovely
village Of the plain into a scene of devasta-
ton. Houses. barns, and other buildings were
destroyed, aud human beings carried through
space as If they were but feathers
Many lives were lost, and many homes lit
orally swept from the face of the earth. There
We're many miraculous escapes. baby, l6
months old, was discovered by the roadside
several hundred yards away from the house
asleep and uninjured. An old lady 60 wears
old was carried a mile from her home and
lodged safely in the spreading branches
OF an oak-tree, unhurt. a family of six sought
refuge in a small space under the stairs; the
house was carried away with the sole execution
OF that portion. and the family escaped injury.
a house was completely swept away; but the
family cat and her kittens under the porch
were not disturbed.