The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-07-12
CHASED BY A TORNADO,
A Locomotives Terrible Race With q
Black Terror,
Flying Over The Rails in an Attempt 10 Reach a Bend ia
The R1ai,-Tbf Engine Broke Her Record

Henry Wetherell, an engineer on the
Jersey Central railroad, told reporter his
experience with a tornado in Kansas and
said that if fear always turned a mans
hair white his locks ought to be like snow.
1t happened this way: 1t was some time
| IN July. The weather had been pretty hot.
and it was just the sort Of day for breed
ing a tornado. | was working on a one
horse railroad in southern Kansas. The
superintendent wired me to fetch my en-
CINE a distance of about 20 miles to Il place
called PeterstOwn.
| Well, | got fuel and water aboard as
quickly as possible and started for Peters
town, taking it rather easily, because the
truck wasn't in condition to stand fast run
ming well. 1t was an hour out from nv
starting place and | had gone Is miles per-
! haps when | noticed some queer looking
clouds on the western horizon.
The day was extremely sultry, and there
was IL curious sort of a glare over the land
scape which made it look sort of feverIsh.
| can't think Of a better word for describ-
ing it. There was something unnatural
about the appearance of everything. NY
| fireman was a boy who had been brought
up in that region, and he said that it looked
| like IL tornado coming He ought to have
been good judge of the symptoms because
the whole of his family, together with all
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 black as ink, but beneath it was a
blank streak of white. | had never seen
/ l, ., L.,
1t seemed as if something awful was 60
ing to happen 1t was the boy who called
my attention to the pointed cloud, and he
said it was a tornado beginning.
'Then Well run away from it, guess"
said |, 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 it near
ly touching the ground. 1t grew rapidly
larger and larger and seemed to be ap-
preaching at u 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 a tornado that was
coming, and no mistake, for the strange
cloud. which had the shape of a gigantic
!
blackness against the general blur be
gan to feel pretty badly frightened myself
Now and then, when | could take my eve
off the cloud, l looked at the boy, but he
only sat silent in the cab, staring at the
great peg top with starting eyeballs and
white lips Finally said:
"Do you think we are going to escape it?''
1--WE 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 lorna
do was coming. Any other course, with the
steam had on, would have carried us out
of the way.
The boy shoveled 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 So
miles an hour.
ITS gaining on u.s." | said GLOW fast
does such IL thing as that travel?"
About hundred miles an hour" re-
piled the boy, white as a sheet.
If that had been true would not be here
to tell the story. | have since learned that
80 miles an hour is supposed to be the best
a tornado can do. My belief is that this
one was going at about GO miles. ANYWAY,
1t wasn't more than six or seven miles dis
tant by this time, and gaining on us rapid-
ly. II my reckoning was correct, it would
catch us i'll a little more than 20 minutes
1t was the most frightful spectacle to look
at that can possibly be imagined. To me it
seemed to be monstrous giant, pursuing
us with an evil intention to DESTROY Now
and then its blackness would be transform
Cd into dark green, and it was constantly
lighted up by flashes, as if it were an i'm
mense balloon Illuminated from within 1t
appeared to Whirl around with inconCeiya-
bic rapldlty and from it came a sound across
the prairie as of believing, with q voice SO
awful that the rumbling of the locomotive
was lost in it. OF the destruction it was &C
comprising could get no notion from my
point OF view. Fortunately there were few
settlements in that part of the country, but
rs we passed two or three hamlets at full
speed | could see the people running about
trying to find some place of safety.
The boy staggered at my side-the 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 bendr'
knew what he meant on the instant
Less than 10 miles ahead of us was a bridge
over river after crossing which the road
turned abruptly southwark. 1t was a freak
railway anyhow, and it's zigzags were in
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 we could get to the bend ahead
: of the monster, we might be saved.
! AS you may well imagine, had no op-
portunty to consider the plan calmly and
J in detail, but it struck me like flash. 1t
was a race for life sure enough. If that en-
, CINE never did her 40 miles an hour before.
| think she must have done that and more,
r too, then. With the great funnel cloud
Q racing on behind us, steadily approaching,
we tore over the rails.
Six miles passed as well as could esti-
1 mate, and the monster was only four miles
behind. Three miles more and it lessened
the distance by a mile at least. But we
were near the river A minute later and
, we were crossineThe bridge. No time then
to heed the warning that trains must run
slowly over this stream"
, We flew around the curve and dashed
, southwark, just in time to see the mighty
r balloon pass by with whirl and q roar, as
p II all the demons in the Internal regions
were let loose. We could not make out
) anything very distinctly, the sky being
I darkened and the air filled with dust, but
, we knew that we were safe. A few min
r utes later the clouds rolled away, and
everything was as quiet and peaceful as be
lore the storm We ran back to the bridge
but 1t wasn't there 1t was clean gone
me road was so badly torn up, the track
for considerable distances being twisted
and broken to pieces that the expense Of
repairing it nearly bankruptcd the comps-
n.y. Eleven people lost their lives by that
= tornado which afforded me an experience
winch would not repeat for all the money
u the world. Washington Star.