Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-11-21
CHASEDDYAIUhNADO

81 don't believe that fright ever
turned a PERSONS hair white oil
hand" said Henry Wetherell, an en-
Rinaer of the Jer. cy Central Ra lrOad.
III such a thing could happen these
locks would not be as bia k as you
sec them now, for l viii venture To
FAY that no man ever went through a
more fear-inspiriDs experience than
did once. Tell you the story? why.
certainly. But / am not very good
at yarn, and can only give you the
bare IA IS without descriptive orna-
mcntat.on.
"It happened this way: The year
was 1873 or 1879, l forget which.
Anyhow IL was sometime IN July.
The we2tl.er had been pretty hot,
and il va, Just the sort Of Gay for
breeding a tornado
.'But l am getting ahead Of my
story already, not being very expert
I'm the way Of anecdpte. l was work
Ing on d nne-borse road in Southern
Kansas The superintendent wired
me 10 fet h my engine u distance Of
Gbo 5rcyenty miles to a place called
P.terstnwn 1t was wanted to haul
a lot Of pcrlshable freight, mostly
market produce, which hal shunted
off by sOms a cident onto Il 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 seven locomotives on the road,
barring two or three that were dis
abled.
We'll, not to be too long inded, l
got fuel and water aboard as quickly
~ possible and started for Peters
t.yn, taxing it rather easily, be-
eau the track wasn't in condition
to and fast running well. l was
about an hour out from my starting
place, and had gone sixteen miles
je haps when l noticed some queer
looking clouds on the western hor-
Lon.
The day was exceedingly sultry,
and there was curious sort of glard
over the landscape which made il
look sort of feverish. l can't tn nix
OF better word for describing it.
There was something unnatural about
the appearance OF everything. My
fireman wa3 boy who had been
brought up in that region. and he
said that it looked like a tornado
com NJ lie ought to have been a
rCoi Judge of the symptoms, because
the whole Of his family, together
with al their property and live
stock, had been wiped out by such a
'twister,' as they call 'em, when he
was hardly old enough to toddle.
by the time we'd gone, maybe
eight or ten miles further, a dense
bank OF clouds had spread around to-
ward the southwest 1t was black as
ink, but beneath it was blank
streak of white. l had never seen
anything that looked quite like it be-
fore. As l looked at 1t the bank rose
higher, and presently l saw some
tn n2 like a sharp point OF cloud pro.
ject itself downward from the black
mass All this time there was no
thunder nor lightning, hut only a
look about the sky that was dreadful
IL see, because it was so unnatural!
like 1t seemed as if something aw-
iul was going to happen. 1t was the
boy who called my attention to the
pointed cloud, and he said it was a
tornado beginning.
II pretended not to be afraid. and
IL. I..... II H..1.. .u"Istef' AZ '.u".,.
Tot lie likely to hit US But he was
as pale as ghost. Says he:
Don't you see that 1t is directly
southwest OF us?'
why, certainly replied.
What of that?'
"Taey always travel northeast,
he said. and we are right in the
track of ii.
Then we'll run away from it, ]
guess says l, 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 nearly touch ny the ground.
1t grew rapidly larger ana larger and
seemed to be approaching at 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 clearly
saw that il was a tornado that wa
coming, and no mistake, for the
strange cloud, which had the shape
Of a gigantic peg-ton was distinctly
outlined in its inky blacknesS again i
the general blur l began to fee
pretty badly frightened myself. Now
ard then, when | could take my eye
off the cloud, / looked at the b y
hut he only sat silent in the cab
staring at the great peg-top with
starting eyeballs aud white lips
Finally said
"'Do you think we are going t,
escape it?'
1--WE are right in its track, ht
said, without looking at me-
You see, we were running in ar
air line over the prairie, directly
northeast and pursuing the very
path i'll which the tornado was com
iug Any other course. with the
steam 1 had on, would have carried
Us out of the way.
'.The 10y shoveled more coal on
lie had already done so three or fou
Tunes since the strange cloud wa
sighted. But it was no use. Thu
engine was doing its best, and sh'
wasn't capable Of more than abou
lhirty-ei.ht miles an hour.
It's gaining on u.s. said. IHov
fast does such thing as that travel?
About a hundfed miles an hour,
replied the boy, white as sheet.