The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-07-05
A KANSAS CYCLONE.
Its Irresistible Advance Described by an
Eye Witness.


Eye Witness.
Being an enthusiastic wheeman, /
frequently take long rides into the
country. The evening of June 81
found me on the road from Topeka to
Lawrence. The heat of the MONDAY
sun had given way to slightly cooler
temperature, and the blue dome was
dotted here and there with floating
white clouds. There was scarcely
breeze enough to move the willing
foliage of the lofty trees on the bluff
north of the road. The whole world
seemed at peace. l could hear in the
distance the peculiar cry of the farm
hand calling the pigs to their evening
feeding. The milkmaid was busy with
the cows.
A" I moved slowly along, delighting
in the glorious beauty Of the landscape,
and in its peaceful activity, noticed
that the air felt so close and sultry
that l found exertion difficult; and
this, with rustling in the trees and
the yelling of the SUMS face, prompted
me to turn to the west, where it seemed
that thunderstorm was gathering.
1t moved along pidly-onlya summer
shower. To the left, along the bluff,
the gentle drops of rain were falling
with lullaby-like patter on the thiclzly.
clustered trees of the hillside forest.
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 a quarter of mile east of me.
1twas shaped like huge top, its irreg.
ularly-formed upper half revolving
rapidly while the lower end swept the
earth along path quarter of a mile
wide.
Startled as I was, could not take
my eyes from this awful messenger Of
destruction. The crash of the build.
ings first struck filed the air with fly.
ing debris, in which fragments OF
houses, furniture, trees, farming i'm
plements, haystacks and telegraph
poles-all were propelled by wonder
full, irresistible current of ruin and dis
aster.
Eighty rods wide the death-dealing
cyclone swept along, slsirting the bluff,
where it stripped foliage and bark
from the trees, and now and then
swooping down on some farm. So sud-
denly did the storm burst that many
had to flee with all speed to their
cyclone cellars, the only safe refuge
from these fearful storms.
After a course of half mile along
the bluff, the funnel-shaped monster
swerved to the right. 1t swept through
huge wheat fields, where it snapped of
the dropping heads of the almost
ripened grain, and then tore on through
the little village of Williamstown
Transforming what was the moment
before "a lovely village of the plain
into scene Of devastation. Houses
barns and other buildings We're de-
stroyed, and human beings carried
through space as if they were but
feathers
Many lives were lost and many homes
literally swept from the face of the
earth. There were many miraculous
escapes. A baby, sixteen months old,
was discovered by the roadside several
hundred yards away from the house,
asleep and uninjured. An old lady
sixty years old was carried mile from
her home and lodged safely in the
wide-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 exception of that por-
ton, and the family escaped injury. A
house was completely swept away; but
the family cat and her kittens under
the porch We're not disturbed. ohm
M. Steele, in st. Nicholas.