The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-14
CHASED BY A TORNADO
A LOCOMOTIVES TERRIBLE RACE
WITH A BLACK TERROR.
An Engineers Experience with a
..Twister- The Fireman Know
What Was Behind Them and
shouted, ..sIake the Bend.' - The
Engine Broke Her Record.

" nat was SenInu Ihem ana
shouted, "sIake the Bend.' - The
Engine Broke Her Record.
Henry Wetherell, an engineer on the
Jersey Central railroad, told a reporter
his experience with tornado in Kan
sas 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 a
day for breeding a tornado. [ was
working on a one horse railroad in
southern Kansas. The superintendent
wired me to fetch my engine distance
of about 70 miles to a place called
PeterstoWn.
Well, 1 got fuel and water aboard as
quickly as possible and started for
Peterstown, taking it rather easily, be-
stand fast running well. 1t was an
hour out from my starting place, and
had gone Is miles perhaps, when [
noticed some queer looking clouds on
the western horizon.
The day was extremely sultry, and
there was d curious sort of a glare over
the landscape which made it look sort
|of feverish. | can't think of better
word for describing it. There was
something unnatural about the appear
ance of everything. My fireman was a
boy who had been brought up in that
region, and he said that it looked like
a tornado coming. He ought to have
been a good judge of the symptoms be-
cause the whole of his family, together
with all their property and live stock,
had been wiped out by such a 'twister."
BY the time we had gone maybe
eight or nine miles farther a dense
bank of clouds had spread around to-
ward the southwest. 1t was black as
ink, but beneath it was a blank streak
of white. / had never seen anything
that looked quite like it before.
1t seemed as if something awful was
going to happen. 1t was the boy who
called my attention to the pointed
cloud. and he said it was tornado be-
ginning.
'Then we'll run away from it,
guess said |, pulling the throttle wide
open. But the boy, he said nothing
only watched the clouds in the dis
lance.
BY this time the pointed cloud had
got very much bigger, the lower end of
it nearly touching the ground. 1t grew
rapidly and larger and seemed to be
approaching at a great rate of speed,
west and southwest became blurred TO
the eye, SO that nothing could be made
out very clearly. l saw that it was a
tornado that was coming, and no mis-
take, for the strange cloud. which lad
the shape of g, gigantic peg top, was
distinctly outlined in its inky black
ness against the general blur. [ began
f,,;r ~I,+~ IA
Now and then, when / could take my
eye off the cloud, l looked at the boy,
but he only sat silent in the cab, STAR
ing at the great peg top with starting
eyeballs and white lips. Finally L
said: ae
do you think we are going to es-
cape it?"
I'VE are right in it's 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 tornado was coming. Any other
course with the steam l 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 sighed.
doing it's best, and she wasn't capable
of more Than about thirty-eight miles
an hour.
TITS gaining on us, 1 said. How
fast does such a thing as that travel?"
''About a hundred miles an hour"
replied the boy, white as a sheet.
If that had been true, l would not be
here to tell the story. 1 have since
learned that eighty miles an hour is
supposed to be the best tornado can
do. My belief is that this one was go
ing at about sixty miles. Anyway, it
wasn't more than six or seven miles
distant by this time, and gaining on us
rapidly. If my reckoning was correct,
it would catch us in a little more than
20 minutes
1t was the most frightful spectacle
TO look at that can possibly be I'm lg-
ined. To me it seemed to be a mon
strous giant, pursuing us with an evil
intention to destroy. Now and then
it's blackness would be transformed in
to a dark green, and it was constantly
lighted up by flashes, as if it were an
immense balloon Illuminated from
within. 1t appeared to whirl around
with inconceivable rapidity and from it
came a sound across the prairie as of
believing, with voice so awful that the
of the locomotive was lost in
it, OF the destruction it was accom-
plishing | could ges no notion from my
point of view. Fortunately there were
few settlements in that part of the
country, but as 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 |
rocking of the engine made it difficult
10 keep ones feet-and clutched nv
arm. I stopped my head, and he yelled |
nto my ear the words, Make the /
oend.'
| knew what he meant on the in
slant. Less than ten miles ahead of |
is was bridge over a river, after
which the road turned abrupt |
Y southwark. 1t was a freak railway
anyhow, and its zigzags were intended |
% pass through as many supposed |
;enters of future population as pos |
;ible. The only stretch Of it in a |
straight line was just where we got /
,aught by the tornado. If we could get /
o the bend ahead of the monster, we
night be saved
AS you may well imagine, I had no
opportunity to consider the plan calm
Y and in detail, but it struck me like
| fash. 1t was, race for life, sure
enough. If that engine never did her |
orty miles an hour before, think she
must have done that and more, too.
hen. With the great funnel cloud
acing on behind us, steadily approach
ng. we tore over the rails.
Six miles passed as well as / could \
and the monsted was only
our miles behind. Three miles more
md it lessened the distance by mile
It least. But we were near the river. .
minute later and we were crossing
he bridge. No time then to heed the
warming that trains must rum slowly 1
ver this stream
We flew around the curve and
c,-I,. 4 Il ri