St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-03-24
cAPERs or 4 GEORGIA STORM.


ised All Its Franks.
Col Richard Malcolm Johnston, the
writer of southern plantation sketches.
tells some wonderful stories about
Georgia weather. He admits that he
would not believe them himself were
1t not for his unbounded faith in every
thing Georgian in general, and his per-
sonal knowledge and unlimited con-
tdence in the veracity of the men who
told him the stories in particular.
'.bheard them." he said. while on a
visit to my cid home in Hancock coun.
ty, Georgia, some years ago. and I
know that they are true. We had a
big storm down there about ten years
ago; the folks called It q hurricane.
the weather men said it was tornado.
But, hurricane or tornado. it cut some
queer old capers. Col. Humber, over
in Putnam county, saw the storm COM
ing TIP and knew il was going to be q
big one. There were q number OF la
dies at his house. and. of course, his
hrst thought was for them, 80 he got
them all safely In their rooms and
went down into the large hall which
ran through his house and shut the
door. Now. Col. Humber is big man
weighs about two hundred pounds.
When he got down stairs he found the
storm was blowing through his hall
way, and before he knew what had
happened it had picked him up. carried
him ont on his lawn. and laid him down
not roughly, but gently. At the same
time 1t took q heavy stone and brick
chimney of the house and laid it on
top OF him to keep him in place. 1t
didn't throw the chimney on him, but
laid it down with so little force that
only his leg was broken. In a moment
or two another gust came along. picked
mp the chimney and carried it OF. and
Col. Humber crawled back into the
house.
That same storm went little
further on till i. came to d barn in
which were two horses. two mules.
and two cows These were in separate
compartments. With a whirl the roof
Of the barn was taken off as clean as
whistle and carried away, and while
the stock was wondering what had
happened. q section of the storm weat
in the top of that barn, lifted those
horses and mules and cows high up In
the air and set them down again with
out hurting one of them. But the
queer part of the proceeding was that
when it had those animals in the air
the tornado changed their position SO
that when it set them on their feet the
mules were where the cows had been,
the cows were in the horses apart
ments. and the horses were occupying
the mules stalls.
But that storm hadn't finished cut
ting up its capers. 1t struck a house
in the same county and made its way
into lady's chamber. 4 bureau was
standing against the wall. having on
it q lot of such traps and trikets as la
dies usually have-ccsmetis, bottles
and SO on. A bandbox with a few
laces inside was standing by its side.
The wind took that bureau, moved it
to another part of the room, but didn't
disturb the bandbox. It went into an
other lady's room. picked up a trunk
filled with clothing. carried it out of a
window, and waited it over into Han
cock county-mv own county--and de-
posted it in a field forty miles away
from the house from which it had
been taken. It was found there
unbrokcn the next day and
returned to the owner. whose initials
were stenciled on its end. am glad.
however" remarked the genial colonel.
as he wiped his forehead. that the
storm didn't carry that trunk more
than forty miles. couldn't have be-
lieved another mile.
Georgia is a great state" he con-
tinued, but even such storms as that
do not occur often. To prove that such
queer things do happen. there is sec
tion of telegraph pole in the museum
Of the state university. This pole has
a light cypressshingle sticking through
it. about half. of Il projecting from
each side. That shingle was picked up
in q storm and blown clear through
the telegraph pole and left sticking
there. N. Y. Sun.