The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-14
INATExAS STORM HOUSE
sCENESIN A NERVOUS TOWN IN THE
TORNADO SEASON.

night Alarm.
| Dallas Correspondence New York sun.
The time Of year has arrived when
I life in many of the rural districts OF
l Texas loses its dun, monotonous aspect
and becomes highly exciting. The record
OF almost every week contains midnight
alarms hRir-breadth escapes, thrilling
runs for safety, and similar incidents.
The cause is not wild beasts or Indians,
| but the elements. The midnight alarms
are the result Of threatening clouds, the
thrilling runs are made TO the storm
houses, and the great source OF all dread
is the tornado, or cyclone as they call It
down here.
A stranger who enters a little Texas
town for the first time can tell very
easily whether a tornado has passed
through II or near it. If he sees in about
every second back yard a little mound
OF earth with a slanting cellar door open
ing into IL and a. piece Of stoyeplpe stick
I ing out at the top, he may rest assured
that the dread storm has been uncomfort-
ably near the place. and that the ciu-
! zens have been preparing places of refuge
! in case OF future visits. a tornado not
only unsettles material things for the
time being in the town that 1t visits. but
] IA d4aO uuGEttltS the nerve OF AuE EltlItuH
for all time to come. If the catechism
taught that he'll is a place where tor
nadoes come every night, the Sunday
schools IN a dozen different towns that
might be named would be filed to over
/ flowing The state has a much worse rep
utation in this respect than it deserves,
owing to its great area. All the storms,
| electric, atmospheric. political, or moral,
which occur within 500 miles east of FL
PasO or 800 miles south of Texllne, are
/ coupled with the one name Texas, but
had they occurred in the same scope
/ of territory anywhere else in the union
| the opprobrium would have been divided
/ among perhaps a dozen different states.
The storm house Is a great propagator
] of democratic principles. There is moth
| ing that breaks down difference of social
| rank quicker than q dark, threatening
| cloud In the tornado season. shall never
| forget seeing that illustrated one spring
/ afternoon with lot Of school children
/ I'm a small Texas town that had suffered
| from a tornado year or two previous.
School had just been dismissed, and the
! children were going in swarms toward
/ their homes. A dark cloud was coming
| up, thunder was muttering and rolling,
| and lightning was flashing in a way TO
make even man who had never had his
/ nerves unsettled on the subject just a
| tTifie uncomfortable; Suddenly big drops
/ OF rain, mingled with halls tones, began 20
| fall, and the wind began 10 come in big,
! ftful gusts. In any other town it would
| have been considered merely a sharp
| furry with nothing particularly alarm
| ing about it, but here It was fraught
| with suggestions OF unlimited possibill-
| ties of evil. With the first gust of wind
| the two or three hundred school children,
/ ranging in age from five years up to
| twenty, made a headlong break for the
neighbOring houses.
Helter-skelter they went-through gates,
| over fences, or under them, according to
the size Of the child-intO the first back
L frussnN 10 a. %
! the open storm house. 1t made no differ
| ence whether the child knew the owner
of the property or not and as for asking
] permission to enter, that was not to be
| thought Of Within two minutes of the
! first break, not a child was in sight. They
| had disappeared as completely as if tho
| earth has swallowed them up-and so it
! had. The length of time they remained in
] their hiding places depended to a slight
| extent upon the pleasantness of Their sur
| roundings, and to a much larger extent
upon the degree to which their nerves
| had previously been unsettled on the tor
/ nadO question. After about fifteen minutes
they began to poke their heads out
in the porting rain; then the holder start
| ed for their homes, looking like half
| drowned rats that the rain had driven
out of their holes. The more timId chill
| dren remained under the ground for sew
eral hours; Nothing happened but heavy
| much-needed rain, and IL nothing worse
| occurs in the town in the next forty years
| the citizens will probably regain some of
/ their lost confidence In the climate.
A great artist in search OF a bran-new
| subject that would afford an opportunity
| to show his skill in delineating facial ex-
preston With thoroughly pictgsr;e,s ss
\ and shadows should come to Texas and
| and paint the scene in "a crowded storm
/ house some night in the tornado season.
was one night when l was sleeping at the
house of a friend in one of the nervous"
| Texas towns The night was cloudy at
bedtime, but I slept soundly until I was
awakened by my friend knocking heavily
at my door.
big storm coming. I'll take my wife over
to the storm house and be back for you
| in minuteV
| noticed that the darkest, most ominous
| kind of sky had oVerSpread the whole SKY,
and that, great sheets of lightning were
making things as clear as day. every min
| ute or SO. There was a continuous roar
of the thunder. I had hardly, finished a
very hasty toilet when l heard my friend
MY wifes over. al old man Green's in
the storm house. he gasped. Hurry or
"But / don't know Mr.. Green 1 sug-
gested as we rushed out into the night
''Wen, I'll point him out to YOU" was
the slightly sarcastic reply.
AS we were crossing the street we heard
the voice of woman screaming in an
agony of fear: 1,-,.,-
| ''Wheres the gate to get inY where S
The construction of the sentence as
/ we'll q a SlRnI DIDkut III lIc lOitEt Ahui-
| Gated that the speaker was not an Amer
lean. Locking in the direction of the voice,
we could catch glimpses of white-robed
| figures whenever the lightning flashed.
Nv friend shouted some directions as to
where to find the desired gate. and then
.SThet's Roder, the little Dutch mer-
chant. and his wife. and kids. They're
coming 10 the storm house, too, you see. "
The location of the storm house was
revealed by the dim light that shone up
tkroueh the slanting, cellar-like doors,
left omen with the hospitable intention of
sbeltering any who might care to come in.
Descending. we found ourselves in the
presence of perhaps dozen people, all of
| them strangers to me, but all of whom
erected as Familiarity as If l had been a
friend of years standing. The single Ian
tern hanging on the wall gave all the
light we had.
III think Romer's coming" said my ori-
ginal companion as soon as he could re-
Cover the breath lost In running Il heard
his wife asking about the gate as I crossed
the street"
just then the patter Of feet outside an
| nounced the fact that the newcomers had
arrived Down the steps they filed and
| into the little room below. First came
three small chidren-whether boys or
girls 7 could not tell-each one clothed in
~