Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-09
THROUGH a CYCLONE.
An Eyewitness Account of the An
ties of the Michigan Tornado.


ties of the Michigan Tornado.
Correspondence of tho Boston Transcript.
The cyclonic column was black as tar.
had a sort of swirling, onward motion. and
was accompanied by a horrible roar. unlike
any other sound ever heard on earth. For
twelve miles it followed the highway rs
carefully as if it had been laid out for 1t,
and as if it knew that there the most
houses were to be found, licking them up
on either side like a winged demon reach
ing down out of the skies with his inky
tongue and adding to the horror by wrap
ping his work in more than midnight dark
Hoss-
Its ravages give one a new idea of force
and suggest something vastly more power
tui than wind alone. for what known pres
sure of wind can take iron Orders and rail-
road rails inches thick and in moment
twist them up like corkscrewS? Stout oak
trees We're torn into heaps of :livers, hard
ly larger than parlor matches; stately
buildings whirled around on their founda-
lions as if they had been toy tops; blocks
OF granite weighing two and three tons;
tossed about like boys marbles; and ami
mails and human beings We're sometimes rent
and sometimes dashed % pieces If they
hands.
What added to the impression of it's de-
Tsoniac character was the freakiness of it's
work. and amid all of its awful sOlemnties
there it would carefully pass by a field of
weeds and all around it would literally wipe
out fields of wheat Some houses it would
saEaSely tear all to pieces, furniture and
everything in them, except that it would
leave untouched a single room. and that
perhaps. on the side which first met it's
Jury. There were farms whose great barns
ana stately dwelling houses were utterly
demolished, but where some miserable lit
tie shed or outbuIlding. ready anyway to
tumble down. was left standing. With all
us horrible haste it would stop long enough
mere ana there to pull all the nails out of q
lot or clapboardS and shingles. IT drew
scme OF its lines 50 nicely and evenly that
IN one case house partly built had its
outer row of bricks all taken and its inner
row left without a scratch. Busyies were
hU.ig up on the top of tall trees. Not only
was the Scripture fulfilled that one shall he
taken and another left. but in some cases
orr-half was taken and the other half left
ore side OF trees bark stripped off and
he other side untouched, one-lalf of a
mans harrow left in his field, the other
ndIf not yet found. Cellars were the he
places of safety; but now and then. W hfIs
TIER own house was blown away leaving
the inmates unframed. the rubbish of
another mouse would be dropped on their
HeS4S. a little boy who had wandered
from his home in the afternoon alone and
Was thought to be inevitably killed was
discovered asleep in field, where he had
0rOppe1 down tired with his walk and over
MN protectinSly a great heap of lumber
Chichens were stripped clean of their feath-
ers, and in some cases fricassead An old
COW was taken ont of her rather scantv
pasture and set right down with only slight
harm N a rich, fenced-in meadow, where
she never before had been allowed to go.
farmer was milking out in his BARNARD
ana while his pail was not upset, the cow
was, and litter of small pigs that had run
IN under the barn cellar were lifted I'D and
Down out of its window, and went whiZ-
zjng and Squeezing through the air past his
mead, as II they had been q flock of birds
A lat old lady, when she heard ii coming
hasteled to shut the front door. placing
herSelt firmly against it, which the cyclone
tried in vain TO open. then, DISCOURAGED
WnlShed around to the back door, giving II
a shake. and then. in its hurry, passed on.
leaving her apparently the only successful
antagonist that its power found OF all the
losers, but one man had a cyclone fnsur-
arce, that about to expire in a few Cays.
and he had just made up his mind to write
the agent that he would not have II re-
newed when up into the air went his store
and all his goods, his 81, 900 saved by the
cy clones speeding along Moniay night in
ST. al OF daWdling till Friday noon Queer
Ell stllI farmers wife living out in the
country had purchased the day before a
doz.n milkpans and brought them home five
miles, and the next morntng more than
half of them were found in the back ward
or the very store at which they had been
bought.