Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-04-10

Timber which had stood hundreds of
years, ceibas and expresses, like oaks and
pines, sprawlcd down among the tangled
underground, mere masses Of splintered
matcawocd. The manerove thfckets were
clogged with stones, with grasses, with
gray tangles # Spanish moss. Lakes were
licked from their beds md spirited far
over the creamingwaters of the gulf. The
land birds were driven like helpless spume
fakes far away to sea and choked with the
gale before they were flung breathlcss
from its clutches. The palmetto shucks Of
the humber coast jewellers vanished in
dust. The frame houses of the better TO
do burst at all their angles and spread like
platforms upon the ground
And meanwhile the great struggling
wooden hotel on Point Sebastian dissolved
away like a sand bank in n flooded estuary
First the he:r twisted shingles had been
stripped OF, flying away into the wind
like some strange dark fowl sent as ayart
couriers of more fearsomc things to come
Then weatherboards followed. singly and
in coycys, then gable ends and joists and
raf,crs, oil floating ana pitching in the
cir rs though the wind had the density Of
tossing ocean stream. Chairs and wood
en- bedsteads, clothes blown out into gro
tesque shapes rs though the freakish spir-
It's Of the Storm had donncd ther,, the
scantlin2 Of the long piazza, and still
moro boards whirred out into the night
and vanished forever dom the tract, CT
the cyclone. And in the thick of this
devils bombardmcnt crcuchCd men and
women, and other things. shapeless and
horrible, which had been men and women
once. The tale of tho dead grew with aw
fCl pace that night
h-,a sIa-n ,a1s r-,,S e,.,F IT, -
of the gale, and the driven out waters CT
the shore began to return and swir!cd
knee high about the two who were takin g
| refuge at the foot of the pile
Come" said Cembel, tai.ing the girl
by the hand, we must run for IL" And
he led the way backward, laundering
through piled up pounds CT wrcci:aCc
while the singing spindrift gwiricd
around their heads ana bit thoin upon the
| face like whips. But u flying missile from
out of the inky biacknesS struck him on
the curve of the temple before he had gone
with her 20 yards, and the grip of his fin
gers looseDci, and he swaycd and fell
without n word. Thc girl threw herself Oh
his body, Ua!l!ng tha5 he was killed AID
l that she. too, would stay there and die,
but "a wild hope seized her that he might
/ be only stunned, and she took his body in
her arms, ard half dragging. half carry
Ing, began TO so with E,m once more by
tedious inches toward the beach.
Ihoh inc cyclone Dirss oua airesh with
| all the torrent of its fury, and to move o.
even stahd AGAINST the wlau was thing
| impossible. Tie girl and Ter burden were
| ilurg hcavil, &c the ground, and Il mass
| oil driving wrccSuSo slid above them and
pressed them down. Oh, Pat, Pat, she
| cried. II did so want to live with you,
ana now we must both die hcrc''
!Errc terrible hours more they spent
there, tho girl expecting violent death to
iail Oh Fer every next second, the man IL
hef arms gradually returning to conscious
nos. Ana then, like an organ whose
| WIFI chamber las cInptied itself. tho cy-
cionc suddenly dropped its voice 1t had
| arisen in u minute to the full of its
strength, ans In single minute 1t luilcd
10 GREATNESS cnin, leaving the air
secured and sweet and tho land a tangled
| desert. The sea alone remembered its lash
ing actively ana fumed in swell of sui
| len majesty in its deeper parts and sent its
angry waters back In ripping surf on to
those shallow western beaches from which
| 1t had been sn ruthlessly evictcd.
1t was from this last returning tidal
wave that the final danger came, but the
| two under that Pile of wrcckage managed
| 10 slip from beneath the wood when the
w1rers luosencd it and to run in the break.
| ing dawn to the higher ground beyond.
| They were bruised, both CT them, and
| CaIaDcl was bleeding from n Jagged cut on
tho head; bu;, after all, their hurts were
| trifiing compared with what they might
have been. Three thousand people died in
| that Nights work among the southern
sSstcs, ana tho air was torn with the moar
OF those who were lett, iamenting Us they
sought their dead.
Ihae dag all who could lift pair O.
iaH'S h'''i WON 10 NC, ana inc next ant
! 'hc He~', put On inc iourth ia! from TN
! cyclone "heii 'nc lailch hau been buried
, Gnu .no q.i1A houseu, oaihoei manage
-. -. ~ " s'U "'ru ei .eVo-h
~ wen '"I' N'oiHa" VINO hao saiu sh'
ionou MIN anu iia PROMISED 10 dc nj
We. n. Li1I co"hest inc matter owe: IL
L ans i,'th.'' .'." NJ he,y ars"mene ha'
u - nu' W i,!iu az! vi ms "na!fs sc
~ TN lor, ms " Vou'se, naVihS par
,icuiar ['!eFthce 10 'he one ;'nair by which
,,;sin,iS y, 5;e;"',,,;a ii.t nc ni''
80 h.H''n.,-' an ne o'er H. ou
..uI-.n :, ~ -. %
| - 's'i"' S"iiie Here 10 LOT