Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-06-25
Another Storm in st. Louis.
CITIZENS FEARED A REPETITION
OF THE TORNADO OF
MAY 9th.
Mound City AGAIN Visited by a Hur-
ricane-W Wind and Rain Do Con-
siderable Damage Houses,
Poles and Trees Go
Down.

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, June 22.-For a few
minutes yesterday afternoon st. Louis
was in a furry. A vicious storm came
up out of the west at 2 O'Clock and
tore through the town with great
buster. 1t was a threatening little
blow, and it barked and snapped with
all the vigor of a mad dog. 1t tried to
emulate the tornado, but it's attempts
we're feeble. a few damaged roofs,
some ruined signs, several overturned
small vehicles, and a number of brok-
en- windows are all the damage it
could do.
But 80 arr as working up the people
to a state of hysterical fear is con-
cerned the storm was an unqualified
success. 1t came so suddenly and
~vehemently that it caught the city I'M
prepared. All morning it had been
sultry and humid, and, while the
clouds did not give particular indica-
ton of storing any tornado energy,
the thoughts of the men and women
and children who lived through the
awful experience of the 9th of May
went back to hat time instinctively.
There was a mad rush to close win
dows and scrambles for safe orner
in the residence districts. The light
ming was of a sharp, steel-blue, snappy
kind, followed by reports of thunder
that seemed to tell of execution in
every boom. Women and children
prayed and men, against their ownin-
herent convictions, hoped that it was
only a summer shower.
On the street cars and down town
there was almost a panic. Signs and
small debris whirled through the
streets and clouds of dust rolled up
and obscured the vision of even the
keenest eyed. The hotel Hobbies were
filed in ten seconds with half crazy
crowds, and every sheltered spot held
its quota of %shivering citizens. Occa-
sionally a stray piece of tin roof would
come along the street, noisily rolling
and jumping, conveying to those who
saw it the impression that all the roofs
in the vicinity were being blown
away.
The news, peanut and banana stands
on various down town corners yer
overturned and their contents strewn
along the streets for blocks. But
there were no small boys around to
gather the spoil-at least not until
after the storm had passed.
The storm did not follow the route
of the tornado, although a por ton of
the tornado district was swept by the
wind. In this manner a large amount
of damage was done to buildings,
which had been torn up by the lorna
do, and were undergoing repairs. The
scaffolds were torn down and piles of
lumber blown into neighboring yards.
Roofs which had been half completed
were scattered all over the neighbor-
hood. A large number of trees were
blown down on Washington avenue,
Pine and Olive streets, and at Twenty
first and Clark avenue a new telegraph
pole, which had been put in to re-
place one broken by the tornado, was
snapped off close to the ground.
st. Patrick's church, at Sixth and
Biddle streets, which was damaged by
the tornado, felt the force of yester-
days wind. The roof of the church
was weak from the effects of the tor
nado, and the breeze tore off a num-
Der of the loose boards and whirled
them around the street corners. A
number of the telephone, telegraph
and electric light wires were blown
down, and the service was poor for
some time after the storm had passed.
A feed wire of the Missouri electric
light system fell on Twenty second
street, near Olive street, and cut off
the lights in many of the residences of
the West end. At the same place
several of the wires used by the Bell
Telephone company came down, and
over 500 phones were rendered use-
less.
A small sized panic was created in
the Turner hall at Thirteenth and
Arsenal streets, where a large crowd
had assembled to pass the afternoon.
The wind lifted a portion of the roof
off the building, and everyone on the
inside made a rush for the street. No
one was injured, but the pleasure of
the day was married considerably by
the narrow escape.
A peculiar coincidence occurred at
the Three Mile House on Easton
avenue. This place was struck by the
tornado May q and a t~en-foot section
of the o a wall was carried away, and
the front windows broken. The wind
yesterday played the same trick,
breaking the same windows and tear
ing out the same section of wall, which
had been repaired since the tornado.
The German Lutheran church at
Twentieth and Benton streets was
filed with people when the storm
came, and it was a badly scared crowd.
When the storm reached its height
several of the stones in the steeple of
the edi1ce became dislodged and fell
through the roof of the church. The
congregation stampeded to the street