The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-28
ST. LOUIS WOE.
Three Cyclones Seemed to
Meet Over the
Doomed City.
ToDAY's SCENES OF DISASTER
Awful Loss of Life and Tire
mendous Destruction Of
Property.
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION AFFECTED
The City's Mourning May Cause
the Postponement of the
Political Circus.
TIMELY AID FROM CONGRESS
The Injured and Homeless to BE
aided BY Doctors and Supplies
From Washington
TIMELY AID FROM CONGRESS

From Washington
ST. LOUIS. Mo-, May 2S, 1S96-The his
tory of the storms movement last night
is quickly told. The day was an oppres-
sive one in the city. There was no wind
and the people suffered from the heat.
About, four o'clock in the afternoon the
entire western horizon was baked with
clouds. These were piled one upon the
other, with curling edges, yellow in
tinge. A light wind sprang up and a
sudden darkness came upon the city.
This darkness increased until the storm
broke. 1t gave the first alarm to the
thousands of people in the streets, at
the pleasure parks, in the light craft on
the Mississippi or at work in the great
mercantile establishments. There seemed
to be three separate cyclones. They came
from the northwest, the west and the
southwest. When they reached the
Mississippi River they had become one.
1t was a quarter to five when the storm
broke Its descent was so sudden that the
fleeing women and children were caught
in the streets and hurled to destruction
or buried under falling walls.
Before the mass of clouds in the west,
hanging over the villages of Slayton,
Fernridge, Eden and Central, gave vent
to their frightful contents, the tunnels
shot out from them. Some of these
seemed to be projected into the air, others
leaped to the earth, twisting and turning.
Lightning played about them and there
was a marvellous electrical display. Then
came the outburst. Three of the tunnels
approached St. Louis with wind that
was travelling at the rate of eighty miles
an hour.
From the clouds above a strange crackl-
ing sound came. This filled the air and
at times was stronger that the incessant
peals Of thunder The tunnels envelopad
the western side of the city and in thirty
minutes were wrecking destruction. So
destruetible was the cyclone, and so ir-
resistiole and so much greater in magni-
tude than any other the country has
previously known of, that some of the
staunchest business blocks went down
before it. Iron beams were torn from
their fastenings and carried blocks away
as if they were feathers. Roofs braced
and held to their positions by every device
known to the best builders of any day.
were torn off as if held only by threads.
Telegraph poles fell in long rows, not
coming down one by one, but in groups
of a dozen or more at a time.
The east end of the Ends bridge, one
of the most solid and finest bridges in
the world, was destroyed.
The other bridges spanning the Mis-
sissippi We're all injured. Scores of per-
sons were drowned, or, after being killed
on the land, blown into the water.
Steamers were blown high on the banks.
Others were turned around. Still others,
after being torn from their moorings,
disappeared and have not been heard
from. AS a rule the smaller craft were
sunk. Not while within the city limits
did the tunnels rise and fall from the
ground, as is usually the case in cy
clones in small places. There was no
rebounding and subsequently, whatever
was in the path of the wind was either
destroyed or badly injured. And this
destruction was done within an hour,
the bells of the city were pealing six
30 clock when the worst of the storm had
passed
In East ST. Louis the devastation was
as great as in st. Louis proper Fire
added to the destruction, and as the
streets were Uttered with rubbish and
debris, the fire department was helpless.
The loss by fire alone will approximate
s1,00O.O00.
There was an anxious time after the
storm, when ST. Louis could not con1mu-
nicate with the outside world. Nor could
her own citizens communicate with each
were useless Telegrams impossible; hus-
bands could not get word to their resi-
deAses Wives at home could not reach
husbands Breaking at the hour it did,
and the night following, the work of
rescue was slow.
The firemen ard police were made aids
10 the surgeons and physicians Of the
city. The electric lights being cut, search
ing parties in the ruin-strewed streets
could not go ahead. They had to wait
f5r daylight.
The only fairly reliable report of the
storm came in about midnight from Mi
Ian, in Sullivan county. That is north
west of st. Louis. The big black cloud
was seen there and there was a high
wind, but no damage. ii crossed the
attacked this city.
The irnpossibility Of wire connections
with towns destroyed west Of St. Louis
makes it difficult to get an accurate total
of the number killed in the entire path
way of the storm.
The scenes at the City Dispensary were
almost indescribable Thirty minutes af-
ter the cyclone had passed, no less than
twenty wounded were lying on the floor
OF the waiting room. The first ambulance
to arrive brought three persons. and these
mad not been attended to before the clang