The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-06-03

=
the town. One was black and the other
| dun colored. They fused and then
| moved toward the village. The funnel
| shaped cloud jumped half O mile and
then struck Mount Carmel The cloud
was shaded in light and dark strea1s
| like black smoke and steam. Many
singular things occurred. The tornado
just missed the house of Rev, Joseph
| Harris, but destroyed a brick house
across the street. One Of the bricks
was hurled through the Harris house.
1t was spinning rapidly and bored a
| smooth round hole through the side Of
the house and the partitions of the two
rooms, passing a distance of twenty
seven rest. The laths were cut as with
| a kres.
CURIOUS FRANKS.
| At Philip STEMS place a remarkable
| circumstance occurred, according to
the signal service officer who made the
report of the tornado. A stable resting
| on heavy round blocks was thrown to
the northeast. These blocks were six
teen inches in diameter and fourteen
| inches in length and imbedded In the
| ground. At one end the supporting
block rested on a second block. the bot
tom of which was two feet below the
surface of the soil. These superincum-
bent blocks were shot out of the soil,
the lower one lying foot distant from
its former bed and the upper one car
ried away. This very strongly sug-
gests the discharge of powerful elec-
trical currents from the ground. The
! facts were fully substantiated by the
officer. In this tornado sixteen were
killed, 100 injured and 100000 damage
done.
Louisville had it's fourth and last tor
nado March %, 1890, and seeks no fur
ther notoriety of this nature Seventy
six We're killed and hundreds injured,
while the damage exceeded $1,000 600.
There had been light rains all day. but
about o'clock in the evening the
| heavy cumuluS clouds showed signs
or dispensing. y cloud from the north
west and one from the southwest came
together and in the contact 1t looked as
IL both were shattered to pieces and
| the fragments thrown upward and
laterally by force of the shock. The
| space below was filed by the misty
cloud. There was incessant lightning
and the roar of the thunder was con-
tinuous. The wind at Louisville ceased
at $50 and few hailstones fell. Seven
minutes later the tornado struck at
Eighteenth street and Broadway and
cut through the city. 1t was all over
] In forty-five seconds, but the destruc-
tion was appalling. The moon after
the storm shone with a reddish light.
a peculiar tornado passed through
Boone county Missouri, on May 90,
1891. 1t is described as a funnel-shaped
cloud with pendant tail. which was
| likened to huge serpent by some and
| by others to a Zgzag white sheet,
which appeared and disappeared sever
al times and extended along the side
OF the pendant from top to bottom. A
number of small twisters were seen
spinning along the ground. and finally
united In the air, where. after present.
ing steamy white appearance, the
| cloud became perfectly black A SUBJ
sidlary storm followed and Joined the
main storm cloud. At one place the
cloud had five pendants. Very large
| hailstones fell north and east of the
storm; houses were torn to pieces and
IN many places trees were carried in a
direction opposite the movement Of the
storm. Fruit trees were stripped of
their bark and chickens feathered and
half cooked. A running current could
be plainly seen in the funnel of the
| tornado.
STUDYING THE STORMS.
A remarkable series of tornadoes
swept over Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri
and Iowa on May 20 and 80, 1879 The
weather bureau detailed Sergeant ]. p.
f1nley to make study Of these storms,
ana he prepared a report, which has
proved Of inestimable value, and which
yet stands as a model of its class. Fin
ley was an enthusiastic student Of
weather phenomena, and today is rec
ognized as the ablest authority in the
world on tornadoes and other forms of
| marked atmospheric disturbances. He
has probably done more than any one
man In the service to reveal the secrets
OF the whirlwind He made an exhaus-
tive study of the great May storms,
and In his official report notes many
peculiar incidents.
The Lee Summit, Mo-, tornado came
from the southwest and began it's dead
~ work at $50 in the evening. 1t had
been sultry during the day, with a
strong southerly wind, which had been
blowing for nearly a week. It first
struck the farmhouse of Mr.. Henderson,
or Cass county In describing it Mrs.
Henderson said she could distinguish
q gyratory movement in the clouds,
contrary 70 the hands of watch. It
was boiling. twisting and drawing itself
up ard down like snake hung by the
| head and writhing in agony. The low
er part Of the funnel appeared to be
about the size Of a water bucket and
| the upper portion as large as the larg-
| est-siZed wagon wheel. The outer por-
tion was very black and looked like
smoke issuing from locomotive, while
the inner part had light. milky ap-
| pearance. Ten miles east of there the
tornado had widened out to $50 yards.
| 1t destroyed the house of DR.. Dunning-
ton, but missed a hencoop which was
directly in its path. The bed clothing
and clothes Of the family were torn
into shreds and looked, said the doctor,
las If some person, out of pure mis-
chief, had carefully torn them into
small strips" Dr. Huntington found
receipt for lumber bill at Knoxville,
Ray county, across the Missouri, to
which point, distance of forty miles,
1t had been blown. After leaving the
doctors house the storm developed q
second funnel. which branched of to
the south and did considerable damage
1t picked up G0O-pound sulky culti-
Vator. broke 1t to pieces and scattered
its fragments in circles over twelve
| acres Of ground. A heavy lumber
wagon Jared better IT was carried 100
yards and deposited uninjured.
The Warden family had hard time
Mr.. Warden, jr, was carried with the
house about 200 yards. His father and
younger brother pursued about the
same course, except that the former
was blown to the northwest and there
remained with the east side of the
house. All of them were covered with
mud from head to foot eyes, mouth
and ears filled and clothing torn to
shreds. The Oldest son had his shoes
blown from his feet, one of them be-
ing left at the house and the other car
ried half mile to the northeast The
bodies of the children who survived
after having been washed daily for
week were still covered with specks of
fine dirt and leaves which seemed to
be driven into the flesh. A carpet upon
the floor of the log part of the house,
securely tackled about the edges was
taken up and carried out of the house
without being torn. Several photo
graphs which were known to be secure
ly placed in an album in trunk were
found four YOi1ec oway Tuo cto,o,