Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-20
Four st. Louis Bn rbers Say 1t Follow.
ed n Pillar of Fire and Had Fier,

Arms.
From the st. Louis Republic
Up on the top floor Of the Wainwright
building there is a neat little barber shop
presided over by Louis Tisch. The BARRIERS
in the building, Tisch, G. =. Adams, John
b. Huppert and A. Rust, the storm
from start to finish, and they tell mos,
| remarkable story about 1t. They say tina,
1t was not funnel-shaped cloud such as
is commonly pictured Us being the shape
of tornado. Each solemnly swcars 1t was
horizontal black cloud that moved
through the city with a twisting motion
like screw. faster than any railroad train
that ever ran. Preceding the black cloud
was dense yellow cloud that looked as
though Its interior was a mass of flames
From out Of this cloud shot long fiery
arms in every direction, and wherever one
OF these arms struck something went to
pieces.
T1sch compares the cloud to a big ser
pent that wriggled along up in the air and
thrust out multiforked tongue, as though
in anger.
Shortly before the storm broke. Hupper,
went up on the roof. and came back with
the Information that there was a tornado
In sight Rust followed him, and came back
with a confirmation of the report and
then the two BARRIERS went out and saw the
grand marshaling of the storm in the ives l.
ern skies. When the rain began they came
down into the shop, and the last they saw
as they We're coming through the scuttle
was the advance guard of the tornado as i;
came in from the southwest
The barber shop is at the southeast cor
ner of the building. and all around it are
little windows, round, like the portholes in
a ship The BARRIERS stood at the south
windows and watched the tornado from the
time 1t appeared, away off to the southwest
until portion of it rolled up against the
building and made them wish they were
somewhere else. Tisch saws they saw
houses and business blocks go down before
1T. their view of the destruction it was
wreaking being made plain 10y tine yellow
cloud of fire that preceded the storm prop
er. He is sure it crossed the river some
distance below Park avenue switched
around when 1t got nearly 20 the Illinois
shore, and started directly up the stream.
In this he is borne out by the statements
OF the others who were watching it.
Just as they were getting -eady to move
around TO the east windows, in order TO
observe the passing of the storm up the
river. gust of wind and rain that shook
the building came along, and they were in
the midst of the storm. When next they
saw the river and the city below the
storm had passed, and the rain was falling
straight down. They saw dozens of
wrecks floating down the stream. and on
the other side saw ali the steamboats,
blown away from the harbor and piled up
along the bank. Then came the second
storm, followed by the ST Louis Wooden
Gutter Company's fire, which they saw
from their airy observatory. 1t was late
when they went down, after three hours of
uninterrupted excitement.
A colored boy named Nose Is one Of the
valued attaches of the shop and he was
one of the spectators when the awful cloud
was first seen. He instantly started for
the ground, and he got there in a hurry.
He forgot about the elevators and made a
slide, it is averred, down ten flights of
stairs. No amount of persuasion could get
him back to the shop that night. Next
morning when he was being twitted about
having run away from the storm he re-
marked: "Oh, there was Others"