The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-25

! either torn to fragments so as not to
/ be recognizable as footwear or carried
! on TO considerable distances and
/ dropped in places where, if found at
all, they excited little comment. IN
! several instances, however, the shoes
I have been found close to the bodies of
! the dead and in a condition that indi-
Gated very powerful electrical action.
Some years ago a shoe was taken
from the ruins caused by Kansas
cyclone, and its condition caused no
little wonder. 1t had been ripped
from the foot Of man who was killed.
! The strings were gone and the upper
portions, from ankle to sole, were cut
into tolerably regular strips from a
quarter to half an inch in width. The
sole seemed at first glance intact, but
q closer examination showed that this
portion was pierced by a number of
small round holes. They were the
holes where the metal nails or tacks
had been: the latter had disappeared,
melted by the electricity.
Metal objects on the bodies of per
sons killed are frequently thus treated.
The corset steels of women become
drops of iron, the knives of men and
punches of keys carried in the pockets
are fused into solid mass. Watches
and watch chains are often similarly
treated: in two or three cases in
oOQltiEIIl IdHSdS TIE watch Oh d VIC
tim was not sufficiently melted TO lose
all its original form and could still be
recognized.
Sometimes these remarkable effects
are produced without visible injury TO
the body or TO the clothing that re-
mains on it, circumstance quite I'M
eXpiainable with our present knowl-
edge. When the clothing is removed
it is generally not found, being prob
a hlNr int ind icl, HI
but when it or portions of it are left
the wind treats it in the most whim
steal manner. In Iowa, in 1885, all the
clothing but the coat was torn from
the body of man, this garment re-
naming almost intact; in Kansas d
body was stripped of all save a collar
and cravat.
In its treatment of domestic ami
mails the cyclone often betrays a hui
morous side. In Kansas the feathers
of every chicken on farm were
stripped as clean as if an expert picker
had done the job. The unhappy fowls
were otherwise uninjured, although
considerably bewildered as to what had
happened to them.
Chickens are not the only sufferers,
however. for rabbits and cats caught
in the whirling wind are denuded of
their fur as completely as the fowls of
their feathers. They are not skinned
but stripped, the agency being prob
ably the same and the action identical
with that which rends the clothing
from the bodies of men,
Wherever a cyclone passes over a
spot the water in the wells and cisterns
is sucked out and disappears. The
same phenomenon occurs in the case
of springs, which are drained TO such
an extent that they sometimes fail to
run for many minutes after the storm
has passed. The water of ponds is car
ried away, and the beds of creeks and
small streams become visible.
One of the most disagreeable fea-
lures of a cyclone is the amount of
mud, sand and small stones it carries,
and with such force are these borne
along that they are driven into the
flesh, where they form fostering sores,
very stubborn and difficult to treat or
cure In many instances fragments of |
planks or boards have been driven |