The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-19

has been known to travel straight
along a country road for more than u
mile, wrecking everything in its path,
but not injuring the fences on either
side. The diameter Of this tornado
could not have been more than so or
80 feet, but its power was almost be-
yond belief.
But the curious freaks worked by
the cyclone Of the Kansas variety COM
mand more attention than its tremen-
dous force. The latter was proven last
year in the st. Louis disaster, when
great stone buildings were demolished,
locomotives tossed about and heavy
steelwork twisted into weird shapes.
But about the vagaries of the cyclone
On one occasion the roof of an eight
room house was lifted bodily, carried
200 yards, half way into a grove, where
1t seemed impossible that it could have
passed between the trees and left lying
fiat, but upside down, in a vacant
spot just large enough to receive it.
Occasionally the side of house is car
ried away and converted into kindling
wood while the rest of the edifice is
quite uninjured.
In one instance, in Iowa half a double
house was shattered to bits, while the other
half and the hall were quite untouched, even
the carpet on the hall floor remaining I'M
soiled, and the paper on the wall showed
neither spot scratch.
In another, the porch of a Kansas house
was cut away as neatly though with an
AK, queer contrast being seen in a third
case, where the house was destroyed and
the porch left standing intact.
In Nebraska the second story of an eight
room house was taken off and the first was
left, so little shock being given to the build
ing by the violent removal of the upper half
that the clocks on the mantelpieces were not
disturbed. and continued to tick usual.
A still more curious freak was PLAYED bv
the wind in a Kansas dwelling. double
house, with hall in the middle stood facing
the direction from which the cyclone was an
Hesid nts took refuge in their cave and listened
TO hear the fail of their home terrible
crash was heard, and they, Of course sup
posed that the house had gone. On emery
standing as before, but were almost paralyzed
with establishment to find the northeast wall
OF the dining room, which on the op-
posite side Of the house from the direction the
storm came. had been blown out. the furni-
ture, tables, dishes and all other contents
had been carried off and crushed in atoms
ana no other damage had resulted to any
part OF the building.
The cyclone which devastated Sherman
Texas in May Of iast year stripped nearly
all of the dead OF clothing, and from the feet
OF every corpse the shoes had been wrenched
THIS is q common trick of cyclones, but scien-
lists cannot fathom 1t. In many instances the
shoes disappear. being either torn to frag-
mentS so as not TO be recognizable as foot
wear or carried of to considerable distances
and dropped In places where Il found at all
they excited little comment. IN several in
stances, however. the shoes have been found
close to the bodies OF tho dead and in a
condition that Indicated very powerful cleo
trical action.
Sometimes these remarkable effects are pro-
the ruins caused by Kansas cyclone and its
condition csused no little wonder. 1t had