Evening star., 1897-01-23
THE GREAT M|DOlEv|LLE CYCLONE,
BY W. L. ALDEN.
Copyright. 1897. by ". L. Alden.)
u
s. s.

..Yes. sir" remarked the landlord. he
sat tanning himself on the veranda of
the yIiddieviIle Hotel: "as you say. this
town has sprung up like muskrat In
The night Why. only five years ago there
were only two houses here. and now we
have the biggest population of any town
in northern Minnesota. The two houses
Were. pretty small ores, too. Mine stood
lust where this hotel is standing, and II
was nothing more than one-story. two
roomed shanty. Capt. Martins house.
which generally stood on a knoll about a
quarter of a mile from here, wasn't much
bigger
What 10 you mean when you say that
your ueighbor's house generally stood on
a knun?" | asked Wasn't it in the habit
of staying in the same place.
Why what with cyclones, and cloud
bursts. and one thing apd another, that
there house did do considerable travelling
while il was in this section. WHAT be-
came of il after il left here I can't pre-
cisely say. but I rather think It made Its
last tourney when it went down to West
Antioch 1t was a curious sort of house,
being put together with ropes instead of
nails which was probably one reason why
il lasted ss long as it did.
You sea " continued the landlord. Il was
the first settler here. 1 took up a quarter
section of land. and with the help of two
mules and Norwegian l put up my house
and went to farming. About six months
later along comes Capt. Martin, and al
lows that he will farm the quarter section
next to me. He nan about sixty
Years old who had been L seafaring man
all his days and like most seafaring men
he WI rted To he a farmer. though ne dldn
know beans from bulls foot. First along
i thought he was sociable sort of old
chap. and he and me used TO spend our
evenings [, gether. But L found out that
he wouldn't take any advice. and Wheh
/ told him that be was a blamed fool Tor
bUiI,.ing Z. house knoll in a country
" nere cyclones We're almost as common as
snakes. he got mad and dropped my ac-
qtI.5HtiEce- He was as touchy as he was
opilionated. which Is saying a good deal
Well. ne built his house with the help
OF "a couple Of men from Lucullus. which
at that time the nearest settlement TO
uS ard was considered to he seven miles
from Fere. though now that MiddieNtiie
has grown clear up 20 the southern boun-
diary Of l.ISuilu<, it don't seem 10 oe so
far away. / told you that Martin : house
Wa put together with rope lashiEgs. The
captain said that no land carpenter knew
hOv "a buIld Il house and that he ha.n
any ufitisuGe ill nails. and diun consluSr
them Ship-Shape His house vas much the
same thin as mine. except that 1t had a
" trantid on one side where the captain
used walk up and down and look at
things through telescope
-RetW IN my land and Martins there
was thu. nigh road though at that time 1t
wasn't often that anybody passed over H.
ami by the idle of ;he road and just at the
foat If lIi-. captain Knoll. ran the Pom
ponooSuC river IL don't look much like a
river al his time of year. and You could
jump across II most anywhere. but JUST
You wai; ill the spring freShetS SCI III, ana
you'll admit that ii is right smart of
am I've known half dozen men
sub.r men. too-to be drowned in the Pom
IronoosIIc. which is more than the Lucul-
luS people can say for their miserable little
river one of the last things that said to
the captain before he and me had cool
nes. was that he had better dig cyclone
pit YCu know what that is. l suppose?
No? Wei. then. I'll tell you It's just
hole in the ground. about six feet deep.
covered with trap door when you see
cyc!cne C0mins you get into your cyclone
pr and shut the door until the trouble is
Owe It's ;he only safe way. for if yoI
stay il your house you're liable to DE
crushed to death. and if you stay outdoors
the cyclone will pick you up and carry you
10 kirgdt m come. But Old Martin wouldn't
hear Of digging a pit. He allowed that if
cyclone dill come ne calculated 10 be on
deck aud S-e il out He said it was all
very well for me 10 Skulk down below,
seeing as | was only landsman but that
h. considered that the quarter deck was
the proper place for him i'll bad weather.
] made ny cyclone pit nearly opposite his
house. ard close 10 the road. for | calcu-
lated 20 Us" it a han.iy place for keep
ing SEov.lS and spades and rdkes and such
and saving the trouble of bringing them
UP 10 lnr mouse taDt- Martin used TO
Seer a gcod deal at my pit. and called ii
a glory hole which l considered 10 be ir-
Religious as well ungentlemany How
ever the Gav came when he would have
ben mighty glad to have a cyclone pit
and tu he able to climb down into il NTH
out my knowledge.
The captain hadn't been living in his
Tew house above six months when the
great cyclone of 1881 came along and /
don't doubt that you have heard of it, 1t
was about IL o'clock of the morning and
u was at Least twenty degrees hotter than
IL - today. though il only the middle
OF June instead of the middle of August
1her~ wasn't d breath of air stirring and
The sky had sort of greasy. coppery look
tEdt made YOU feel sort of Suffocated lust
10 look AT it The mules and the Norwe-
gan Wer, lying under Il tree down in the
sorghum field. and | was making a pre-
tsrSe OF wedding my onion bed though |
DION make much headway with il. | hap
p"uri 10 tIrn round. and there in the north
west vas little patch of cloud which |
" ds glad to SEE. thinking | did that per
heps II might mean rain. But while ] was
looking al it could see ii was spreading as
last as q gallon of petroleum would spread
n you dumped II into mill pond. In
lew minutes pretty near one-half the sky
was covered with a cloud that was as black
a. PittSbJrg coal smoke. The way il spread
reminded me OF parcel of laying a
carpet on The stage of a theater You could
see the upper edge of the cloud rolling over
"a IE-s4F lafE.sV