Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-20
A NIGHT OF HORROR.
An Eyewitness Account of the
Arkansas Cyclone.
Interesting Extracts from Letter Received
From Friend by ]. c. Lawrence
Clark of Lancaster.

A letter has been received by ], C.
Lawrence Clark of Lancaster from
friend who was an eye witness of the
terrible cyclone at Fort Smith, Ark,
Tuesday night, Jan. II, which resulted
in numerous fatalities and great de-
struction. From this letter the Spy is
allowed to use the following extracts,
which give vivid idea of the great ca
lamity:
Fort Smith, Ark, Jan. 10. 1898
The day before the storm had been
rather warm, and after dark it began
lightning. l went out about 10 and
walked up and down the porch AS soon
as l opened the door I remarked how
sultry 1t had become. L remained out
there long time admiring the electrical
storm. In the west, the northwest and
the southwest there were almost con-
tinuous flashes of lightning, but still no
heavy clouds, nor wind, nor rain to indi-
! cate a storm.
| went to bed about II and Law watch
I ing the lightning in comfort. Esut in a
Few minutes jumped up and stood by
the window. Directly in the west was
a place where the lightning seemed to
| flash straight up and down quickly for
short time. And then 1 heard a roar
like train, or something vast tearing
through the air. 1t grew louder and
louder, and 1 could feel it was headed
straight for us. 1 grabbed my coat and
ran down stairs to where my mother
| and the children were. But before got
out of the room it had come with a ter
rible crash. By the lightning 1 could
see the trees Swaying as if they were
being Wrenched out of the ground. Then
the blackness, the roar, the glass crash
ing, the screamingl The house felt as if
| / crrir1
| you could feel that the air outside was
| thick with flying wrecloage.
| In few seconds it was all over and
the rain began pouring down. / put on
my clothes and hurried out for there
were outcries all around us 1 ran down
a street three blocks, but every house
was down and silent; only a few people
IN their night-clothes hurrying through
! the streets 1t seemed to me that people
must be buried under some of the
houses. I called out at all I passed, but
received no answer. The silence was
! FEARFUL In few moments l saw fire
! blazing to the east, and one in the west
[ started eastward. For four blocks
nearly every house was blown to pieces
l thought heard a faint cry under one
and started to run across the debris. I'm
the darkness 1 stepped through a win
/ dow, and stuck long piece of glass into
my ankle. L pulled it out, and the blood
running down felt like hot water
/ bandaged it so tightly that it couldn't
| bleed.
\ In few minutes it cleared off, except
for few fieecy clouds across the wan
I ing moon. There were four big fires
! Under one of the burning buildings
many people were buried. The path of
the cyclone had been almost due east !;
and in its. broad swath it left no house
untouched. Beyond our house, which
suffered little damage, on this side of
the street, there was not a house left
standing for half mile. All the tele-
! phone and electric light wires were
| down, and there was a wild stampede
of horses through the streets In other
parts of the town many people knew
| nothing of the damage till the next
morning.
At the time of the storm my brother
was up town, and / was worried about
! him. I looked among the dead bodies
that had been brought into the morgue.
There was a man there with a piece of
glass the shape of a dagger stuck
through his neck. There were many
crushed and burned. On all their faces
was unimag inable horror, except two
little children lying beside their father
who looked as if they were sleeping. AL
night and all next day, and even today,
they were bringing in more bodies.
The saddeSt thing of all is that some
of the people have lost everything, the
accumulation of years, in the destruc-
ton Of their homes. Many escaped with
nothing but their night-clothes. On all
| this there are only a few dollars tor
! nado insurance, as fire insurance does
not cover this damage. The cyclone was
something hardly dreamed Of as it is
very rare occurrence here; for, except
on the west, the city is protected by
| hills
But the town has gone to work with
| will. In a few months almost every
thing will be rebuilt better than before.
| OF course, it will be some time before
many of the sufferers have recovered;
but already considerable relief fund
has been subscribed. All this has not
been without it's lesson. With all its hor-
ror, it makes US little more human,
brings us a little closer together. Shout
der to shoulder we must close up the
gap.