Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-11-17
CANNON FOR CYCLONE
HOW A KANSAS TOWN ESCAPED
 DESTRUCTION.
The Deadly Tornado swerved from It's Course by an Artillery Attack-An Old Sea Captains Novel Idea-Baf1ed Elements. &

Hennessey, Ok, correspondence of the Philadelphia Times: The cyclone. which earlier in the week swept through Wisconsin and Nebraska, l wreeking towns and killing hundreds, reached Hennessey Thursday morning just before 10 o'clock, and that tka town is still standing and compara- lively uninjured is due solely to the l inventive genius of one of the citizens of this place, Capt John R. Hoades, 2 retired sea captain, who, though hith- erto generally regarded as visionary crank, is now hailed as the sa5 or of the hundreds of lives that but for his unique scheme would unquestionably have been lost.
 Mfr Hoades' scheme consisted in posting a large 15-inch smooth-bore Parrot cannon, purchased by popular subscription from the condemned stock at the New Orleans arsenal, on the four sides of the town, each gun un- der the care of watcnlul attendant l during the cyclone season. The can- non were designed to be fired into the face of an approaching hurricane, in the hope of breaking it's force.
 When the news reached here that l tornado was sweeping southWard over the prairies east of the Rockies, it was feared that when it reached the Cinna- mon river it would swerye from it's track and follow the course of the stream, as was done by the hurricane that killed seven people here in ths autumn of 1897, sharp bend in the stream then throwing the storr over the peninsula upon which Hennessey 1 is situated.
 The cannoh to the west, where tho town is partly protected by the Wichl- ia mountains, was accordingly with drawn and placed on the northern border as an additional protection. Un- fortunately, however. on the approach i of the funnel shaped cloud the western l gun was fired a couple of seconds too l soon, swinging the storm taward the i east, so that the shot from the etber gun did not take full effect The con- ] bined effort so changed the tornado's course, however, that only the ex- treme eastern edge of the town was touched, Int here the one house fur1 in it's path was completely demolished and the cannon which guarded that end of the peninsula was blown from its carriage, carried fully 300 feet and hurled in a sand bank. The atfend- ant at the gun, the inhabitants Of the 1
 warned in time to escape with their lives.
 In speaking Of the marvellous sucees9 of his plan for fighting tornadoes. Capt. Hoades, the originator of the scheme said:
 T can hardly claim to have invented she plan, for l have twice seen water spouts broken by the same method while following my former ayoeation on the sea. Indeed, it was this that first suggested the scheme to me"
 After the cyclone of 1897 I suggest ed that Hennessey, which is directly in the path of the south bound torna- does. adopt this apparently strange plan Of protection It is only fair ta state that at first was the laughing stock ef the town. and ,t was onlv by persistent argument that I finally in- crested MT. Thomas, of the Ghieasan coal company, in my plan. Backed by so influential citizen, we finally gathered together enough money by popular subscription to purchase four out of date guns that saw service around New Orleans during the civil war, and mounted them in the places selected. The most singular feature of the whole matter is that the one dwelt- ing destroyed by today's storm was occupied by the most persistent doubt CT in the town
 An effort will now be shortly made" Capt. Hoades concluded, "to similarly equip all cities in the tornado belt, the late experience of Wisconsin and Ne braska towns having clearing proyed that the hurricane cellars hitherto re- lied on are nothing but death traps in which their occupants are crushed be- heath fallen walls or burned in the fires which so frequently follow the storms"
 A town meeting will be held tonight to do honor to the aged plegerver of the town, and the mayor of Hennessey has declared his intention of resignirg his post in favor of Capt. Hoades, a suggestion that finds much favo, among those who owe their lives tc the captains foresight.
 renansiess French Prisons
 A correspondent writes from ro,, sarno thac 4ho dint.aaL 1