Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-09-20
The GeQt Mhd|euNe Cyclone.
By W. L. ALDEN.
Copyright, 1899. l.r W. i. Alden. !,

Hs He SAT tanning himself on the We
randa of the Vaudeville hotel, las you
say, this town has sprung up like a
mushroom in the night. Why, only five
years ago there We're only two houses
here, and now we have the biggest
population of any town in northern
Minnesota. The two houses were pretty
small ones too. Mine stood just where
this hotel Is standing, and it was moth
ing more than one story, two roomed
shanty. Captain Martins house, which
generally stood on knoll about a auar-
ter of mile from here, wasn't much
bigger"
"What do you mean when you say
that your neighbours house generally
stood on knoll3" asked. WASN'T
It in the habit of staying in the same
placer"
why. what with cyclones and
cloudbursts. and one thing and another,
that there house did do considerable
travelling while it was in this section.
What became Of it after it left here
can't precisely say, but rather think
It made Its last journey when it went
down to West Antioch. 1t was curl
ous sort Of house. being put together
with ropes instead of nails, which was
probably one reason why it lasted as
long as it did.
"You see" continued the landlord,
81 was the first settler here 1 took up
quarter section of land, and with the
help of two mules and Norwegian, 1
put mp my house and went to farming
About six months later, along comes
Captain Martin, and allows that he will
farm the quarter section next to me.
he was man about go years old, who
had been seafaring man all his days,
and, like most seafaring men, he want
ed to be q farmer, though he didn't
know beans from bulls foot. First
along l thought he was sociable sort
Of old chap. and he and me used to
spend our evenings together. But I
found out that he wouldn't take any
advice. and when told him that be
was blamed fool for building house
on knoll in country where cyclones
were almost as common as snakes, he
got mad and dropped my acquaintance.
He was as touchy as he was opinion
ated, which is saying good deal.
well. he built his house with the
help Of couple of men from Lucullus,
which at that time was the nearest set
Element to MS, and was considered to be
seven miles from here. though now that
Vaudeville has grown clear up to the
southern boundary Of Lucullus, 1t don't
seem to be so far away. l told you that
Martins house was put together with
rope lashings. The captain said that no
land carpenter knew how to build
house. and that he hadn't any conf
dence In nails. and didn't consider
them shipshape. His house was much
the same thing as mine, except that it
had veranda on one side. where the
captain used to walk up and down and
look at things through telescope.
Between my land and Martins
there was the highroad. though at that
time 1t wasn't often that anybody
passed over 1t, and by the side Of the
road and just at the foot of the cap
tain's knoll ran the Pomponoosuc river.
It don't look much like river at this
time Of year, and you could jump
across 1t most anywhere, but just You
wait till the spring freshets set in and
you'll admit that it is right smart of
stream. I've known half dozen men
sober men toto be drowned in the
Pomponoosuc, which is more than the
Lucullus people can say for their mis-
cradle little river. One Of the last
things that / said to the captain before
he and me had GOODNESS was that he
had better dig cyclone pit. You know
what that is. suppose. MOI Well,
then. Ill tell you. It's just hole in
the ground about six feet deep. covered
with a trapdoor. When you see a cy-
clone coming. you get into your cyclone
pit and shut the door until the trouble
is over. It's the only safe way, for If
You stay in your house your liable to
be crushed to death. and if you stay
outdoors the cyclone will pick you up
and carry you to kingdom come. But
old Martin wouldn't hear of digging
pit. He allowed that if a cyclone did
come he calculated to be on deck and
see 1t out. He said it was all very well
for me to skulk down below, seeing as
was only landsman, but that he
considered that the quarter deck was
the proper place for him in bad wealth
er. ! made my cyclone pit nearly oppo-
site his house and close to the road, for
] calculated to use it as handy place
for keeping shovels and spades and
rakes and such and saving the trouble
Of bringing them up to the house. Cap
tain Martin used to sneer good deal at
my pit and called it glory hole, which
I considered to be irreligious, as well as
ungentlemanly. However, the day came
when he would have been mighty glad
to have cyclone pit and to be able to
climb down into 1t without my knowl-
edge.
"The captain hadn't been living in
his new house above six months when
the great cyclone of 1887 came along,
and l don't doubt that you have heard
Of 1t. 1t was about 10 o'clock of the
morning and it was at least 20 degrees
hotter than it is today, though it was
only the middle Of June. instead of the
middle Of August. There wasn't
breath Of air stirring, and the sky had
a sort of greasy, coppery look, that
made you feel sort of suffocated Just to
look at it. The mules and the Nor
wegian were lying under tree down
In the sorghum field. and was making
a.pretense of wedding my onion bed,
though didn't make much Roadway
with It I happened to turn round, and
there In the northwest was little
patch Of cloud, which was glad to
Gee. thinking as did that perhaps 1t
might mean rain. But while was
looking at it could see it was spread
ing as fast as gallon of petroleum
would spread ifyou dumped II Into q
mill pond. In a few minutes pretty
near one-half the sky was covered with
cloud that was as black as Pittsburg
coal smoke. The way it spread remind
ed me of parcel of men laying car
pet on the stage Of theater. You
could see the upper edge of the cloud
rolling over and over in great thick