Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-02
Raising Relief Fund.
DID ITS WORK QUICKLY.
Within Five Minutes the Sun Shone
Upon a Hundred Corpses.

The Evening Star yesterday printed the
bare announcement that a cyclone had
struck Gainesville. Ga demoishing "a cot
ton mill and killing from fifty to seventy
five persons No details had been received
up to the hour of going to press. Later re-
pcrts served to augment the number of
deaths.
The tornado struck Gainesville out of
clear sky. The death-dealng storm appeared
suddenly a little before o'clock, and with
in two minutes it had killed nearly a hun
dred persons. torn two stories from the
fve-foor brick factory of the Gainesville
cotton mills. demolished almost two hun
dred cottages. razed two brick stores to the
ground and blown down innumerable out
buildings.
BY what appears to be miracle the tor
nadoS fury was confined to the outskirts
OF the city. the main business and residence
portion not being touched Torrents of rain
accompanied the wind. but within five min
utes after it's first onslaught the sun was
shining upon a scene of fearful desolation
The list of the dead is confined mainly to
operatives of the Gainesville cotton mills
and the Pacolet cotton mills and thirds
of them were women and children.
Did It's Appalling Work Quickly
The tornado did it's appalling work
in such incredibly short time that 1t is
difficult to obtain coherent description of
its character.
1t appears TO have swept down from the
southwest. striking the Gainesville mills
with roar like the report of artillery
After lifting two stories from this struc-
ture il swept on to the northward. leaving
a trail of destruction along Summit street.
which is inhabited almost exclusively by
negroes
Nearly A hundred of coloraI
sons on this street were leveled to the
ground, but by fortunate circumstance
the tenants were all absent having left the
city in the morning to take part in a negro
picnic.
The furious wind next descended on the
plant of the Pacolet cotton mills at New,
Holland two miles from the Southern sta
ton This is one of the largest cotton mills
in the south, employing more than six hun
dred hands
The storm spared the Pacolet factory. but
entirely demolished a hundred of its cot
tages standing near by and tenanted by Its,
operatives
Here the fatalities were greatest. upwa-,,
of thrty-tive persons being buried In the
ruins of the cottages.
Bodies Blown Hundreds of Yards.
Bodies were blown hundreds of yards and
many of them when picked up bore no sem
blance to humanity. The trunk of one
young boy found with the head de-
capitated as If by the guillotine.
From New Holland the tornado swept on
ward to the east in the direction of White
Sulphur. town of about one hundred per-
sons. The extent of it's destruction there
cannot now be definitely told. but reports
so far received indicate considerable loss of
life
The bodies of most of the dead in the :wo
cotton mills were fearfully torn and man
gled. The skulls of many of them were
crushed and the limbs broken. Some were
torn and crushed about the abdomen with
the viscera visibly protruding
The local physicians who gave frs: aid
TO the injured say the sights were horrible
beyond description.
The death list is expected to be of much