The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1906-04-30
SCENES AT BELLEVUE
The Town Was Completely Wipet 0ul by
Destructive Tornado.


Light yesterday visited the wrecked
town OF Bellevue In Montague county
Several thousand people viewed the
ruins during the day. The north
bound Fort Worth and Denver train
left Fort Worth at 9:45, picked up
the first load OF excursionists at De
oatur. BY the time the train reached
Bowie II was almost impossible To Sc
cure standing room IN the coaches
Al this point three box cars were at
/ tached to the train for the accommo-
| dation of the Bowie contingent The
conductor of the train estimated that
more than eight hundred people were
! headed for Bellevue The Denver
sells Sunday tickets to local points
at reduced rates, but in order to dis
| courage travel to Bellevue this rate
was withdrawn from that place yes
| terday. But this did not keep the
people from going Many bought
round trip tickets to Bowie and then
/ gave the conductor cash fares from
there TO Bellevue.
Pictures of the extent OF the des-
truction wrought by the cyclone have
not yet been overdrawn by the news
papers. In fact, it would be almost
impossible to give a full description
of the completeness of the destruc-
! ton. Nothing but a heterogeneous
mass of debris remains OF a once
h4.y, tIH,
town. The town covered an area of
about a section of land and contained
a population of about six hundred
souls Every residence and every
business house in the town proper
We're completely obiterated They
were reduced into thousands of frag
ments of all shapes and sizes. In
the deyasted section only the
floor of a small business house
was left undsturbed, Only
seven small residences were left
standing and all of these were
more or less damaged. These
buildings happened to stand just in
the edge of the storms path. The
magnificent residence of Sidney,
Webb, valued at about $4,000,
was unroofed and badly damaged.
Mr.. Webb's orchard, garden and yard
shruAbery were completely destroyed
| Not a tomb stone was left standing
in the little cemetery near the town
There were two beautiful grove
of postoak trees in the town. one o.
each side of the railroad. Boil
Loo,
ing only the dismantled trunks of the
trees standing as grim reminders o
the terrible disaster Many of the
trees were uprooted The trees were
not only shorn of their foliage, but
were also stripped of nearly all theiI
bark Telegraph and telephone poles
for some distance this side of the
town were broken off at the ground
and reduced to kindling. A heavy
press screw OF the gin, which was
destroyed. was found more than one
hundred yards from where the build
ing stood Bales of cotton are to be
> seen several hundred yards from the
site OF the gin. Hanging TO the limbs
of trees were pieces OF bed quilts.
vessels One of the most CHASTITY
sights witnessed by the Light scribe
was the burning OF one hundred car
casses of horses ON prairie short
distance from the town. These ami
mails were killed In the town. several
lot them belonging to the proprietor
ot g iyery stable The prairie for
some distance southeast ot the town
is covered with pieces OF ttmhyrs
which came from che wrecked houses.
in the business part ot the toWu the
debris la piled up ASS though it had
been dfltled ht water The 4tasa uu
lhe prairie lu the rratk af thr STORM
has the appearance nf haYius neen
bufued owes witb nfs
n spite of fhr eea. aiaww
vbi,h haa visited .hem tHe Survivors
Iof tns STORM sppes 'n br aa cheerf4i
auI hsupy aa MfAa Ih.l are nUf
dawn h,atisd og 8rnonlenf when
ihH ataiswruf la mate ihtI the Htfs
iw a.i fhtif paessaians fte .Iw De-
tt lH t. fuHesf m.aHIsa ftef
Iuafr nHIhinH iu if. ap.Ii .s..n Ihs
Er.ufN.HE Ihe aar. aNeu IU. #HIW
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s.Ir $3.50
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