Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-23
THE FORCE OF A KANSAS WINDSTORM

Snee, my law. out o that
well o his'n. that was two hunnered
and forty-two foot deep. same as If he'd
been tadpole in a tube o suction
cistern and a hired man workin' the
pump handle. Jim didn't mind 1t none,
though. for, besides pullin' him out o
the well. the wind pulled all O. the old
lost buckets and grapplin' irons and
muck out o. the well and cleaned 1T out
better'n Jim could ha' done by workin'
a month.
(Which is why I'm a-sayin sir, that
they sure was right tol Bile breeze
clust t. the town where I live at nine
teen rninnits past o'clock on the aft
noon O. August sixth last year.
| observed, encoura gingly. that 1t did
seem as If 1T might have been some
gusty.
But" went on the man from Kansas.
clouds don't do nothin' like the queer
stunts out our way that are done by
the pinky purplish. funnel = shaped
clouds. These pinky- purplish, funnel
shaped clouds have got q circlar, rotry
motion when they hit the ground, and
they're jes as Ii'ble to take you there
and then bring you back ag'in as not.
"Jes t show you: At six minutes past
10 on TIL mornin' o June the oath. two
years ago a-comin'. my little seven-year-
old girl, Myrtilla Maize. was swing1n'
from a swing hitched to the main limb
of big apple tree on the farm of her
Aunt Myopia. four miles from my town.
where Myrtilla Maize was visitin' en-
durin' the school vacation.
well, she was swingin' away, singin
like a catbird on a clearin' day and hap
py as a snappin' turtle in katydid time,
when one O them pinky-purplish. funnel
shaped clouds jes leaned down, as twere,
on that part o. the farm where the big
apple tree happened to be. picked the
apple tree, includin' the swing and Myr-
tilla Maize. up as if they wa ant no
more'n a cottontree pod. and beean to
hike the tree and the swing and Myrtilla
Mazie-the pore young 'un hangin' on r
dear life,round in circle about three
mile in diameter and about seven hummer
ed foot up in the air.
We'll sir. that pinky-purplish cloud
carried the big apple tree and the swing
and my screamin' little daughter round
and round in that circle nine times In
succession Aunt Myopia. from her kitch-
en- door, seen the tree and the swing with
Myrtilla Maize hangin' on ev'ry time they
finished a whirl round the three-mile-
wide circle. Then. after whirlin EN-
round that big circle nine times In sue
cession. l hope l may never skin another
Big Muddy bullhead catfish II that pinky-
purplsh funnel-shaped cloud didn't fetch
that tree right back to the spot where
it picked it up and plant it again right in
the spot where 1t had been CROWN for
years, All that Aunt Myopia's husband
had to do was to pack the soil aroun'
the roots again, and that tree went right
on fiourishin' like as if the wind had
never teched it. And it yielded seventy
two bushel O. russell apples the next 1all.
And Myrtilla Maize wasn't hurt little
bit. She was a good deal more a-skee-
art than anythin' else. One thing bout
that ride O. her'n, though, hurt her NAV
and me a lot.
Before she got picked up and carried
round by that pinky-purplish. funnel
shaped cloud. Myrtilla Maize had the
cutest curls all over her head that you
ever seen, but when she got back her
hair was straighter'n Choctaw squaw's $.
The wind, y'see, jes' nachully blowed all
o. the cute kink out O it, and now her
nav has t use the curln' irons when the
pore little thing wants to go to party
It sure hurt NAV and me hull heap the
way the wind did straighten out that
young uns hair, it sure did, an no mis-
take.
But fr plumb. bullhead luck went
on the man from Bill Whites and Walt
Mason's state, 1.-The drab- gray, keg-shap-
ed cloud that shot down our way from
Wichita one Sunday In the middle part
o. July. two year ago last. had more
plumb, bulhead luck in it t the square
inch than any other drab-gray, keg-
shaped cloud / ever seen or heard OF De-
fore or sence.
'"Twas this-a-way: All o. US three
hunnered and odd hard-shell Baptists
livin' in my town was at meetin on that
kan. peaceful Sunday mornin' in the
meetin' house tibet we he'd all helped to
build. The meetin' house was frame
AFFAIR, like most Of EN- out my way, and