The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-07-31
WASHINGTON
STORM SWEPT
Seventy Mile Gale Accom-
panied by Rain and Hail
Whipped City
THREE PERSONS KILLED
IN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE

ocoreS injured ana InOuSanuS OF DOL
lars of Property Ruined-Workmen
on Dome of Capitol Had Thrilling
Experience.
WASHINGTON, July 81. - Like a
giant fail, n cyclone storm of wind
and hail whipped back and forth across
this city yesterday, leaving death and
ruin in its wake. Three dead, scores
injured and hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of property ruined were
the toll recorded in the hurried can
Vass made when the city aroused it
self from half an hour of helplessness
IN the grasp of the elements. Out of
blazing sky under which the city
was sweltering with the temperature
at the 100 point, came the storm roar
ing from the north, driving Il mass of
clouds that east n mantle of total
darkness over this city. The gale.
reaching 4 velocity of nearly 20 miles
an hour, swept the streets clear, un-
rooted houses, tore detached small
structures from their foundations.
wrecked one office building. overturned
wagons and carriages in the streets
and swept Washington 5 hundred
parks, tearing huge branches from
trees, and even uprooting sturdy old
elms, the landmarks of a century
Last night Washington 5 we'll kept
streets, with their wealth of trees,
We're Uttered with broken foliage.
roofs. debris and dead birds, as if
playful giant had .carelesslv swished
his club up and down the city As
the wind wreaked its havoc the rain
came and iii five minutes the tempera-
ture from the 100 mark dropped to be
tween 90 and 40 Then the rain turn
ell to hail and hailstones battered on
roofs and crashed through skylights
aud windows
For half an hour the city covered.
paralyZed, under the beating of the.
storm, every activity suspended. Trollv
lines, telephone lines and street traf
tic were halted and the government
departments suspended operations. The
wind wrecked n thrce-storv brick office
building occupied by the B. s. Saul
company, real estate dealers, and Is
Ipersons were carried down in the
crash. W. L. Hilton, vice president OF
/ the real estate company; Thomas b.
Fealey, % years old, a clerk, and an
unidentified man who entered the
/ building to try to rescue those caught
/ in the wreck were taken from the
/ to hospitals seriously injured and half
la dozen more were treated for slight
! injuries. Last night the police We're
tstill digging in the ruins III the fear
that other bodies might he uncovered
! The neatlykept lawns of the White
House We're devastated. Three huge
elm trees uprooted by the wind were
thrown bodily across the lawn and up
/ to the very portico of the building.
/ blocking the drives. President Wilson
was seated in the executive Offices
when the wind crashed through several
windows in the White House proper.
Secretary Tumultv hurried the Presi-
! dent and Representative korbly of In
diana, with whom he was conferrino
/ to a sheltered interior room away from
the searching lightning flashes
The capitol, set high above the city,
caught the brunt of the wind. rain.
hail and lightning. The Senate was in
session when the hail swept down with
a deafening roar, beating on the glass
roof of the chamber. The tumult made
further business impossible, and hurry
ing to the vice-president s desk Sen
ator Kern megaphoncd with his hands
a motion to recess. The motion was
put, and although the Senators could
hear nothing the Senate quit business
for - minutes in confusion.
Workmen on Capitol Dome.
When the storm broke 35 painters
were at work on the dome of the cap
itol, swarmng over the curving sur
face or swinging high on shaky scat
folding William Reese the foreman
hurried to the dome and got most Of
his men to shelter inside the bic in
Yerted bowl. But Jim Boyle, John
Ford, Noble Bailey and Bruce Jones
were too late Bailey and Jones sue
Ieeeded III scaling the dome III the wind
and rain and gained a sheltered ledge
where they Weathered the storm after
trying IN vain to get inside. Boyle and
1 Ford were caught on 4 swinging scaf-
told Just under the caves of the dome
and there they swung, buffeted by the
wind, beaten by the hail and soaked
by the rain, while the big flashes of
blue lightning trickled around the
dome. down from the platinum Ightn-
ing points in the head of the Goddess
Iof Freedom that surmounts the struc-
ture. When the storm was over they
crept, shaken and bruised, to safety
inside the dome.
Glass Crashes in Printing Building.
Here and there throughout the city
panic appeared. Horses, driven fran
tic by the wind and hail, dashed
through the steets in terror until they
We're stopped by collision with some
other wind -strewn object. In some of
the office buildings and the govern
ment departments disastrous panics
were narrowly averted. At the bureau
OF printing and engraving, where hun