The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-25

Chicago, March 24-Stories replete
with thrills and pathos We're related
In Chicago today by eye witnesses of
the tornado which swept over parts of
Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois last night,
killing and 'injurng hundreds.
AWed and horror-stricken, the mar
rators of these stories had sat fasci-
mated in the coach of Chicago, Bur-
lington & quincy train watching a
great dark cloud skipping fantasti-
cally at it's work of destruction. In
several villages they helped pick up
the dead and dying.
The wounded and the slain-muti-
lated, groaning, dying-were placed on
the plush covered seats and in the
carpeted aisles of the cars until the
train reached Omaha. Here they
were removed to hospitals or morgues.
On the way the injured told heart
rending tales of suffering and narrow
escapes Which seemed miraculous.
William Koon, president of an auto
mobile company at Lincoln, Ncb.,
gave a graphic description of the
storm as he viewed it from the plat
form of the observation car. For
being pursued by the storm.
The Storm Cloud.
I'VE We're approaching Ralston.
Neb when l first noticed a strange,
copper colored cloud mounting the
sky said Koon. Before that it had
been clear. The cloud grew rapidly
and was travelling at high speed to-
orI ID LET
of a funnel and the air was filled
with curious noise something be
tween hiss and a moan, but very
piercing. Then the funnel seemed to
grow black and the smaller end
that near the ground-was about half
a mile in diameter. II sWshed across
the railroad track and swept toward
the little town.
Then the storm struck the town.
Houses collapsed, the roofs went sail
ing away and the sides fell in. The
passengers sat as if glued to their
seats when the cloud struck. Then
as they comprehended the desolation
wrought a cry of horror went up
from everyone. 1t was a fearful sight.
Then the engineer brought the engine
to a stop, and the passengers ran over
to the Wreckage of the houses. We
could hear the groans of dying men
and the walls and shrieks of injured
women and children. I entered a
house, or rather what had been a
house. and beneath me lay a woman.
I looked and ! knew that she was
dead.
1--WE got all the injured out of the
ruins and brought them to the train.
We were about to leave when our at
tention was called to a little house
some distance from the Others. 1t
had been wrecked and moved from its
foundation, but we found mother and
her little baby lying upon bed unin-
jured Another man was in a base
ment. His house had been carried
away bodily, and he was left stand
ing with very surprised look on his
face in the open, uninjurcd.
Houses Carried Away.
Il recall that there was a big
threshing machine standing near one
of the houses, and when the cloud
struck it shot straight up into the air
and was carried about 40 rods.
along the ground.
i saw a boXcar carried along for
quarter of mile. When it split open
six or seven men, who turned out to
be repair gang, dropped out Some
of them lay still, while other feebly
craWled Waay.
The next station our train passed 1
through was Benson, where the scenes
were Still more appalling. There were
several large factories there, and all
streWn in heaps. We picked up a lot
of injured, and I don't know how
many dead we left behind
Then the cloud wheeled and made
toward South Omaha. We were not
far behind but our way was blocked
by the debris the tornado had thrown
upon the tracks. Then, too, we
stopped frequently to pick up the in
jured. There were some with their
limbs torn off, and all We're cut and
bleeding
Another passenger was Mrs.
George j. HalderWent of Syracuse, n.
Y. who boarded the train at Lincoln.
She still showed traces of the eXpe-
rience through which she had passed.
when the houses began to fall,
she said, Il saw a little girl dressed
in white start from one of the houses
and run down the street with her
hands over her head. Just then the
side of a house came soaring through
the air, and shooting suddenly down
ward, it struck the child and buried
her beneath it. l closed my eyes-1
could look no mOre.'
Another eye witness was a Chi
cagoan who withheld his name to
avoid possible shock to an invalid