Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-06-22
WILD WIND ANTICS
The Havoc That May Come When
a Tornado Breaks Loose.
STORMS PLAY QUEER FRANKS
Houses Have Been Carried Bodily Into
the Air and Exploded, and Half
Building Has Been Swept Away,
While the Rest Remained Unframed.

oE'utti9 7as been swept Away,
While the Rest Remained Unframed.
The weather bureau at Washington
haS been collecting statistics and facts
about cyclones and tornadoes for many
gears, and the experts have succeeded
n securing considerable valuable data
about the Zig winds; but. after all, the
frciiks of the storm are the things that
give ii special interest and if all these
"ere properly classified some remarka-
Die reading would be furnished Every
visitation of Il tornado adds to this val.
liable storcllouse of queer freaks.
1t is not uncommon for the whirlins
wind to cut Il house in halt, demolish
ing one side and leaving the other un
disturbed This happened in an Iowa
tornado, and the part that was left in
tact waS so little disturbed that the
clock on the mantel continued ticking
as if nothing had happened
In the Texas town of Sherman,
which was visited by Il tornado in
1896. two houses We're picked UP and
carried into the air. where tney eX
ploded. Every one in them was severe
~ injured except Il baby, which did no!
receive SO much as Il scrntch man
milking COW in IL Shed SAW the COW
and shed carried UP i'll the air. but he
was not SO much us touched. Not a
drop of the milk in his pail was spilled
or disturbed
In the st. Louis tornado of the same
year a carpet in the palor of one house
was pulled up by the twister and car
ried away Il few hundred yards with,
out SO much as Il rent being torn in it
The lacks had been pulled Up as neatly
as if extracted by a careful carpet
layer.
In another house the bedclothing and
mattress were lifted from the bed. and
the bcdstead was left intact. A resi-
dent WAS carried through the roof of
another house with the bed and drop
ped Il quarter of Il mile away without
injury. The mattress saved him in the
fall. and he picked himself UP in va
ant lot 10 dress without knowing eX-
actly what had happened to him.
The "twisters' have been known to
pull nails out Of shingles and then go
on to pick up a chimney bodily and
carry it through the air. In Kansas
one picked up buggy and landed it in
the branches of tree. At another
time IT ripped the harness completely
off a horse and left horse. buggy and
man uninjured. In Louisville. in 1890,
tornado carried the roof off a house
and pulled a child from the mothers
arms and carried it safely to another
house six blocks away
But these are merely among the
harmless freaks of the big wind There
are others more heartrend:ng. 1t has
dismembered human beings. tearing
arms and legs from the body. and
twisted the hair Of women into ropes.
In Kansas it drove piece of scantling
six inches square through the body Of
a hog. At another time it blew in the
door of Il farmers house and carried
the owner away on the door. to drop
him in the branches of a tree. The
tornado did not hurt him, but he broke
his neck falling from the tree to the
ground
No one has succeeded in measuring
the full force of a tornado. but it is
known to travel at the rate Of 200
miles and more an hour.
Tornadoes arc exciting more general
attention than formerly because of the
greater number of towns and villages
located in the tornado belt. Each sue
cessiye one is more dangerous than its
predecessors because it is apt to find
more human material to destroy. For
merry it might travel half the length
Of Il continent without finding anything
in its path to destroy except grass.
trees and OCCASIONALLY the crops of a
solitary farmer. Today. if it followed
the same route. it might pass over Il
dozen villages and towns
The only thing that can possibly
break the force of tornado is range
Of mountains, 1t may create wild
havoc among the trees and powders
OF a mountain. but it cannot carry the
mountain itself away. 1t will uproOt
giant forest trees. suck the water from
wells and streams. twist and demolish
iron bridges and carry up houses. but
the mountains are proof against the
mighty force of the wind.
Until we know how to control the
tornado or find some means of battling
it. its menacin" danger must always
be Il source of considerable uneasiness
in the great plain sections of the coun'
try. But, like earthquakes. he tor
nalo and cyclone do not come every
year. and sometimes they defer their
visit for decade or so. for which We
may be thankful. George f Walsh in
Harper's Weekly.