Rock Island Argus., 1913-03-21
Only Two Wires for Con-
tact of City With Out
side World.
DAMAGE DONE $3.50, 900
Fourteen Persons Reported to
Have Met Death in a Tor
nado in Alabama.

Chicago, March 21-Only two tele-
pragh wires connected Chicago with
the outside world for several hours
today. The only practical relief from
the situation was by way OF an under
ground telephone cable to Milwaukee.
Sleet, wet snow and occasional
dashes of rain driven by a 40-mile
gale from the west struck the city
and envirOns before daylight and
within four hours had prostrated tele-
graph lines in all directions All
transportation lines were crippled.
One young woman was blown under
Il % feet of horses and severely hurt
The first effects of the storm were
fe.t south and east of Chicago. Wires
routed around the south end of Lake
Michigan went down within an hour of
the time the storm struck.
The only lines which survived were
two wires to st. Louis. Over these
was carried very small part of the
mass of intelligence which normally is
.
The only crumb of comfort TO those
charged with transmitting press and
commercial kilograms was that the
Good Friday holiday relieved them of
the usual burden of brokerage and mar
ket reports.
/ Six hours after the storm broke the
/ sun forced its way through the clouds
h. Is~-Nrv
suddenly as it had begun. Early esti-
mates of the loss to wire and transpor-
tatton placed the figure as high as $3.50
600.
DAMAGES FOUR STATES.
Memphis, Tenn, March 21-Reports
from north Mississippi, west Tennes-
/ see, southeast Kentucky and north
and east Arkansas, swept by severe
wind and rainstorm last night ald
early today, are delayed because of a
most complete prostration of telegraph
and telephone wires At Fulton, KY,
considerable damage was done to prop
erty. In Mississippi the storm was
/ severe from Grenada to Water Valley.
. At Senatobia the wind was unusually
high and houses are said to have been
I tossed about as if they were play
things
FIVE KILLED; FIFTY HUST.
/ Five persons were killed and more
than so injured by a storm last night
al Poplar Bluffs, Mo, according to
members of the crew of a St. Louis &
San Francisco railroad passenger train
which arrived here today. They a.so
reported one dead and q injured a.
Hoxie, Ark, and the town practically
wiped out.
TORNADO KILLS.
Mobile, Ala, March 21-An uncon-
firmed rumor from Lower Peach Tree
on the Alabama river, is to the effect
that IA people were killed and an i'm
mense amount of damage done by a
tornado which swept through that
place last evening.
Late advices are that Is people
were killed at Lower Peach Tree.
Springfield, Mo, March PA score
or more of persons were injured. some
of them seriously, buildings in' the
business district were wrecked and
residences unroofed late last night al
Poke. Ark, about 95 miles south of
mere, by a wind OF unusual velocity.
SIX DROWNED.
4 Sanduslzy, Ohio, March 81. - Two
boats are missing, one is on the rocks
and another is in distress in 70-mile
gale sweeping Sandusky bay today. 1t
is thought six or more men may have
been drowned. Life savers have gone
to the rescue Of six others who are in
extreme peril.
sALINA, LA, SWEPT.
Shreveport, La. March 21.-One man
was killed and several persons injur-
ed and property damage done at Sa-
lima, La, a town of 800 in Bienville
parish, last night by a severe wind
storm, according to a report received.
sMoKESTACR FALLS; ONE DEAD.
Columbus. Ohio, March 21.-At Tif-
fin, Ohio. William Wick, 75. was in
stantly killed and six or eight others
are believed to have been buried in
the debris OF a smokestack of the
county infrmary, which was wrecked
by high winds. Three others are
known to be injured
MISSOURI VALLEY HIT.
Kansas City, March 21-Snow and
sleet and drop in temperature were
general over the Missouri valley and
the southwest last night and early TO-