Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-31

MESnlnStOn. W July 3o.-Llke giant blast. a cyclonic storm of wind, rain and hal whipped back and forth across the nations capital today. leaving death and ruin in It's wake. Three dead scores injured and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prop erty ruined weFe the toll recorded in the hurried caGvass made when the Si-y aroused itself from half an hour or helpiessness in the grasp of the ele- Dents-
 Out of a blazing sky. under which the city was sweltering with the tenn perarure at the loo point came the storm roaring from the north. driving a mass Of clouds that cast a mantle or total darkness over the town. The gale. reaching a velocity of nearly TO miles an hour, swept the streets clear, unroofed houses. tore detached small structures from their foundations. wrecked one office building, overturned wagons and carriages in the streets and swept Washington's hundred parks tearing huge branches from trees and even uproOting old elms, the iand- marks of a century.
 HaiIstones Batter Roofs.
 Tonight Washington's well kept streets. with their wealth of trees, were Uttered with broken foliage, roofs debris and dead birds as if a playful giant had careiesSly swished his club up and down the city
 As the wind wrecked it's havoc. the rain came. and in five minutes the temperature from the 100 mark drop ped to between 50 and TO- Then the rain turned to hail, and hailstones bat tered on roofs and crashed through skylghts and windows.
 Fifteen Go Down in 5uiIdinq Crash.
 For half an hour the city covered. Paralyzed under the beating of the storm. every activity suspended Trol- leA lines. telephone lines and street railway traffic were halted and the government departments suspended operations The wind wrecked a three story brick office building occupied nA the R. :. Saul company, real estate aeaiers- and fifteen persons were car red down in the crash. w. F.. Hilton, vice president of the real estate com pany. Thomas B. Fealey. sixty five years old a clerk and an unidentified man who entered the building to try 10 rescue those caught in the wreck. were taken from the ruins dead. Half a dozen were taken to hospitals ser iouSly injured and half a dozen more were treated for slight injuries. To- night the police were still digging fin the ruins in the fear that other bodies might be recovered
 White House Lawns Devastated.
 The neatly kept lawns of the White House were 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 VI hen the wind crashed through sev- eral windows in the White House prop- CT Secretary Tumulty hurried the president and Representative Korber- ly of Indiana with whom he was con ierrinK. to a sheltered interior room away from the searching lightning flashes
 The capitol. set high above the city. caught the hrunt of the storm.
 Senate Forced 10 Take Recess.
 The senate was in session when the htail swept down with a deafening roar beating on the glass roof of the chamber. The tnmuIt made fnrtbar eT business impossible, and hurrying to Inc presidents desk. Senator Kern meEaphcned with his hands a motion 70 recess The motion was put and nl&ough the senators could hear noth- ing the senate quit work for fifteen minutes in confusion
 When the storm broke thirtv-five Taiufers were at work on the dome of The capitol swarning over the clI1-v- ms surface or swinging high on shaky scafoldinE- William Reese, the fore man hurried to tke dome and got most
 n- fcrted bowl
 Four Worlnen To6 Late.
 But Jim Boyle. John Ford Hugb Bailey and Bruce Jones were too 1s7e Bailey and Jones succeeded in scaling fhe dome .n the wind and rain and gained a sheltered ledge where they Weathered the storm after trying in Nain 10 get inside Boyle and Ford were caught on a swinging scaffold "a -E eanre they sw7ng buffeted by the wind beaten by the hail and soaked by inc ram while the big flashes of blue trickled around the dome, down from inc platinum lightning points in the head of the Goddess of Freedom that sormounts the structure. When the storm was over they crept. shaken and Bruised to safety inside the dome.
 Panic Throughout City.
 Here and there throughout the citv panic appeared Horses, driven fran tic by the wind and hail dashed IlouSh the streets in terror until rhev were sto$ped by collision with some other wind strewn object. In some of me oihce buildings and the govern nlent apartments disastrous panfcs were narrowly averted. Al the Rnrean or PTintns and Engraving. where hfn oreds of women are employed the wind. sweeping through a huge win COW sent A storm Of broken DJata giass hurling through the big press room
 Eight or ten women were cut bv falling glass. and one printer. John Rhodes. sustained severe scalp. wounds The crash Of glass swept panic through the big room. A hundred or, m>,re of the girls working as print CTS assistants tainted and fell to the floor. and the others dashed terror stricken for the exits. For two hours the office was in an uproar.
 Dollar Bills Scattered.
 While the excitement was at its height. the wind caught d bundle of .0oo one-dollar bills. half finished. and swept it through the broken window. The bundle was ripped to pieces and the biIls scattered far and wide. Di- rector Ralph hurried out q force of mcauts and after combing Potomac park and the grounds of the Washing ton monument for miles. and fishing in the tidal basin near by. all but s75 worth of the bills were recovered. Another ranic threatened at the pen- Eicr s,fsice. where the lightning ripped e corner off of thS roof and crashed in m~mwm@ rf mrfmTNWm An9fhaF Ii9SsfRiy4R