The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-31
DEATH And RUIN
Terrific Storm Sweeps Over
the Nations Capital.
Three Dead, Scores Injured
and Property Destroyed.
ALL BUSINESS SUSPENDED
Several Windows i'm the White
House Blown In.
Three-StOry Office Building Is
Wrecked.

Washington, July 31.-Three dead,
scores injured and hundreds of thou
sands of dollars worth of property
ruined were the toll recorded in the
hurried canvass made when the city
aroused itself from half an hour of
helplessness in the grasp of the ele-
ments Wednesday afternoon.
Out of blazing sky, under which
the city was sweltering with the tenn
perature at the 100 point, came the
storm roaring from the north, driv-
ing a mass of clouds that cast a man
tie of total darkness over the town.
The gale, reaching velocity of near
" seventy miles an hour, swept the
streets clear, unroofed houses, tore de-
tached small structures from their
foundations, wrecked one office build
ing, overturned wagons and carriages
in the streets and swept Washington S
hundred parks. tearing huge branches
from trees and even uprooting sturdy
old elms the landmarks of century
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 care
1essly smashed his club up and down
the city.
AS the storm wreaked its havoc,
the rain came and in five minutes the
temperature from the hundred mark
dropped to between 60 and 70. Then
the rain turned to hail and hailstones
battered on roofs and crashed
through skylights and windows.
All Business Stopped.
For half an hour every activity was
suspended. Trolley lines, telephone
lines and street traffic was halted
and the government suspended oper-
atoms.
The wind wrecked a three-story
ri iaH 10
B. S. Saul company, real estate deal
ers. and fifteen persons were carried
down in the crash. w. E. Hilton,
vice president of the real estate COM
pany; Thomas B. Fealey, 65 years of
age, a clerk, and an unidentified man
who entered the building trying to
rescue those caught in the wreck,
were taken from it dead Half a dozen
were taken to hospitals injured and
half a dozen more were treated for
slight injuries.
The neatly kept lawns of the White
House were devastated. Three 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 sew
eral windows in the White House
proper Secretary TumuIty hurried
the president and Representative Kor-
belly of Indiana, with whom he was
comforting, to a sheltered interior
room, away from the searching light
ming flashes.
Senate Takes Recess.
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 deafening roar, beating on the
glass roof of the chamber The tu-
multi made further business impos-
sfble and hurrying to the vice presi-
dents desk, Senator Kern mega
phoned with his hands a motion to
recess. The motion was carried
When the storm broke. thirty-five paint-
ers were at work on the dome of the cap
1IoI, sWarninS over the curving surface,
or Swinging high on shaky scaffolding
W1ll1am Reese, the foreman. hurried to
the dome and got most of his men to shell
ter inside the big inverted bowl but Jim
Boyle, John Ford, Noble Bailey and Bruce
Jones were too late. Bailey and Jones
succeeded in scaling the dome in the wind
and rain and gained a sheltered ledge
where they weathered the storm, after
trying in vain to get inside.
Boyle and Ford were caught on a swing
dome and there they swung buffeted by |
the wind, beaten by the hail and soaked !
by the rain, while the flashes of lightning |
trtckled around the dome. down from the |
platinum Goddess of Freedom that sur
mounts the structure. When the storm
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