The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-01-09
wild WIND ANTICS
The Havoc That May Come When
a Tornado Breaks Loose.
STORMS PLAY QUEER FRANKS

Hosrses Have Been Carried Bodily Into
the Air and Exploded, and Half o
Building Has Been Swept Away,
While the Rest Remained Unframed.
The weather bureau ut Washington
mas been collecting statistics and facts
shout cyclones and tOrnadOes for many
years, and the experts have succeeded
In securing considerable valuable data
about the big winds: but. after all. the
freaks OF the storm are the things that
give IL special interest. and II all these
were properly classified some remarka.
ale reading would be furnished. Every
visitation Of a tornado adds to this val
s.able st0rebouse of queer freaks.
jt is not uncommon for the whirling
wiDsl to cut house In half. demOlish-
ing one side aud leaving the other I'M
disturbed This happened in an Iowa
tornado. aud the part that was left in.
fact WAS so little disturbed that the
clock on the mantel continued ticking.
Az IL nothing had happened.
In the Texas town of Sherman,
which was visited by tornado i'm
1886. two houses were picked up and
carried into the air. where they ex-
piSJesl. Every one In them was severe
ly injured except baby, which did not
reccire so much as u scratch. A man
S,,'iaing a COW in a shed saw the cow
and shed carried up in the air. but he
was Net SO much as touched. Not Il
drop of the milk in his pail was spilled
or disturbed.
la the st. Louis tornado Of the same
year a carpet in the parlOr of one house
WIS pulled up by the twister and car
ried away a few hundred yards with.
out NJ much as rent being torn in it.
The tocts had been pulled up as neatly
az IL extracted by careful carpet
layer.
iB another house the bedclothing and
mattress were lifted from the bed, and
she lsedstead was left intact. A resi-
SleES was carried through the roof Of
another house with the bed and drop
ped a quarter of mile away without
injuTy. The mattress saved him in the
fan. and he picked himself up i'm a va
can't bot to dress without knowing ex-
aciiy what had happened TO him.
The ~twisters" have been known to
pull pals out of shingles and then go
On 10 pick up chimney bodily and
carry II through the air. In Kansas
one picked up buggy and landed it in
dbe branches of a tree. At another
time ii ripped the harness completely
jir a horse ana left horse, buggy and
man Rniniurcd. In Louisville. in 1890.
tornado carried the roof off house
and pulled 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 heartrending. 1t has
siismembercd human beings. tearing
arms and legs from the body, and
twisted the hair of women into ropes.
IN Kansas ii drove a piece of scantllng
six inches square through the body of
a hos. At another time it blew in the
door Of farmers house and carried
the owner away on the door. TO drop
him in the branches of Il tree. The
tornado did not hurt him. but he broke
his meek falling from the tree to the
ground
No one has succeeded in measuring
1he fnii force OF tornado. but il Is
known 10 travel at the rate of 200
mites and more an hour
TOrnadOes are exciting more general
attention than formerly because of the
greater number of towns and villages
O,nfesi IN the tornado belt. Each sue
ces,sfve one Is more dangerous than its
predecessors because II is apt TO find
more human material TO destroy. For
1ieriy ID might travel half the length
syf n continent without finding anything
in Ills path 60 destroy except grass.
trees and occasionally the crops of
solitary farmer. Today. n 1t followed
the same route, il might pass over
dozen villages and towns.
The only thing that can possibly
oreak the force of tornado Is range
II mountains. II may create wild
hayac among the trees and powders
OF a mouptgin. but 1t cannot carry the
mountain itself away IL will uproot
giant forest trees. suck the water from
wells and streams. twist and demollsh
sron bridges aud carry up houses, but
the mountains are proof against the