The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-03-27

StduCcos DOudCS pACAOC0 Win i3PfAAAs
ers are frequent.
The hamlet De Soto probably suf-
fered heaviest, for it was there that
lis men, women and children died.
Thirty of the little folks persisted
in the school house, which was RACED
in the twinkling of an eye.
Nine burned bodies were found
huddled about a, coal stove in a
Griffin restaurant. In one Illinois
town the fire engine was burned.
Murphysboro had to improvise
pumping plant on the ruins of it's
water works before the fires could
be extinguished. At Annapolis
wide-awake station agent used his
cash drawer successfully as bucket
to- extinguish fire.
So tremendous was the force OF
the wind that in Murphysboro eleven
locomotives were reported wrecked.
Heavy objects were found several
miles from their original positions
and papers were carried SO miles.
Freakish dips of the twister left
the usual safe spots in the path OF
the storm. A mine clerk saved him
self by crawling into his office safe
which protected him from fire and
falling walls. A family crept under
their motor car when the house fell
and tumbled over the auto.
All but one of seventy-fve girls
employed in Heinz plant at Prince
ton escaped unhurt. The towns
$2,00O,0 900 Chicago and Eastern llli-
nois Railroad yards was devastated.
The Mobile and Ohio shops were a
total loss at Murphysboro, as well
as a new $4,000 addition to the
high school and an $4,000 Baptist
church there,
A schoolhouse near Cape Girar-
deau, Mo-, was carried away soon
after the pupils had been dismissed.
Fate was less kind in other places
where schools were demolished.
Another freak of the storm was
reported from Princeton, where four
miners on their way home from a
mine were lifted bodily from small
automobile and deposited unhurt in
the road. The auto was swept away.
A Princeton boy, II, wasS credited
with having saved the lives of his
mother and two brothers, whom he
huddled on the floor of their home
and covered with rug. The rug
was strewn with glass and other
debris when the roof was blown
away.
A letter bearing Poseyville post
mark was picked up near Bloomfield,
more than one hundred miles away.
DuQuoin, Ill.-The first authentic
eyewitness story of the destruction
Of De Soto and Murphysboro, ILL.,,
was told by A. w. Essick, editor of
the Duquoin Call.
Essick was the first outsider to
get into Murphysboro after the storm.
"The storm struck the city at the
southwest corner and swept directly
through the business section, cutting
a swatch about 100 yards wide" he
said.
1.-THE dome was lifted completely
off the city hall and hurled down the
main street. The high school was
demolished and virtually every build
ing in the path of the storm wrecked.
Fire broke out almost Immediate
ly after the storm left. Zone woman
was burned to death and l counted
$50 bodies of storm victims in one
undertaking establishment.
From Murphysboro went direct
ly to De Soto. That town was COM
pletely wiped from the map. Death
and destruction are everywhere and
not one-third of the population es-
capped death in the hurricane.
"The scene is that of absolute and
indescribable dissolution and the hor-
ror of fire adds to the travail of the
day."