Evening star., 1926-11-10
By a Staff Correspondent of The Star.

LA PLATA. Md, November 10
Picture q tWo-rOom country scnool-
house on a hill, we'll out from the
pleasant town Of La Plata, county
seat Of Charles County, Md. Chill
dren ranging in age from to IL
years, droning out their lessons while
cold Fall rain drummed on the
roof and hailstones beat at the
windows.
Suddenly a shock, as the lath and
thin board structure rose from Its
light stone foundations, and, driven
and twisted by a tornado of tremen-
dous velocity, fell on its side and
collapsed like house of cards. A
shambles, as children, twisted and
pinned under the wreckage, fought
to escape from the house of death,
driven in about their heads by the
resistless force, which demolished
two houses in it's path to vent and
wreak it's work on the lonely yellow
schoolhouse on the hill top. Children
scattered about down a hill, which
runs to pine woods 800 yards away,
lying in every posture OF sudden
death; other unconscious, others
with broken bones, crying and wall
ing their distress to a sky which
dripped a sodden heavy rain upon
them.
Some of the poor little bodies were
picked up at the edge of the woods
where death had dropped them in
the receding path of the twister
Others lay a few PAGES from the
scattered debris of what had once
been their pleasant country school
house on the hill. Under the wreck
age, f1attened as If a giant hand had
aI1i1GrnY low
of them dead some still alive, to
gasp out their little lives later on
the way to Washington hospitals.
Wounded Girl Heroine.
And from this scene emerged the
heroine of the southern Maryland
tragedy-13-year-o Muriel Har-
desty-who somehow got out of the
wreckage of the school, ran the hall
mile up the winding road to the
center Of the town, holding hel
broken arm up to prevent shock, and
burst into the office Of Walter
Mitchell, La Plata attorney, to gasr
out the first warning to the town
of the tragedy. Then there was a
hurried gathering of local physicians
and men summoned from every busi-
ness agency in the little town, rush
little lane to the schoolhouse, to
stand aghast at the scene which me1
their eyes. Hastily they organized
themselves with the inspiration that
comes in moments OF sudden stress
Hurried calls were sent to Indian
Head. the naval proving ground
to Washington and Baltimore, for
ambulanceS and medical assistance
and at the same time, all the pri-
vate cars available were pressed into
service to start the trek of the vic.
Tins to the Capital. 35 miles away,
where hope loomed for the most
seriously hurt.
La Plata at first didn't realize
what had befallen it's children. The
true realization came only when auto.
mobiles bearing their tragic freight
of dead and injured began to trickle
back into the little town, to deposit
their burdens in the Mitchell Office
and in homes surrounding it.
La Plata Is stunned today. by the
suddenness of it all. For it came-the
twister-out of a sky that had never
before produced such a phenomenon
in the fiat country of southern Mary
land. Almost it's entire Juvenile pop.
ulation between the ages of five and
13 attended the little country school
on the hill, trusting with childlike
faith in man-made structures and the
knowledge and fidelity Of their teach
ers-Mrs. Helen G. Hughes, principal
and Miss Ethel Graves, teacher
Darkened homes in La Plata today
tell mutely of the tragedy that came
in the wake Of the cyclone. While
upon the rain-swept hilltop ever
more poignant evidence Of the fury
and wrath of the elements speaks
without words.
Children's Things in Debris.
In the debris Of the little school
house are pile after pile of rain-sod
den books, a shattered and broker
blackboard, tiny shoes. twisted from
little feet as the twister struck
fragments of clothes, torn from lit
tie bodies as the wind pulled and
tugged: gayly colored lunch boxes
pencils and holders strewn about.
A rubber overshoe torn from Miss
Graves foot as she lay pinned under
the scantling of the broken school
house until men removed the burden
which held her to the rain-soatet
ground, is there, a grim reminder
Three great oak trees. their branches
twisted and torn, wrenched from the
ground to lie prone, while another-a
sentinel of the StOrm-StandS. broker
half way down its length; pieces o.
scantling driven three feet into the
ground by the wind: smaller piece!
scattered to and through the woods
back of the schoolhouse.
For so great was the force of
the wind that the clothes were torn
from tho hOdioS of tho chi1drop Cayon