Evening star., 1926-11-10

ton of DIR. George j.. Heat, and a
group of State nurses.
The health officials discussed irfor-
mally today the advisability of hold
ing "a public funeral for all Of the
victims. or as many as the bereaved
families would agree 10. II was point.
ed cut that facilities for staging sep
arate ceremonies we're few. and the
tact was stressed that but one Of the
town TWO ministers is available at
present to officiate at these rites.
The family of little Jack Clark. ir.
eight-year-old victim of the storm, an.
nounced in the meantime that his
FUNERAL would be held tomorrow
morning at 10 O'Clock.
How any one escaped alive from the
devastating vortex of wind. which
hoWled its way from the Potomac
across a mile long stretch on the
fringe OF this town. was q matter Of
wonder today by those who viewed the
Shambles left in its wake
The squat little school}ouse, which
Yesterday reared itself on hill hard
by the village, had been fattened out
as though by gigantic steamrolIer
and then broken, twisted and whirled
around, strewn piece by piece for
several hundred yards down the hill
side.
SchOOlhOuse Dashed 10 Earth.
The entire building, with its human
freight, had been lifted from it's frail
foundations and dashed again to the
ground, to collapse into a thousand
fragments.
The large iron stove in the school
was carried somehow several hundred
feet into the valley. ana great wooden
timbers had been blown about as
though they were matchStickS
With the fury of this screeChing tor
nado helpless children had been swept
through the air or over the ground to
distances of several hundred feet.
Others, including the two teachers.
awakened from the teITors OF semi
consciousness TO find themselves be-
meath the pile of debris.
One OF the latter. Murial Hardesty.
pretty 14-year-old miss, escaped
from the ruins in u manner unknown
to herself and was the first TO tell
the town of the tragedy.
Boy Jumps From Window.
Following her n moment or so later
came John Marshall Burr. who had
jumped from a window as he say.
the angry funnel-shaped cloud bear
ing down upon him.
Instantly the inhabitants were
reused into action, little realizing tho
truth of the story told by the hys-
terical children who had run from
the scene.
First arrivals at the scene were
unable 10 comprehend what had
happened. They tore feverishly at
the broken timbers and smashed
desks to release the blood -stainei,
white-faced forms which they could
see beneath.
Children. their clothes partially or
entirely torn from their pain-wracked
bodies. were standing about or run.
ming around as though demented, and
away down the slope ran the trail Of
CORY wreckage, some of 1t human.
-Four Houses Wrecked.
They glanced up and saw a short
distance away another house which
had been a prey for the tornado, the
home OF Charles III. Jameson. Be
meath the wreckage of this house lay
Mrs. Margaret Jameson, badly crush.
ed. Three other houses within q ra.
dius of mile had gone down in the
wake of the twister. They were the
residence Of James l.. Padgett, to the
south Of the village; the home of Ed.
ward VI. Della, not far away, and the
house occupied by Rufus Watts, col.
ored, who was killed and in whose
home colored visitor, Lulu Patter-
son. also lost her life.
Mr.. and Mrs. Padgett were Injured
and those in the Della house escaped.
Eleven-year-old Lillian Della. however.
was fatally crushed at the school
dying in Washington later.
Those who saw the spiraling cloud
as 1t howled It's way in q northeast.
erly direction say that IL seemed t.
he dipping here and there as II sped
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