Year: 1878



 LYONS, Iowa, Aug. 20th, 1878.

 ED. ENo,-I little thought, two weeks ago when sending you description of our torna does as an exclusively Western or Southern production, that you were so soon to have Sc practical a demonstration, and that we were no longer to enjoy monopoly in the business.

 But, seriously, the damage cannot be com puted alone in dollars and cents The possi- bility that such a terrific destroyer, from which you have heretofore felt an exemption, may at any time sweep down upon you with almost no warning, strikes an additional terror to my riads of hearts who have heretofore been comparatively free from fear, must be ad- ded ts the account, when the damages are footed up see the same direction to which l alludee prevailed also with you, viz. that tor nadoes pass from West to East If, as the aeronauts tell us, there is always an eastward current of air in the upper strata, this may in part account for it, and may allay our fears of tornado from gathering clouds to the east of us. And so uniformly are all tornadoes preceded by great calm, that there is very little danger of being in the track of one if the wind has been blowing for some minutes -an- less blowing directly toward the storm. AsI understand it, the wind in the immediate ;vi- cinity of a tornado always blows toward it from all directions, and goes up to the upper regions with great suction. You will re- member the graphic account account 1 sent you about year ago by an eye witness, where building was seen to go round and round the spiral column as it ascended till it suddenly collapsed and went to atoms almost instanta- neously. I am satisfied that electricity is a more destructive agent in tornado than wind. In the Camanche tornado it passed near hardware store in brick, building and took out the end of the building and hard- ware, without materially injuring the building otherwise. Hens were picked clean of feath- CTS and were seen running around, next day, absolutely naked of their natural covering. A shingle was driven through the side of house and many other incidents might be mentioned, that cannot be reasonably accounted for on the wind theory, as also the brick spoken of by your New Preston correspondent, but cleo tricity is know to be quick and powerful.

 It is too late in the day to go into detailed account of our cheated term" that sent so many to their long home with scarcely a mo- ment's conscious warning. Probably over 300 died from sun stroke, and twice as many more were prostrated, never to fully recover. It effectually solved the question for the farmers, in relation to their surplus products. It struck the great wheat belt of the country, while the kernel was in it's juciiest state and dried and shrunk 1t to less than half it's normal proportions so the crop in this state and Minnesota, will not yield more than half what was anticipated. But it helped the corn; and if the frosts do not catch it before maturity, this crop will in some measure compensate for the loss in wheat. The stand at present IS simply superb.

 We have had couple of decided sensa- tions; the one tragical, and the other comical:

 The south part of town has been greatly in- fested with burglars. The other night, while the house of physician was being raided by three or four of the gentry, two of them met in door way, and one supposing the other to be the proprietor, shot his pal dead in his tracks and ''put out The dying man simply said, 'hold on Patsy, Pm hurt" He was found to be an old offender, though young iu years, and companion of his named Patsy has been arrested and is now in jail awaiting trial

 The other was scandal case It had beer whispered around for some time that all was not right between dentist and the wife of our editor. AS everybody was excited and wakeful over the burglary affair, man was seen about midnight to approach the rear oi the editors residence and climb tree and af. ter reconoitering while, he came down, took few turns around, and again returned to the tree and climbed into it. With visions of bur- glars in his eye the watcher sent his sons to rouse the neighbors and with shot guns and pistols they rallied and stealthily approached the spot. In the mean time the man had come down, walked around and ascended the tree the third time ; this last time with eager eyes intent watching him. He them came down, moved away to another house and passed into a recess of the building. Thinking their time had come, the posse surrounded the house and with leveled shot gun the Mayor demand. cd of the burglar to throw up his hands and come out of that, when out stepped the den tist from his own residence with the exclama. tion, For Gods sake don't shoot, you will frighten my wife" The rest may be imagin- cd. That posse retired with pleasanter re factions than the dentist, and if you chanced broad grin, you might rest assured he had moi heard of the 'dentist up tree"

 A. B.