Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

Eleven of the victims of the cyclone at Rochester, Minn., were burhd at Oakwood Cemetery on Thursday, the 23d of August in the presence of a vast concourse “At an early hour,” says a correspondent, “strangers began to pour in from all directions, and by noon the streets were crowded with a surging mass of humanity. The expression of sadness on every face told more plainly than the fluttering crape or tolling bells the tale of mourning, desolation, and death. A procession was formed in front of the Cook House, and startel for the cemetery. Literally the streets from Broadway to the cemetery gate were jammed with teams. Tfie ceremonies performed were of the simplest character. No dirge was sung, and no sound was heard but the humble prayers and smothered groans of unutterable anguish. The only tributes left upon the close, clinging clay were silent, sea’ding tears. It was by far the saddest funeral that ever occurred in Rochester.”—A Rochester dispatch says the official list of deaths in the city gives the, number at twenty-six, and in the immediate surrounding country ten, making a total of thirty-six; injured, eightytwo. Nine ot the latter will die The effect upon the fields through which the cyclone passed is only describable by saying that the earth was left, and that was all Scores of farmers who ate their suppers with the pleasurable consciousness that wheat and oats were cut and shocked could not And in the morning a vestige of straw even, and those who had not finished cutting met with no better fortune, since the fields reaped by the whirlwind showed not a vestige of vegetation. The track of the storm probably averaged three-fourths of a mile in width, and the length of the course was fully fifty miles, twothirds of which were under cultivation. Corn was stripped to bare stalks, unless, indeed, the stalks, too, disappeared, and the dead domestic animals ore to be counted by the hundreds —George McDonald, who occupied an upper room at the Cook House, ip Rochester, thus describes the approach of the cyclone: “I was standing at the window, watching the approaching storm, with no thought of the fearful consequences which would follow. The sky was a mass of ominous inky clouds, which made the earth as dark as twilight, but was illuminated every few seconds by vivid flashes of lightning shooting from one cloud to another. A strange stillness pervaded the hour—a hush as if there was a sense of impending calamity. To the southwest I saw a black, funnel-shaped cloud approaching, which seemed to ne revolving with great rapidity.. I rushed to shut the window, but before I could reach it there was a horrible crashing, banging, anA creaking—the whole building shook, and the wind rushed with such force as to throw me to the floor. The shock lasted but a few seconds”— A freak of the wind was the driving of a pine board through the trunk of a mapletree. In a field near Dodge Center a herd of twenty cattle was in the track of the

cyclone. Of these nine were killed, and the horns of the eleven others were found sticking in the ground, indicating that the cattle had been caught suddenly by the wind of bed-clothing. One was found dead and the other fatally injured beneath the window. At the triennial conclave in San Francisco, Robert E. Withers, of Virginia, waaulected Gand Master of the Knights Templars of the United States. Charles Roome, of New York, was chosen Deputy Grand Master; JohnP. a Gobin, of Pennsylvania, Grand Generalissimo; Hugh McCurdy, of Michigan, Grand Captain General and J. Larue Thomas, of Kentucky, Grand Senior Warden. The recent reported robbery, of railroad laborers in Michigan was exaggerated. The pillaging party were workmen from another section, who run short of whisky, and limited their depradation to relieving persons they met of any bourbon in their possession. Of the seven arrested, two were discharged, and five were given ninety days in lonia prison. At the County Infirmary at Zanesville, Ohio, two sisters named Littlefield attempted to escape by means of a rope made and thrown to the ground head-foremost, their horns being left in the ground. The Sir Knights gathered at; San Francisco laid the corner-stone of a monument to James A Garfield at Golden Gate Park. The regular season at McVicker’s. Theater, Chicago, commenced on Monday evening, with the brilliant young tragedienne, Miss Margaret Mather. She opened her engagement in the charming character of Juliet, Alexander Salvini personating the role of Romeo. “As You Like It,” “Leah, the Forsaken,” and other plays in which. Miss Mather has achieved her wonderful success, will follow. The supporting company is a strong one, including Milnes Levick, William Davidge and Mrs. Carrie Jamison. The Presidential party arrived in the Upper Geyser basin of the Yellowstone Park on the 25th of August, after a horseback ride of 230 miles, and went into camp near Old Faithful geyser, which treated the excursionists, a few moments after dismounting, with one of its hourly eruptions. The party were in the best of health and spirits. A sensational story is telegraphed from Idaho to the effect that a band of cowboys had gone to the Yellowstone Park to kidnap the President and hold him for a ransom of #500.000; that a Texas desperado was the leader of the gang; that five Indians were employed as guides, and that each member of the band had sworn by all the gods to do his duty. A number of masked men at Pafk City, Utah, stopped a train and forced it to run to Coalville, where they took from jail a man named Jack Murphy and hanged him to a telegraph pole. A frightful tragedy is reported as happening at Ogden, Utah. Andrew Burt, City Marshal, and Charles Wilken, City Watermaster, were both shot by a negro. The Marshal was killed and the Water mas ter slightly wounded. A savage mob took the negro from jai’, hung him, and afterward dragged his corpse through the streets. The officers were in the performance of their duty, attempting the arrest of the desperado, when he did his bloody work. De Molay Commandery, of Louisville, were awarded first prize in the Knight 3 Templar drill at San Francisco. Raper, of Indianapolis, got second position, and St. Bernard, of Chicago, third. St Louis was selected as the plice for the holding of the next triennial conclave.