Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1886 — DEATH’S DREAD SWOOP. [ARTICLE]

DEATH’S DREAD SWOOP.

A Hurricane, with Bain and Hail, Results in Devastation at Kansas City. Twelve Children Killed in a Falling School Building and Many Others Injured. Several Structures Wrecked, the Total Loss of Life Beaching Twenty — Fearful Scenes. A cyclone struck Kansas City shortly before noon on Tuesday, the 11th inst., carrying away the upper floors of the courthouse, the Lathrop School, an overall factory on Second street, and a span at the north end of the Missouri River Bridge. Among the score or more persons who lost their lives were Deputy Sheriff Dougherty, Frank Smith, and twelve children of the Lathrop School. None of the prisoners in the jail were injured. The pecuniary losses are estimated at $200,000, a portion of which is covered by storm insurance. From the dispatches to the daily press we glean the following particulars of the disaster: About 10:30 ominous storm clouds began gathering over the city. They first appeared in the northeast, and, surging westward, turned suddenly in their course, and. descending rapidly, broke upon the city in terrific bursts of wind and rain that swept all lighter objects before them. The darkness was almost likfe night, and people fled to the nearest shelter to await with blanched faces the fury of the tempest. The clouds seemed to graze the roofs of the highest buildings, and poured out their torrents of water in apparently solid masses for a time. The storm struck the city in full force about 11:23, and raged for half an hour. -The streets were running rivers of water, carrying boxes and signs, and other similar freight, blown from the buildings or swept by the flood. A number of buildings were overturned, and in numerous instances drivers abandoned their horses to their fate and sought refuge in stores and houses. Some hail accompanied the storm, but the fall was not great, otherwise the loss to property would have been enormous from water streaming in at broken windows. As it was, windows in quite a large number of buildings were blown in and goods and furniture were water-soaked. All this, however, proved entirely insignificant when the full extent of the disaster wrought by the storm became known. The Lathrop school building occupied a prominent site at the corner of Eighth and May streets. It consisted of a main building, to which an art wing had been added. The building was surmounted by a tower, which for some time had been considered unsafe. It had been twice condemned, once within a few weeks, but no action had been taken in the matter. The building was crowded with children, many of whom went nearly frantic with grief over the appalling darkness and the stillness which preceded the tempest. The wind swept midway across Broadway from the west, and seemed to concentrate its force in a desent upon the tower, which yielded with a crash, and, carrying down the heavy bell, plung'd through the intervening floors to the basement. The main building is a mass of ruins within shattered walls, which will stand: The wing was comparatively uninjured, and the scholars in it were not hurt. In the main building, however, the effect was awful. The falling floors precipitated the terrified children to the basement, where masses of bricks and beams crushed them to the ground and buried them from view. Persons near, hearing the crash, made their way as best they could against the beating ■storm to the scene. The gale quickly subsided, and the work of rescuing was undertaken by eager hands. Owing to the prevailing excitement, the first work was not very effective, but the fire department and police soon arrived, and tin organized search was commenced. The dead and wounded were taken out as quickly as possible and carried to the natatorium adjoining. which was turned into a hospital. Here the parents and iriends of the little ones soon gathered, each searching for his own, and uttering heartrending cries as they recognized in the maimed and bleeding forms those whom they loved. Among the first taken out were several dead and one or two mangled almost beyond recognition, their clothing tom and their bodies covered with dust nnd mortar, the deathly pallor of the skin showing in painful contrast against grime and blood stains. Many heroic scenes were enacted during the rescue, and the wounded children seemed often to have greater control of themselves than their elders. One little girl, half buried in the debris, over whom the rescuers were busy, begged them to leave her and help a boy beside her, because, she said, he was only five years old. The scenes in the natatorium as the little ones were brought in and laid upon improvised cots, the dead placed together upon one side, were pitiful beyond expression. A dozen dead were taken out during the day and their bodies sent to the houses of sorrowing families At 110 West Third street stood a three-story brick building in the middle of the block, the "third floor of which was used as an overalls factory, conducted by Haar Bros.; the first and second floors by the Graham Paper Company. In the factory were about twenty-five employes, ■chiefly girls. When the storm broke out they started for the cellar. The building fell with a crash, being razed entirely to the earth, and most of the affrighted girls were caught in the ruins. Seven have been taken out dead, a number of others are wounded, and some are still missing. A force of laborers is busy there tonight by the flickering lantern lights, upturning confused masses of bricks and timbers. The County Court House stands at Second and Main streets, on the hill, exposed to winds from the north and west. The building was erected nearly twenty years ago for hotel purposes, but when completed was purchased by the county for 8200,000 and converted into a court house. The building has always been considered rather unsafe, and the roof has frequently suffered injury from high winds. The storm struck the northwest corner, blowing in the roof and the greater portion of the wall of the third and fourth stories. The south wall, at the east end, was blown into the street ana Deputy Sheriff Dougherty was caught and killed. All others succeeded in getting out of the building alive. The jail is located in the basement of the building, and that portion escaped injury. . The prisoners were wildly alarmed, but became quiet when the ■ crash had passed and they found themselves unhurt. Judge Stover had been holding court •on the third floor and had adjourned just before the storm descended. A portion of the roof in falling struck the chair the Judge had just vo■cated. Across the street, on the northwest corner of Second and Main streets, stood a two-story brick building erected in 1860 by the Santa Ee Stage Company, one of the oldest buildings in the city, from which the stages formerly were started across the plains in the stage-coaching days. The building has of late years been occupied by the United States Engineers. Adjoining that on the west was a three-story brick -coffee and spice mill, owned by Smith & Moffatt. This building was demolished, and, falling over upon the adjoining one. wrecked it also completely. Frank Smith, the senior partner of the firm, was taken bleeding from the ruins and died in a short time. Mr. Moffatt was badly hurt, and three employes were taken out badly bruised, The debris is being removed to-night in search for any who may yet be buried beneath. The second span from the north end of the bridge across the Missouri, opposite the city, was blown into the river, the piers being left apparently uninjured. A great number of telegraph wires were carried down with the broken span. Workmen are busy to-night raising wires froni the wreck, and it is hoped that communication in that direction will be restored by to-morrow morning. The bridge is owned by the Hannibal and St. Joseph Company, and is used by that road, the Wabash, the Rock Island, and Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs.

Before the introduction of stamped money all sums were reckoned by the pound weight, and not by the number of pieces.