Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — WONDERS OF A TORNADO. [ARTICLE]

WONDERS OF A TORNADO.

Ctarlou* Things Wrought by Its Marvelous Force. I» Kansas they are telling a lot of most wonderful tales as to what was dope by the recent tornado. Here art some of the choicest: Xh Greenwood County a boy named Willie Henderson saw his home blown away,' and went to a cistern twelve feet deep for protection. There was about three feet of water In the cistern, and he sat on a lot of boards which he threw Into it. A tornado took the top off, took out all the water and the boy and carried him fully a hundred feet, where he was dropped, wet to the skin, but otherwise unhurt.

Charles Anderson, living near Towanda, heard a roaring and went to tho door to see what it was. As he oponed the door the storm struck the house and carried it away, leaving him standing in his night-clothes just where the house had been. It took the house from under his feet, and he says he never felt a breath of wind until after the tornado had passed and the force of the gale was again felt. A threshing-machine was standing by the side of a barn and the wind tore it to pieces. The boiler of the steam-engine was taken clear over the barn and dropped on the roof cf the house of James Donahue, crushing it in, and killing a child aged 6 and breaking Mrs. Donahue’s arm. The barn was untouched.

A cow, which was standing in a stable lot near Cherryvale, was carried up to the roof of a house and deposited in such a manner that it was impossible to get her down without killing her. The family of James Gibson were standing in their door watching the storm when they saw something come rolling down the street toward them. It looked like a log, but bent and twisted in such a way as to excite their curiosity, and as it was stopped in a gutter near their house they went out to make an investigation after the storm had passed. It was the body of a young woman who had been strippe'd of every stitch of clothing except one stocking, and it was only by this stocking that they were enabled to identify her. It was that of Miss Belle Merritt, who was considered the most beautiful young lady in this part of the country. She was so disfigured that no semblance of her former self remained. She was alive when found, hut died within a few hours without recovering consciousness. The family ot George Jackson sought shelter in a' cyclone cellar when the storm came up, but a big tree was thrown on the cellar and crushed through, breaking the arm of Mrs. Jackson. The stripping of chickens of their Heathers is reported from several localities, and several stories are told of the marvelous action of the tornado.