Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1899 — IN TENTS AND CELLARS. [ARTICLE]

IN TENTS AND CELLARS.

Herman’s Homeless Citizen* Fed and Housed by Clurltr. Five handled homeless citizens of Herman, Neb., are leading a very primitive existence in the devastated place. At night they crawl into tents provided by the good people of the State, or "burrow into the cellars of their wretched homes like so many rats. The picture is a most distressing one. At meal times they crowd around the church, the only remaining structure, which is used as a morgue, hospital, relief depot and telegraph and repotori al office for the correspondents. The property damage is $200,000, with practically no insurance. A special police force of thirty men 'V&s necessary to discourage vandalism. The place was being denuded even of the broken and dilapidated household goods. No one pretends t» be able to pick -out his property. It is all thrown into one great pile, which coves several acres. But it is practically valueless. The twister formed from a mass of fleecy clouds in Dane valley, half a mile from Herman. The vapor-like mass suddenly seemed to turn black as ink. and with a roar like a thousand railroad engines traveling up a grade started down the valley, beating into splinters everything it touched. It seemed to churn the very earth.

The freaks of the great black ball were numerous. Anderson Hopkins was blown through the side of his barn, and the kitchen stove, in whiclf a fire was burning, followed him. The dehris was ignited and the farmer bnrned to death. Farmer Lennox saw it coming and got his family into a storm cellar, but he was carried high in the air and hong up in the branches of a tree. Later a horse passed through the air like a cannon ball and dislodged the farmer. A party of traveling men took refuge in the cellar of the hotel at the village. The hotel was swept away and a struggling horse was suddenly deposited in the midst of the frightened commercial men. The animal began to rear and plunge, and the drummers, as a matter of self-preservation, threw the animal to the ground by main force and sat upon him until the cyclone had passed. Maj. Burdick, being asked what the relief committee should send in, as indicating the extent of the devastation, remarked: “We need anything and everything required by a well-regulated family, except kindling wood.” Had it not been for the farmers of the surrounding country, who came into the village with supplies, the people would have staYved. Viators crowded the village by the thousands, and what little had been sent in they helped eat. The people have not only to be fed but clothed. Relief is being furnished by all Nebraska and lowa.