Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1889 — DEATH IN THE TORNADO. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN THE TORNADO.

READING, PA.-, THE SCENE OF A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE. Sixty Persons Killed and More Than a Hundred Injured-A Silk Mil], in Which Two Hundred Girls Were at Work, Torn to Pieces With Mirefol Results. - ‘ . A tornado struck Reading, Pa., at about 5 o’clock on the 9th. The storm swept down the Lebanon Valley, wrecking everything before it. When the tornado struck Reading; it first unroofed the P. &R. Co’s., paint shop, and in less than ten minutes the structure was in flames. Four persons were killed and several badly injured. From that point the storm cut a swath about 259 feet wide and everything in its way was leveled to the ground. Nine dwellings were unroofed on Eighth and Marion streets. The storm next struck the four story brick silk mill of Grinshow Brothers at Twelfth and Marion streets and leveled it to the f round. Not a brick' was left in place. he building was filled with 200 operatives not one of whom escaped death or injury. The fire department and 10,000 people soon responed to the alarm, and the work of rescue began. The cries of the wounded and dying and their friends were heartrending. The funnel shaped storm cloud struck the building directly in the center on its broadest side, which faced the West. It fell to pieces as if composed of so many building blocks. The walls gave way, the floors fell down, one on too of the other and the great mass of human beings was crushed in the ruing, while amid the whistling, rushing, roaring wind their arose terrible cries to heaven ior succor. Girls with blackened faces, tattered and tom clothing, and with bruised and broken limbs dragged themselves from the ruins. Probably one hundred escaped or were dragged out by friends, but not one without injury. These of course worked on the upper floors. The most reliable estimate places the number in the building when it went down in the neighborhood of 175, and as before stated, one hundred of these were, rescued by friends or dragged themselves out immediately after the accident. The alarm for relief was immediately sent out, and in a short time thousands of citizens Pad arrived to help out the dead and dying. The scene was a horrible one and beggars description. The mill is situated at the foot of Mount Penn, a high mountain overlooking the city. Huge bon-fires were built, as the city was in total darkness, which gave a dismal- appearance to the scene. The firemen left the burning paint-shop and assisted in the rescuing of the dead and dying. The police force was called out, the ambulance and relief corps and thousands of people were at the debris carrying out bricks, pulling away timbers’ and' assisting wherever they could, all at the same time, but their work was slow compared with the demand for the rescue of the victims. Here a young woman was taken out all bruised, and suffering from cuts and gashes. One body noticed as it was dragged out had its head cut off. . Others were in various postures, the living all suffering from the most terrible wounds and some almost scared to death. A reporter entered what was once the basement of the building, and groping his way through the debris noticed five bodies of young girls lying dose together. He tried to pull them out, but they were pinned down, and it was impossible to move them. They were dead and beyond all human aid. At this writing the number killed cannot be correctly ascertained but it is believed will reach eighty. Later details show that thirty-one persons 5 were killed outright, and of those injured many will die.

LAST YEAR’S CROPS. The Extejnt of ibe Yield and the Value Thereof, Compared with the Previous Year. " t - Wabhington, Jan. 12. —The December report of the Department of Agriculture, which gives in detail estimates of some of the more important crops, makes the product of com 1,987,79 >,OOO bushels, grown on 75,672,763 acres, valued on the farm at $677,561,580, or 34.1 cents per bushel, against 44.4 cents for thq crop of 1887, a decrease ot 23 per cent., the product of 1887 being 27 per cent less in volume than that of 1888. The average yjel'd of the commercial belt, or Beven corn-surplus States, averages 33.2 bushels per acre. The Atlantic coast, south of the Potomac, averages 11.2 bushels of,comparatively poor quality. The wheat aggregate is 414,868,000 bushels, grown on 37,336,138 acres, valued at $384,248,030. The average yield is, therefore, 11.11 bushels per acre; winter wheat, 11.6 bushels, and spring wheat, 10.3 bnshels to the acre. The average farm value is 92.6 cents per bushel, against 68.1 cents tor the previous crop, a difference due more to foreign than domestic scarcity. The aggregate for oats is 7u7,157,000 bnshels, grown on 26,998,282 acres, and valued at $195,424,240. This is 27.8 cents - per bushel, against 30 cents for the crop of 1887. A comparison of aggregate values shows that the present corn crop is worth $51,000,000 more than the previous one; wheat, $74,000,000 more; oats, $6,000000 less.

I LEGISLATIVE NOTES. Gov. Hovejrhas appointed Will B. Roberts as his Private Secretary. Mr. Roberts served in the same capacity for Governor Potter daring that gentleman’s term of office. Governor Isaac P. Gray celebrated his retirement from office by an extensive reception Thursday night to the members of the Legislature and State officers, and scores of other friends. Between the hoars of 8 and 12 o’clock five hundred or six hundred persons passed through the parlors ot the gubernatorial residence and paid respects to the Governor and wife. ? Mason J. Niblack, the Speaker of the House, is the youngest man who ever , occupied that position in this State, being but twenty-six years old. He is the son of J udge Niblack, recently of the Supreme Bench. The father was very proud of his son’s advancement? “I want you to understand, gentlemen,” he would say, “that this is no d—d unanimous thing,” referring, of course, to the close vote in the caucus. The State Auditor has prepared a general appropriation bill, in which is embraced a complete list of the expenditures deemed necessary for carrying on the State government and the benevolent and other institutions dependent for support upon the general treasury until Qctober 31, 1889. That sum of all the expenditures mentioned in the bill is $1,870,000, not including cost of new buildings asked tor at several institutions. The deficiencies caused by lack of appropriations tor the past year are also included in this amount General Alvin P. Hovey,Monday, became Governor of Indiana. The formal ceremonv of installation occurred in-the afternoon at English’s Opera House. Mason J. Nib’ack, Speaker of the House, presided, and Chief Justice Elliott admin istered the oath of office. Ira J. Chase was at the same time installed as Lieutenant Governor. The attendance was very large. The Governor gave a reception at the State House from 7 to 9 o’clock in the evening. He was assisted bv his daughter Mrs. Menzie, his son, Chas. J. Hovey, Miss Laura Ream, the State officers, Supreme Court Judges, Ex-Governor Gray, Ex-Lieutenant Governor Robertson and others! Many hundreds of people paid their respects. A ball at Tomlinson Hall was attended by people from all parts of the State. The caucuses of the Democratic, members of the Legislature were well attended, and resulted in the selection of the following officers of the House: Speaker—Mason J. Niblack, Knox. Clerk—T. J. Newkirk, Rush. Assistant Clerk —C. E. Cromley, Sullivan. Doorkeeper—F. D. Hainbaugn, Enfton. The contestants with Mr. Niblack for the speakership were Gabriel Schmuck, of Marion, and J. H. Willard, of Lawrence. The Senate caucus elected Green Smith, Secretary; James F. Cox, President protem; John D. Carter, Orange, Assistant Clerk; and E. R. Hamilton, of Morgan, Doorkeeper. The House Republican caucus nominated Hiram Brownlee, of Grant, tor Speaker, Frank W. Rowles, of Allen,for Clerk, Mr. Agnew,of Wabash.for Assistant Clerk, and William A. Dubois, of Hamilton, tor DoOr keeper. Gov. Hovey’s appointments will be: Three Managers for the Female Prison, School for Feeble Minded Children, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home; three Trustees for the Indiana Reform School for Boys; three Trustees for the State Normal School; seven Trustees for Purdue University; six Members of the Board of Health; four Commissioners for each of the Metropolitan Police Boards of Indianapolis and Evansville, to be appointed by the Governor, Secretary, Auditor and Treasurer of State;, four State House Commissioners, whose office will cease to exist as soon as the State House is accepted by the Legislature; four Commissioners of the new Insane Asylums; one State Geologist; one Mine Inspector; one State Inspector of Oils; one Clerk of the Printing Bureah —appointed by the Governor, Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor of State; one Commissioner of Fisheries; one State Veterinarian. Governor Gray closed his official duties by issuing a commutation of sentence to Blair Mock, a young man who is serving a fourteen-years’ sentence in the Northern Prison for murder."' He was convicted from Grant county some two years ago, and aB the commutation reduces his term to three years, he has but one more year to; serve. The Governor does not think the boy should ever have been convicted, as the crime was committed in self defense. The last effort of the Kennedy family for the nardon of Wm. Kennedy, serving a life sentence for the murder of young Baker, of Greensburg, in 1885, failed of its object. The scene in the executive office was most affecting. The aged mother of the prisoner threw herself at the Governor’s feet in a flood of tears and refused to be quieted, or to move. She called on God to take her life rather than allow her to go away without the paper that should free her son, and, after a longtime of pleading and weeping on the part of all the members of the party, they sadly withdrew. If Bruce Carr has lost flesh during the past few days, says the Indianapolis News, possibly here’s an explanation. Preliminary te the organization of the Senate, arid while discussing the Robertson complication, several Republican Senators favored Carr’s calling the Senate to order, as was his right as State Auditor. He was then to appoint a committee to wait upon Robertson and escort him to the Chair, and if the Democratic majority refused to recognize this effort to install Robertson, Carr was to maintain his position and refuse to entertain any motion even if he continued in the chair until Monday, when the new Lieutenant Governor will be inaugurated. This proposition placed Carr in a great dilemma. He could not afford to “go back” on his party, and as both branches of the Legislature are threatening to trike a whack at the insurance perquisites of his office, neither could he afford to antagonize the Democratic majority any more than could be avoided,and as he contemplated the fix in wnich he was being thrust, not counting the personal risk which might be attached thereto, itnearly threw him into a fit. Fortunately for him, however, this proposition did not meet with the approval of a majority of the caucus and it was not pressed. The Wool Growers Association met in Washington, Thursday, and resolved that there ought to be an immediate settlement of the question as to the dntyon wool