Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1890 — DESTRUCTIVE STORMS. [ARTICLE]

DESTRUCTIVE STORMS.

Electric storms prevailed throughout the country on.the 17th, aud many deaths and casualties are reported. A L. E. & W. train was overturned by a cyclone at Bridge Junction, 111., and several people were hurt. Seven men are reported killed by the destruction of a brickyard at Wes. terly, 111. A boy was killed at Hillerton, Pa. Destruction of property gi-eat. Twelve or fifteen boats were upset at Philadelphia. Many houses were unroofed at Allentown, Pa. Three brothers were killed by lightning in a house at Monroe, ville, O. A yachtman was drowned at Camden, N. J. A father and son were killed by lightning near Paris, 111. Two men took refuge under a tree near Trenton, N. J. The tree was struck by lightning and both wero killed. One man was killed by lightning near Anburn, N. Y. John Hamlet's house, on the Hebron road, in Porter county, was burned early on the 16th, and all its inmates were ere mated. Smoke was discovered pouring l from the closed windows and doors by Hans Claussen, a neighbor, and he attempted to enter a bedroom window, but was driven back through fear of suffoea. tion. Assistance arrived, and an entrance was forced, but the men were unable to rescue the doomed family. Three of the children were carried down into the cellar by the fall of the roof, while the halfconsumed remains of the mother and infant were found in the bedroom where the floor had not given way. All were burned beyond recognition. The dead include Mrs. Mollie Hamlet, aged thirty-four; three children, aged respectively seven, five and three years, and the infant, aged ten months. The mischief is supposed to have originated from an exploded lamp, Mrs. Hamlet always keeping a light burning in her bedroom. Mr. Hamlet is employed at Chesterton, and was absent from home at the time. . Advices from Kansas indicate an alarming condition of the corn crop. An evening paper of Kansas City, of the 17th, says ; “The condition of corn grows worse day by day. Hot winds blew yesterday and to-day, causing great damage in the seetions of the State which have had no rain. In some sections the farmers hare about given np hopes of harvesting any crop .a. _ all. At best there is no more than half of the State that is even fairly well watered* In many sections farmers are marketing their hogs, fearing that they will have no corn to feed them.”