| Show THE louisville CYCLONE annexed is the substitute of a ivanc I 1 letter received receive si in denver from rom louisville in your note of the ultimo you asked me to detail to you some odthe of the experiences erencen we had bad I 1 will u undertake deze herein to give gile you ade a description of such part of the tornado as I 1 witnessed the evening bening times of the had a column of matter stating that the signal service had predicted a cyclone for louisville for that or the next evening the signal service has made so many predictions of late which have never been fulfilled that I 1 said to myself after reading the prediction well some more of greenys Gre elye elys hog wash Thay thayle Jve cried so often that I 1 dont believe ill be frightened that evening after supper I 1 started out to see some friends As I 1 opened the front door a blast of liot hot air as from a fiery furnace greeted I 1 remarked that it was exceedingly warm and buffo eating and we would probably have a storm it had clouded by that time and save for the almost continuous flashes of lightning which reached from one horizon to the other it was the blackest night I 1 ever beheld you could scarcely see your hand before your face but when the lightning flashed bashed it was as if a thousand electric lights had been turned on at once rendering the surroundings as clear as day and continuing for half a minute at a stretch then it would become inky black again for a minute or two when whir n the flashes would repeat themselves oes when I 1 reached my destination about thirty minutes after my departure from home large drops of rain began to descend the rain increased steadily until it fell in torrents accompanied all the while by the lightning and thunder which sounded like a distant rumbling of muffled drums about 8 30 there came an extremely brilliant flash of lightning accompanied by A a clap of thunder which sounded as if a bomb had bad exploded in the room then immediately following this there was a dead calm and then a noise as if a thousand demons were flying screeching screech ing through the air each one of them running a buzz saw sa V at the rate of revolutions a minute this lasted for about two minutes and then the noise ceased and the wind subsided shortly after this we heard beard the boats oo on the river repeat the distress dib tress whistle and ring their bells frantically and I 1 knew that something dreadful had bad happened but as we were just on the outskirts of the cyclones path I 1 could not realize that it had been anything so terrific on arriving there I 1 heird heard the wildest kind of stories or they seemed so to me about the damage that had bad been done I 1 could scarcely believe them but started out to look and see for myself I 1 first went to the falls city hall or what had bad been that hall which is about three squares from my office and on the westernmost edge of the toron ados 8 path where it intersected market street gathered in front of the ruins were hundreds of people apparently stupefied fied by what had happened while an improvised pro relief corps of the sturdiest diest evarts hearts was ut at work in the debris taking out the I 1 inured aw u red the dying and the dead two 0 bonfires made from the ruins of the building were bur burning I 1 inthe in the street and cast a weird fight right on the scene of suffering and death I 1 stood in front of the ruins for fifteen minutes and saw them carry from the he debris six or eight mangled corpses men women and children had been caught alike in thy death trap and ground in the mass of mortar and bricks until the bore little resemblance to human beings belders their hair bair was matterand matte dand estand dirt was ground into their very flesh clogged with their own we life blood I 1 turned to the other oilier side of the street where an undertakers undertaker establishment lish ment escaped from the wreck had bad been converted into a temporary hospital and morgue there the injured were receiving such attention as could be afforded them the shrieks of the women mingled with the sup reseed groans of the men who tried as best they could to stifle them were distressing it was indeed heartrending I 1 never before saw such a sight eight and I 1 hope I 1 may never be called upon to behold another I 1 turned from this scene and proceeded up market street impelled by V nothing more or less than a morbid curiosity on all hands there was wreck and devastation roofs tel telegraph graph poles and wires and demolished buildings rendered the streets almost impassable I 1 joked at such of the devastation as I 1 could and returned to the office stupefied as were all the rest whom I 1 encountered no one seemed to realize the magnitude of the disaster and I 1 don dont it believe any one ever can completely do so after the storm it turned suddenly cold and the calm of the atmosphere was almost painful while tle moon peeped out from behind the clouds red in its ghastliness with what might have seemed the blood of the storms victims fa ex |
