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Show I'l Sill STRIKE" . Hi PEOPLE KILLED PASSENGERS ON BURLINGTON 'lAAIN GIVE GRAPHIC DESCRIf. TION Or CYCLONE. Saw Houass Collapse, Heard the Groans of Dying Victims and Assisted As-sisted In picking Up the Ds7 and Injured, Chicago. Stories replete wlch thrills and pathos were related la Chicago Chi-cago Monday by every eye witness of tbe tornado which swept over parts of Nebraska and Iowa and Illinois Sunday Sun-day night, killing and injuring hundreds. hun-dreds. Awed and horror-stricken, the narrators nar-rators of these stories had sat fascinated fasci-nated In coaches of a Chicago, Bur-llnfttoli Bur-llnfttoli Qulncy railroad train, watching watch-ing a great dark cloud skipping fantastically fan-tastically at Us work of destruction. In several villages they helped pick up the dead and dying. The wounded and tbe slain mutilated, muti-lated, groaning, dying were placed on tbe plush-covered seats and In the carpeted aisles of the cars until tbe train reached Omaha. Hera they were removed and taken to hospitals or morgues. On the way In' the Injured told heart-rending tales of suffering and narrow escapes which seemed to them miraculous. William Koon, president of an automobile auto-mobile company of Lincoln, Neb., gave a grsphlo description of the storm as be viewed It from the platform plat-form of the observation car. For miles it seemed as If the train were being pursued by tbe storm. "We were approaching Ralston when I first noticed a strange, copper-colored copper-colored cloud mounting toward the sky," ssid Koon. "Before that It had been clear. The cloud grew rapidly and was traveling at tremendous speed toward Ralston. It assumed the form of a funnel and the air was filled with a curious noise, something between a hiss and a moan, out very piercing. Then the funnel seemed to grow black and the smaller end that near the ground was about a half a mile In diameter. It swished across the railroad track and swept toward the little town. 'Then the storm struck the town. Houses collapsed, the roofs went sail-ing sail-ing away and the sides fell in. The passengers eat as though glued to theli seats when the cloud struck. Then,' as they comprehended the desolation deso-lation wrought, a cry of horror went up from everyone. It was a fearful sight "Then the engineer brought tbe engine en-gine to a stop and tbe passengers ran ever to the wreckage of the house. We could hear tbe groans of dying men and the wails and shrieks of Injured In-jured women and children. I entered a house, or rather what bad been a bouse, and beneath me lay a woman. I looked and I knew that she was nad. We got all or the Injured out of the ruins and brought them to the train. We were about to leave when our attention was called to a little bouse some distance from the other side It had been wrecked and moved from its foundation, but we found a mother and her little baby lying upon a bed uninjured. Another man was la a basement. Ills house had been carried away bodily, and be was left landing with a very surprised look on his face In the opt-.n, uninjured. "I saw a box car carried along for a Quarter of a mile. When it stilt open six or seven men, who turned out to be part of a repair gang, dropped out Some of them lay still while others feebly crawled away. "The next ststlon our train passed through was Benson, where the scene was still more appalling. There were several large factories there and all were strewn In heaps. We picked op a lot of Injured, and I don't know how many dead we left behind. The cloud wheeled and made towards South Omaha. Wo were not far bo-hind, bo-hind, but our way was blocked by the debris tbe tornado had thrown upon the tracks. Then, too, we stopped frequently to pick up the Injured. There were some with their limbs torn off and all were cut and bleeo-log.- |