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Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB ( HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES V moPLE LIKE rnnmm VT 'Tragedy Closes In' By FLOYD GHJBONS Famous Headline Hunter JJELLO EVERYBODY: You know, they say troubles never come singly, and l know doggone well that is true in at least one case. It's tne case of Amy Castaldi of Chicago. When fate began piling pil-ing up grief on Amy's shoulders, she piled it up high. W T13 8 Friday coming, the second day of July, 1933, when things riTOng' Amy's eieht-year-old son, out playing with some other kids burned the pupil of his right eye. He was in constant pain, and for two days and nights after that Amy never left his beside until a far worse calamity forced her to. And right on the heels of that accident came the news that an uncle had died in Louisville, Ky. Amy coiudn t go to the funeral. Not with her bey in constant agony. So, on Saturday night her husband went without her, leaving her to take care of her son, and her two young daughters. Fierce Gale Struck Her House. Night had come on. Amy had put her two little girls to bed and they had gone to sleep. She was back at her son's bedside, weary and worn, for another long night's vigil. The hours rolled on. The wind had begun to rise. At 2 o'clock in the morning it was blowing a young gale. The Castaldis' house was completely exposed to that wind on three sides. On the other it was protected by a factory, but the gale wasn't blowing from that direction. The wind rose steadily. It whistled and howled in the telephone tele-phone wires outside. The whistle rose to a shriek, and still it kept on rising. Then, suddenly, the lights went out in the street. A burst of hailstones rattled against the house. And at almost the same time a window crashed in the front of the dwelling. The house was shaking shaking violently. It was about all Amy's frazzled nerves could stand. She let out a scream. The scream woke Amy grabbed her children and ran for the back door. up her two little girls, and they came running from their beds. The little boy was already awake. He, poor kid, hadn't slept for two nights. Fled With Her Three Children. Another window broke with a clatter, glass falling to the floor. The kids huddled around Amy, clutching at her dress. One by one the windows win-dows crashed, there was a louder crash a shriek of rending wood and a huge piece of sheet metal came TEARING RIGHT THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE! The wind had stopped howling now. Instead, it tore by with a loud, steady, hissing roar. The house was- deluged with water that came through the broken windows. Now rocks and pieces of lumber came hurtling in and Amy could hear more flying debris battering against the side of the house with a force that was all but tearing it to pieces. "I was about to faint with fright," Amy says. "I grabbed my children and ran for the back door. I took hold of the knob and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge. The movement of the house under the force of the storm, had warped it tightly shut. My children were screaming, and their cries gave me strength. I tugged at the door with renewed vigor and finarly opened it." But when the door opened, Amy paused and looked out on a scene that looked almost as uninviting as did the inside of her home. Before her was nothing but the blackest of darkness and the terrible hissing roar of the wind. Thunder boomed and a streak of lightning rent the skv As the flash illuminated the heavens she could see that the air was full of flying debris. More rocks and pieces of sheet metal-boards, bricks and everything imaginable. Just Escaped a Live Wire. Savs she- "My head was reeling. I almost fainted again. A piece of sheet metal landed near us, barely missing our heads as it fell from above. For a minute I wondered ii the world were coming to an end and I began to pray. Then, with what little strength I had left, 1 gathered my children close and made for the gate of our back yard. gamer The wind tore at her, almost sweeping her off her feet. Cl.ng-ine Cl.ng-ine to all three of her children, she led them across the yard. When she came to where the gate should have been she found it cone-and the rest of the fence along with it. Across the street m was the factory-the nearest solid building-and she headed "Wewalked and stumbled-feU and picked ourselves up again " she savs "I thought that trip would never come to an end but finally w say ' , tJt factory We learned later that we had walked over a live ""fth.t had been blown down and we can only thank God that none of Tsteped o it But once we were inside the building the night watch- manWhrVmywenteSback .to her house the next morning she found window broken. The furniture was water-soaked and broken bv flying debrTs and the whole doggone placed looked-well-like a cyclone had struck it which was the truth. "But I didn't care about that, says had 8t'1children Were safe. The next day the papers carried T7, hLme freak tornado and told about the damage it did. But noTewspCer will evtr able to describe the way I felt during those awful moments while it woccurrm |