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FREAK TRICKS OF TORNADOES. Man Tells of Thrilling Experience in the Land of the Big Winds. It was my good or iHlfortune to be an eyewitness of one of the devastating tornadoes that often sweep American soil. About 6:30 on the afternoon of April 27, 1899, I left my house at Kirkville, Mo., to post some letters. The day had been rather remarsame, tiaeiuauug ucinccu suffocating heat and chilliness of early Bpring. Dense dark clouds occasionally rolled across the saffron sky, and showers of rain alternated with hursts of sunshine, while the winds had been capricious, at times blowing in gusts and gale, to be followed by a dead calm. It needed no barometer to indicate an impending atmospheric disturbance, for everyone could feel it. At the time I started from my house a gentle shower was falling, and I took my umbrella witn me. as I stepped from the west door of the veranda a continuous roaring to the southward burst on my ears, and, my house being on high ground, I had an excellent view in that direction. In the southwest, at the extreme limit of my vision, hung a lowering dark cloud, from which occasional peals of thunder issued. Just below the cloud, seeing to rest upon the earth, was a whirling monster of vapor, dust and smoke, coming apparently toward me with an incessant t and steadily increasing roar. The first appearance was that of a huge locomotive emitting black smoke and steam, and coming at a tremendous speed. The tornado seemed suddenly to tear itself loose from the black storm cloud and to advance at an inGreasing speed, rotating from the right to left. BKr- _ I quickly entered the house, calling to my wife and children to fly for their lives. My youngest daughter, aged 16, had gone to the second story to secure some windows, and, evidently alarmed at my call, was for a moment dumfounded with feafr. Bounding up the stairway I met her ;. I coming down, and my wife took her and our eldest daughter into the yard west of the house, where they sought safety behind some cedars! Having placed them in (what I thought the most secure place available. I once more turned my attention to the storm, which I found much nearer. The great funnel-shaped cloud, expanding and extending up into the vault of heaven, seemed to extend over the entire eastern horizon. It was a dark, steamy cloud, from which there were emitted evanescent flashes of electric light. My next care was for my mother and two sisters, one of whom were blind! Their cottage is on the same street, just oposite my own house. As I started across the street I shouted to a neighbor, who, with his wife and child stood motionless on the '/ / veranda, calling to them to fly for their lives. By this time the tornada was so near and its roar so loud that my voice could not be heard, . though they saw my frantic gestures. In the west wing of my mother's cottage were north and south widows, and I could see her standing quietly at the south window gazing in awe and silence upon the fearful phenomenon, so terrible in its splendor ' hat she was spellbound and incapablj of motion. I shouted as I ran, but my calls were unheeded. She stoolike a marble statue, her slight form md white hair silhouetted in the dull gray twilight that enveloped the scene, while the roaring expanding monster continually was drawing r.v nearer and nearer.' Suddenly there came a report as if a shell had exploded at the window. The noise broke the spell which - * * - A 3 tlU cnaiaea ner to tne spoi, aiiu wuu my sister and a servant girl she ran fron the house. A U that I have described could not have occupied more than 10 or 15 seconds. The street is only 60 feet wide, and I was but half way across when the report came from tjje cottage. At the same moment I discovered thct the course of the tornado had changed and that it was sweping in a northeastern direction through what is known as Fible's Addition to the- city. Fible's Addih tion is built up chiefly with frame houses, one or two stories in height, which are occupied mainly by students, laborers and small merchants. A large brick building stands just southeast of the addition and to the east of the storm path, while the North Missouri State Normal school building is just beyond the western limit. I knew that at this hour nearly all the people would be at home at supper and the tornado would burst on them without a moment's notice. A great crushing feeling of horror and grief supplanted the awful dread that only a moment before had stilled my heart. Shouting to my wife that we were sare ana airecung uer tu iciepuunc for surgeons, I ran east in the direction of the tornado. It had now grown to such gigantic proportions that it seemed to extend from the zenith to the furthest limit of the eastern horizon. When it struck the | AID PROMISED THE FARMERS Department of Agriculture Will As- ^ sist Storm Hurt Planters. Columbia, July 12.?That the State department of agriculture is doing everything within its powers to cooperate with the citizens of the district so recently stricken by hail, may be seen from the following letter, which Commissioner Watson has sent to the Hon. John T. Roddey, of Rock Hill. Col. Watson s letter is in repiy to a telegram from that gentleman, wherein seed are requested for the new crop that will be sown in an effort to tide over the York county farmers, whose entire acreage was, in some localities, demolished last week by hail stones: Hon. John T. Roddey, Rock Hill, S. C.: My Dear Sir:?I have just returned to the city and find your telegram of July 9 and have just received information as to the extent of the damage to the agricultural interests of your section. My office promptly advised vou of a few addresses and from those sources I trust you have already begun to get some seed. This letter is to request you as quickly as you can to notify me as accurately as possible of the amount of the various kinds of seed that will be necessary to assist the farmers in replanting. Just as soon as you can give me this information I will use every resource of this department to meet the needs of the farmers with the least possible delay. I would proceed to Rock Hill myself immediately did I not have very important engagements for the next two or three days that unfortunately I cannot break. I judge, however, from the account in the Rock Hill Evening Herald that the business interests of Rock Hill are rallying to the rescue and that you have already formed channels for gathering the information that I have requested above. Just ae soon as you can give me definite data kindly do so and I will do everything in my power to aid the noble efforts that you are making to repair as far as possible the disaster that has fallen upon the producers of your county. very sincerely yours, E. J. WATSON, Commissioner. DR. AUG. B. KXOWLTOX DEAD. Noted Surgeon and Founder of the Knowlton Hospital. Columbia, July 12.?Dr. Augustus B. Knowlton, noted surgeon and the founder of the Knowlton Hospital in this city, died at 10:30 o'clock this morning at his Columbia residence, after a protracted illness. He was born in Orangeburg county, near Fort Motte. densely populated part of the city the continual crashing and tearing of houses was added to that incessant rumbling and roaring, making an awful sound, which swelled in volume until the earth trembled beneath our feet. The air was filled with flying debris. Doors, shutters, roofs and even whole houses were sent soaring and whirling to a height of 300 or 400 feet. I saw the wheel of a wagon or carriage flying up in the storm cloud. One house was lifted upward to a height of more than 100 feet, when it seemed to explode into a tliuuoauu liagllJCUVOt ? uicu ncub ova 1 ing, whirling and mingling with the other debris. The wind two blocks away as it crossed our street pulled down a cedar tree in my front lawn and a huge plate glass of the house adjoining was burst outward by the pressure of the air within and shattered into a hundred fragments. During the few seconds that the tornado took in crossing our street no one was in sight and I continued my flight toward the scene of the disaster without meeting or seeing any one. On it swept in its unswerving northeast course, a great black monster, obscuring the eastern sky; a raging, baleful thing; a hateful, devouring demon tearing up houses to their foundation stones, roaring, rumbling, rushing, thundering in its awful rage, the most terrifying spectacle man ever eazed uDon. until it swept out of sight, leaving a path of smoking ruins in its wake. About 30 minutes after the tornado had swept over the city, a black, angry cloud rose in the west and spread over the entire city, deluging it with a downpour of rain, while the wind blew such a gale that many of the younger assistants became frightened and ran to cellars, ditches and sewers to escape the fury of a second tornado. In vain the older and more experienced shouted that there was no danger. The downpour of rain soaked us all to the skin and was. of course, much worse for the unfortunates, many of whom were still under the ruins. Those whom we did |rescue were iaiu cm maw, uuuw oiiu shutters until we could get men to carry tl-em beyond thy stricken district to cairiages and ambulances for the timbers and debris made it impossible for a vehicle to cross the patch. B B B IB I IBM ^B^B B TT nm=^ ) \ > . + "? . icj|l MP I You want to make a II good impi ebMun uu put on your best clothes and | make as srood an an- I pearance as possible. M You should use the same 1 'fisfc'.uito t tactics when you go after 1 new business by using i| Un-to-Date Stationery. I When you want some- f? thing neat and nice at a jj "live and let live price" :Jff 'iSi come to The Herald Of- M 'fir''1' fice. We print anything. If , -* ; xlTbSB You are going to want I legal blanks before long. J Let us have your order j j? r i ^