HOW A CYCLONE LOOKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 10 May 1881, Page 4

HOW A CYCLONE LOOKS.

[« Philadelphia Presa."]

Tbe recent terrible cyclone iv Maooupia County, Illinois, is thai described by Engineer Cutter, of the Chicago aod AUod express train, which was running at full speed, and met the tempest at Carlineville. Mr Cutter saw out on the prairie what he supposed to be a straw or haystack on fire. As he approached it, he saw that it moved rapidly towardi tbe tr»ck, and then realised that it was a cyclone of a most appalling character. It was a dark, funnel-shaped cloud, reaching from the ground high in tbe air, where it disappeared into the clouds. It was black and dangerous looking, end whirled with terrible velocity. Its voice, heard even io the dUtanoe, above the lunb'le and roar of the traio, was frightful in the extreme. The cyclone seemed to travel at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and was co fast approaching that the moving train must in a moment inevitably strike it. Mr Cutter shu off his engine and aj. plied bii air brake juac in time j for, despite the precaution, tbe train touched the cyclone* outer edge. Mr Cutter describes the sight as the moat horrible he ever caw. The air was lurid, and dark, and hot, as if coming from an oven. Every-. thing in the pathway of the storm wa* demolished and crußhedj^add Bfrnihr. ated. Barnep, fenceij sbedfi^tflegrapdtfr poles, and everything aVfcUi fragile: we^< swept up. Mr Cutter md hie firemen crouched down IP the tthffer, aiid for * m6na^nfefit&r;e4^th;i^tthj[i3vfeos[? ; train ,. would be otterturcedL »^l|j^^ar»[ ; were only held bnJthe jirac^ Vby $heji a ! daftty chains. ''l^e'^ptißoWgeftpwob : firsi;w.onder.ed at.the#top,tJwithlylaßfefee& 'cheeks., and. terrifled c4mritßD ; «aoei^ | viewed the terri^b moDiter of the sir I w itß^work. f:.'".