FEARFUL TORNADO. PENNSYLVANIA THE SCENE OF HORRORS. COLLAPSE OF A SILK MILL AT READING. OVER SIXTY PERSONS PERISH AMONG THE RUINS. Reading (Pa.), January 9.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 341, 9 February 1889, Page 3

FEARFUL TORNADO. PENNSYLVANIA THE SCENE OF HORRORS. COLLAPSE OF A SILK MILL AT READING. OVER SIXTY PERSONS PERISH AMONG THE RUINS. Reading (Pa.), January 9.

A despatch of January 9bh says : This has been the saddest night in the history of Reading. A hundred households are in mourning as a result of one of the greatest calamities ever known in Pennsylvania. A cyclone swept over the northern section of Hie city this afternoon, and laid waste everything within its reach, with terrible loss of life. The lives that have been sacrificed and the number of peisons -who have been injured can only be estimated. The most reliable computation at 10 o'clock to-night is that not less than sixty persons weie killed outright and 100 injured. The track of this destructive whirlwind was not more than 200 feet wide, and it only touched the subuibs of the city. It came from the west, but passed along the northern border of Reading.

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION. The rain poured down in torrents, the atmosphere became heavy and oppicssive, and it was almost as dark as night. Directly on one bide of the track of the Reading Railroad was situated the paint shop of the company. Ib was a one-storey building about 60 x 50 feet in size. Here about thirty men were employed in painting passenger cars. There were eight or nine of the cars in the building. They had been built at the company's siiops at a cost of •?6,000 each. The building was struck squarely in the middle and the bricks scattered about like playthings. The car 3 were turned topsy-turvy, while the men were buried under the debris. The gas chamber of each of the passenger cars was already filled with gas, as they were ready to be taken out on the road in a few - days. They exploded one after another, the succession of reports resounding over the city, causing the people to inn out of their houses, thinking it was the sound of an earthquake. There was a considerable quantity of gasoline in the building and this added fuel to the fire. A sheet of flame shot upwaid with the roar of musketry, fctome twenty ot the men had a chance to crawl out of the debris, but four of their companions were burned to death. The fire from the nine passenger cars lit up the heavens for miles around. The fire department was called out, but its services were unavailing. The building and cars were consumed in 15 minutes, and nothing lelt but the smoking ruins, under which lay the dead bodies of the four men.

COLLAPSE OF A FACTORY. While this was happening the storm was travelling forward with fearful rapidity. It must have travelled at the rate of 100 miles an hour. 1 It struck some more private houses and unroofed a dozen private residences. Huge sheets of tin were carried half a square' away, and deposited in vacant lots. ' Then the storm proceeded in its -full fury. Directly in its path, on the Twelfth and Marion -streets, stood, the Reading silk mill; here about 175 girls were working. The building was a huge structure, most substantially built, four storeys in height, with a basement. It occupied a block of ground. The size of the building itself was nearly 300 feet in length and about 150 feet wide. It was surmounted by a massive tower built 100 feet from the ground. ' The funnel-shaped storm cloud struck the building directly in the centre on its broadest side, which faced west. It fell to pieces as if composed of so many building blocks. Nearly

200 HUMAN BEINGS WENT DOWN IN THE AWFUL WRECK. The walls gave way, the floors fell down one on top of the other and carried their great mass of human beings to the bottom. The bricks were piled up in the greatest oonfu&ion, while amid the hurricane terrible cries for succour were sent up. Girls with blackened faces and braised and broken limbs, their clothing tattered and torn, dragged themselves from the ruins. Probably 75 or 100 escaped or were pulled out by their friends. These, of course, worked on the upper, floors, and were thrown near the top of the debris. At some places the bricks were piled twenty feet deep, and ■ under- • neath are lying to night many human' bodies. About 250 girls and young women are usually employed in the mill, but at 4 o'clock about eighty were relieved from duty for the day, They returned to their homes before the etorm came. The most reliable estimate to-night places the number in the building when it -went, down; in the neighbourhood of 175, and, as before stated, about 100 of these -were rescued' by friends or dragged themselves out immediately after the accident. An alarm foi\ relief was immediately sente out, 'and in a short time thousands of citizens^ arrived to help.get outthe dead and dyings The scene wasn harrowing one and beggars j description. The mill- is situated i near -the

foot of Mount Perm, a high mountain overlooking the'city. When the people Arrived everything was enveloped in|darkness. Then huge bon-iires were built, which cast their glare on thesurroundingscene. The fire companies lefb the burning paint shopand assisted in the rescue of the dying. The,- entire police force was called out with the ambulance and relief oorps, and thousands of people wero in among the debris carrying out bricks, pulling away timbers and assisting wherever they corld. One body noticed a3 it was dragged out hod its head cut ofl. Others were in vaiious postures. The living were all suffering from Mie mo£ t terrible wounds, and eomo were almost scared to death. The Asso cation Press representative entered what was once the basement of the building, and groping his way through the debris, noticed five dead bodies of young girls lying close together. He tried to pull them out, but they were pinned down, and it was i impossible to move them. Up to 10.30 o'clock to-night probably the bodies of a dozen dead had been taken out, while tho greater portion of the remainder wero still under the ruins. Tha work of rescue^vill be pushed all night, but it may be far into to-morrow before all the bodies are taken out. The rescuers still havo the greatest hopes that some of those inside are' yet living. All is confusion around the mill. The managers are missing, and the correct number of persons lost is merely guoss-work. It may not be over forty, and then, again, at this hour theio is a likelihood that it will reach sixty or oighty.