SOMETHING LIKE A STORM.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 664, 28 May 1870, Page 3

SOMETHING LIKE A STORM.

In describing the easterly gale of last week, a writer says that paving stones were flying about; that, however, is nothing at all to be compared with that which occurred last month in Cave City, Kentucky, described by the Louisville Commercial, of the 19th of Febuary. A roaring was heard on the evening of a wet Sunday like that of a distant cannon, and then the cyclone was seen approaching—a cler.se black cloud, accompanied by sharp, loud electrical discharges, balls of fire bursting and flaming from its front. It seems to have begun its mischief by sweeping away 38 out of 40 cabins belonging to the colored people, leaving 40 or 50 families houseless in a few minutes. The Commercial states that " Old Uncle Edward Trigg and his wife, with his four sons and their families, all honest, respected and industrious, were left like the others, with nothing but the ground under their feet." The houses of Mr Bird Nevill and Professor Williams were entirely demolished, Mr Nevill's wife being first thrown out of a window, and Miss Puss Nevill, " a very attractive young lady," being struck on the head, and her skull fractured. Professor Williams had company stayiug with him. Besides his .wife and three children, there were the Bev. Mr Grubbs, three young men, and a lady named Miss Drain. When the storm reached the professor's house it tore it up, whirled it round, and dropped it again in a shivered mass, burying the family and guests beneath its ruins. When Professor Williams became conscious the air was filled with whirling fragments, his wife was shrieking over .him, and his little children lay scattered about insensible. The fire on the hearth was not extinguished, so he seated his wife beside it with a child in her lap, caught a carpet that was circling above his head in the air, and pulled it down as a shelter for his helpless family. He then proceeded in search of his guests. The three young men were found more or less hurt 100 feet away from where the house had stood; but poor Miss Mattie Drain had been carried a distance of 100 yards, was almost insensible, and has not yet recovered her senses. The storm also carried away the house of Mrs Herman, near Professor Williams's, and deposited " a fine pianoforte " in a pond about 20 yards distant, where (the Commercial says), it stood in the m'ud, its keys severed and broken, its wires mute—a fitting symbol of the desolation around it. The Masonic Hall was " whipped into strips," and so was the church. Mr Jolly's house was levelled to the ground, and some of his chickens were found "actually plucked of their feathers." Besides all this destruction many people unfortunately lost their lives, and others received serious injuries. The air was literally filled with fragments of the up-torn houses, and the whole town seems to have been reduced to a ruin.