* ' THE LEAVES OF THE TBEE W6T6 FOR THE HEALING OF THB NATIONS." 1 



A partial calm, save for the fall of heavy rain, then came and the people rushed 

 about in great excitement. On one side of the square, where stood a handsome- 

 building occcpied by the Knights of Pythias and Masons, were now only a heap or 

 timber and beams. This was one of the most pretentious buildings in town. The- 

 people on the streets first noticed this wreck, and then they saw that the roof of the 

 courthouse was gone. 



But there was more than this; there were the cries and screams of children. 

 Men rushed to the colored schoolhouse where 150 children had been gathered at 

 their lessons. The building, a two story frame, had been blown down and beneath 

 the ruins was a mass of struggling children. No lives were lost, but there were 

 many maimed and crushed, some with broken arms and some with fractured ribs. 

 The work of relief was at once directed to the schoolhouse, and the children were- 

 extricated from the prison which the timbers formed. The full list of the buildings 

 wrecked cannot be obtained .to- night, but it is known that the Presbyterian and 

 Methodist churches are totally wrecked. In all parts of the town are piles of ruins, 

 and very few houses have escaped without some damage. 



The path of the cyclone appears to have been twenty miles in width, although 

 the serious damages was confined to a much smaller area. The wires are down in 

 all directions. There is no telegraphic communication whatever with Nashville 

 and intervening points, and very little news is obtainable from the places visited by 

 the cyclone. This city barely escaped. A heavy rain fell and a high wind blew at 

 the time the cyclone raged, and it became as dark as night for thirty minutes, but 

 no damage was done. The train from Birmingham, Ala., arrived several hours 

 late and reported much damage between here and Byhalia, thirty miles east. 

 Farmhouses, barns and ginbouses are reported unroofed and blown down all along: 

 the line. The train was delayed by having to stop at frequent intervals to chop 

 away large trees that had been uprooted and blown across the track. Damage is 

 reported at Captville, Tenn., and Olive Branch, Miss., but no particulars are- 

 obtainable. 



MEMPHIS, (Tenn.), March 24, 1893. The damage done by yesterday's cyclone 

 in the Mississippi valley is enormous. While the loss of life is not as great as 

 was at first reported, the damage to property will reach $2,000,000. The telegranh 

 wires are still demoralized and reports are coming in slowly from the storm dis- 

 tricts. It will be several days before the full extent of the disaster will be known. 

 The death list at 10 p. M. foots up twenty-three, while the list of the injured will 

 run up into the hundreds. The names of the dead at Kelly, Miss., so far as known, 

 are: Harriet Smith, Mary Williams, Susan Williams, and two unknown negro 

 women. The dead elsewhere are: Richard Heard and Thomas Heard, Shubuta, 

 Miss.; Eli Prince, Evansville, Miss.; Drury Sumrallsand his family of nine, Shaw's, 

 Miss. The names of the injured at Kelly, so far as known, are as follows: Richard 

 Pine, wife and children, all badly injured by the collapse of their house, one fatally; 

 Jim Payne, so badly wounded about the head and shoulders that he may die; Chris. 

 Burford, internally injured and will probably die; Mrs. Sarah Hart, two ribs broken 

 and internally injured, may die; Marion Mason, cut about the head; Mrs. Mason, 

 badly hurt about the hips; Harriet Branch, internally injured; Gus Bills, right ey& 

 knocked out; Eph. McLaughlin, shoulder broken; F. Wiley McLaughlin, arm 

 dislocated. The injured at other points are: S. K. Davis, Crawfordsyille, Ark.; 

 fourteen negro tenants at Crawfordsville, Ark., more or less seriously injured; John 

 Carroll, Spring Creek, Tenn., struck by flying timber and seriously injured; twenty- 

 one school-children at Tunica, Miss., more or less seriously injured. The majority 

 of those killed and injured are negroes. 



The first heard of the cyclone was in Northern Lousiana and Southern Arkan- 

 sas. II crossed the Mississippi a few miles above Greenville, devastating planta- 

 tions, wrecking farmhouses and uprooting giant forest trees. The path of the storm 

 was about half a mile wide, and nothing was left standing in its track. The farst 

 fatality occured near Shaw's station, Miss., where the house of Drury Sumrall, a 

 prosperous colored farmer, was leveled to the ground, killing the entire family of 

 nine persons. The cyclone passed through the suburbs of Shaw's and demolished 

 several residences and small stores, but no one was killed. The hurricane tnen 

 changed its course slightly and traveled along the right of way of the Yazooand 

 Mississippi Valley Railroad until it entered Cleveland, Miss., where a public school, 



