12 " THE LEAVES OF THE TREE W6T6 FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS. " 



Cation. It followed the course of what is known as the Harris^ county track. 

 Many of these cyclones have kept as closely within the lines of their predecessors 

 as if their course had been laid out by an engineer. 



The maximum wind velocity in Atlanta to-day was forty-four miles an hour, Ine 

 hardest blow here last night was thirty-six miles an hour. The wind was blowing 

 thirty-six miles an hour at Savannah and twenty-eight an hour at Augusta at 7 

 o'clock this morning. The Weather Bureau synopsis to-day shows that the trough 

 of low barometer pressure, which yesterday morning extended from Texas north- 

 eastward to the New England States, developed into a storm of considerable area 

 and energy, and enlarged toward the Atlantic coast until it covered the entire coun- 

 try east of the Mississippi river, its center being near Wilmington, N. C., with a 

 minimum pressure of 29.30 inches. 



MERIDIAN (Miss.), March 4. The havoc wrought by the cyclone in this section 

 last night is incalculable. The scene at Marion, Miss., is one of awful destruction. 

 The main track of the storm was 300 yards wide, and everything in its path was 

 swept away, the wreckage of houses being scattered for miles along its course. The 

 cyclone struck only the northern portion of the town, which is but sparsely 

 populated. The injured are J. Harrison and wife, George Nailers and Mrs. White. 

 Mrs. Meader and her daughter were killed. Haifa mile of telegraph poles were 

 blown down. Four settlements of neeroes were destroyed, but no one seriously in- 

 jured. The town of Toomsuba was almost completely wrecked and a number of 

 people injured. At Keating a negro settlement was almost completely destroyed. 



SPECIAL DISPATCHES TO THE S. F. CHRONICLE. 



MEMPHIS, (Tenn.), March 23, 1893. The most destructive cyclone in the history 

 of this section swept over Northern Mississippi and Western Tennessee late this 

 afternoon, leaving death and destruction in its wake. K^liey, Miss., a town of 

 about three hundred inhabitants, was wiped off the face of the earth, every build- 

 ing in the place being totally demolished. So far as is known twenty-five people 

 were killed outright and about sixty injured. The cyclone reached Kelley about 

 3:40 o'clock this afternoon, spreading havoc in every direction. Long before the 

 wind struck the town a strange atmospheric condition was noticed. The air grew 

 very dark and then a moaning sound was heard, and finally a greenish colored 

 cloud was seen rapidly approaching from the southwest. 



The path of the storm was about half a mile wide, and everything in its course 

 was picked up like a straw and dashed to pieces. Large houses were crushed like 

 eggshells, while giant forest trees were uprooted and their trunks were picked up 

 by the whirling wind and carried for miles. The public school building was the 

 first to go down before the storrn. The pupils had been dismissed only a few 

 minutes before and most of them had left the building, which fact alone prevented 

 appalling loss of life. Several children were caught in the ruins, however, and 

 crushed to death. 



A row of frame buildings next fell before the cyclone's fury, and with a loud 

 <?rash and a deafening roar they were literally torn to kindling wood and the 

 fragments scattered far and wide. Owing to the darkness it is impossible to learn the 

 full extent of the loss of life and property. Trains from the East reaching this city 

 late in the afternoon and evening brought reports of widespread destruction. The 

 .passengers on a Yazoo and Mississippi Valley train told of the destruction of Tunica, 

 Miss., and, while the reports were slightly exaggerated, yet they were in a large 

 measure confirmed. Tunica suffered greatlv, but the loss so far as is known was 

 confined solely to property. A special from there says the damage to property will 

 run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



About 3:30 p. M. the sky in the southwest began to darken and a low wailing 

 sound announced the storm coming. Within a few minutes the wind came along 

 with terrible velocity and with a swish and whirl that portended danger. The first 

 hard blow gave way to the cyclone and houses were crushed like eggshells. The 

 vicious visitor lingered over and around the town for scarcely two minutes, and yet 

 in that iime it leveled buildings unsparingly, tossing saloon and church alike to the 

 ground. Such an unusual and unexpected visitation stunned people and the noise 

 of tumbling roofs paralyzed their miuds for the moment. 



