A REMARKABLE SPELL OF WEATHER. 165 



needed, as fruits and grain have already suffered considerably from drouth. 



The same night the vicinity of Joplin was visited by a heavy wind and rain 

 storm, accompanied by severe lightning. Some buildings were struck, but not much 

 damage was done. The weather is very warm. The thermometer marks ioo° in 

 the shade. 



Saturday afternoon at about 7 o'clock a rain storm blew over this (Kansas) 

 city, drenching everything with a heavy fall, which continued for probably a half 

 hour, when the drops suddenly ceased to fall and the sky was brilHantly illum- 

 inated by a rainbow, lasting a few minutes. The sky then darkened and the wind 

 began blowing in fitful gusts, which soon gave way to a terrific gale, with frequent 

 showers, accompanied by heavy peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning, 

 approximating the proportions of a full grown cyclone about 8 o'clock, which swept 

 over the city with full force, tearing up numerous trees, loosening a number of 

 signs and doing other damage of minor importance. 



The storm came from a southwesterly direction, and seemed to spend its fury 

 of wind and rain in West Kansas, partly demolishing the large five-story hotel 

 building belonging to Colonel Blossom, which fell with a crash, making a ruin of 

 Jarboe's foundry next door, and seriously injuring a young woman bearing the 

 name of Lillie Sedler. A number of skiffs and dredge boats, etc., along the river 

 were torn from their fastenings and drifted down the stream. A building occupied 

 by a saloonist on Missouri avenue was unroofed. Fences and trees along the 

 bluff suffered considerably. 



SUNDAY, JUNE I2TH. 



The most destructive cyclone that has ever visited Kansas passed over a por- 

 tion of this country Sunday afternoon, striking the county at a point seven miles 

 east of Winfield. It pursued its course in an almost easterly direction about eight 

 miles. In width it varied from one-half to one and one-half miles. There was 

 very little rain, it being a wind storm or tornado, m which the air was very 

 heavily charged with electricity. Nothing seemed to offer any resistance to the 

 course of the tornado. Trees were uprooted, houses blown down and the timbers 

 scattered for miles in the surrounding country. Houses of the most durable kind 

 were laid low, a stone structure faring no better than the ordinary box frame 

 building. In some instances valuable orchards were entirely destroyed. Not 

 content with larger game the storm searched low down and played sad havoc with 

 small fruit and vines. Floral, a small place ten miles northeast of Winfield, was 

 destroyed. From twenty to thirty buildings within a distance of two miles or so 

 were completely demolished. A large two-story stone store building at the center 

 and a stone residence near by were tumbled down as if by an earthquake. A 

 frame church, schoolhouse and several dwellings were dashed to pieces, and the 

 timbers scattered like straw, the foundations being left clean. Farm houses for a 

 long distance each way were leveled to the ground, and the contents scattered far 

 and wide. Several persons were injured, a few dangerously, but none killed. A 

 cyclone visited Sumner and Sedgwick counties Sunday night, causing the destruc- 

 tion of a vast amount of property and killing a few and wounding other persons. 



