TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 13

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

.From Onr Special Correspondent.) LONDQNi October 31. THE FREAKS OF A TORNADO. Tornadoes are popularly regarded as the peculiar property of tropical regions, and of certain American States where, if one could place entire reliance on the lurid descriptions of the local "yellow Press," they«ttain their fullest rigour, and play their most weird and devastating pranks. In England we can boast of the most varied assortment of weather samples, but it is not often that our own particular clerk of the weather can rise to the heights of a storm that we can fairly call a tornado. We think no worse of him for that, and after what parts of South Wales, Shropshire, and Cheshire went through last Monday we feel unfeignedly thankful that our clerk's repertoire of samples is deficient in some things.

A wind storm of such destructive violence is indeed a rarity in these latitudes. One peculiarity of Monday's tornado was the limited area it affected. Its path over the counties affected took something of the character of the track that one might expect a drunken reaper to carve through a field of standing corn, for it left an irregular track of destruction behind it varying from a bundred to two hundred and fifty yards wide, and, moreover, like the drunken reaper's scythe, its effects were —there is no better word for it —variegated. In one place it made a clean sweep of everything in its path, whilst a little further on comparatively fragile obstacles were left practically unscathed, though right in the track of the storm.

The tornado came practically without warning. It apparently originated near Cilfyndd, and travelled northward up the Taff Vale as far as Merthyr, a distance of about 12 miles. Along this line, over a width of about 200 yards, it did enormous damage. Churches and chapels were razed to the ground, and many houses were utterly demolished.

Two deaths were reported, and many people were seriously injured. Woolford, a well-known Welsh footballer, died from injuries received through being actually carried off his feet by the wind, and dashed against a wall 20 yards away. He sustained a fractured skull, and died without recovering consciousness. Woolford had been playing for his team, and, with others, was returning to the station when the storm caught them. Several of them were lifted clean off their feet by the wind, and Breeze, the trainer of the team, who was walking arm-in-arm with Woolford, had two ribs broken. Other members of the team had to lie down in the road to escape being blown away.

The second death was that of a collier named Harris, of Cilfyndd, whose body was found in a field. Harris had apparently been picked up from the roadway by the wind and carried over 200 yards before being dashed -to the ground. His body was terribly injured. So terrific was the rush of the wind that in several villages whole streets were practically destroyed, the houses bein" unroofed and the walls either shattered or carried away.

At Treharris the cemetery chapel was destroyed, and tombstones were torn from their foundations. The local post office was wrecked, and the postmaster's son buried in the debris, but he was extricated almost unhurt. The Congregational chapel was" "unroofed, and some children injured by falling debris.

At Abercynou, one of the streets was almost entirely demolished, and many of the occupants were injured. The collapse of a house occupied by a Mr. Blake overwhelmed three of the occupants, including Mr. Blake himself. When they were extricated it was found that all three were suffering from fractures of the legs.

In one house at Abcrcynon, five children, terrified at the roar of the storm and vivid lightning flashes, crept under the table. A moment later the roof fell in, but the table, though broken, shielded the children from any worse injuries than scratches and bruises, and they were quickly rescued.

At Fair View Terrace the roofs of 13 houses, containing 04 inhabitants, were carried clean away, and sleeping babies lufd providential escapes. One child found to be sleeping unhurt with debris piled up on either side, being protected by beams from the roof, which lay across the room. In another instance a child was rescued from a cradle in much the same way, timbers from the roof forming a protective archway over the cot.

At Cilfyndd scarcely a house remains whole. The corrugated iron roofing of the big co-operative stores, was torn off as if it had been paper, and'carried a quarter of a mile up the valley. The roofs of otlyr houses were lifted away bodily, scores of chimneys blown down, and the- roof of the Methodist chapel crashed down on to the roof of the house adjoining.

The storm was felt very severely in a small part of Cheshire, and at Church Stretton, in Shropshire, in an area four miles long and 100 yards wide, practically everything, went down before the storm. The roofs of a score of houses and barns were stripped clean off, trees were. blown down in hundreds, and wooden structures riven to pieces and their timbers strewn far and wide.

As a result of the storm it is estimated that at least a hundred and fifty families are temporarily homeless, and that it will cost anything up to £100,000 to make good the damage caused by the tornado tfhich held sway for less than half an hour. THE FRENCH RAILWAY DISASTER. LONDON, November 7. Tlie terrible railway accident at Melun, like that at Aisgill Moor, arose, it appears, entirely through the neglect of a driver to pay heed to the signals, and it emphasises the necessity for the provision of supplemental mechanical safeguards against the breakdown or neglect of -the human element on which at present our safety on railway journeys so largely depends.

The actual facts of the Melun disaster are simply told. The first and secondclass day express from Marseilles pissed safely through Melun at a high rate of 6peed. A little further on it reached the points, where the route to Paris, via Corbeil, joins the main line. At this, moment -the driver of the express heard a whistle, and saw that his road 'was'barred by another train which was then crossing over the points leading to the via Corbeil line. He threw on his brakes, but it was too late. The heavyexpress engine dashed into fragments the -three coaches ahead of it, tore its way through the debris, and, leaving the lines, ploughed its way the sleepers with a great pile of wreckage beneath it. The front part of the locomotive was steadily raised by this wreckage, until it stood almost on end with its rear wheels driven deep into the permanent way. The Marseilles express had run into a train composed exclusively of postal van,-,, which travel- by the Mount Cenis route tv Italy, and travels via?'Corbeil. Three of its coach as, carrying the mails for Italy as well as -Uhc Greek aud

Egyptian mails, were completely wrecked. As for the Marseilles express, there were fortunately three baggage vans immediately behind the tender, which acted to some extent as a buffer. Crash ing into one another and into the tender 'these were reducedifo matchwood. Xcst came a postal vaif. "which, caught between the carriages behind aud the wrecked vans infront, was hurled off. the rails right across the down line. Four sorters were killed in this van. Tin-second-class coach behind was crushed by another coach behind it. which; in its turn, was telescoped. Both these coaches were full of passengers, none oi whom escaped without injury. The first-class coach behind them was practically uninjured; indeed, the passengers in it were .;o slightly shaken that they only thought that the drivei had ac-plied hU brakes rather too suddenly, and for a few moments had no idea that. a collision had taken place. Eyewitnesses of the scene that ensued after the collision have tales of horror to tell. It was the scene at Aisgill ovetagain, for the gas reservoirs exploded, and in a few minutes the wreckage was in flames. At Aisgill, however, the catastrophe occurred at a spot remote from outside aid, but at Melun assistance was close at hand. The railway station staff, the fire brigade, soldiers, gendarmes, and civilians were, quickly on the spot, and the work of fighting the flames, rescuing the injured, and recovering the bodies of the dead went quickly forward. There were many gruesome sights to be seen, and many pathetic scenes, as the dead and dying were gradually extricated from the smouldering heaps of Wreckage. And there was one long-drawn-out tragedy. A number of soldiers from the Melun barracks had been called, to give aid, and as one. of their officers was passing by an enormous heap of debris, in the centre ol which was the overturned tender of the Marseilles express, he heard a womaii crying for help. Bending down under the twisted ironwork he switched on the electric torch that he was carrying, and by its light distinguished a pale face. At the sight of the light the woman prayed him to come to her assistance quickly. The lower part of her body was caught beneath the tender, and she was suffering terribly. The officer did his beet to reaesure her, but he fully realised that it would be a long and difficult task to remove the enormous masses of wreckage in which the woman was entangled. He called the soldiers and firemen .around him, and they worked heroically, but their efforts were sadly hampered by their fear of doing further injury to the unhappy woman beneath, and by having at times to concentrate their attention on preventing the advance of the fire in that direction. Throughout she retained consciousness, and asked anxiously aftes her husband. "I. am Madame Amic," she said, "the wife of Captain Amic, of Avignon. Where is my husband?" The dead body of her husband had been one of the first to be recovered from the shattered train. The company seemed to soothe her a little, and men took turns to sit beside her, assuring her that deliverance was at hand. Her hair was caught under a portion of the tender, and forced her to hold her head in a most painful position. A doctor succeeded in setting her head free -by cutting through the hair. For over eight hours Mme. Amic was tortured. When she prayed to be put out of her pain the doctors injected morphia, and with wonderful bravery she handed over to them the jewellery that she wished her mother to have. Soon after one of the powerful cranes brought up on the relief trains removed the mass of wreckage which had held the poor woman fast. But it was too late, for death had released the tortured woman from her sulfrring- 5 .

The actual number of dead is not ye. known, aud isany of the bodies are

mutilated beyond all hope of identification. The very lowest estimate puts,the number of dead at thirty, and the highest places the number at forty. The injured number about thirty, but many of them only needed first aid to enable them to proceed on their journey, and on)y~ thirteen had to be detained at Melun Hospital. FATHER V. SON. The German Emperor is not a man to be envied so far as his eldest son is concerned. This young man has apparently, like Bimbi, the ourang-outang of Kipling'g gruesome narrative, -too much ego in his cosmos," and a painful lack of filial respect for bis august sire. Also, apparently, he possesses a petty mind, which lcadb' him to indulge in a "pinprick" policy towards the Kaiser. The result is that father and son are continually at loggerheads, and the breach between the two seems to be growing wider and wider as the years roll on. The Crown Prince's method of annoying his father nowadays is to actively patronise any person who happens for the time being to be in his parent's black book. For instance, last year a certain Polish artist refused an invitation from the Kaiser to attend a royal function at Maricnbad. The, invitation was, perhaps, not in the best of taste, because that particular function was practically a glorification of Prussia at the expense of Poland, and it appears that Kossak, the artist in question, refused the invitation in a manner most offensive to the Kaiser. The Crown Prince, who knew full well that Kossak was on the Emperor's black list, at once began to patronise the artist, and to make his patronage plainly apparent to all men engaged Kossak to illustrate a book on military matters upon which he was at work. Another instance of the Crown Prince's wilful patronage of things to which the Kaiser has plainly evinced his objection may be given. For some time past the Kaiser has boycotted the Deutsches Theatre because Hauptmann's Socialist play, "'The Weaver," was produced there. Here was another opportunity for the Crown Prince to exhibit his independence, and on Saturday night he and his suite attended a performance at the Theatre.

These are but two instances of the methods the Crown Prince is adopting in his determination to .show his defiance of his father's wishes. The quarrel has now lasted a couple of years. It was in November. 1911, that the Prince made a demonstration from the royal box in the Reichstag against the policy of the Imperial Chancellor in regard to Morocco. On that occasion he was made to apologise to the Chancellor, and was sent into "(exile" at Danzig. lie has never forgiven his father for the indignity, and only recently he went out of his way to write a letter which challenged the Kaiser's decision regarding the accession of Prince Ernest of Cumberland to the throne of Brunswick. The Kaiser summoned him to Potsdam. There was a long interview, at the end of which the Prince left the palace, "pale and excited," and the next thing was a letter to the Imperial Chancellor expressing regret that his first letter had been published.

Apologies, however, appear to mean nothing to the Prince, who seizes any opportunity, no matter how trifling, to show hostility to tbe Kaiser, and. incidentally, to make a public betrayal of his own petty-mindedness.