AMERICAN DIBABTERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10668, 12 June 1902, Page 2

AMERICAN DIBABTERS.

Cyclones and Explosions*

(Per Mail Steamer at Auckland.) CPer United Press Association.) DALLAS (TEX.), May 19. Advices from all available sources here lart night were that a disastrous cyclone swept acrou Texas yesterday, causing loss at life and almost incalculable damage to property. The cyclone is believed to have originated on the Gulf Coast at a point .almost directly south of Giliad, and travelled in a north-easterly direction as 'far as Kentucky. It left desolation behind it in four States, but Texas seems to have suffered more than others. A special to the New* from Giliad say* that 90 are dead and over 100 arc wounded. In addition there i* a gaping ' wound in the town, the path. of one of I > the moat destructive cyclone* ■ ever ' known in Texas. The tornado struck 'this place about 3.45 o'clock tms afternoon, lasting only about five minutes, leaving death and disaster everywhere in its wake. It came front thje southwest without warning, 'Completely demolishing a strip about 'two blocks wide through the whole western .part of the town about a mile long. Among the many buildings demolished are tbet Baptist Chnrch > and just built, the Methodist- CWch, and a coloured ohureh/' It i* impossible to estimate the number of nouses destroyed, bat It as .thought ,the, number, will retch 100. >The damage dime- cannot be approximated, but it"l* very great. The path of the devastation is strewn with all kinds of debris and d«id and wounded animals. The pitiful cries of the .wounded' ,are heard everywhere; and at time* are heartrending. KNOXVJXLE (TEN.), May 28. Up to midnight 82 bodies have been taken from the FraterriJle mine at Coal Creek, the scene of yesterday's catastrophe, in which 227 miners perished. - Ernest McDonald was taken out alive at a late hour. He had fallen into a spring- and was covered by water except half his face when found. He had entered the mine fifteen minutes after the other men, an« his story of the explosion was told while his breath came in fitful gasps. Jtr, v impossible for him to live more than a few hours, for he is horribly mangled. Both arms were twisted from his shoulders, both eyes were blown out, and bo£h thigh* broken. , s The cause of the disaster became known to-day. The gas had collected in an abandoned mine close by, into which an opening had been accidentally made, last week by a work boy. in a lateral, shaft. An attempt was made to close the opening, bnt it is believed that a leak remained. ■',