The Daily Cairo Bulletin

Further details of the terrible work of Saturday's cyclone, on the homestead of Mrs. Van Norstrand, sister-in-law of Mr. Thomas Lewis, near Springfield, Ills., is given in Sunday's Register as follows: "The young man Hulett was the only one who succeeded in getting into the cellar. The foundation was of brick and the cyclone seemed to descend from above and crush it out of semblance. William Van Norstrand, who died yesterday morning at 10 o'clock, was pinned to the floor of the ruined house by two heavy timbers falling on top of his head, crushing in head and face. He was chopped out with an ax. Maggie Van Norstrand was doing very well at last accounts, although grave fears are expressed for her life. At this point the cyclone looked like a cloud of black smoke, and sounded like three locomotives pulling a heavy train up a grade. It was first noticed near the Sugar creek bridge, and did not look to be more than twenty or thirty feet high. Almost all the stock were killed or are missing from this place. The loss is very heavy, but was insured for 3,200. The casualties would not have been any here, but William, in his attempts to induce his mother, who is an old lady, to go into the cellar, delayed too long. The earth trembled, as if with an earthquake."

In the storm of Saturday near Springfield, Ills., a house belonging to Mr. Thomas Lewis, of this city, and occupied by a nephew, niece and sister-in-law of Mr. Lewis, was demolished, and all the inmates were injured and Mr. Van Norstrand, the nephew, a young man about thirty years of age, died from the injuries he received and was buried Sunday. A Springfield Register reporter, who was on the scene of the catastrophe soon after the storm, spoke of the terrible work of the wind on this premises as follows: "This house was struck just as the family were preparing to seek safety in the cellar. and was completely demolished. The destruction of the house was by far the lightest feature of the disaster, as all, or nearly all, of the inmates were wounded, one of them fatally. They were soon after taken by the neighbors to the residence of Mr. McVeight, and Drs. Matthews and Morgan were summoned from the city to attend them. They found William Van Norstrand with his head crushed and in a dying condition. His mother, Mrs. Jane Van Norstrand, had a shoulder broken; his sister Maggie, had a thigh badly broken by a falling timber; and younger sister had her hand injured; Miss Ann Van Norstrand, late of the city, was quite badly injured on the head and face. Henry Hulett, another inmate of the house, had his back hurt, not badly."

Mr. Lewis estimates the loss on house and barn to be between $1,500 and $2,000. He will go to Springfield to-morrow to arrange matters for the future comfort of the sufferers.