GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC AND SAINT LOUIS TORNADO

Early buildings of the George Junior Republic.

Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, May 28, 1896.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

A Junior Republic.

   One of the most interesting outgrowths of the fresh air fund idea, which has been of such great benefit to the poor children of the large cities, is the "junior republic." This remarkable community was only established last year, but it met with such success that it will be continued during the coming summer season, and it is not at all unlikely that similar institutions will be founded elsewhere.

   The "George Junior Republic" was established by William R. George on a farm near Freeville, N. Y., and only a few miles from Ithaca, and is described in detail in the current Harper's Weekly. Since 1890 Mr. George had been entertaining at this farm fresh air parties sent out from New York, but it was only last year that his plan of forming a real working republic, in which the boys and girls should govern themselves by making and enforcing their own laws, was put into operation. Of course the general plan of the republic was laid out by Mr. George himself, but the children worked out the details, and in so doing learned not only the value of industry, but also of good citizenship.

   The republic has its legislative, judicial and executive branches, its police force, its jail and its own currency. This currency was of course fiat money, but as there was no exchange with the outside world it answered its purpose very well. The idea of self-support was held uppermost and three grades of labor were provided for the boys and three for the girls. The boys worked at farming, landscape gardening and carpentering, while the girls employed themselves in cooking, millinery and needle work. The three grades of work in each class were skilled, medium and unskilled, and when a child first entered the republic he was classed as unskilled. Those employed at unskilled labor received fifty cents a day, and each citizen had to pay ten cents for a meal and ten cents for lodging, in addition to a tax of three cents a day levied for the purpose of paying community expenses.

   Each citizen spent five days in unskilled labor, after which he was promoted to the middle grade and received seventy cents a day. Five days later there was another promotion, and the price of labor was raised to ninety cents.

   At the beginning there were many boys and a few girls who declined to work. These were the paupers of the republic, and they received pauper fare and were well guyed [teased] by their thrifty neighbors. As a rule this treatment drove most of the paupers to work, but some still refused to do any labor, until finally the congress passed a bill providing that none of the tax money should be used for the support of paupers.

   The member of the house of representatives who introduced the bill

—himself the son of pauper parents in New York City—maintained that "a feller what won't work hadn't orter be fed by us fellers what do work," and this seemed to be the unanimous view of the toilers. It then being the case of work or starve and all the citizens of the republic being able-bodied, pauperism ceased. The congress, the members of both houses of which were elected by the citizens, passed many other important measures. More than 200 bills were introduced, and nearly sixty of them became laws.

   Mr. George, who was the president of the republic, was vested with complete veto power, but it was seldom that he was compelled to use it, as ordinarily the boy legislators displayed prudence and wisdom in legislation. They regulated their own affairs. Boys charged with any misdemeanor were arrested by the boy police, tried by the boy courts, and, if found guilty, committed to jail, where they were compelled to work. Incorrigible boys were not expelled, but were subjected to rigid discipline and generally yielded in the end.

   There were many other things that this novel republic of youngsters did, and these are described entertainingly and illustrated with reproductions of photographs in the article appearing in Harper's Weekly. That the idea of a junior republic is perfectly feasible, says the Troy Times, has been demonstrated, and that it is likely to accomplish excellent results seems to be shown by the experience of the pioneer organization. It takes the children of the slums and teaches them the value of law and order. Every citizen comes to understand how necessary it is to establish and enforce laws for the benefit of the majority. Those boys who are good citizens at Freeville are almost sure to become good boys in New York, no matter what their past record has been. Their citizenship teaches them self-respect, and they realize that, even from a selfish standpoint, it is to their own material advantage to behave themselves.

May 27, 1896 tornado struck St. Louis at east end of Eads bridge.

AWFUL TORNADO.

DESCENDED UPON ST. LOUIS YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.

Hundreds of Lives Lost, Many More Injured—Thousands  without Shelter—Strongest Buildings Reduced to

 Kindling Wood—Property Damage Can Hardly Be Estimated.

   ST. LOUIS, May 28.—The history of the storm's movement last night is quickly told. The day was an oppressive one in the city. There was no wind, and the people suffered from the heat. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the entire western horizon was banked with clouds. These were piled one upon the other with curling edges, yellow in tinge. A light wind then sprang up and a sudden darkness came upon the city. The darkness increased until the storm broke. It gave the first alarm to the thousands of people in the streets, in the parks, in the light craft on the river, or at work in the great mercantile establishments.

   There seemed to be three square cyclones. They came from the northwest, the west and the southwest. When they reached the Mississippi river they had become one. It was a quarter to 5 when the storm broke. Its descent was so sudden that the fleeing women and children were caught in the streets and hurled to destruction or hurled under falling walls.

   Before the mass of clouds in the west, hanging over the villages of Clayton, Fernridge, Eden and Central gave vent to their frightful contents, the funnels shot out of them. Some of these seemed to be projected into the air, the others leaped to the earth, twisting and turning. Lightning played about them and there was a marvelous electrical display. Then came the outburst. Three of the funnels approached St. Louis with a wind that was travelling at the rate of eighty miles an hour.

   From the clouds above a strange, crackling sound came. This filled the air and at times was stronger than the incessant peals of thunder. The funnels enveloped the western side of the city and in thirty minutes were wrecking destruction. So destructive was the cyclone and so irresistible and so much greater in magnitude than any other the country has previously known of, that some of the staunchest business blocks went down before it. Iron beams were torn from their fastenings and carried blocks away as if they were feathers. Roofs braced and held to their positions by every device known to the best builders of the day were torn off as if held only by threads. Telegraph poles fell in long rows, not coming down one by one, but in groups of a dozen or more at a time.

   The east end of the Eads bridge, one of the most solid and finest bridges in the world, was destroyed. The other great bridges spanning the Mississippi were all injured. Scores of persons were drowned or, after being killed on the land blown into the water.

   Steamers were blown high on the banks. Others were turned around; still others, after being torn from their moorings, disappeared and have not been heard from. As a rule the smaller craft were sunk. Not while within the city limits did the funnels rise and fall from the ground, as is usually the case in small places. There was no rebounding and consequently, whatever was in the path of the wind was either destroyed or badly injured. And this destruction was done within an hour. The bells of the city were pealing at 6 o'clock when the worst of the storm had passed.

   In East St. Louis the devastation was as great as in St. Louis proper. Fire added to the destruction, and as the streets were littered with rubbish and debris, the fire department was helpless. The loss by fire alone will approximate $1,000,000. There was an anxious time after the storm when St. Louis could not communicate with the outside world. Nor could her own citizens communicate with each other. Telephones were useless. Husbands could not get word to their wives, and wives at home could not reach husbands. Breaking at the hour it did and the night following, the work of rescue was slow.

   The firemen and police were made aids to the surgeons and physicians of the city. The electric lights being out, searching parties in the ruin-strewed streets could not go ahead; they had to wait for daylight.

   The only reliable report of the storm came in about midnight from Milan, Sullivan county. This is northwest of St. Louis. The big, black cloud was seen there and there was a high wind, but no damage. It crossed the Missouri in St. Charles county, and then attacked this city.

   A twenty-four foot section of the western wall of the city jail blew down exposing the interior. It was during exercise hours, and the 200 prisoners who were exercising in the building were panic stricken. They were too frightened to try to escape. Jailer Wagner was on the scene in a moment, and with the aid of a number of detectives and policemen the prisoners were placed in their cells.

   The wharf on this side of the river is a scene of desolation. Steamboats, wharfboats and barges were swept from their fastenings almost in a solid mass and cast adrift. Some were overturned and sunk. Others were blown across the river and crushed against the other side. The Anchor Line wharf was carried away and crushed to pieces. Some boats were seen floating when the brunt of the storm had passed, but in nearly all cases the upper works were torn away. The damage to shipping alone will run up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

   Steam launches from East St. Louis bring the information that at least 200 persons were killed by last night's storm. The list of the dead discovered is long enough to be appalling.

   The convention hall was in the path of the cloud and it lost a part of the roof on the eastern end and was punctured in several places by flying timbers and sustained some derangement of the interior. Ten days' work will make the hall good again.

   Perhaps the most impressive evidence of the storm cloud's force is to be seen in the wreck of the eastern end of the Eads bridge. There the tornado dealt with stone masonry. It tore off and tumbled down tons of this masonry. Beginning with the big eastern pier, and extending to the foot of the incline, the cloud cut off the upper part of the structure as if it had been a flimsy trestle instead of a structure of world-wide fame for massiveness. What the tornado did to the Eads bridge will not be believed unless the eyes see it.

   ST. LOUIS, May 28.—Up to 10 o'clock this forenoon the names of thirty-five men, six women and three children who had been killed here had been announced. At East St. Louis the bodies of forty-five men, twenty-one women and nine children have been identified. At the morgue at St. Louis are the unidentified bodies of seven men, two women and one girl.

   ST. LOUIS, May 28.—Fifty-six identified and nineteen unidentified bodies have been received at the morgue here up to noon. The number of dead at East St. Louis is estimated at two-hundred. Most of the steamboats have been reported safe at anchor with all their passengers on board.