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TEN DOLLARS FOR A NEWSPAPER
Rev. Fr. J. J. Furlong of New Madrid, MO., was a passenger on the Iron Mountain train coming to St. Louis, the day after the tornado. He has many relations in St. Louis and his mission was to ascertain whether or not they were safe. "I have never seen such an excited condition as prevailed along the line of the Iron Mountain," said he. "At New Madrid we were unable to bear a word from St. Louis. Many persons who had relatives and friends ,in this city rushed to the telegraph office to wire them asking if they were safe. They could get no reply to repeated messages, and as a consequence they took the first train for St. Louis. We could not get a St. Louis paper anywhere. Offers of $5 and $10 were made for a paper at every station along the line at which we stopped. The train on which I came up was so crowded that both men and women were standing in the aisles. "At a point a short distance from the city some one St. Louis paper and then there was a tremendous scramble for it, as all wanted to see whether their relatives were among the dead. As a compromise they agreed that I should read aloud the account of the storm and the names of the dead and wounded. It was a trying task for me, as I shrank from reading the death list to those whose relatives might be named in it. It proved that there were several on the train who had friends in the list of dead and injured."
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