ical department and orthopedic branch of the University
of Nebraska; a Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and Creighton
University under Jesuit control. The principal newspapers are the _Omaha
Bee_, _World-Herald_ and the _News_. The _Omaha Bee_ was established in
1871 by Edward Rosewater, who made it one of the most influential
Republican journals in the West. The _World-Herald_, founded in 1865 by
George L. Miller, was edited by William Jennings Bryan from 1894 to
1896.

Omaha is the headquarters of the United States military department of
the Missouri, and there are military posts at Fort Omaha, immediately
north, and Fort Crook, ten miles south of the city.

REMARKABLE ACTIVITY

Prairie freighting and Missouri river navigation, were of importance
before the construction of the Union Pacific railway, and the activity
of the city in securing the freighting interest gave her an initial
start over the other cities of the state. Council Bluffs was the legal,
but Omaha the practical, eastern terminus of that great undertaking,
work on which began at Omaha in December, 1863. The city was already
connected as early as 1863 by telegraph with Chicago, St. Louis, and
since 1861 with San Francisco. Lines of the present great Rock Island,
Burlington and Northwestern railway systems all entered the city in the
years 1867-1868. Meat-packing began as early as 1871, but its first
great advance followed the removal of the Union stock-yards south of the
city in 1884. South Omaha was rapidly built up around them. A
Trans-Mississippi Exposition illustrating the progress and resources of
the states west of the Mississippi was held at Omaha in 1898. It
represented an investment of $2,000,000, and in spite of financial
depression and wartime, ninety per cent of their subscriptions were
returned in dividends to the stockholders.

The original town site occupied an elongated and elevated river terrace,
now given over wholly to business; behind this are hills and bluffs over
which the residential districts have extended.

CHAPTER XX

OTHER DAMAGE FROM THE NEBRASKA TORNADO

GREAT HAVOC IN NEBRASKA TOWNS--DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO--YUTAN A
SUFFERER--THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON--CURIOUS TRAGEDIES--HOUSES
TUMBLING ABOUT.

The storm which lashed its way through Omaha on Easter Sunday had
already carried havoc into other Nebraska towns. William Coon, president
of an automobile company of Lincoln, Nebraska, gave a stirri