The weekly union record., 1865-10-14
The Great Earthquake.
The Unions telegrsphic reporter furnishes
the following details OF the great earthquake
10 San Francisco last Sunday afternoon:

the heaviest earthquake shock which was ever
felt 10 San Francisco. occurred. The motion
was uDduatory, from northeart and southwest.
Women tainted aid men screamnd
Church congregations piled over each other 10
the excitement to escape, and many people
jumped from second story windows, 10 some
cases receiving severe injuries. The whole
town is now 10 such an excitement that il is
impossible to learn the extent of the damage
or number Of accidents. | hear of only one
man, Chinaman, in Stouts alley. killed out
right. The cbimbey, falling from the Lick
House into the area of the building, crushed
the kitchen aud injured three servants, none of
them fatally. Three men were injured by fall
ing bricks. At CrowelFs warehouse one man
jumped from window through skyight into
the Metropolitan Market, aud was badly in
jured and many similar incidents occurred all
over town. The congregation n the Catholic
church on Vallejo street carried away the
doors entirely 10 reaching the street, aud sew
eral women and children were injured, none
fatally. The fire wall OF the New Orleans
warehouse, on Davis aud California streets,
six feet high and one hundred aud thirty seven
feet long, came down in a body A large
section of the cornice and fire wall of the Ex
change building opposite the Custom House,
fell. A new brick building on Third and Mis-
sion streets will have to be pulled down en-
trely. The rear wall of the store No. ll5
California street, next door to George F.
Bragg & Co., fell out. The front of the brick
building on the northwest corner of Sacra
meuto and Battery streets fell out. A one
story brick building on the corner of Market
and pine streets was entirely DESTROYED The
City Hall walls were cracked throughout and
the plastering thrown down. The whole struc-
ture ought to come down for safety. The
City Hall fire bell rang from the shock. As
it now appears, S250,000 would not repair the
damages. Everybody is congralulating bis
neighbors on their escape from death. In the
present condition OF walls, another shock of
equal violence would PROSTATE at least one.
third of the brick buildings in the city. From
nearly every store IN the lower part of the city
people are sweeping out broken glass and fallen
plaslering. There is lively talk of the re
peal of the fire ordinance
The Occidental, Cosmopolitan, Russ and
Lick Houses, being on natural ground, sui.
fered far less than the buildings north and east
OF this point and on the flats south of Market
street. The fire wall for the whole length of
Greys building, on Sacramento street, between
Montgomery and kearny, also fell, and sec
tons of similar walls all over town. came down
on the sidewalks, rendering it almost incredi-
BILE that so few accidents occurred. how the
people on the sidewalks escaped so generally is
past comprehension. 10 the vicinity of Fol
som, Mission, Beale and Fremont streets the
made ground is disturbed in some places two
feet, throwing walls out of line and moving
buildings bodily four inches Stoddards ware
house settled eighteen inches, and water is
now oozDg in upon the main floor. Mission
wharf is reported damaged by the sliding of
the mud on the bottom, in which piles are
driven, and three frame buildings on Beale
street, between Howard and Mission. fell in.
The gas works are considerably damaged
Referring 10 the earthquake at Stockton,
the Independent says: There were two shocks,
coming, as we think, from the northwest, the
second a little more violent than the first, and
either strong enough to create alarm among
persons inbabiting brick buildings. The sen
sation on the veraudah of this office was such
as to create the impression that the whole
platform was sliding eff to the ground, and in
the office the gas burners vibrated for about
five minutes. In one place water was splashed
out OF the top of pail, and one brick build
ing was slightly cracked.
The San Francisco Bulletin says:
The shock at its commencement was accom-
panied by a rumbling sound, which to those
indoors appeared like the jarrng of the earth
produced by heavy clap of thunder, but this
soon gave way 10 waving, vbratory motion,
which increased in violence till it seemed as
though every building in the city was about to
fall upon the heads of its inmates. A large
share of the population of the city was in the
street at the time, and as general thing they
were unaware of the shock until they saw the
people rushing out of their houses, or behed
the falling bricks and heard the iingliug of the
broken window glass. Some, however, who
were promenadiDg the more quiet thorough.
fares were made sensible of the presence of an
earthquake at the commencement of the shock
by noise which they varously describe as
resembling roaring wind, a rushing of waters
or the distant rafting of a wagon driven at
great speed over the pavement. The couster-
nation produced upon the minds of all who
were indoors was probably never surpassed by
any event that has occurred in San Francisco.
Those who had sat coolly under former shocks,
or perhaps derived a pleasurable sensation from
the shaky process, turned pale at the over
whelmlDg force of the present agitation, and
bethought them of the prophecy of the old
Jesuit missionary which foretold the sinking
OF the entire peninsula and the engulfing of
large city beneath the waves of the ocean.
The least concerned were probably those who
have but recently arrived here from the East,
and who labored under the bllssful delusion
that it was only one of those ordinary shakes
to which the people of San Francisco have
long been accustomed.
The effects of the earthquake are visible in
every street and in almost every building.
either outside or inside, in the city. The dam.
age done TO public aud private property is very
considerable and, although no building is en-
tirely demolished, and but few are so badly
injured as TO require reconstruction, yet the
aggregate cost OF repairs will reach many
thousands of dollars. Apparently, the most
serious damage done to any one structure is to
Peppers building, on the corner of Third and
Mission streets. The building is OF brick, four
stories high. About half OF the front, from
foundation TO roof, on Third street, fell With
tremendous noise, which could be heard for
some distance. A portion of the rear wall
also fell, the bricks breaking through the roof
of wooden tenement adjoining, on Mission
Ht,,l I'll. IL