The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-01
A travelling correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial gives the following conversational
chanfer ON Californil earthquakes:

A travelling correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial gives the following conversational
chapter on Californil earthquakes:
On the Stockton boat Struck up conversation
with q middle-aged man, whose health compels
him to spend half the months In the year away
from his home and large business in San Francisco.
From the meteorology of that city (which is un-
ique enough to deserve separate chapter.) the
conversation wandered TO earthquakes, of which
California has three or four shocks, generally
slight, every year. 1.-THE more experience We
have with earthquakes" said my new acquaint
snce, 1.-THE more We dread them, and the more
open is the display of involuntary terror. If you
have never known what it 10 to lose faith in solid
masonry and old terra firma ITSELF you can have
little notion Of the horrible feeling that comes
over man when walls get to rocking and streets
to Earring. have been In San Francisco since
1850. The first few jars / hardly noticed. One
morning as lay in bed debating about jumping
out the globes on the glass chandelier ratified. my
wash pitcher slid an inch or two, and felt as if,
like Dickens says. big beast lay under the bed
and was struggling to escape from bis cramped
quarters. From that time have had q feeling of
bind uneasness when think of the subject The
terrifying thing is that you can tell nothing about
an earthquake. There may be one shock or
hundred-snd each shock may be barely percept-
Ible or 1t may toppe everything into ruins as in
Lisbon, You won't find any tall steeples nor six
story houses in San Francisco. They say some
persons have lived there ten years withoutfeeling
We don't often have hot weather in San Francisco,
but when its downright suitry, we look at each
other meaningly and say earthquake One of
our writer's gives figures to show that there IL in
definitely more danger from lightning in the At
lantic States than from earthquakes in California.
That has been true so far. but what absolute as
surance is there that San Francisco will not be In
runs tomorrow, The statistics are correct.
dare say; but not at all tranquilizing. The great
sheck of all came on the Sth Of October, 1865. II
was Sunday. and between IL and O'Clock, for
the churches were just letting out ! was in my
room. in the third story of hotel. on Montgomery
street, lying on the sofa nursing q headache.
When the first wave came i was more asleep
than awake. The shock made me leap as If
| had been shot. saw the wall moving, the
crevices opening. / knew, could feel, that
the whole house had been rocked by some
awful force, to which 1t was but structure
of cards. Nearly blind with alarm, as a second
shock, moie vehement than the first, threatened
to sweep the whole building into ruins tottered
10 the staircase. 1t twisted and creaked under my
feet. Bow got 10 the bottom, scarcely re.
member, but when found myself in the street, l
was in q profuse cold sweat, and sank on the
curbstone from faintness. All up and down
Montgomery street, as far as | could see, and up
and down the cross streets, dense crowd of fran
tic people were jostlng each other. The clamor
that arose was the strangest noise ever heard
Ii was the outcry of dumb, unreasoniug terror
People were rushing hither and thither to see If
friends aud relatives were alive. Women wept
wildly, and men shouted themselves hosrse.
Yet. after all, the damage done was insignificant,
compared with the outcry made about tbs earth
quake. few flimsy buildings were tumbled
down, chmneys plate glass, and cornices suffer
ed. The houses on the made ground we're pretty
generally cracked. but nobody vas killed; aud II
is an agreeable fact that thus far in the history Of
San Francisco, nobody has lost his life through an
earthquake. few we're hurt in 1855, but all re-
covered"