Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1872-04-12
Fearful Details of the Earthquake in
California.

| ever occurred in California, not even that OF
! 1872, ever equalled il in violence. IT is true
| that more lives were lost then, which is, OF
course, first in consequence. But the treinen-
dOus upheaval of miles Of earth for the euor-
nous assures, the trembling and rumbling,
there has been no parallel in California tradi-
tons. 1t extended from Red Bluff, in tie
northern part of the State, rs far south as vi
saa. 1t seems TO have increased in violence
ms it moved southwark, and to have reached
up the Sierra to an elevation of three or four
thousand feet so that the whole Of the three
| valleys Of Sacramento, San joaquin, and Tu-
lare were in commotion, and area Of the
State about 500 miles long by 100 broad. The
line Of the shock followed the trend Of the ST.
ezra, proceeding from southeast 10 northwest,
and the centre of the greatest violence was as
far us we have learned yet, near Visalia, in the
Iulare Valley, which is the bed Of n former
lake.
Here eyewitness described the scene Mt the
time of the shock as something awful in its in-
conceivable grandeur. noise like the guns
Of fifty batteries of artillery fired simultane-
ously beneath the place, the ground for miles
around trembed violently houses shaking
violently an instant, and the next lying in
ruins people but n moment before in dream-
land, shrckng in terror as they endeavored
! 20 eXtrcate themselves from the mountainous
heaps Of debris; rocks and trees hurled from
the sides of the neighborng hills and crashing
down the slopes houses, rocks, trees, horses,
cattle and human beings thrown into the ere
vase which suddenly opened as the solid earth
was rent asunder-all made the scene indescri-
babe.
A gentleman who left the place the morning
of the disaster was good enough TO give me de-
tails which have probably not been before
narrated, and which from their truth seem
! heartrendng in the extreme His house, or
| Al. Al. 1.
he said was crumblcd in an instant into con-
fused mass of broken furniture, bricks, pieces
Of board, etc, and it was by the greatest mir
acle that ne escaped as he did, totally unhurt.
| In the house were two inmates beside himself
farmer and his daughter. After the shock
the latter he saw lying insensible upon the
ground, at distance OF some twenty feet from
the site Of the dwelling. The father was terri
bly, bruised, and blood was pouring from n
wound on his forehead, where falling brick
had struck him. Wiping it away, the two
began rubbing the hands and chatting the tenn
pies of the senseless girl, but it was all TO no
purpose She had evidently been killed in
SANITY, having fallen on her back. The groans
of the unhappy parent as the realization burst
upon him, and he bent over and rained tears
upon the fair upturned face Of his child, were
agonzing to bear. At that instant as he says
a number of men rushed by. Seeing the two
standing there they dragged them with them
listening 10 no circumstances, and saying that
they needed all the help they could get to res
cue lot of miners who were in the bowels of
the earth Mt the time of the disaster. The rest
! ! give in his own words, as closely as | can
recollect them 81 could think of nothing he
said' " Indeed the noise and rumbling and
| confusion seemed to perfectly bewilder me, -
We hurried along leaving the poor dead girl
where she lay, and the father with us, moving
mechanically, as if he were not in his right
mind. We soon reached the mine, and to our
relief found that the entrance at least had not
been closed by the CONFUSION. Several of the
party CROPPED their way down, and after wait
ing a time-it seemed an age, it could have
been but a few moments-thcy reappeared a
half-dozen of the miners with them These
last had been struck motionless by the terrible
rumblngs which where they were must have
| been heigh tened a thousand fold. Had not as
sistance come they say they should have re-
manned where they were goodness knows how
long, SO completely helpless with fright We're
they. AS it was, two poor fellows were miss
ing and we have heard nothing Of them since,
the passage to the place where they were being
completely closed up. left the place us soon
as could get away. | have never been able
to get rid of those horrible sights and frightful
shocks They cling to me now. In my sleep
every night see the whole scene repeated -
The groans of that poor farmer are ringing in
my ears yet and that pale face of his dead
daughter is before me constantly"
Others have told me of the sights they wit
messed. There seems TO be but little variation
in them. They are all sickenng and horrify.
ing. wish had never talked with one OF
those "eye-w witnesses" young husband had
been sitting at the freside with his wife. He
intended to depart in the morning for this
city, and the two were making the most of the
last time they would be together probably fol
several months the candle had burned out
and they were seated close to The open fire
place. the wife holding in her arms child Of
a few months. After the shock the husband
was found lying on his face dead a bean
across his neck which, in falling, had nearly
severed his head from the trunk and the mo.
ther was so frightfully burned by the fire
brands that she could not have lived man,
minutes, and the infant was discovered lifcles!
! nearly a foot distant.
A family of seven persons on the outskirts o
Visaia, who were sound asleep, were sunk
house and all, some two or three feet below thu
5 surface of the ground. All were rescued. how
ever, alive, except a baby, which was burned
to death by coming in contact with stove. -
! A mother was nursing sick child, Il girl of |.
or 5, who had been taken the day before will
} chils and fever. After the shock neither coult
A be found, the ruins Of the house being swal
lowed up in the enormous fssure which ma,
i been made in the earth The assure ran acros
the ground of a farmer, who feeling some pre-
sentiment of disaster. in what form he knew
: not, went out about O'Clock TO see his stock
; An unruy colt had broken loose from hi
tether and the owner was chasing him abou
. the lot when the shock came. The colt disap
peared, but the farmer has a first class drair
across his forty acre farm.
, These incidents of the catastrophe are but {
few examples Of many others. Had the dis
rict been deusely populated they would have
been multiplied by hundreds As il is, there
is enough of them. To hear those who wit
ressed them relate their experiences is like
reading romance but they are facts, and
such facts as these fortunately are rarely me-
with. The rumors of volcanic eruption have
proved grouudlesS though many were at frs
disposed to credit them. The people through
out the district so violently convulsed hav,
most of them relatives or intimate acauaintan
: ces here, and the desolation that has visite,
l the country is indicated by the grief stampe,
{ on many faces when amy question relative T.
0 the disaster is asked them or any allusion mad
u to the subject.
. CoNNEAUTyILLE AHEAp.-Every trade ha
: its tricks, but for vain tricks and dark way
y the grocers-that is the oStensible grocers-c