The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-04-11
FURTHER DETAILS OF TIRE AWFUL
CONFUSION OF NATURE.
The Shock In the Darkness Of the Morn
ing-The Whole Country shaken Like
q Pan of Dirt All h Houses
Crumbled-BIood-Curdling Incidents
Of the Disaster.
A letter to the New York World, dated Sal
Francisco, March 20, says:

| northern part of the State. as far south as
Visalia. 1t seems to have increased In v1o-
lence as 1t moved southwark, and to have
reached up the Sierra to an elevation of three
or -four thousand feet, 80 that the whole Of the
| three valleys oil Sacramento, San Joaquin and
| Tulare were In commotion, and an area OF
the State about five hundred miles long by
| one hundred broad. The line OF the shock
| followed the trend of the Sierra, proceeding
from southeast TO northwest, and the centre
have learned yet, near Visalis, in the Tulare
Valley, which Is the bed of a former lake.
Here eye-witnesses described the scene at
the time of the shock as something awful in
its Uncomfortable grandeur. A noise like
the guns of fifty batteries OF artillery fired
simultaneously beneath the place, the ground
for miles around trembled violently; houses
shaking violently an instant, and me nexa y,
Ing In ruins; people but q moment before 10
dreamland, shrieking 10 terror as they endea-
yored to extricate themselves from the noun
taInons heaps of debris; rocks aud trees
hurled from the sides of the neighboriDg hills
and crashing down the slopes; houses, rocks,
trees, horses. cattle and human beings
thrown into the crevasse which suddenly
all made the scene lndescribable.
A gentleman who lett the place the morning
of the disaster was good enough to give me
details which have probably not been before
narrated, and which from their truth seem
heartrendiDg In The extreme. His house, or
rather the house at which he had been staying,
lie said was crumbled In an instant into q con-
fused mass OF broken furniture, bricks, pieces
of board, &C., and 1t was by the greatest mira
Gle that he escaped as he did, unhurt; In the
house were two inmates beside himself, q far
mer and his daughter. After The shock the
latter he saw lying lnsensible upon the ground,
at a distance of some twenty feet from the
Ia ~cL L-1l1-- Thn f,fhnr ro0 farrih o
bruised, and blood was pouring from a wound
on his forehead, where q falling brick
had struck him. Wiping 1t away, the two
began rubbing the hands and chatting the
temples OF the eenseless girl, but 1t was all
to no purpose. She bad evidently been
killed instantly. having fallen on her back.
The groans Of the unhappy parent as the resll,,
zatlOn burst upon him, aud he bent over and
ralned tears upon the fair upturned face OF
bis child, were agonizing to bear. At that in-
slant, as he says, a numoer Ut men rushed by.
Seeing the two standing there they dragged
them with them, listening to no remon-
STRANGE, and saying that they needed all the
help they could get to rescue q lot Of miners
who were In the bowels OF the earth at the
time of the disaster. The rest I give In his
own wUrds, as closely as I can recollect them.
II could think OF nothing he said. 1.-THE
noise AID 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 II
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 convulslon. Several of the party
Ing q time-it seemed an age, 1t could
have been but q few momenls-they reap
peared, a half-dozen OF the miners with them.
These last had been struck motionless by the
terrible rumblings, which where they were
must have been heightened q thousand fold.
Had not assistance come they say they should
have remained where they were goodness
fright were they. AS 1t was, W poor fellows
we're missing, and we have heard nothing of
them since the passage to the place where
they were being completely closed up. I left
the place as soon as l could get away. I have
never been able to get rid of those horrible
sights and frightful shocks. They cling to me
now. In my sleep every night l see the whole
farmer are ringing IN my years 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 sickentng and horrity-
ing. l wish I had never tailed With one OF
these .'eye.witnesses." A young husband had
been sitting at his hreslde with his wife. He
intended TO depart In the morning tor this
city, and the two were making the most of
the last time they would be together probably
for several months; the candle had burned out
and they were seated close to the open fire.
place, the vile holding In her arms o child OF
q few months. After the shock the husband
was found lying on his face dead, a beam
across his neck, which, In falling, had nearly
severed his head from the trunk; and the
- m Frt-htf,llr htSrnnd hu TIM arn
brands that she could not have lived many
minutes, and the Infant was discovered life.
lees nearly a loot distant.
A family of seven persons on the outskirts
of Visalia, who were sound asleep, were sunk,
house aud all, some Two or three feet below
the surface Of the ground. All were rescued,
however, alive, except q baby, which was
stove. A mother was nursing a sick child, q
girl of fourteen or fifteen, who had been taken
the day before with chills and fever. Alter
| the shock neither could be found, the ruins of
the house Itself even being swallowed up In
the enormous 1ssure which had been made 10
| the earth. The assure ran across the ground
! OF a farmer, who, feeling some presentiment of
disaster, In what form he knew not, went out
about one O'Clock to see bis stock. An unrnly
colt had broken loose from his tether, and the
owner was chasing him about the lot when
the shock came. The colt disappeared, but
| the farmer has a frst-classs drain across his
forty-acre farm.
These Incidents Of the catastrophe are but 9
few examples of many others. Had the dis
trict been densely populated they would have
been multiplied by hundreds, AS it Is, there
are enough of them. To hear those who wit
messed them relate their experiences Is like
| reading a romance, but they are facts, and
| such facts as these unfortunately are rarely
met with. The rumora of volcanic eruption
have proved %groundless, though many were al
/ first disposed to credit them. The people
throughout the district 80 violently ~convulsed
have most OF them relatives or Intimate &C
| quaintances here, and the desolation that has
| visited the country Is indicated by the grie
stamped on many faces when any question
relative to the disaster Is asked them or any
~allusIon made to the subject.
THE COLORED HENS CONVENTION.
NEW ORLEANS. April 10.
The Colored Mems National Convention me-
In the hall of the House Of Representatives al
| Mechanics Institute at noon to-day, and wa,
called 10 order by Lieutenant Governor A. j
| Ransier, of South Carolina. who read the reso,
lutiona ot tho Cn1nred Mana National Conuon