The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-29
THE VIRGINIA SENSATION.

The New York Herdld's letter from Rich
mond, of December 23d, gives a description
of effects produced by the recent earthquake.
The successive shocks are thus described:
THE FIRST SHOCK.
Everybody agrees that the first of the
shocks was the most terrific and startling of
them all, shaking and swayipg the houses
like a cradle, rafting glasses and glassware,
ringing bells, and in many instances, throw
ing persons from their beds with force and
violence to the floor. This latter incident
occurred at several of the hotels and num-
bers of private dwellings, and the effect was
at once to produce panic and the widest
CONSERVATION that can be imagined. Men
and women alike rushed into passages and
streets screaming with terror, unable to
realize such an awful visitation, and. in the
confusion and uproar which ensued, escaping
the effect of the second "shake," which fol-
lowed in about thee minutes after the first.
THE SECOND SHOCK
This latter shock was less violent but like the
first it came with the same rumbling and as
if suppressed sound of thunder, the same
rushing noise, like whirlwind, and the same
shooting of meteors in the empyrean, which
was filled with electricity producing the most
brilliant and at the same time the most as
tonshing effects Those who were calm and
collected enough to witness the latter display
in the streets became terribly impressed with
this extraordinary demonstration of nature,
and there was many mental resolution,
tending to a refo rmatlon in the future, made
IN the few minutes that it lasted.
THE THIRD SHOCK.
In about twenty minutes from the first
shock the third occurred, and this was still
less violent than even the sec md, but accom-
panied with the same atmospheric phenomena
as the preceding two.
After that there was the usual midnight or
early morning stiffness, unbroken save only
by the wanderings of the panic stricken citi-
zens and their speculations and discussions as
to the recurrence of the remarkable and ex-
citing events of the night. Nothing further
happened, and many were becoming quoted
and retiring again, when, as some say, at
little after 3 A. NJ, still another very slight
and feeble shock was felt and heard, but so
very slight that but few noticed it, though
many vouch for it as an actual fact.
The precise time which the rumble and
vibration of the first shock continued, being
variously reported, could not be ascertained
The shortest time mentioned was ten seconds,
the longest fifty. The earth swell is COM
pared with the swell of the ocean in a calm as
felt on board of steamship. "Never," says
the letter, Gin the history of this city, so
famous for disasters and terrible catastrophes,
was there such dismay and CONSERVATION de-
pcted on the countenances of the populace as
they stood in their doorways or in the streets,
tremblingly looking forward to a calamity
more awful than anything they had yet ex-
perienced. From interviews had with per-
sons of intelligence and cool Judgment it is
now certain that the city and vicinity were
violently shaken by three distinct rumblings
of an earthquake, accompanied by noise
resembling thunder, rushing sound in the
air and the shooting of thousands of meteors
through the heavens.