Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-12-31
The Richmond EarthGuake.

We condense from the Dispatch the descrp-
ton of the scenes in Richmond on Wednesday
night of last week:
A gentleman who was quietly sitting smok-
ing his pipe in his chamber in the western por-
ton of the city says he heard the rumbling
noise as if of some heavy vehicle passing on the
macadamized street. before he felt the culver
ing sensation.
| Then he heard the rafting of the window
panes and the floor began TO sffiver, producing
an unpleasant sensation, like he experienced
when standing on the Supreme Courtroom
| floor the moment before it gave way with such
| terrible destruction of human lives This gen.
teman states that looking at the head-board
| OF the bed in the room he clearly perceived it
vibrating like a pendulum. There were three
shocks, the two last running into each other,
not sharp or sudden, but coming on rather
slowly, swelling in force and then quickly dy-
| ing out. The gentleman ran to his window
and opened it, and almost simultaneously
several other windows were raised He asked
"What is the matter?" and gentleman from
across the street responded. at is an earth
quake. What shall we do?" Even at that
time the earth seemed hardly settled. Every
voice that was heard conveyed the impression
of fright and of some dreaded catastrophe inn
pending.
| At the Dispatch office the shocks were pain
fully felt The tall building trembled to its
very foundation, and the compositors on the
| fourth toor, apprehensive that the structure
was topping, left their stands with all the
rapidity possible and rushed into the street
| One of the compostors, whose stand is near
the door, believing that the front of the house
was falling inwardiy, was the first to get out.
He was followed by all the others. Many OF
the men reached the ground breathless, and
some say they were almost out of their senses,
not knowing the character or the extent of the
danger, and being really unable to decide when
they had reached place of safety. One OF
| two in coming down the steps hurt themselves
One, with more forethought than the others,
| let himself down by means of the dumb waiter
In less than five minutes after the shock al
least one-fourth of the people of the city were
ont in the streets, or i'll their yards many in
their night-clothes. Mothers grasped their
! babes from their cradles and went out of the
houses seeking open spaces to be away from
! falling houses. So unexpected so unprece'
denied in the history of Richmond was the oc.
currence, that none were prepared for it, and
those who, under ordinary dangers, would
have shown boldness and courage, lost all con.
troll of themselves. Never before was Their,
such universal CONSERVATION. Never before
even in the darkest days of the war, when thu
almost countless hosts of the enemy wer,
! laundering at our gates, and bomb shells were
bursting in the sight of our women and chill
! dren, was there such fright.
/ At Ford's, st. James and Exchange Hotel:
! hundreds Of people were awakened, and these
who were not asleep felt the quake and heard
the rumbling noise most plainly. At thes,
hotels bells were rung, lights put out, peopl,
were almost joStled from their beds, and panic
and confusion took possession of many The
great deSire-indeed. the instinct-seemed tc
be TO get on, of the buildings. At the E1
change one man climbed out upon the roof
seeking safe place.
All described the movement of the earth a.
of q regular rocking rather than of q convul
sIve character. There was a Swaying to and
fro rather than upheayal or spasmodi,
movement. Many represented that ladies had
been frightened nearly 10 death, and il is Ger.
tain that 4 large portion of our population
passed sleepless night, not knowing how soon
new shocks would come, or when ;hey came
what would be the result.
Quite number Of gentlemen, ladies, and
children passed the nigh, in the open air,