The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-06-01
BADLY DEMORALIZED.
A San Francisco Earthquake and Its IF
fects rs Described by Bret Harte.

A San francisco Earthquake and Its IF
fects rs Described by Bret Barte.
Bret Harte, in "Gabriel Oonroy," in
Scri6ner's Monthly, gives us the fol-
quake: The middle of the broad street
was filed with crowd of breathless,
pallid, death-stricken men, who had lost
all sense but the common instinct of
animals. There were hysterical men,
who laughed loudly without cause,
and talked necessarily of what they
knew not. There were dumb, paralyzed
men, who stood helplessly and hope
lessly beneath cornices and chimneys
that toppled over and crushed them.
There were automatic men, who, flying,
carried with them the. work on which
they were engaged-one whose hands
were full of bills and papers, another
who held his ledger under his arm.
There were men who had forgotten the
ordinary instincts of decency-some
half dressed, one who had flown from q
neighboring bathroom with only the
towel in his hand that afterward hid his
nakedness. There were men who
rushed from tA fear of death into his
presence; two were picked up, one who
had jumped through skylight, another
who had blindly leaped from fourth
story window. There were brave men
who trembled like children; there was
one whose life had been spent in scenes
of daring and danger, who covered par
alyzed in the corner of the room from
which few inches of plastering had
fallen. There were hopeful men who
believed that the danger was over, and,
having passed, would, by some mysteri-
Gus law, never recur; there were Others
who shook their heads and said that the
next shock would be fatal. There were
crowds around the dust that arose from
fallen chimneys and cornices, around
runaway horses that had dashed as
madly as their drivers against lamp
posts, around telegraph and newspaper
offices, eager to know the extent of the
disaster. Along the remoter avenues
and cross streets dwellings, were de.
serted, people sat upon their doorsteps
or in chairs upon the sidewalks, fearful
of the houses they had built with theil
own hands, and doubtful even of this
blue arch above them that smiled so de.
ceitfully; of those far-reaching fields
beyond, which they had cut into lots
and bartered and sold, and which now
seemed to suddenly rise against them
or slip and wither away from their very
feet. 1t seemed SO outrageous that this
dull, patient earth, whose homelinesi
they had adorned and improved, ant
which, whatever their other fortune o.
vicissitudes, at least had been their SURE
Inheritance, should have become sc
faithless. Small wonder that the owner
of little house, which had sunk on tht
reclaimed water front, stopped in th'
speechless and solemn absurdity of hi
wrath to shake his clenched fist in tht
face of the Great Mother.
The real damage to life and propert.
had been so slight, and in such pro
nounced contrast to the prevailing ter
ror, that half an hour later only sens
of the ludicrous remained with thu
greater masses of the people. Mr.
Dumphy, like all practical, unimagina
tive men, was among the first to re
cover his presence of mind with tn
passing of the immediate danger. Peo
pie took confidence when this grea
man, who had so much to lose, afte
sharply remanding his clerks and every
body else back to business, re-enteret
his office.