Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-06-04
Earthquake Scenes.

| -
The recent earthquake at Havana WAS
the first within the memory OF living
residents that has shaken the city. A
correspondent Of the New York Herald
thus describes the scene and the sensa-
| tons: r-' ~ -"
1t lacked ten minutes of eleven, when
the theatres were closing and the cafes
full, when park and prado were bril-
liant with lights. equipages, beauty and
| music.
The half-moon shone from the zenith
Of steel blue, cloudless sky. Sudden
ly, q sound was heard as of the rising OF
mighty wind through the pines, and
then an Enthusiastically subterranean
moan, while the earth reeled with three
unsteady, sickening oscillations.
Stricken with momentary alarm, the
swarm Of people in the parks paused
and reeled likewise. Tie horses hitched
to hundred flying carriages stopped
and braced themselves in dumb alright.
Restaurant tables rocked and spilled
their liquids, and men started up from
their chairs at the Louvre with dread.
Druggists bottles were shaken from
their shelves.
Dainty pyramids of bar glass tumbled
70 destruction. Senoras and senoritas
gazed aghast at the overturn of their
toilet-stands.
Besides the crowds at the refreshment
places, whole families rushed from
their homes into the streets, and the
stairways of some hotels were crowded
with guests hurrying blindly down to
the sidewalks. -
A place on the ground or pavement
seemed preferable to most citizens, who
huddled in groups beyond the moonlit
shadows of the buildings they had desert
ed, and Chartered of bivouacking for
the night.
Down in the bay vessels rocked at
their anchorages and groaned against
the waves; and rusty cannons threatened
to fall from their pivots on the ancient
Notifications of Cabana and the MORO.
About four in the morning the cor
respondent was awakened by a premon-
tory commotion in the atmosphere 80
direful, that before the head could
leave the pillow, ladies were already
rushing through the upper corridors of
the hotel.
A myriad gigantic shutter seemed to
be weaving ruin in the outer air. Mems
voices, tremulous and unnatural, rose
from the street beneath.
Then came the words OF men within,
cheering their wives and those ladies
whom even in these first five or ten
seconds they had encountered in the
halls. Then came the second earth
quake.
Having first sprung up, fell back
on the pillow to enjoy or endure the
motion. 1t continued but few mo-
ments.
One shuttle-like horizontal push and
pull from side to side; one lift and poise
in the air, and settling down to solid
immobility, and all was over,
That is to say, all was.over except the
wild increase OF terror among the peo--
pie of Havana. Guessing from distant
noises that the city was thoroughly
awake, dressed and descended into
the thoroughfare.
Nearly every room in the hotel alanHad
a light. LADIES' having fed to the
parlors in their night-dresses we're sit
ting with their feet drawn up under
taem in the chairs, looking like wraiths.
The lower hall was thronged with
men, some of them anxiously iDquiring
the date of the next steamer northward.
The square now had plenty OF perma-
nant tenants for the night. The ma, row
streets. leading down through the old
city to the bay, though dangerous
always ct this dismal hour, invited q
curious traveller to inspect the behavior
of the ignorant, depraved and supersti-
cious populsce.