Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-08-21
AT PHILADELPHIA.

AT PHILADELPHIA.
The scaffOlding on some new buildings
going up on the corner Of Reed street was
shaken violently and some bricks on the
boards were shaken of and felt the street
below.
The severest shock was reported where
the depot was shifted to one side shaking
I'D its contents and alarming its sole in
mate. At 2:30 p. m. an Intellectual effort
was made to raise the Long Branch Office
which had been IN communication with
the local Office up to the time of the shock.
The operator Just had time to report the
shock together with the fact that the lars
of his battery had been overturned when
the wire gave out.
AT Hartford.
A bareheaded man rushed franticallv to
the telegraph Office holding in his hand a
newspaper which he had been reading. He
said he had been shocked violently and
that the plastering on the ceiling above
him had been cracked and in some places
had dropped of on the floor.
AT BROOKLYN.
In Brooklyn the streets were alive with
people who had come to ascertain the cause
of the rocking and to gossip about it. One
cool headed observer on the first percepti-
bic motion, took out his stop watch and
timed the vibration. He reported that the
shock began, as near as he could determine,
at 2:065; that the first shock lasted ten sec
Onds, and that the "quieting down. as he
described it, took nearly fifty seconds more.
Od-hand guesses as to its duration varied
from five seconds to two minutes, according
to the observers fright and his judgment
of the fight of time.
AT CONEY ISLAND.
The telegraph manager at that place
promptly asked for particulars of the lex
plOslOn' SuppOSlng that some oil refinery,
powder mill, or dynamite factory had
blown up. A few minutes later, however,
| the fact became known there that the whole
| island had been thoroughly shaken by Vi
bratiOn and that guests and visitors were
very greatly alarmed, their fright in some
cases amounting to a panic.
AT ATLANTIC CITY.
! Neither Cape May nor Atlantic City no
| ticed any unusual motion, and so far as the
early reports indicate Philadelphia was the
southern limit Of the shock.
AT CLEVELAND.
! At Cleveland the shock was plainly but
slightly felt. In the main local telegraph
Office the 100 people present felt a serious
movement of the floor, the seventh story,
| but there was no electrical phenomena con-
THE FIRST IMPRESSION
which seemed to take possession of the in
! mates of houses in New York was that the
/ building was about to fall, and people ran
into the streets only to discover their neigh
bors rushing out amazed like themselves.
! Then as there were no evidences of a catas-
! trOphe, the people returned to their homes,
realizing that there had been an earthquake.
As a rule people remained in front of their
houses a few minutes, apparently trying
to get at some solution of their fears
and watching the faces and manner
of others. Women and children, as
they regained some degree of confidence, re-
turned to their houses the men remained
in groups in the streets discussing the Oc-
currence so unexpected andsO startling. An
earthquake is thing so unlocked for in
this part Of the world that its cause and the
history of the most terrible ones became
the topics of paramount interest. About
all the people were concerned in trying to
find out from those they talked with was
whether a second and perhaps subsequent
shocks were likely to follow.