Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-10-08
Graphic Story ~. q Refugee.

Graphic Story ~ d Refugee VI
young lady who arrived from
Charleston said TO . World reporter |:
S q have neither language nor nerve to
describe the horrors 81 The last few
days. We had no warning. First
came that awful rearing sound, and.
we all started and looked at each
other with frightened, questioning
faces. Then the house swayed swiftly.
! from ' side to side, the walls crashed all
around us, negroes yelled, aud mon,
women and children, who poured out
by hundreds into the streets, half 81
them in their night clothes, cried out
IN terror. Then the gas went ont, the
skies were darkened, and no one could
fnd his nearest and dearest. All the
while the earth rolled beneath our feet
like tho waves of the ocean. Sudden
y ali about W the skies were lit by
fires in all parts Of the city and news
came that the waterworks were dam
aged, and people cried despairingly:
No water! no water!' Ihardly dare
recall what happened that night.
When I think of it, it seems as if my
reason would leave me; but of all 1
loved none are dead and none are
wounded, thank God! # e *i.y
The streets are full of tents and
turn where one will ruin stares one in
the face. Babies are born in the
streets. We had patient of my
brothers who. was brought to our
garden. She felt as if being near him
might save her, and she yet lives. l
was many times at the bed ola lady
who was in the hospital. The morn
ing OF that night she had had an oper-
alton performed upon her. The hos
pital fell. She was found in her bed
unconscious, lay in the street all
night, and then was brought to US.
We did what We could for her. /
scarcely knew her name, but nothing
matters now. All conventions and
ceremonies are swept aside.
"A friend came to me and said:
There is a possibility ofgetting away,
come If you CAM so I ventured into
the house for a few things, snatched
some clothes and a. little money and
came. Such wreck as there was
upstairs, wardrobes down, walls crack
ed, plastering falling; and yet when I
went elsewhere I found had much to
be thankful for-Dut, oh, my home!
my home!
II am in the clothes wore on Tues
day but seem to feel nothing but that I
am cold-always cold. While the earth
quake was going on what seemed 10
me more terrible than the yells of the
negroes and the cries of the children
were the sounds that the animals
made. The dogs broke into bowls, the
horses screamed like the human beings
and even the fowls made the most un-
earthly noises. Jets of water came
from the earth so hot that it burnt
our feet with the steam as we ran by,
and the air was sitting with the smell
OF sulphur. Don't think am unset
tied in my mind. am truthfully tell
ing you ofsights and sounds that must
haunt me forever. In the midst OF it
all l could not pray, and many other
people told me the same thing. I felt
that God was powerless or certainly
he would stay his hand. have faced
death at sea and in illness, but have
never felt as l did then; it seemed so
hopeless. This was utter misery.
''Even in the midst OF all that TRACE.
dy some amusing things happened.
Old Mr.. Henry A. Middleton is over
ninety -four years OF age and has be-
come so feeble that his family rersuad-
ed him to give up his usual summer at
Newport. The whole side ofhis house
fell out and the family escaped to the
garden, where they camped all night. In
the morning the old gentleman disap-
peared for awhile and returned, in the
course of an hour, spick and span and
self-possessed. He had made his way
into the house, taken his usual morn
ing bath, depite the fact that the
whole side of the house was out,
dressed himself carefully in clean
clothes and, when his family wanted
to send him away, said that he found
the earthquake very exciting and
meant to stay and see it out.
"Another thing that was very funny
was an old lady who came running
out to us as we were crouched among
the fig trees in our garden. She was in
bed when the shock came and, though
she brought her stockings and most of
her clothes in her hand, she had taken
time to put on her cap"