Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-09-03

upon the people below, who look up
and shrink together as the tremor of
| the earthquake passed over them, and
mysterious reverberations swell and
roll along like some Internal drum beat
summoning them to die. 1t passes
away, and again is experienced the
! blessed feeling of release from impend-
ing calamity. Again far along the
street and up from the alley ways that
lead into it on either side, is heard that
chorus of wailiDg and lamentations,
which. though it had not ceased, was
scarcely noticed u moment before. 1t is
a dreadful sound, the sound OF the help
less horror OF stricken humanity; old
and young, the strong and feeble alike
where all are SO feeble, calling for help
from their fellow creatures and raising
their anguished voices in petition for
mercy. 1t is not scene to be described
by any mortal tongue or pen. 1t is not
scene to be forgotten when once wit
| messed, AMI where the witness has
shared all danger and feels safe. The
| first shock occurred at seven minutes of
| ten. This was indicated this morning
| by public clocks, the hands of all of
| which had stopped at that fatal hour.
The second shock, which was but faint
| and crisp echo of the first, Va felt eight
| minutes later. AS it passed away the
| writer started homeward to find the
scenes enacted on Broad street around
| the News and Courier Office repeated ut
every step of the way. The station
! hnnse; massive brick building across
the street, had apparently lost
it's roof, which had fallen around
it. A little further on the ROOT of
the portico of Hibernian hall, q hand
some building, had crashed to the
ground, carrying down part of the
massive granite pillars with it. All the
| way up Meeting street, which, in respect
to its general direction and Importance,
may be called the Broadway of Charles
ton, the roadway was filled with debris
from the tops of the walls. In the
Charleston hotel, the third shock
| was felt about ten minutes after the
| second, aud of course caused the greatest
| alarm in that neighborheod,a las elsewhere.
AT Marion square great crowd had
collected, us the edges of the wide spaces
embraced in it could not be reached by
even the tallest buildings in the event
Of their fall. From this crowd, composed
| of men, women and children, arose in
cessant calls and cries and lamentations,
| while over the motley, half dressed
throng was shed the Iurid light of the
conhagration which had broken out just
beyond the square Immediately after the
| first shock, and had now wholly on
veloped several buildings in flames. In
three other quarters of the town st
the same time large fires were observed
under full headway, and the awfulness
OF the earthquake may be more fully
appreciated, when it is said with these
tremendous fires blazing up all at once
around them and threatening the city
with total destruction, the people whom
you met on the streets or saw conRrega-
ted in the open places evidently did not
| give them thought. Vehicles were
ranged in lines on the streets surround
ing the square, while the horses stood as
though sniffiDg the ground in anxious
inquiry. The colored people were loud
IN their declamations of alarm. They
were singing hymns and offering their
appeals fer Gods mercy, in which ap-
peals many proud heart devoutly and
sincerely joined. Danger brings all Of
US to the level of the lowest. There
pride or cast in the assumblages that
were gathered together in Charleston or
Tuesday night. 1t is curious specta
Gle to look back upon. 1t is a good one
to remember for white and black alike
There were instances of un,
selfish devotion, of kind and low
ing regard between master and servant
mistress and maid in the presence of a
common ill, and of threatened ruin that
, showed as nothing else could show ho Il
strong is the tie that binds our white
people and our black people together
, and this lesson, we may hope, will nevel
be forgotten. Arrived at his home, the
writer found the same scenes of de.
j struction and wreck which marked nearly
, every home in the city. Ali tine house
: in the neighborhood had suffered
5 seriously, and streets, yards and gardens
: were filled with the fallen oEimneys ant
{ fragments of walls, while the walls tina
! were left standing were rent asunder ii
! many cases from top to bottom, ant
{. were badly shattered in every instance
i Women and children reused from sleeJ
, or interrupted in their evening pursuit
! by the sound of the ruin being efeotet
+ above and around them, rushed out int
J. the streets and huddled togethe
| awaiting the end, whateve
q it might be. Invalids wer
4 brought on mattresses and deposited
!, on the roadway. No Ghonght was givel
!, TO treasures i6IG DenlnQ. Unt1l ion
8 after midnight the streets were file,
] with fugitives in sight of their homes
Q Through the long hours that foIlowe
It few were the eyes even of childhood tbs
e we're closed in sleep. Charleston wa
t full of those who watched for the morn
d ing, end never in any CITY in any Ian
y did the first grey shades that mark th
J. approach of dawn appear so beautifu
l., and 80 welcome to the eyes as they az
i peared to the thousands of people VIII
It hailed them this morning from the mids
s of the countless wrecked homes in ou
10 thrice scourged, but still patient, sti
d brave, still hopeful, still beautiful cit
u by the sea.
gl No even during Con. Gilmore's bon
i hardment of the city was there such
d deplorable state of affairs here. Th
Ir city is literally in ruins, and tt
D. people are living in the ope
,r squares and public perks. The,
II is a great rush to the railroad depots
e get away, but owing to the earthquak,
81 no trains have been able to be dispatche
n from the city. Telegraphic communic
d ton is also cut off, save one wire of I'll
Is Southern Telegraph Company, which
se crowded with anxious private message
A 1t is impossible TO depict the ruin or
a desolatIon that prevails here. Not
g. single place of business in the city
y open save q drug store, which is bui
A preparing prescriptions for the wounde
N It is impossible also to give any CORE
st estimate OF the killed and wounded,
"a, bodies are constantly being d