The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-09-08
HEADQUARTERS REPUBLICAN NATIoNALl
COMMITTEE, No. 2I2 FIFTH AVENUE,
NEW Nnx 1
The Great Earthquake.


THREE-FoURTHS OF THE CITY OF CHARLES
TON, S. c., DEsTRoYED-MANY PEOPLE
KILLED AND NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OVER
FIVE MILLION DOLLARs-THE VISTA
TONS ELSEWHERE.
The earthquake of last week Tuesday
night was wide in extent and terribly de-
structive Shocks extended over the whole
country east of the Mississippi river in di-
rection nearly north and SOUTH much less
violent in the Northern States than in the
South, where their severity reached eli
max in South Carolina and laid waste the
city of Charleston, which only year ago
was wrecked by a tornado. The damage
will reach nearly S5,000,000, the dead num-
Der thirty-three persons, chiefly colored,
and the wounded many hundreds. The
| city is complete wreck. st. MiChael's and
st. Philips churches, two of the historic
churches in the city, are in ruins. So is Hi
bernian hail. The police station and many
other public buildings and fully two-thirds
of the residences in the city, are unnhabit-
able. The streets are filled with masses of
| fallen bricks and timbers and choked with
PROSTATE telegraph and telephone wires.
Three-fourths of the buildings in the city
will have to be rebuilt. There was very
little shipping in the port and none of it was
injured. The people are living on steam
boats and in rude structures in the public
| parks.
The first shock was felt approaching the
city at ten minutes before ten o'clock Tues
day evening. 1t was accompanied by
rumblng as of distant thunder, and before
people could realize what was coming they
found themselves thrown about their houses,
which swayed from side to side and seemed
to be falling down. Instantly there was a
wild rush for the streets all over the city,
which were in minute filed with human
beings crazed with fright. Some rushed
wildly about calling upon God to have mercy
on them; others knet in groups and prayed
for deliverance, and still others retained
presence of mind and worked to rescue the
inhabitants from under the falling walls.
! Broad street presented a spectacle of hor-
ror. Women armed with hatchets fought
valantly to rescue imprisoned unfortu-
mates. To add to the horror of the scene
many fires broke out, and the tiremen rushed
about in frantic endeavors to eXtnguish the
| flames. So many PROSTATE buildings pre-
vented the fires from spreading, and they
were nearly all out by midnight Other
shocks followed, and at ten o'clock Wednes-
day morning ten distinct quakings had
shaken the city. People generally remained
in the streets over night, afraid to return to
| their homes, and Wednesday tents and i'm
provised dwellings contained the homeless
and fearful. Nobody dared to go near the
stores, and there was scarcity of provisions
among the houseless people.
A later account of the earthquake says
"No event of the war created half so much
CONSERVATION and gloom as was created by
thirty seconds of disaster on Tuesday night.
The first intimation of approaching danger
was given in the atmosphere. 1t was dense,
sultry and fearfully oppressive. 1t seemed
to weigh heavily upon the breast of every
one and created an intensely languid feel
| ing. AS night drew the atmosphere
became damp and difficult to breathe. Sud-
denly the city was aroused by low warn
ing rumble, like distant thunder. The sky
was not clear, but there were no indications
of a storm and no apparent occasion for
thunder. Few persons understood what the
ominous sound portended, but the sense
that it was an omen of some overwhelming
disaster was general There was little
time to prepare for what was coming.
The growl of the elements had scarcely
died away when the earth trembled vio-
lently. A momentary pause ensued ana
then the city rose and fell, as if on the crest
of a billOw. The sound which accompanied
the wave was terrible. 1t was a frightful,
half-smothered roar 1t seemed as if only
the merest crust of earth, and that in inn
minent danger of giving way, separated the
city from pandemonium. People rushed
from their houses into the street only to
witness the elimination of the horrid work.
Telegraph poles lay PROSTATE on the
ground or leaned upon the frail support of
wrecked buildings, while their labyrinth of
wires so INSTRUCTED the streets as 10 make
travel through them almost impossible. AL
most every building in Meeting street and
Broad street, the two principal thorough
fares of the city, was wrecked to greater
or less extent. Many people escaped from
their tumblng homes only TO meet death or
fearful injury from the falling bricks and
mortar, whole masses of which plunged
down into the streets, adding to the gem
eral havoc. The most serious damage was
done in those parts of the city devoted to
business houses and to costly dwellings.
Another shock was felt at nineteen min
utes past five Wednesday morning Re-
peated shocks occurred during the day and
one knocked down several houses. About
twenty houses were destroyed by fire. Most
of the killed and injured were negroes.
Among the whites killed and fatally injured
are NJ. j. Lynch, DIR. II. Alexander Ham
mond and Ainsey Robeson.
Summerville, a small city twenty-five
miles from Charleston, S. c., was nearly de-
stroyed by the earthquake Tuesday night
The business part of the town is in ruins
Many people are reported as killed by the
falling walls They rushed wildly from
their houses on the first shakings of the
earth, shrieking and praying. Hundreds of
them are homeless passenger train from
Columbia TO Charleston was approaching
Summerville at the time of the rrst shocks
1t was thrown from the track and the en-
gineer and fireman were killed.
The first two shocks at Columbia, S. c.,
were fearful. Buildings rose and fell like
boats on the waves of the ocean and swayed
to and fro People rushed madly from their
houses into the streets. Some leaped from
the windows and were injured. Many of
the most substantial buildings were shaken
10 their foundations and the walls cracked
and sprung. The negroes thought the end
of the world had come and held prayer
meetings ON the street corners. Seventeen
shocks of earthquake occurred at Beaufort
during the night. The town was thrown