Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-10-06
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES.

CnOuRn IL OuRIlG lO Do easily COiupIeueHueu'
The one is sharp and sudden; the other pro-
longed and deliberate. The first earth
quake I experienced was in California. 1
hardly noticed it except from the fact that
everyone in the street got under the arch
ed doorways of the buildings, which are the
hardest parts of house to shake down.
The second was also in San Francisco. l
was lying on asofa with very elastic springs,
and the shock was so severe that 1t gave
me sensation like sea-sickness that lasted
for half an hour.
Iwas riding donkey out in the suburbs
of Lima one day when the little beast stop
ped short, pointed his ears forward and re-
fused to bulge. I felt a slight quiVer, and
whole row of wall on both sides OF the
street in front of US came tumbling down.
I went back to my hotel and found all the
crockery smashed. This earth current, for
it was really that, made a sort of highway
ruin through the middle of Lima, leaving
third of the town on either side of its
banks untouched. In st. Thomas, during
stay of several months, 1 do not recall
day when we did not have at least one
shock, and sometimes as many as three.
They were very rarely as severe as those
on the Pacific coast, however. The country
is volcanic. AS you sail down the coast
from Panama to Valparaiso the level shore
is backed by row. of mountains, dotted
with chimney-like peaks, some of which
still distill perpetual vapor into the hot
sky. Traces of volcanic action are every
where apparent. The whole area under
meath must be bubbling sea of lava, and
as the uneasy pot seethes its tremor shakes
the earth.
The same volcanic characteristics extend
through Mexico and California up into
Washington Territory, British Columbia
and Alaska. Volcanoes, extinct and active,
are to be traced from pole to pole. One of
the most magnificent peaks in Central Amer
lea has brow crowned with perpetual snow.
was one of a party that scaled it for the
first time within the memory of man. We
found inclosed in rim of ice, deep and
savage crater, and down in its centre, like
the red-eye of an angry Cyclops, burning
pool that made nightlong song like ket-
tie on the hob, while we camped in the
snow. This volcano, that no one suspected
of being volcano, has been sleeping
among the clouds for centuries. Some day
it will wake up, and there will be sight
worth seeing in the Costa Rican wilderness.
Central America is the finest volcano coun-
try I know. From Nicaragua to the Mex
lean line there are burning mountains
enough to warm the world. Ispent week
in one district of Guatemala visiting volca-
noes, and then did not see them all.-At-
fred Nruna6Ie in NeD York Ne,cs.
A TRICK IN DRAWING SLIPs.-The boys
think they do some pretty sharp tricks in
politics, but I've yet to hear of something
better than the way Breckenridge delega-
ton was elected in the old Fourth ward.
It was before the war and we were divided
into Breckenridge and Douglas men. Jim
George, who afterward went South, was for
Douglas. Ex-Sheriff Turner Muddox was
the Breckenridge leader. We met to elect
ten delegates to the convention, and the
vote was tie. We tried it again and tied.
Finally our side made q proposition to put
the twenty names, ten Douglas and ten
Breckenridge men, into hat and then have
an outsider draw ten slips, those to be the
delegates. Jim George was afraid there
was some trick and wouldn't consent. We
offered to let him furnish the hat and hold
it; then he gave in. The names were writ
ten and put into the tall silk hat and George
held it. Billy Mcdonald, a printer, lived
out of the ward and we brought him to
draw the slips. He was blindfolded and
his shirt sleeves rolled up above his elbows.
George held the hat between his knees.
Mcdonald drew slip and it was Breck-
enridge man. He kept on until the ten
slips had been drawn, and every one of them
was Breckenridge man. George sat there,
his face growing longer and longer. When
the tenth name came out he turned the hat
upside down and the ten Douglas names fell
on the floor. He stood up, looked into his
hat, grabbed the lining and tore it out.
Then he threw the hat, new one, on the
floor, stamped on it and kicked it across the
room. After awhile he cooled down and
said, "Well, I'll stand by it, but I'll give
you fellows champagne supper at Hamb-
rights (that was the big restaurant in those
days; it is the Metropolitan now to tell
me how you did it."' We took his supper
and his wine and told him. He had writ
ten his names with pencil, and we had
used ink. You see that was before the days
of blotting paper, and we dried the ink with
sand. The printer could tell the sanded
slips as soon as he touched them.-W II. y
in Globe Democrat.
A CAPITAL OF THE EARTH.-A great
and splendid scheme of imperial federation
has been perfected by Henry Wentworth
Monk, M. P, of Ottawa, Canada, says re-
cent dispatch from that city. Mr.. Monk
thinks now he has obviated all possible OBJ