Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-09-11


=. uli BrOa, - -
. = -,ews and Courier o. .,eated
at every step of the way. ne station
house, a massive brick building oppO-
site st. Mjchaels Church, had appar-
emily lost its roof, which had fallen
around it. A little further on the roof
of the pOrticO of the Hibernian Hall,
q handsome building in the Grecian
style, had crashed to the ground, car
rying down part of the massive granite
pillars with it. All the way up Meet
ing street, which. in respect of its gen.
eral direction and Importance, may be
called "the Broadway of Charleston"
the. roadway was piled with debris
from the tops of walls. In passing the
Charleston Hotel, which, to carry out
the comparison above indicated, occu-
pies the position of Stewards uptown
store in New York, the third shock
was felt, about ten minutes after the
second, and, of course, caused the
greatest alarm in that neighborhOod,
rs elsewhere. AT Marion square, cor
responding exactly with Union square,
New York, great crowd had collect
cd, as even the edges of the wide
spaces embraced in it could not be
reached by the nearest buildings in the
event of their fall.
From this crowd, composed of men,
women and children of both races,
arose incessant calls and cries and
lamentations, while over the motley,
half dressed thrOng was shed the lurid
light of the confagration which had
broken out Just beyond the square i'm
mediately after the first shock, and had
now wholly enveloped several build
ings in flames. In three other quarters
of the town at the same time similar
large fires were observed under full
headway, and the awful significance of
the earthquake may be most fully ap-
preclated, perhaps, when ii is said that
with three tremendous fires blazing up
all at once around them and threaten
ing the city with total destruction the
people whom you met on the streets or
saw gathered together in groups in the
open places evidently did not give them
thought. No one watched the ruddy
flames or the pillars of cloud rising
high into the still night air. Each was
too intent on listening with strained
senses for the dreaded recurrence of
that horrible growl or groan of the
power under the seas and under the
land to give thought to the new ter
rOr that threatened his own home
and many homes in the doomed city.
The crowds poured in from every
direction TO the square just described,
| as though it had been indeed q charm
ed circle and life depended on passing
within its grassy bounds. Street cars,
carriages and other vehicles were rang
ed in lines on the streets surrounding
the square, while the horses stood as
though shifting the ground in anxious
inquiry. The cOlored people every
where were loud aud unceasing in their
declamatlOns of alarm, in the singing
of hymns and in fervent appeals for
Gods mercy, in which appeals, God
knows, many proud heart who heard
them arising in the. night and in the
| hour of His wOndrous might devoutly
and humbiy and sincerely joined.
Danger brings all OF us to the level of
the lOwliest.
There was no distinction of place or
power, pride or caste, in the assem-
blages that were gathered together i'm
Charleston Oh Tuesday night. 1t was
q curious spectacle to look upon. 1t is
. good one to remember for white and
black alike. There were instances OF
unselfish devotion, of kind and loving
regard between master and servant,
mistress and maid, in the presence of
common i'll and of threatened ruin that
showed, as nothing else could show,
how strong is the tie that binds our
white people and our black people
together; and this lesson of the dread
visitor we may hope, too, will never
b, forgotten.
| THE DREARY WATCH TILL DAWN.
Arrived at his home the writer found
the same scenes of distraction and
wreck which marked nearly every
other home in the city. All the houses
in the neighborhOod had suffered
severely, and streets, yards and gar
dens were filled with the fallen Chin
neys and fragments of walls, while the
walls that we're left standing were rent
asunder in many cases. from top to
bottom and were badly shattered in
every instance. Women and children,
reused from sleep or interrupted in
their evening pursuits by the sound of
around them, rushed out into the
streets and huddled together awaiting
the end, whatever it might be. Inya-
lids were brought out on mattresses
and deposited on the roadway. No
thought was given to treasures left
behind in the effort to save the pecu-
liar treasure of life itself, suddenly
become SO precious in the eyes of all
the invalid woman and the robust man
alike. Until long after midnigh. the
streets were filled with fugitives in
sight of their homes. Through the
lOng hours that followed few were the
eyes, even OF childhood, that were
closed in sleep. Charleston was full of
those who watched for the morning,
and never in any city in tie land did
the first gray shades that mark the
approach of dawn appear SO beautiful
and SO welcome to eyes as they appear
ed to the thousands of people who
hailed them this morning from the
midst of the countless wrecked homes
IN our thrice scourged but still patient,
still brave, still hopeful, still beautiful
city by the sea-"
Subsequent developments showed
that three -fourths of the buildings in
the city were more or less wrecked,
that about 40 persons were killed, and
that more than hundred were seri-
ously injured. AS Capt. Dawson, of
the News and Courier, said, it was
worse than battle.
The shock was felt throughout South
Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and Missouri, indeed from
Canada to the upper Missouri, more
severely probably in Ohio than in any
other locality beside Charleston; but
nowhere, beside the last mentioned
place, with loss of life.
A REPUBLICAN METHOD OF REO0G-
NIZING MR. TILDEN'S