Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-05-04
He DIDN'T MIND cHILLs AFTER THAT,
The Stranger Tells About Earthquakes
Slight and Heavy.

The Stranger Tells About Earthquakes
Slight and Heavy.
"Earthuuakesp' said the stranger con-
temptuously. "You people here think you
had an earthquake the other night, do your
You don't know what earthquakes are.
Why, in California they have earthquakes
that are something like earthquakes, yet
they aren't 40 very bad, either, though l
know man out there who always packed
his watch In cotton before he went to bed,
30 that the works wouldn't get shaken out
in the night by an earthquake.
'sThere was man who came out there
from New York who didn't know anything
about earthquakes He was living In a
hotel in little town, when shock came
one night. 1t wasn't much Of a shock
Just an ordinary little affair to which no
native Californian would pay the slightest
attention. But when this tenderfoot felt
the earth shaking, and afterward when the
house began to rattle and rock, he ran for
his window. He was up in the third story
but he jumped. Down below was shed
with light roof He struck that and went
though it like shot. He was scratched
and torn and jabbed in the most awful
way, but he was tickled to death when he
found he was alive He wouldn't believe
us when we told him he was scared-that
he jumped He declared that he hadn't
jumped.
"'Why,' he says, when that earthquake
began to shake the house to pieces tried
to get hold of something to brace myself
with. just when the walls began to fall
something picked me up and threw me out
the window Pm glad it did. 1t saved my
life should have been killed if had
been in the house when it fell
"You see, he didn't know anything about
earthquakes The plaster on the walls Of
the house hadn't even been cracked, but
that's the way it takes tenderfeet.
Zone Of the worst shakings up ever had
was in Africa. There was Il fellow over
there who had chills and fever that were
the worst ever saw. They used to come
on him every day at certain hour. He
would sit down and shake SO you could al
most hear his bones rattle, and his belt
would snap like the bones of player in a
minstrel show. When he got through with
his attack, he would be as weak as kitten
and as white as sheet.
"Well, one afternoon he sat down to have
his chills, when an earthquake shock came
along. 1t threw me down and fired me all
over the ground, but be just sat there and
shook. No man that ever lived shook the
way that man did. believe that if there
hadn't been so much noise and confusion
you could have heard his belt crack a mile
away. He just shivered from head to foot
over and over again. l could see him while
was tossing around, and thought he
would shake to pieces, but he just sat up
same as he always did when he had his
chilIs.
when the shock was over, got up, and
then he said:
"'That's the worst attack ever had. l be-
lieve I'm getting worse. Pm afraid I'll
have to move away from here
would yc,l believe it, that man thought
that earthquake was one of his attacks Of
chills! He did, sir, and the most remarka-
Bile thing about it was that after that, when
the hour for his shakes came round, lie
would walk about and attend to his bust
ness as If nothing unusual were happening
Yes, sir, after that earthquake he didn't
mind chills bit, sir; not a bit. sir, and ne
always said he was getting better. New
York Tribune