The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-22
SHOCKS THAT NEVER CAME.
Many People Sat Up All Night
Waiting For Them.

Told a Dozen Times over. nervous
! People Who Felt Shakes all Day. A
Bay Street Building That Kept
Vibrating and why it Did. The
Earthquake Theorist Abroad.
Savannah was full of earthquake talk
yesterday and it will probably be some
time before those who felt the shock of
the night before get through telling their
| experience. A few of the more timid who
had been through quake before and had
found it more convenient and dignified to
be up and dressed than to be in bed when
the shocks came, with the irresistible ne
| cessity of appearing in the street in their
night clothes, staid up all night waiting
for more shocks that never came.
There were number of people who
distinctly felt the shock, but who did not
know what had happened until yester-
day morning. One lady, in telling about
it, said she thought several of her board
ers were having friendly tussle in the
top story and did not know that tho
earth had trembled until, to her sur
prise, she read an account of it yesterday
morning.
A story is going the rounds that
prominent county official was found by
policeman sitting in the parade ground in
his night shirt few minutes after the
quake, The policeman inquired the
trouble and the official replied he pro-
posed TO get into a spot where no houses
would fall on him. He said he had left
his house shaking and didn't much care
to return for awhile, but the policeman
notified him that if he didn't go back and
put on his clothes he would have to be
sent to the barracks. The official then
retired
Stories of the experiences of various
people could be heard on all sides, and
many ridiculous yarns were told. Every
body apparently had a different expert
ence and felt the quake in a different
way. Some told him they jumped out of
their houses into the streets others who
recognized the shock to be an earthquake
said they were too frightened to move
until the disturbance was over, and
others declared they paid no attention to
the shock, thinking the feeling arose in
their imagination. Many of those who
were awakened from their sleep thought
they had been dreaming,
BUILDING THAT swAYED ALL DAY.
One of what was believed to be
one of the most singular effects of the
shock was seen on the Bay. The vibra-
tiOns continued in the Savannah Gro Gerry
Company's building all of yesterday, and
the employees were filled with anxiety for
their safety. The River street section of
the building, which is built on piling, vi
DRAFTED steadily with north and south
movement.
When the swaying was first felt in the
morning Mr.. Mendel thought the opera
ton of the elevator was responsible for it,
but when that was stopped he realized
fully that the seismic disturbance of the
night before had left an uncom-
gas globes ratified together, the
little sample boxes on the tables in the
presidents office rocked to and fro, the
big safe doors swayed perceptibly and the
vibration could be plainly felt by those
! either sitting or standing.
| Some of the clerks were considerably
| alarmed with the fear that the shaking
of the building was the premonitory
| symptom of a collapse and they attended
| to their duties in nervous and fright
! ened way. Numbers of people visited the
| store during the day to experience the
| phenomenon and none remained very long
after satisfying themselves that the shak-
| ing was not the result of imagination, but
| an uncomfortable fact. All sorts of pre-
| dictions were offered in explanation and
| some Of the more nervous suggested the
! vibration was the advance guard of a
! heavy shock last night, but in this they
were wrong for there were no further
signs of the quake, and upon closer in
! Vestigation it was found that the yibra-
| tion was caused by the phosphate mill in
| Wilcox Il Gibbs guano works, next to the
| grocery building. The vibration ceased
when the mill shut down last night
OBSERVER sMYTH's sEIsMoMnTER
| Up in the top of the board of trade
| building Weather Observer Smyth
rugged up aseismometer and waited pa
tiently for a tremor to see If the instru-
ment worked all right, but it stood as
still as If there never had been an earth
| quake. The observer watched it until
| IL o'clock last night without any indica-
| tion of vibration or anything else.
| A good many people claimed to have
| felt a second shock at 3 o'clock yesterday
morning, but if there was one it was
very slight and hardly worth calling
| shock. Many remained up after the first
| shock expecting another, and were so
| wrought up that any little vibration was
| likely to be taken for a quake,
The dizzy feeling and sickness of the
stomach is one of the ordinary effects of
| an earthquake were experienced by many
! people, and those who are more ner-
vous than others suffered the
| most. The effect was not nearly
! so general, however, as 1t was during the
severe earthquakes of 1886.
A good many people claim to have felt
! the tremor more in the southern part of
| the city than did those in the northern
| part, This was due largely to the fact
that there are more frame houses
| In that section and the vibra-
| tions are more apparent in frame
J than in brick houses which are
on more solid foundations and less likely
/ to vlbrate.
THE THEORISTS OPPORTUNITY.
There are the usual number of tbeor-
! lists abroad with all sorts Of theories as to
the cause of the recurrence of the shocks
after lapse Of nearly seven years from
landslide at sea TO the boring of artesian
wells, and one is about as satisfactory as
another to the average person.
Two or three days before the shock
| well known commission merchant was
I talking to one of the Greek fruit dealers
on South Broad street near Price In
the course of the conversation the Greek
stopped suddenly and pointing in an in
definite manner up in the air said:
ut won't be long before we will
have an earthquake. l can tell it by
the way the atmosphere feels and
appears. have lived both in Africa and