The morning call., 1895-01-06

whenever a man walked across a floor
over me, thinking that there was going
to be another earthquake. and wondering
whether | was 10 be swallowed up in il.
This earthquake affected the railroads 1t
twisted the rails here and there, and peo-
pie on the trains said that it sounded as
though two trains had come into collision
1t ruined one large tea factory containing
many girls. who were killed in the debris.
1t was a curious earthquake Ia that there
were only two or three shocks. and in tina.
it was confined almost to the vicinity OF
Toxic. Many of the earthquakes have
from q inc teen to twenty shocks following
each other, and there is always more than
one shock. This earthquake caused sew
eral big fires, and there Is never an earth
quake in Japan which does not result in
more or less conflsgration. The houses
are, you know, nearly all of wood. and
coal oil is now used very largely for light
ing. Lamps are thrown over, and the
burning oil runs through the buildings.
Thousands of houses are destroyed, and
the damage by fire is often as great as that
by earthquakes.
| met during my stay in Japan the great
est earthquake authority On the globe.
This is Professor John Milne of the Impe-
rial College of Engineering at Toxic. He
has made a great study of earthquakes and
has invented machines which show just
how the earth moves at such times. and a
to its effect upon all sorts of structures.
According to him, * makes great differ
ence as to how the buildings are built, and
the Japanese are now resting some of their
foundations on rollers and iron shot so
that they will move as though they were
placed on the ball-bearings of a bicycle
when an earthquake occurs. He suggests
that the chimneys should be made of sheet
iron instead of bricks, and people living In
earthquake countries should have heavy
tables under which they can crawl in case
of a shock. They should have earthquake
lamps and in some parts OF South America
he says the people have earthquake coats
which are stocked with provisions, and
which lie beside their beds, and In which
they can skip out into the open air with
some kind of protection at the slightest
warming The ordinary Japanese house
is of wood, and instead of having laths aud
plaster it is lined inside and out with
wartlework of bamboo, and this is plas-
teEeu over VIII uluu' IL 10 mOI6 ike
basket than house, and it is much safer
than brick and stone.
Still the damage that is done by earth
quakes in Japan is terrible. All through
Japanese history you find records of viii
lagos being swallowed up and OF thousands
of men being killed. | have list of Jap
anese earthquakes before me. Almost the
whole of the city of Toxic was destroyed
between two and three centuries ago, and
at this time 1t is said that 200, 600 people
lost their lives. AT other times mountains
fell and lakes took their places. The last
great ear! hquake that Toxic had was ia
1855 There were eighty shocks felt
within a month, and the city was one
blaze of fire. One hundred and four thou
sand people are said TO have persisted, and
Il, 900 houses were reduced to match wood.
The earthquake IN which l was was by no
means so serious. Still it was not to be
sneered ar, and my own Japanese servant
came to me in great trouble, saying that
his house had gone down and that his
wife and boy had been injured.
One of the biggest earthquakes that
Japan has ever had occurred about three
wears ago. l had a number of friends who
were in it, and 1t was horrible beyond de-