Arizona republican., 1903-01-24
THE EARTH
 TREMBLED
And Citizens of the Second
 Ward Were Startled
Phoenix Visited by Slight Earth quake Last Night-A Very Unusual But Not Entirely Novel or Unheard of Proceeding.

The Second ward of this city was
 visited by an earthquake last night,
 and the foundation of that portion of
 the municipality seems to be tottering.
 Just why the foundation under the
 Second ward, which has always been
 noted for its high standard of citizen
 ship. political purity and moral recti-
 tude, should be less stable than the
 rest of the town is hard to understand,
 but there never has been any set rules for earthquakes nor any successful plan
 devised for controlling them or re-
 straining them. Had this incident oc-
 cured in the Fourth ward the super stitious and the ultra purists might be able to reason from cause to effect, or
 had it happened in the First or Third wards the process of reasoning could be dispensed with for some residents of those wards have been known to do things without reason and without pur- pose. ~
 But getting back to the cold, nervous and disquieting facts, 1t was reported to The Republican office last night shortly after the hour named that the chandeliers in the Ford hotel were se- verely shaken at 10 o'clock, the glass ware rattled in an ominous manner and guests on the upper floors came scurry ing downstairs to inquire whether it was a convulsion of nature or merely the house falling down. All finally agreed that it was an earthquake shock.
 A little later a gentleman who was ati the time in the office of Dr. John Lentz, corner of First avenue and Center streets, reported that they had both felt the shock. and going across the street to McClure's pharmacy they learned that the shock had been noticed there. The operator in the Western Union office on Center street shook In his seat like an Arkansawyer with the asue and was made to think of a lot of things in his past life that he wished had never been made into history.
 One of the patrons of the Doris thea ter came down after the performance of the electrical picture show and said that at the hour named he felt~a pecu- liar trembling and wondered if the iron of his seat had cross-cir- cuited the paraphernalia of the cleo trical device that makes living pictures at so much a thousand.
 Altogether so many responsible peo- pie who felt the shock reported it to l headquarters that it must have been q genuine seismic demonstration, though | il lacked the force and staying quail l ties necessary to make it notable. IL | is singular though that every person l who reported il to this office was in the | second ward when the shock was felt. |
 Though earthquakes are not among | the regular products of this valley and | the output is so limited no mention has | been made of it in board of trade litera- | fure, this was not the first instance of | he kind. Two distinct shocks and pos | sibly more have been felt here since | he settlement of the valley. One oc- | curred in 1885 or 1886 and was so pro- lounced there were no doubters. Build ngS shook and the earth rolled percep- | -ibly to those who were standing on | heir feet while many became nauseat- ed. There was. however. no damage lone. Once at least since then, there was a slight shock. But no one need De alarmed for it is likely that there s no part of the country that has been more free from such phenomena. Even the great plains of the middle vest, hundreds of miles from surface indications of volcanic demonstrations. Ire sometimes agitated in the same startling and unexplainable manner. Here in Arizona where the whole coun- ny was evidently thrown up that way n the beginning there is no record of damage from an internal iource and it is evident that the earth ike everything else must have it's day ,ff.