Arizona republican., 1905-01-07
AN ARIZONA REPORTER
His Experience With a Central Amer
 icaE Earthquake.

| left for Costa Rica to take a position with big fruit shipping firm. Mir Baker is not now in Central America according to the following from the New Orleans Picayune:
 George Sheldon Baker, a visitor from the far west, a well known resident of Phoenix, Ariz., had a rather unique and at the same time thrilling eXpe- rience, while in San Jose, Costa Rica fortnight ago, and MT. Baker consid- CTS himself fortunate that he is alive today to tell the story.
 There are about forty-five seconds of my life which I will never forget, said MT. Baker to reporter, several days ago. "They mark a whole epoch in my existence, and combined in their passage for me a sort of weird terror. a strange sensation that I was in the midst of one of natures cohvulsions, and a desire to see with my living eyes all that was to be seen.
 "Talk about q strenuous time well. have you ever been in an earthquake |? Probably not; that was my experi- ence," and MT. Baker was almost in- cIined to shiver at the recollection of it.
 'I made my first visit to the tropics this month"; the gentleman continued. resuming his story. "and the several weeks I spent in that land of perpetual summer, revealed many strange things to me.
 q encountered the unusual every where, but it was at San Jose, the cap ital of Costa Rica, that I ran up against an earthquake, or rather I should say the earthquake ran up against me, and the whole town at the same time.
 By way of explanation, I will say that there is a supposedly extinct volcano about fourteen miles from San Jose. The natives persist in the be- lief that that volcano is out of business for good, notwithstanding the fact that it has cut fancy capers several times during the last twenty years or so. The volcano has Q name, oh, yes, name enough for whole hemisphere, but we'll have to let the name pass, as my tongue could never make friends with it. and. to get on with the inci- dent, it was the volcano, whose ten dency to obstreperOusness asserting it. self again. caused the earthquake.
 'I was staying at the Imperial ho- tel. and on the night of Dec. 19 was in the room of a friend of mine. look ing at some curios that he had pur- chased, and trying to make a bargain with him. whereby I would come into possession of some of them. It was about II o'clock and suddenly, without moments warning, we felt the house shake violently. I looked at my friend and my friend looked at me: his face was white and I felt mine loosing it's color also, and before either could say word, the shaking was felt again.
  not exaggerating when I say this It didn't dance up and down or jolt in irregular motion; it swayed from side to side, just like a ship at sea. We both realized what the matter was it was an earthquake and I almost felt that my last moment had come. PandemOnium reigned in the streets, and cries and screams filled the still night air; as terrified as I was I stag gered to the window and looked out, and the scene that l witnessed was a fantastic one.
 "The middle of the thoroughfare was crowded with panic stricken peo- pie; men. women and children were there, arrayed for the most part in their night clothes, and they looked like an army of white ghosts as they ran to and fro
 Some of the women and the men, too. for that matter, were down on their knees in the street. with awful horror depicted upon their upturned faces, and their arms wide open in a mute appeal to heaven. Prayers went up from the street, prayers to the Deity and to patron saints. and the irreligious among the people, with the frenzy upon them. cursed and swore instead of voicing prayers.
 'It was all over in less than a min ute-forty- seconds, as I was af- rewards told, the first shock lasted. and when we had a breathing spell we went out to discover what damage had been done. Only a few dilapidated buildings on the outskirts had been se- riously affected, but the windowpanes in every house in town were shattered. The furniture in the room where I had stood during the rocking had been moved out Of place nearly two feet, and ornaments on the table knocked to the floor. No people were injured as far as I could learn.
 My sensations were of the queerest while the shock lasted. I was terri fled, I will admit that, but then there was the sense of the grandeur, the awe, the magnificence of the thing.
 
 my condition. I appreciated the great display of unseen power made, and realized all in the instant how petty were the works of mans hands, as compared to the might of nature.
 'There were three more shocks that night, and two the next day, but they were light as compared to the first quaking. I visited the town of Cartago on my way to the coast to take the steamer back to the states, and saw that the earthquake had caus- ed considerable damage there. Carta- go is about nine miles from the vol canO. and received the full force of the shock
 "That was the toughest experience I ever had and I don't want a sim liar one"