Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-04-21
SCENES ALMOST
INDESCRIBABLE
Men and Women Rush Through the
Streets Halt Glad and Almost Insane
From Fear, Seeking Places Of Safety
When There is No safety-A Day Of
Terror.

ton of this the gayest, most careless
city on the continent, into wreck and
hell, 1t is hard to write. That the
day started with blind general panic
goes without saying. People woke
with start to find themselves found
ering on the floor.
In such an earthquake as this 1t is
the human instinct to get out of doors,
away from falling walls They Stun
bled across the floors Of their heaving
houses to find that even the good
earth upon which they had placed
their reliance was swaying and rising
and falling, SO that the sidewalks
cracked and great rents opened In the
ground.
The three minutes which followed
| were an eternity Of terror. At least
two people died of pure fright in that
| three minutes when there seemed no
help In earth or heaven.
Awful Stampede for Safety.
There was roar in the air like a
great burst Of thunder, and from all
about came the crash Of falling walls.
1t died down at last, leaving the earth
quaking and quivering like jelly.
| Men would run forward, stop as an.
other shock, which might be greater
any moment, seemed to take the earth
from under their feet. and throw them.
| selves face downward on the ground
In a perfect agony Of fear. 1t seemed
to be two or three minutes after the
great shock was over before people
found their voices.
4 There followed the screaming Of
women, beside themselves with terror
and the cries OF men, With one i'm
pulse, people made for the parks. as
far as possible from falling walls. The
! parks speedily became packed with
people In their night clothes, who
screamed and moaned at the little
shocks which followed every few min
| utes.
Flames Race With Dawn.
The dawn was just breaking. but
there was no other light, for the gas
and electric mains were gone and the
\ street lamps were all out. But before
the dawn was white there came light
from the east-the burning OF the
warehouse district.
j The drawer men and those without
families to watch over, struck oct hall
dressed, as they were. In the early
morning light they could see the bust
ness district below them, all ruins and
burning in five o: six places.
4 Through the streets from every di
rection came the fire engines, called
from all the outlying districts by the
general alarm rung in by the assist
ants of the dead chief.
/ Chinese In Deliriunn Of FRIGHT
4 On Portsmouth square the panic was
beyond description. This, the old plaza
about which the early city was built
is bordered now by Chinatown. by the
Italian district; and by the Barbary
coast, lower tenderloin. A spur Of
the quake ran UP the hill upon which
Chinatown is situated and shook down
4 part Of the crazy little buildings on the
southern edge. It tore down, too, some
OF the Italian tenements. The rush tc
Portsmouth square went on almost nm
checked by the police, who had more
business elsewhere.
/ The Chinese came out Of the under
4 ground burrows like, rats and tumbled
into the square, beating such gongs
and playing such noise instruments as
they had snatched up. They were me,
on the other side by the refugees q
| the Italian quarter. The panic became
a madness.
| At least two Cinnamon were taken
to the morgue dead Of knife wounds
given for no other reason, 1t seems
than the madness Of panic. -
Four Races In Mad Panic,
| There were 10000 Chinese In the
quarter and there were thousands Of
Italians, Spaniards and Mexicans or
the other side. 1t seemed as though
every one of these, together with the
riffraff Of the BaJ barry coast, made fol
that one block g open land
1 The two UNI tntrolled streams met
in the center the square and piled
up against tb n edges. There they
fought all the morning until some reg
ulars restored order with their bayo
nets.
Then, as the dawn broke and the
lower city began to be overhung with
smoke of burning buildings, there
came back eddy. Cabmen, hackmen
drivers of express wagons and trucks
hired at enormous prices, began cart
ing away, from the lower city the valu
ables of the hotels, which saw theii
doom in the fires which were breaking
out everywhere and the spurts of the
3sgas mains
Banks Remove Their Bullion.
Even the banks began to take Out
their bullion and securities, and, under
guard OF half dressed clerks, to send
them to the hills whence came yester