The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-11
THE QUAKE MARK TWAIN FELT

S. L. Clemens Story OF the S.Frisco
Shocks I'm 1S65-Description Given
I'm "Roughing IT, Of What Was at
h Time Called 1.-The Great Earth
quake"-Some Humorous Incidents.
The Preacher and His Behavior.
The Lady Who Set the Fashion i'm
the Best Social Cdrcies-The Girls
Apt Advice TO the Prominent Editor.
The earthquake in San Francisco re-
calls the description Of the shocks
which occurred in that city in 1865 and
described by Samuel L. Clemens
Mark Twain'), who was then a re-
porter for the Morning Call. The ex-
tract below are from "Roughing IL"
Unhappily the earthquake Of that day
can no longer be called t~he"great"
earthquake. Mr.. Clemens enjoyed"
this experience a short time after he
had given up mining in Nevada, where
he had the famous experience OF being
a millionaire for ten days. The fol-
lowing is the story as taken from
"ROughing L."
San Francisco, a truly fascinating
city to live in, is stately and handsome
at a fair distance, but close at hand
n notes that the architecture is most
~ old-fashioned, many streets are made
up of ~decaying, Smoke-grimed, wooden
houses, and the barren Sand-hills, to-
ward the outskirts obtrude themselves
too prominently. Even the kindly eli
mate is sometimes pleasanter when
read about than when personally ex-
~perienced, for a lovely, %cloudless sky
wears out its welcome by and by, and
then when the longed for rain does
come it stays. Even the playful earth
quake is better contemplated at a dis
lance
However, there are varyiny opinions
about that.
A month afterwards l enjoyed my
first earthquake. It was n which
was long called the great earthquake
and is doubtless so distinguished till
this day. 1t was just after noon, on 4
bright October day. l was coming down
| Third street. The only objects in mo-
ton anywhere in sight in this thicl,tv
built and pOpulOus quarter We're a man
in a buggy behind me and a street car
vending slowly up b cross street.
| Otherwise all was solitude and a Sab
| bath stiffness. AS | turned the corner,
around a frame house, there was a
| great rattle and jar, and it occurred &c
me that here was an item!-nO doubt a
| fight in that house. Before could turn
| and seek the door there came a really
terrific shock; the ground seemed 70
| roll under me in waves Interrupted by
a violent jogging up and down, and
there was a heavy grinding noise as OF
brick houses rubbing together. | fell
I'D against the frame house and hu".
my elbow. | knew what it was, now,
and from mere repOrtial instinct,
nothing else, took out my watch and
noted the time of day: at the mo
ment a third and still severe shock
came, and as l reeled about on the
pavement trying to keep my footing, !
saw a sight! The entire front OF a tai
four-story brick building in Third
street sprung outward like a door and
fell sprawling across the street, raising
a lust like a great column of smoke
And here came the buggy-overboart
went the man, and in less time than
can tell it the vehicle was distributed
in small fragments along three hundred
yards of street. One could have fanciet
that somebody had fired a charge o
chair rounds and rags dOwn thet thor
oughfare. The street car had stopped
the horses were rearing and plunging
the passengers were pouring out a
both ends and n fat man had crash
ed half way through a glass window o.
one side of the car, got Wedged las
and was Squirming and screaming tk
an impaled mailman Every door G
every house, as far as the eye coui
reach, was vomiting a stream or hu1na
beings, and almost before n cou.
execute a wink and begin another ther
was a massed multitude of peopi
} stretching in endless procession dow
every street my position commanded
: Never was solemn solitude turned int
teeming life quicker.
Of the wonders wrought by 9TH
= great earthquake' these were all tls
r came under my eye but the tricks
. did elsewhere and far and wide ove
= the town made toothsome gossip Il
nine DAYS. The destruction Of propert
4 was triling-the injury to it was Wild
spread and somewhat serious.
The "curiosities" of the earthquake
e were simply endless. Gentlemen an
: ladies' who were sick, or had dissipate
n till a late hour and were making u
lost sleep, thronged into the publ
Z streets in all sorts of queer appare
= and some without any at al. One W
a man who had been washing a nake
e child ran down the street holding
n by the ankles as if it were a dresse
turkey. Prominent citizens who we
supposed to keep the Sabbath strict
y rushed out of saloons in thei shl'
- sleeves, with billiard cues IN the
IS hands, Dozens of men, with nee
l. swathed in napkins, rushed from ba
1t Der shops, lathered to the eyes or WI
y one cheek clean shaven and the 9th
d still bearing hairy subtle Hor
e+;u hearinp 2 hairy Stubble. HOrS