Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-04-29
Mark Twain in q shake.

Mark Twain tells of an earthquake he
witnessed in San Francisco many years ago.
He describes the AFFAIR in "Roughing IT.:
1T was Just after noon on a bright October
day. l was coming down Third street.
The only objects in motion anywhere in
sight In that thickly built and populous
quarter were a man in buggy behind me
and street car vending slowly up cross
street. Otherwise all was solitude and
sabbath stiffness. As 1 turned a corner
around a frame house there was a rattle
and jar, and II occurred to me that here
was an 1tem'-no doubt a fight in that
house Before L could turn and seek the
door there came a really terrific shock;
the ground seemed to roll under me in
waves, interrupted by violent jogging
up and down, and there was q heavy grind
ing noise, as Of brick houses rubbing to-
gether. / fell up against q frame house
and hurt my elbow. knew what It was
now. and from mere repertorial instict.
nothing else, took out my watch ana noted
the time OF day; at that moment a third
and still severer shock came. and as I
reeled about on the pavement trying to
keep my footing saw sight
THE entire front Of a tall, four-story
brick building in Third street sprung OUT
ward like a door and fell sprawling across
the street. raising a dust like a great vol
ume OF smoke. And here came the buggy
overheard went the man. and in less time
than l can tell it the vehicle was distrib-
uted in small fragments along 800 yards
of street. One could have fancied that
somebody had fred a charge OF chair
rounds and rags down the thoroughfare.
! The street car had stopped, the horses
were rearing and plunging, the passengers
were pouring out at both ends and one fat
man had crashed half way through a glass
window on one side of the car, got wedEed
fast and was squirming and screaming IEe
an impaled mailman. Every door OF eve. y
house far as the eye could reach was
vomiting a stream Of human beings, AID
almost before one could execute a wink
and begin another there was a massed
multitude Of people stretching in endless
procession down every street my position
commanded. Never was solemn solitude
turned into teeming life quicker.
1.-THE curiosities of the earthquake were
simply endless. Gentlemen and women who
were sick, or were taking a siesta, or had
dissipated till late hour and were making
up lost sleep, thronged into the streets in
all sorts of queer apparel and some without
| any at all One woman, who had been
washing a naked child. ran down the
street holding 1t by the ankles. as II it had
been a dressed turkey. Prominent citizens,
who were supposed to keep the Sabbath
strictly, rushed out OF saloons In their
shirt sleeves, with billiard cues in their
hands. Dozens OF men with necks swathed
in napkins rushed from barber shops, lath-
cred to the eyes, or with one cheek clean
shaved and the other still bearing hairy
stubble.
"A crack 100 feet long CAPPED open six
inches wide in the middle OF one street and
then shut together again with such force
as to ridge up the meeting earth like q
slender grave. A woman sitting in heI
rocking and qualzing parlor saw the wall
part at the ceiling, open and shut twice
like a mouth. and then drop the end OF
a brick on the floor. like a tooth. She was
Suspended pictures were thrown down, but
oftener still they were whirled completely
around with their faces to the wall
Thousands OF people were made 50 sea
sick by the rolling and pitching OF floors
and streets that they were weak and
bed ridden for hours and some few even
for days afterward."