The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-05-08
OF THE
WRECK At STANFORD
MRS. A. y. LARNACH WRITES
FROM PALO ALTO ABOUT THE
EFFECT OF EARTHQUAKES

letter received from Mrs a. d. Lar
march at Palo Alto:
Dear Margaret: First of all. let me
say that we are alive and well. That
will set you at rest. Then, please for
give me for writing you a typed letter,
but YOU win laugh when I tell you that
am writing seven at a time. You
see, each of my friends expect to hear
all about our experiences, and 1 can
scarcely settle down enough to write to
each one Individually so am taking this
means of trying to please you all
Rumor runs wild these days, as does
everything else, and the latest is that
a steamer is on the way to take home
all Hawaiians. 1t must surely allude
to boys and girls who are alone here
and i'm san Francisco-that is if there
is any truth to the report at all. We
have received no letters at all since the
disaster and are worried lest the mis-
fortune has struck Honolulu, too. The
Sonoma and Alameda have both come
but no letters.
During the night, that awful night,
Alec had lain awake for hours worry
ing about his work, and towards morn
ing was pretty soundly asleep, when we
both walked with the violent rocking
and pitching of the bed. We held on
to each other for a little, thinking it
would pass, but instead, it grew worse
and worse. Alec tried to get to Donald's
bed, intending to grab him and run
out-of- doors, but in trying to get there
he was pitched every which way not
h
to walk All this time the hanging
light electric with two bulbs) was
swingly wildly and threatening to brain
him who was under it. Then l tried
to get to Donald's bed, finally reaching
him We grabbed the child shook him
violently Che now tells us he was
dreaming that he was on a steamer and
it was pounding on the rocks) and l got
him wide awake enough to put his
arms around my neck tight while
sitting on the edge of his bed, braced
myself against the wall to keep from
being thrown senseless. In the mean
time. Alec went for the door, falling
all over the rocker which was upside
down. the bookcase, the flower bowl,
hat boxes. broken water pitcher, in
fact everything from that corner of the
room. When he gSt up from this heap
of debris. he found that the key was
on the floor somewhere and as the
shades were down the room was in
darkness. Horrors We thought we
were going to be caught like rats in "A
trap. Then he rushed, as quickly as
the fearful pitching of the room would
permit, to the windaw threw up shade
back to the door again, eventually
finding the key and not losing any
time to open the door, he grabbed the
frightened young one and ran down
stairs. Mind you, all this time, the
house-the whole house rocked wildly
from side to side, backwards, forwards
sidewise, up and down and corkscrew-
wise, so that he We're sea-sick to the
point of nausea. The oak trees
were whipping the ground in great
way, the air was full of dust, the house
creaked worse than even the little ISL
and steamers in the fiercest storms one
hears of, and threatened to fall on
our heads any instant, people scream
ed, yelled, the furniture was rolling
around the room, plaster falling, CHM
neys crashing down, and oh, Heavens,
the sound of it all will ring in my
ears to my dying day. l feel sea-sick
all over again when l think of that
awful time. Then it finally seemed to
subside a little; we were out and down
stairs in a moment where everything
was confusion. In one room where
two of the girls slept, the furniture
was all i'm one heap in the middle of the
floor, so that their way to the door was
blocked. Everybody was in night
gowns except the boys. They seemed
to have considered their appearance
long enough to stop and get something
on. 1 had thrown on my flannel bath
robe over my nightgown, and slipped
my shoes on. Everybody was every
body else's brother, Madame Grundy
was not in it," Finding out that we
were all alive, we went back and dress
ed i'm the greatest kind of hurry In
these clothes we remained till Sunday
not daring to take time enough in our
rooms to change them. on getting
down stairs we heard that Stanford
was wrecked, so started out. Univer-
sity Avenue here in town was a sight.
Fraser's dry goods store had the side
and front completely blown out, a three
story building was leaning over at an
angle and all brick buildings in town
were more or less, mostly mure) ruin
ed, except Aliens hardware store; it
suffered comparatively no loss. Some
had their roofs gone, others were so
badly demolished as to be condemned
one frame house in town, a large one
at that, went down perfectly fiat, and
another of about the same size slid on
its slim foundation and now sits per-
fectly upright on its horing on the
ground. The beautiful priest semi
nary at Menlo suffered terribly and
will have to be rebuilt in parts The
great tower caved in from above, right
in through the building, and one wing,
dormintory, now stands with the