Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-05-24
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS CHEER UP.


Miss Winifred Webb, writing in
Golfers for May 26, 1906, tells many
amusing anecdotes in describing how
the loyal students of Stanford cheer
ed up and stood by their ruined alma
mater. She says:
After it happened we all went
down to the Quadrangle, where the
greatest damage had been done. Our
toilets varied in completeness aecor-
ding to our recent geographical posi-
ton with reference to the path of the
earthquake. A good many people
we're dressed up. 1t was an odd thing
to remark. Some said they did not
expect to have by night, anything
more than they wore-ergo, they
wore their best. With others it seem
ed to be an effort to meet a great oc-
casion greatly. Most of us, l sup
pose, we're stunned, and dressed by
habit, without much realizing what
we did. One girl put up her hand to
her throat an hour later and ex-
claimed: "Why! Did l stop to put
on my gold beads?"
We came back home soberly when
we saw what had happened to the no.
BILE buildings. There was nothing to
relieve the situation but the statues
Gutenberg at the foot of his own
pedestal, his shoes left neatly stand
ing on top like bedroom slippers; and
Agassiz, with his head run into the
ground under a concrete pavement
up to his shoulders, his legs in the
air and one hand still extending an
admonitory finger. We did not know
that it was anything more than a
purely local disturbance, SO, with
frightened cooks and not a chimney
left standing on the campus, we all
turned in with chatting dishes and oil
stoves to get breakfast. When we
had eaten we went back to the Quad
rangle. Here the automobiles and
motor wheels began to arrive with
the news from San Jose and San
Francisco, enlarging our realization
of the calamity. At eleven O'Clock
another tremor was felt. People be-
gan to make only short excursions in
to the houses, and were glad to avoid
even those. All up and down the
streets you would see whole frater-
mites of men and women assembled
on rugs and pillows on the front
lawns of their houses. Mandolins
and guitars were pressed into active
service. Some of the men played
ball. Some made a series of calls
on the New Years day play. There
was a pathos about 1t, to be sure, fol-
the music came to a sudden halt at
sharp noise or slight tremor. One
could not im a-moment become accus
toned to feeling the earth shake un.
der ones rocking chair while n con
versed lightly with a bachelor profess
sor. But the keynote of it all vas tc
keep from realizing what had happen
ed-what might yet happen at any
moment-for though the geology fac.
ulty rose nobly to the occasion will
history to back them, nerve anC
emotions are not always governed
by the hopeful historical parallel
And then the people who had flee
lIOll DdH rldlCioCO DClun W olllN'
on foot or in express wagons, will
pallid faces, and the stories the
whole country knows. 1t was no
good to hear what they had to tell
1t was not good to see the sky fiji
with smoke till the sun hung in !
like a ball of fire. 1t was not gooC
to see the lurid yellow light on peo
pies faces, nor yet to thing of thu
night to come, nor of the Friends
most of us had up there where W.
could hear only the thunder of thu
dynamite. THE city's on fire, ant
they have no water!" Those were no
words we could easily forget till we
learned-as most of us did-that
lives were safe and the worst had moi
yet happened.
The advice from Lick was-or was
reported to be-keep out of the
houses, and most of us were disposed
to take it somewhat literally, for thu
slight shocks continued at intervals
through the week; and though thel
told us that they were a good rather
than a bad omen, there was a littl'