The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-05-11
PEOPLE WERE IN DESPAIR
Their Anxiety to Hear the Fate Of
Friends and Relatives in the
Other Coast Towns.
From Fridays Daily.

descriptive of the earthquake, to her
brother, George Cornish of Vernon:
| know you will be looking for news
from us all but | have not had the
heart to write since this terrible calam-
itv. Thank God our dear ones are all
safe. l received last Saturday evening
at nine o'clock a card from mother and
a letter from Josie. Nothing in this
life ever gave me so much happiness as
the sight of their dear, familiar hand
writing. | felt sure Ed was safe as
reports toward the end of the week in
dicated that that part of the state had
not been injured. / did nothing but
haunt the telegraph and telephone of
fees, the postoffice and the trains until
Saturday but the wires were all down
along the whole coast from here to Mon
terey and no mail was taken either out
or in until Friday afternoon. SO oul
last mail was Tuesday evening. The
whole postal and telegraph system was
demoralized, and the people could dc
nothing but wait. They thronged to
the trains for the only news it was pos
sible to get, for strange to say the road
beds seemed uninjured. 1t would be i'm
possible to picture the terror and despair
of the people since that awful morning
Business was paralyZed and we could dc
nothing but wander amilessly to and
fro trying vainly to comfort each other
All the chimneys in the town were ruin
ed so we had to eat bread and butter
and other cold things for a few days and
people slept out OH their lawns-if they
could sleep. L am sure not an eye in
that town was closed that first night
for shocks were felt at intervals all day
and through the night-indeed did not
cease till Saturday noon, which l hope
devoutly was the last. People are get
ting little more settled now and the
town has a more cheerful aspect today
And what must be the sensations OF
those poor people in San Francisco dur
ing those days of terror? Josie's letter
was dated Friday 9:30 a. m. and she
said tongue could not describe the hOr-
rors of the past forty eight hours. I am
glad Sam could 60 down to San Cruz
L foA L.,
card was written the morning of the
earthquake and / have heard nothing
since but they must be all right. | was
nearly sick with despair all those days
for the most terrifying reports came
that Santa Cruz was entirely oblterat-
ed by tidal wave, etc, and it was be-
lieved here for a whole day that the
calamity was national-Los Angeles and
Seattle laid low and Chicago and New
York in ruins and burning like San
Francisco. We did not know. until Friday
night that Sacramento was not entirely
destroyed, for so the news had come, SO
feared for Teddy. am so glad to
get his letter today noon. He said the
shock was not perceptibe there.
Saturday afternoon we were able to
get communication by mail with Sac
ramento so all our kilograms were for
thousands of them that no doubt there
was great delay in getting them off.
mite news of the rest, but thought it
might comfort you to know at least one
was safe.
There was no one killed here but
many narrow escapes. There is not a
were totally demolished. Two great
chimneys in this house fell, tearing
great holes through roof, ceiling and
floor. One is between my room and the
next but it fell the other way and a
great mass of masonry weighing nearly
ton fell only foot from Miss Gallo
ways bed The RATS from the roof and
ceiling fell so that it was with difficulty
she opened the door far enough to get
out. Across the hall the other fell on
the bed, carrying with it bricks and
timber, smashing the bed and Stats,
sending all to the floor, and Pearl New.
land, the sixteen year old daughter of
the house, was under it all, but she
crawled out unhurt save for a few
bruises. How she escaped death is a
miracle indeed. / was thrown from ban
lister to wall all the way down stairs
and got out on the front lawn in time
to see the buildings on the plaza fall in
with deafening crash. All the people
in town were running about in their
night clothes terrified in the gray light
of the dawn. 1t is sight shall never
forget to my dying day. And to the
end of the week the most CHASTITY stories
came in from everywhere. The little
city of Santa Rosa, sixteen miles south,
lies in ruins. 1t seems to have been the