The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-18
EARTHqUAKE JOKES.
Queer Experiene With "Temblars' In
 South America.

South America.
 Upon a certaif sultry evening in Ju- ly, when the humidity, which is pretty nearly as goo6 in Guatemala as in Philadelphia, WIS soaring though no one had instruments with which to , measure it, a bile, or dance, was in santaAngelina, whereat two l uninvited guests one German and | the other an American, were in attend | ance. Their attentions to the senori- | tas were evidently not to the taste of i the local gentlanen, though the mis- chievous damsds, as vain as young | women elsewhere, encouraged them While the dance was at it's height the | building began to rock, the lamps hanging from te rafters swung yio- lently, the senGitas fled, with loud i, screams, and tie men-perhaps both the men and wmen screamed Ten , blar- -temblar!" which is Spanish for earthquake. The two foreigners, not understanding tfr cause of the commo- | tion, stood their ground the American drawing a revolver and demanding in English, Where $ he?'. When every , body else was gore the two men found that the door was immovably jammed in the twisted fame They kicked it open and made tleir escape. At the hotel, aramshackle establish ment; the staircae was disarranged by the shock, so tha it ran perpendicular from the ground floor to the sleeping apartments, with the embarrassing re- 1 suits that thtse who were down thought it well D be content with re- maining down. The village was ab- jectly frightened even the padre, who had never been lnown to show any ex- citement, was yisiby nervous. Only the Chinese hotl cook, possibly be- cause he was Chinese, looked on in contempt He had no idea of being in- tcrrupted by an earthquake, and kept his boise unrufFi,d
 A Spanish gentleman volunteered the suggestion that neghboring volcano which he said would be visible were it not concealed b7 distance and inter- vening mountains was at fault In his Castilian estimation the spirits were flying out of the hill" At all events
 the baile was notresumed.
 It happened that the same American was awakened vey early one morning several years after this occurrence by g sort of shiverhg motion that filled his abode in San Francisco, He was, indeed, almost shaken out of bed, As he hadn't sense enough to know what
 was going on or vas too lazy to care, he went to sleep again Later in the l day he heard the natives-or, rather, the older residerts-talk in anxious tones of the earthquake. About a week later and rearly at the same hour of the early morning there was another shake. Neither did any notice able damage
 l One day years afterward to show how earthquakes will pursue a man until they get him, in the little l village of Las Minas, in Brazil the same ridculousB ignorant American was suddenly thrown out of his chair to the floor, whTe he yainly tried to stop sliding about He supposed some
 thing had played a joke on him. As the house in which he sat then re- | peatedly tried to jump off It's position and eventually succeeded, he decided | it was another earthquake-this time real one, with trimmings, The earth quake shocks continued, amid brief in- tervals for refreshments, for the great CT part of two days, during which the native laborerg, or peons, were frantic with fright and excitement, men and women kneeling on the ground and holding up their clasped hands in 1 agonies of supplication and terror. Finally, too, this earthquake died out, and things slowly resumed their usual 1 tone. A number of rude buildings al l the mines had been destroyed, No other damage was done.
 Talking of earthquakes naturally brings up Valparaiso, the latest re- | cipient of earthquake honors, a town where all kinds of fun are always on tap and where the most wonderful article viewed by the stranger Is the
 appetite of the native. Between the
 acts of the theatre such trihes as cock
 tails, ice cream, sirllon steaks and
 candy are consumed, regardless of or
 der, size and quantity. The waits be
 tween the acts are apparently purpose 1 ly long. The people of Valparaiso and
 that vicinity are not specially fond of
 Americans, and "gringo' is regarded
 with averted eye Not many years age
 number of American bluejackets ! were killed there in a street row.