Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-05-01
SAN JOSE, CAL, April %, 1905.
OR THAYER or THE PR or.

EDITOR IHAYER OF THE Pilot:
| wrote few lines a short time ago,
in regard to this beautiful city, its fine
climate and surroundings. | write
again to-day, not but what the. trees
and flowers are looking just as lovely
and contented as ever, the sun also
shines and the weather is beautiful,
but, oh, the dreadful earthquake on the
morning of the 18th, was something
never to be forgotten in ones life Do
you think we have our nerves under
good control yet? Well, no, we still
like to be near each other and talk. |
can't begin to tell you of the great
damage that was done in few seconds
of time (of that you will surely be able
to read in the papers) but | can tell you
something about what one comes in
contact with about the time an earth
quake starts in. 1t being about half-
past five O'Clock in the morning, of
course we were nearly all in bed; the
first intimation | had that anything
was wrong, was a slight tremble of the
house, then came a sort of rumbling
and cracking of something underneath
the house, then the house shook and
rocked and creaked, while the bed
rocked lively, then everything sort of
trembled and died away with lighter
shakes, just as we shiver sometimes,
only more terrible on account of our
being SO small and the earth so large.
The moment anybody could stand,
they jumped out of bed and flew for
the door, to see just what was going
on and how the old world looked, also,
how it was with their neighbor We
found our neighbors out in their yards
looking just as curious as we did.
Most of them very lightly dressed.
After talking a few minutes together,
we began to feel the need of breakfast.
All chimneys were on the ground
instead of the roof, so stoves had to be
moved out doors. A few oil stoves
were also found and some took the old
brick from the chimney, and built a
square OF lt-httlng In length of pipe;
| put big piece of sheet iron over the
top and left the front of the square
open, built good fire underneath and
l can tell you it did good work-for
coffee and tea we soon had plenty. |
forgot to say that the gas was cut off
but we were more fortunate than San
francisco, Tor we were blessed with
plenty of good water After breakfast,
we did not stop to do the work mp, nor
did this place work all day, but they
Travelled all over town, only staying al
home to cook a little and eat. / first
visited the business portion, and so did
everybody, | should think, by the i'm.
mense crowd. Oh what sight aud
what confusion. All so neat and nice
the day before one whole block on fire
and pile after pile, where once stood
good buildings with fine goods; people
I half dressed; walls ready to fall; church
towers in the middle of the streets
Hotel Vendome annex collapsed and
fifteen people beneath the debris; Ag-
news asylum fiat with so many patients
Already one hundred and ten bodies
have been removed and that don't
account for all of the people there
Beautiful homes off of their foundations
and some very large houses looked as il
they had just sunk right down in the
center with sides all right. The big
high school also fell. Tb,.re are lott
and lots more of fine baildings jusi
ruined, too, but just think what il
kwould have meant if all of the clerk:
had been in the stores, all of the chill
] dren in the schools and all of the people