The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-06

The Gray Morning OF the Day That
Dawned Upon Scene of
Utter Destruction,
By Ernest N. Smith.

BY Ernest
STANFORD UNIVERSITY. April q.
Tuesday evening, April II, came
warm and peaceful. Now as I look
back on it, it was earthquake wealth
err silent, still. with the air close and
calculated to make one feel uneasy or
restless. But there was no thought of
disaster.
Hardly had daylight of Wednesday
broken when there was a crash, an un-
earthly din. a rumbling and creaking
and a subterranean roar. Thrown from
my bed l rose dazed and wondering.
Ny room mate. an fastener, was tug
ging frantically at the door and
screaming for help. The door was stuck
but we threw ourselves against it and
fell headlong into the hall. Down
stairs we raced and sprang through a
smashed window In an instant where
silence had reigned the minute before,
pandemonium was let loose and the
campus was peopled. Our fraternity
house had Jared the worst as we found
sistance, thinking some of US had been
killed. The house had been thrown
ten feet from it's foundations, all the
chimneys were down and the windows
broken. Inside the place was COM
Dletely wrecked.
After the excitement we returned to
the house found enough clothes to get
dressed and then hurried to the Quad.
Not until then did we realize what we
had passed through. not until then did
we realize that we had been in one
of the worlds great earthquakes. There
lay the Memorial church, a million and
a half dollar edifice, the most beauti-
full church in America, in ruins. The
huge steene. the clock tower and
chimes lay in the middle of the Quad.
The snokestack Of the engineering
building lay in the court near the
church. and the smaller buildings near
by were crashed into a shapeless mass.
Atone place men were -frantically dig
ging into heap searching for the body
of the night engineer. He could have
saved himself. but he returned to his
post to shut off the steam and cleo
tricity and save the buildings from
burning.
All along the Quadrangle could be
seen evidences of the damage wrought
by the temblor. Buildings We're crack
ed and in some places the arcade has
fallen in. But from the front of the
University the view was one never to
be forgotten. One end of the magnlf-
cent Memorial Arch had been torn
away, the other end was cracked near
iy to the base. To the right lay the
ruins of the half completed library. the
steel dome only raising its head above
the wreckage. Further along lay an
almost unrecognizable mass OF twisted
steel and stone. This was the remains
of the nearly completed gymnasium, a
S700.000 structure and the pride OF the
University The broad marble steps
were intact, but wreckage was piled
high on top At the entrance to the
building formerly stood two marble
statues representing the boxer and
the wrestler. The latter was lying
prone upon the steps face downwards,
his arm in front of his face as though
shielding his eyes from the awful sight.
Across the arboretum and driveway
stood the museum and chemistry build
ings. Two wings of the former had cav
ed in destroying the Egyptian exhibit,
and many valuable paintings in the
other wing were destroyed or badly
damaged. All the chimneys, about
thirty. had been knocked from the
chemistry building and TIE upper story
had been torn open revealing mass OF
2 pparatus and wreckage. Continuing
TO the west end of the Quad one no
ticed a peculiar action of the earth
quake. On the second story of the
and philosophy building once
stood a marble figure of Agassiz. This
had been thrown from its pedestal and ]
OH
pavedent burying the head about four