Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-05-04
TO BE CONTINUED.
HIS OWN EARTHQUAKE.
Mark Twain's Report In '68 of Shock
In Frisco.

The earthquake of 1858 was the
most serious San Francisco had
known until the present disturbance.
Several buildings on Pine, Battery
and Sansom streets were thrown down
and a great number Of others dam
aged Mark Twain, who was working
on q Frisco paper at that time tells
about the earthquake as follows:
1T was just after noon on a bright
October day. 1 was coming down
Third street. The only objects In mo-
ton anywhere in sight in that thickly
built and populous quarter were a
man and a buggy behind me and g.
street car vending slowly up the cross
street. Otherwise all was solitude
and a Sabbath stiffness. AS I turned
corner around frame house. there
was a great rattle and a jar, and 1t
then occurred to me that here was
an item! No doubt a fight in that
house.
Before / could turn and seek the
door there came really terrific
shock; the ground seemed to roll un-
der me in waves, interrupted by yio-
lent jogging up and down. There
was a heavy grinding noise as OF brick
houses rubbing together. I fell up
against the frame house and hurt my
elbow. 1 knew what 1t was now, and
from mere reportorial instinct-noth-
ing else-took out my watch and
noted the time of day. At that mo-
ment a third and still more severe
shock came and as / reeled about On
the pavement trying to keep my foot
ing 1 saw a sight.
1.-THE entire front Of a tall four
story brick building in Third street
sprung outward like door and fell
sprawling across the street, raising a
dust like a great volume Of smoke.
And here came the buggy-overboard
went the man. and in less time than 1
can tell 1t the vehicle was distributed
in small fragments along 800 yards CT
street. One could have fancied that
some one had fired n charge Of chair
rounds and rags down the thorough
fare.
The street car had stopped, the
horses were rearing and plunging,
passengers were pouring out at both
ends. One fat man had crushed half
through a glass window on one side
Of the car, got wedged fast and was
squrming and squealing like an i'm
palled mailman.
Every door, every house as far as
the eye could reach was vomiting a.
stream Of human beings, and almost
before one could execute a wink and
begin another there was a massed
multitude of people stretching In end
less procession down every street my
position commanded. Never was SOL
emn solitude turned into teeming life
quicker The wonders wrought by the
great earthquake, these were all that
came under my eye; but the tricks
it did elsewhere and fire and lights
over the town made toothsome gos-
sip for nine days. The destruction Of
property was trifiing-the injury to
II was widespread and somewhat Sc
rious
"The 'curiosities' of the earthquake
were simply endless. The gentlemen
and ladies who were sick or were
taking a siesta, or had dissipated to
late hour and making up for lost
sleep, thronged into the public streets
in all sorts of queer apparel, and some
without any at all. One woman who
had been washing a naked child ran
down the street holding 1t by the
ankles as If it were a dressed tur-
key. Prominent citizens who were
supposed to keep the Sabbath strict
ly, rushed out OF saloons in their shirt
sleeves with billiard cues In their
hands. Dozens of men with their
necks swathed in napkins rushed
from barber shops, lathered to the
eyes, or with one cheek clean shaved
and the other still bearing a hairy
stubble Horses broke from stables
and a frightened dog rushed up a
short attic ladder and out to a roof,
and when his scare was over had not
the nerve to go down the same way
he had gone up.
1.-The plastering that fell from CELL
ings in San Francisco that day would