Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-05

Fellows Had to Walk over Broken
Glass In Bare Feet-Mrs. Stanford's
Residence Split In Two.
Clarence W. Waugh, freshman at
Stanford university, has written let
ter to his relatives In New York city
describing the earthquake that hit the
university and the work he and his fell
low students did in saving a number
Of others who were buried in the ruins
of one of the dormitories, says the New
York Sun. The letter was mailed the
day after the earthquake.
Young Waugh says that the damage
to the university is estimated by the
authorities at $2,S00,OO0. This Is how
he describes the scenes when the earth
quake tumbled the students out of bed
in Encina hall, where he had his rooms:
Yesterday morning april 49, about
5:13 l was awakened by the most ter
rible sensation and noise imaginable.
The bed was jumping up and down
In fact, all the furniture. You could
not walk on the floor it was vibrating
SO. / finally got over to the door, but
could not open it. All the time every
thing was creaking and swaying in the
worst manner imaginable.
well, 1 jumped out on to the window
sill and Spanned the large stone par
tition between my window and that of
the fellows next door U am up three
storiesl. / rushed out of this fellows
room in my pajamas and bare feet. l
am in the central wing and just above
the clubroom. The chimney had fallen
through the Skylight, and the stones
and glass were strewn on the landing
in front of the annex.
1--WE had to walk over broken glass
In our bare feet. If had been able to
open the door when 1 first tried l
would have been on the landing when
those stones fell. The night Waterman
certainly must carry around with him
horseshoe. He was just stepping OUT
of our wing on to the landing when
big stone fell down, sliding along his
arm. The only thing he got out of it
was n scratch on his hand. If he had
been over to the right half foot he
would have been killed.
well, when the shocks were over
we went back and dressed. We did
| not have to look very far to see where
the worst calamity had taken place.
| There was large hole in the floor or
| the foyer. and from the sides of it you
could have a fine view of the sky. The
massive chimney had broken the roof
| and carried 1t down with it. This i'm
mense weight carried the next floor
and all the other floors with it down
to the basement. About five fellows
were caught in this big heap. The
! floors were torn out so neatly that
human hand could hardly have done
better. All the furniture, beds, ward
robes, chairs, etc, went down In the
heap The wreckage was piled from
the basement floor clear up above the
| main floor.
You should have seen us fellows
| work then. We got In the heap and be-
gan clearing it so as TO get at the fell
| lows underneath. Some of the pipes
| had broken and the water was pouring
down into the pile. After great deal
| of effort the water was stopped. The
huge stones of the chimney and of the
| wall were in the heap. Fellows clothes
| We're in the heap. and also their books.
One by one the fellows We're hauled
out Each one was unconscious and
| badly MANNED. After two hours of dig
ging into the heap they finally came
upon the body of the last fellow in the
wreck He was dead. Poor fellow, l
feel so sorry for his parents. as he
was their only son. His home is in
Bradford, Pa.
They had to press the stages into
service as ambulances. All rooms in
Encina were more or less wrecked.
Our new 100000 library (uncompleted)
swayed to and fro, and then suddenly
the sides collapsed and The roof fell in.
The new grand gymnasium-the best
In the world-had it's FOOT collapse.
The steeple of our magnificent church
fell over, breaking through the church
roof The first mosaic of Christ on
the mount fell down. The frieze on
the top of the memorial arch broke and
| one foot of the arch Is out of place.
Part of the roof of the new museum
collapsed. The chemistry building had
considerable damage done to 1t as well
as to the bottles. The beautiful en-
trance tumbled down into an unrecog-
| nizable pile of stone. with the roof on
| top. The tall chimney was broken
| about twenty feet from the base. In
| its fall it killed the engineer.
Zone of the statues on the outside OF
| the geological building took tumble
of thirty feet. 1t dived through the
cement sidewalk below and stopped at
| the shoulders. Mrs. Stanford's resi-
| dence was split in two. The funny
part about it Is that the split divided
| Mrs Stanfords room exactly in half.
| In truth, it seemed as If the world had
come to an end.
"All that night 1 slept out on the
lawn in front of Encina. We kept
guard around all the university build
ings. Roughly speaking, our loss Is S.
| 100000. Everybody thinks this ter
| ribly low estimate. President Jordan
| just returned in time to witness the
| catastrophe. Yesterday morning he
| said that he boped TO have classes