Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-10


II the most venerable ancient in the
army Of oldest inhabitants should sud-
denly arise, his memory Jared into ac-
tivity by the San Francisco earthquake,
to assert that the United States had
once been IN the throes Of a seismic
convulsion for two full years, he would
probably be dubbed an arch-ananias by
the skeptics of this generation. lie
would, however, he uttering only the
plain, unvarnished truth. and IL is prob
able that the, cradles Of more than a
few people now living were rocked by
the long series Of tremors.
A scientific description Of this riot of
earthquakes, which. IL more extensive.
were more benign in their effects than
the catastrophe which has wrought
wholesale ruin along the Pacific coast,
is to be found i'm a tome published in
the year 1916, entitled transactions of
the Literary and Philosophical Society
of New York Volume l." An entire
chapter is devoted to the years Of ter
ror and mysterious portents with the
subheading:
"A detailed narrative OF the earth
quake which occurred on the sixteenth
day of December, 1911, and agitated
parts of North America that lie between
the Atlantic ocean and Louisiana; and
also a particular account Of the other
quakings of the earth occasionally felt
from that time to the twenty-third and
thirtieth of January. and the seventh
and sixteenth of February, 1912, and
subsequently to the eighteenth of De-
cember. 1918, and which shook the
country from Detroit and the lakes TO
New orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.
Compiled chiefly at Washington, in the
District of Columbia, by Samuel 7.
Mitchell, representative in congress-"
So much for the summary. Now for
the particulars. Various observers re-
ported that the waters of the Missis-
sippi river were caused to run uphill,
that fresh springs We're changed to sui
phurous geysers, that strange lights
and meteors appeared in the armament,
that all the turtles emigrated from the
lakes, that sand, coal and warm water
were elected from holes in the earth,
and that fogs settled down over the
land. The shocks were so frequent that
even the most diligent became weary of
counting them. One man reached the
total of 100 and then stopped, Injury
to property was trivial, however, and
the loss of life was not great.
The story of the Mississippis reversal
of the laws of nature is told in a let
ter from william Shaler, who wrote:
''I do myself the pleasure to communi-
cate to you the following simple account
of the late earthquake, as / received
it from the patron of a Kentucky boat.
On the 7th of February, 1912, at 3
a. M, being moored to the bank of the
Mississippi, about thirteen miles above
New Madrid, he was awakened by
tremendous roaring noise, felt his ves-
sci violently shaken, and observed the
trees over the bank falling in every d.
rection and agitated like reeds on a
windy day, and many sparks of fire
emitted from the earth. He immedi-
ately cut his cable and put off into the
middle of the river, where he soon
found the current changed, and the boat
hurried up, for about the space of a
minute, with the velocity of the swift
est horse. He was obliged to hold his
hand to his head to keep his hat on.
"On the currents running its natural
course which 1t did gradually, he con-
tinued to proceed down the river, and
about daylight he came to a most ter
rife fall which, he thinks, was about
six feet perpendicular, extending across
the river and about half a mile wide.
The whirls and ripplngs of this rapid
were such that his vessel was alto
gether unmanageable, and destruction
seemed inevitable; some Of the former,
he thinks, were at least thirty feet
Deep and seemed to be formed by the
river being violently sucked into some
chasm of the rivers bottom.
"As soon as he was able to look
around he observed whole forests on
each bank fall PROSTATE, to use his own
comparison, like soldiers grounding
their arms at the word of command. On
his arrival at New Madrid he found
that place complete wreck, sunk about
twelve feet below it's level, and entirely
deserted. The inhabitants, with those
- h. Cd hO bo Cd
there for refuge, were encamped in it's
neighborhood. He represents their
cries as truly distressing Another fall
was formed about eight miles below the
town, similar to the one above, the
roaring of which he distinctly heard at
New Madrid. He waited five days for
the fall to wear away; during that time
the earth was constantly trembling at
intervals of about five minutes He OBJ