The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-05-04

VI PIopeIly WIS IfllIllnS-tne INJURY
to it was widespread and somewhat
serious.
The curiosities' of the earth
quake were simply endless. Gentle
men and ladies who were sick, or had
dissipatd till a late hour and were
making up 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 it by the ankles as if it were
a dressed turkey. Prominent citizens
who were supposed to keep the Sab
bath strictly, rushed out of saloons
cues in their hands. Dozens Of men,
with necks swathed in napkins, rush
ed from barber-shops, lathered to the
eyes or with one cheek clean shaven
and the other still bearing a hairy
stubble. Horses broke from stables,
and frightened dog rushed up, a
short attic ladder and got on to Il
roof, and when his scare was over,
| had not the nerve to 90 down again
the same way he had gone up. A
prominent editor flew downstairs, in
the principal hotel, with nothing on
but one brief undergarment-met a
chambermaid and exclaimed:
"Oh. what shell 1 do! Where shall
| go"
She responded with naive serenity:
eff you have no choice, you might
try clothing store!'
A certain foreign consul's lady was
the acknowledged leader of fashion,
and every time she appeared in any
thing new or extraordinary, the lad
les in the vicinity made a raid on
their husbands purses and arrayed
themselves similarly. One man who
had suffered considerably and growl-
ed according, was standing at the win
dow when the shocks came, and the
next instant the consul's wife,. just
out of the bath, fled by with no other
apology for clothing than-a bath to-
well! The sufferer rose superior to
the terrors of the earthquake, and
said to his wife:
"Now,that is something like! Get
your towel, my dear!'
The plastering that fell from cell
ings in San Francisco that day would
have covered several acres of ground.
For some days afterward, groups of
eyeing and pointing men stood about
many a building, looking at long zig
gag cracks that extended from the
caves to the ground. -Four feet of the
tops Of three chimneys on one house
were broken square off and turned
around in such way as to complete
ly stop the draft. A crack hundred
feet long gaped open six inches wide
in the middle Of one street, and then
shut together again with such force
as to ridge up the meeting of earth
like slender grave. A lady sitting
in her rocking and quaking parlor,
saw the wall part at the ceiling, open
and shut twice, like a mouth, and then
drop the end of a brick on the floor
like a tooth. She was woman cas-
lily Disguised with foolishness, AMI she
arose and went out of there. One
lady, who was coming downs stairs,
was astonished to see bronze Her.
culcs lean forward on its pedestal
as if TO strike her with its club. They
both reached the bottom of the, flight
at the same time-the woman insen-
siblc from the fright. Her child,
born some little time afterward, was
club-footed. However-on second
thought-if the reader sees any coin.
cidence in this, ]le must do it at his
own risk.
The first shock brought down two
or three huge organ-pipes in one Of
the churches. The minister, with up
lifted hands, was just closing the
services. He glanced up, hesitated
and said: ..
"However, we will omit the ben
ediction !'-and the next instant
there was vacancy in the atmosphere
where he had stood. "~" + :
After the first shock, an Oakland
minister said: ....>..&.
"Keep your seats There is no bet
ter place to die than this"
And added, after the third:
"But outside is good enough /" lie
then skipped out at the back door.
Such another destruction Of mantel
ornaments and toilet bottles as the