West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1906-05-03
NUMBER 81
MARK TwAlNs EARrnQuAKE
Fine Description ofa Shock In San
Francisco Many Years Ago.

Mark Twain tells of an earthquake
he witnessed IN San Francisco MANY
years ago. He described the affair
In "Roughing It." cit was lust
about noon on bright October day.
was coming down Third street.
The only objects in motion any.
where in sight in that thickly built
and populous quarter were a man
in a buggy behind me and a street
car vending slowly up cross street.
otherwise all was solitude and a
Sabbath stiffness. AS / turned a
corner around frame house there
was a rattle and a jar, and 1t occurred
to me that here was an item no
doubt fight in that house. Before
L could turn and seek the door there
came really terrific shock; the
ground seemed to roll under me IN
waves, interrupted by a violent
jogging up and down, and there
was heavy grinding noise, as of
brick rubbing together. fell up
against the frame house and hurt
my elbow. | knew what il was now.
and from mere reportorial instinct.
nothing else, took out my watch
and noted the time Of day; at that
moment third and still severer shock
came, and as | reeled about on the
pavement trying to keep my foot
ing | saw sight
"The entire front OF tall, four
story brick building in Third street
sprang outward like door and fell
sprawling across the street, raising
a dust like a great volume of smoke.
And here came the buggy-over-
board went the man, and, in less
time than can tell it, the vehicle
was distributed in small fragments
along 800 yards Of street. One
could have fancied that somebody
had fired a charge of chairrounds
and rags down the thoroughfare.
The street car had stopped, the
horses were rearing and plunging,
the passengers were pouring out at
both ends and one fat man had
crashed half way through a glass
window on one side of the car, got
wedged fast and was squirming and
screaming like an impaled madman.
Every door of every house as far as
the eye could reach was vomiting a
stream of human beings, and almost
before anyone could execute a wink
and begin another there was a
massed multitude of people stretch
ing in endless procession down
every street my position command
ed. Never was solemn solitude
turned into teeming life quicker.
"The curiosities OF the earthquake
were simply endless. Gentlemen
and ladies who were sick, or were
taking a siesta, or had dissipated
until late hour and were making
up lost sleep, thronged into the
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 Thy the ankles, as if it had
been dressed turkey. Prominent
citizens, who were supposed to
keep the Sabbath strictly, rushed
out Of saloons in their shirt sleeves,
with billiard cues in their hands.
Dozens Of men with 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.
"a crack 100 feet long gaped
open six inches wide in the middle
of one street, and then shut to.
gether again with such force as to
ridge up the meeting earth like a
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 brick on
the floor like tooth. She was
woman easily disgusted with foolish
ness, and she arose and went out OF
there. Suspended pictures we're
whirled completely around, with
their faces to the wall. Thousands
Of people we're made so seasick by
the rolling and pitching of floors
and streets that they were weak and
bedridden for hours, and some few
even for days afterward."
Ccu,r,crt 90. a.. .Le.za r - 49,