The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-12-14
FREAKS OF EARTHQUAKES.
Mysteries Of Number of Historic
I Seismic UDlheavals.

Though the recent earthquake IN
= 'Taiy and Bokhara caused the death
f thousands of people and injured
Iffany more, they do not appear TO
have created such weird effects as
other seismic upheavals
The earthquake which devastated
Jamaica in 1892, for instance, caused
the sea TO draw back for more than
a mile, And at Pisco it receded two
miles. not returning for the space Of
three hours. The earth literally
opened and swallowed up hundreds.
closing again the moment they had
been engulfed.
Perhaps the weirdcst happening was
when a number Of men who had thus
been swallowed up were directly
afterward shot up again from the
depths Of flood Of boiling water
From the sulphurous fumes which
poured out of the ground general
sickness ensued that caused the death
OF 5000 persons.
One Of the queerest freaks OF an
earthquake took place at Causa
Vova, in Calabria, which small ter
ritory during a CONFUSION sank to a
depth of % feet without 50 much as
. single house being overthrow!
In other instances the surface OF
the earth has been known to actually
move backward and forward dis
lance Of six feet.
To seismic experts, though not to
the general public. it is well known
that birds and animals can and d"
foresee the coming Of an earthquake
hours before it actually takes place.
Several hours before the shocks
which occurred In Chile in the years
1922 and 1885 actually commenced
flocks Of sea birds flew screaming
nh tn ircfrirkop m
If crazed at the pending outbreak.
In the doomed city of Talcahuano
It was noticed that at the same time
all the dogs sneaked off and safely
reached the open country before the
earth tremOrs set in. At Caracas
this inexplicable animal faculty Of
seeming an earthquake from afar has
been turned to profitable account.
Some Of the natives keep cats, dogs
and perboas-a species Of jumping
rodent-for this express purpose, and
as soon as these oracular quadrupeds
begin to exhibit their peculiar spasms
OF uneasiness the alarm is given, and
everybody makes for the open coun-
try, where the danger is infinitely
less.
That this is so is proved by the fact
that an earthquake which Is disturb
ing enough to unroof buildings and
snake UOWu CIiIIlucyS WHOleSdlC may
b absolutely rmperceptible to a per-
son walking in the cpan. ~.
ton on - tops is appreciably less
than in the valleys, while deep in the
earth shocks are rarely felt at all
Twenty-four years ago there was an
earthquake in Virginia City. in the
United States, which was violent
enough on the surface to be destruc-
tiev, but which in the adjacent mines
was scarcelv felt at all.
A curious fact Is that an earth
quake starts on it's awe-inspirng jour
ney-like a cannon ball-at it's high
est speed, which means that tee
further It goes the slower it travels
The warning tremors naturally travel
much faster than the main shock;
but it is the sidewise wrigging mo-
ton that goes farthest, though not
the fastest.
In Japan, where seismic disturb
ances are quite common, there are
many ingeniously constructed earth
quake proof buildings. They take
the shape of lighthouse towers, with
resting on huge steer