Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-24

gave it a sharp shake. Somebody was
irving to arouse me. Not responding
instantly to the summons, was some
what annoyed to find the shake re-
peated.
The human mind works in peculiar
fashion under exceptional stress. Mine
did at this juncture. Memory and rea-
son flashed into action. Probably within
one second from the first movement OF
the bed came the flash of realization.
This was no intruder or kindly monitor
irving to get me up. 1t was an earth
quake. And it was sharp one. With
a bound was out of bed and standing
in the middle of the floor. AS soon as
my feet touched the rug I knew to
certainty that the earth was in severe
tremor. The walls were SWaylng, the
central lighting pillar was doing strange
things in the way of genuf1ection.
have said that memory and reason
reasserted themselves in that first flash
of recognition. But there was hiatus
in the reasoning Immediately. I walked
! unsteadily to the window, which is of
the French" style, with pair of screen
swinging doors latched at top and bot
tom, and unfastened them and stepped
out on the balcony. That was a silly
thing to do, for was standing directly
under the caves, from which at any
moment a tile might come falling, to
hit me on the head, in which case
subsequent events probably would not
have interested me in the least.
Hotel Held Its Own in 1923.
But 1 had been told, in May, while
here, that the Hotel Imperial was one
of the few buildings in Central Toxic
that withstood the great shake Of 1928.
While some damage was done to it-as
is evident even now in certain de-
Elections of plane in floors and few
eccentricitieS of line in cornice in the
larger rooms-it had held its own
against the quaking earth. That thought
had given me reinsurance, even while
was christening the latch Of the screen
door and saw that the whole building
was swaying from north to south with
the motion of a swing.
Then something clicked in my brain
pan and a belated news sense was
aroused. I went back into the room
and looked at my watch. 1t stood at
20 minutes to o'clock. One never
knows just when evidence of that sort
is going to be useful. AS I laid the
watch down heard cries in the street,
and went back to the balcony. Across
the way is large building construction
yard, reminiscent of the devastation of
1928, and there are barracks there for
number of workingmen. They were
out in the yard now, running as fast
as they could for the street, calling out
at the highest pitch of voice words that
doubtless meant "earthquake!"
Excited voices below in the street were
also heard and looking over the edge
of the still swaying balcony I saw a
dozen or so of the hotel force, including
three women, looking around and chat
tering eXcitedly. The women seemed
on the verge OF panic, pressing hand
kerchiefS to their mouths to restrain
their nervousness. One of them looked
up and saw me on the balcony and
made gesture Of waving hands, signifi-
cant Of the swinging earth. 1t was an
evident attempt to tell me that an
earthquake was occurring. nodded
and made the same gesture, in acknowl-
edgment. Then the woman began to
giggle. She was laughing at me. I
was in my pajamas and my hair was
standing up on top, not IN fright, but
from the disarranging effects of sleep.
figure. Something told me this, and
using my hand as a comb I mussed
my hair up more violently and laughed.
The group were all looking up by this
time and when I suggested by my
motion that the quake had made my
hair stand up they began to laugh
heartily, as the japanese always do with
d JOkc Lklht tIlcy CdIl dppIeCldUc. Ills
seemed to break the tension, for the
group then began to chat calmly, and
as by this time the shaking had ceased
in a few minutes the hotel squad re-
turned to work and the laborers moved
back into their barracks and all was
over.
Nothing had been damaged, except,
we learned later, a telephone pole
around the corner had snapped in
twain. When I returned to the room
the floor was steady, the central light
ing standard had ceased to bow and
the earthquake was ended.
Subsequently, it was announced that
this quake was the most severe since
that of January Is, 1924, being about
half as strong as that disturbance, and
compared with the great disaster of
September /, 1923, about one-tenth.
According to an official statement issued
from the Central Meteorological OBJ
servatory later in the day, this tremor
was accepted as one of the aftershocks
of the great quake of six years ago.
The vibration at the maximum was 80
millimeters and the tremor altogether
lasted 80 minutes. This space of time
surprised me, for there were no per-
ceptible movements of the building after
about a minute from the first ierlS 0f NV