Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1892 — A'TOWN BADLY SHAKEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A'TOWN BADLY SHAKEN

THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE IN VACAVILLE. CAL. Bulpharon* Flames Bunt from Fluures In the Ground—Twenty or More Town* Buffered In Varlou* Parts ot ths State, but Nobody Was Killed. Work of the Quake. A large part of the town of Vacaville, in Solano County, Cal., was demolished or damaged by an earthquake on April 19. The accompanying illustrations will convey some idea of the effects of that earthquake. On the road from the railroad depot to the town nothing was left standing, except a school which will need rebuilding, to a bridge over Ulatis Creek, a distance of about a mile. Main street, the principal business thoroughfare, suffered almost as much. Two hundred stores here were ruined. The Presbyterian Church and the Brunswick Hotel, on Main street, both of wood, were badly cracked but not destroyed. The house of W. J. Dobbins, on the Gibson Canyon road, considered the handsomest in the town, was ruined, as may be 6een. The roof was split in two and the building left entirely unfit to live in again. Several members of this family narrowly escaped with their lives. Miss Dobbins and her friend, Miss Hill, were rescued from under a pile of timber two feet deep. Their bed was immediately under the place where the roof was rent in two, and it is said that the greater part of a brick chimney fell through the gap upon them. Their escape was inexplicable. It is recorded that, while the Dobbins house and everything in the way of brick work in its neighborhood was wrecked, two great water tanks on poles sixteen feet high were undisturbed, and wooden outhouses were uninjured. Dobbins declares his intention of rebuilding his house, so that it will be proof against future shocks. The wife of L. C. Davis, whose house, a mile south of Vacaville, was wrecked, was another lucky one. A heavy partition fell over her as she

was in bed, but was held up by a loosened window frame. Garland Gates’ house was destroyed and several persons were injured, but they quickly recovered. The type in the Enterprise newspaper office was considerably pied by the earthquake. The fact that no one was killed and that so many people escaped from terrible danger are things that should make the people of Vacaville happy, in spite of the loss of their property. In view of the destruction done, it seems hardly credible that every persou concerned should have paissed serious injury. In several buildings two walls were destroyed and two others were left standing. A. C. Stevenson, the conductor of a railroad train,' said that some of the passengers remarked when they felt the earthquake that they were going over a remarkably bad piece of track. The first person in Vacaville probably to notice the approach of the earthquake was S. N. Bettis, the night watchman of the town. He reports that the morning was clear and starlight and that a cold breeze was blowing, and he was walking down Main street, from west to east, with his lantern in his hand, when his attention was attracted by a rumbling sound which came from the hills to the west of the town. The noise resembled distant thunder or the roaring of water which had suddenly been let loose by the bursting of huge dam-gates. Bettis stood still and listened a few seconds, while the noise increased to a roar and the ground beneath his feet

seemed to heave up. “The motion at first was from west to east,” said he, "and then several violent shocks passed from north to south. I felt as if on the deck of a vessel during a heavy storm, and I put my hands to the ground to prevent myself from falling on my face. After that brick walls and chimneys began to fall all around and the noise for a minute or so was deafening. Occasionally I could hear the shrieks of women above the din, and soon people? began to rush into the street in their night clothes. They were terrified and huddled together like sheep, but as soon as the shock passed away the men in the party regained their nerve, although the women still remained in a highly excited state and would not return to their dwellings. ” The Chinese quarter, consisting of wooden shanties, was not injured, and the inhabitants in very few places left their beds. One Chihaman thought the anti-Mongolian agitators were after him and ran out to seek protection from a policeman. When he found that merely an earthquake was taking place he went back to bed. It was an earthquake distinguished by the loudness of the noises that accompanied it. Sulphurous flames burst from fissures in the ground and this strengthened the impression that the shock was of internal origin. Two or three slight shocks, which did

little serious damage but were not felt without distrust by the people, occurred on subsequent days. Twenty or more towns and villages in the State were damaged. San Francisco was slightly shaken. It is reported that the waters of a creek were thrown out twenty feet

on either side, and that afterward fissures were discovered in the bed. The creek appeared to an eye-witness to explode.

THE DOBBINS HOUSE.

MAIN STREET, VACAVILLE.

KEMPFER'S SALOON.