Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1884 — Earthquake Weather. [ARTICLE]

Earthquake Weather.

Anybody who has ever lived for any length- of time at a stretch in a region where earthquakes are common objects of the country and the seaside knows perfectly well what earthquake weather iu the colloquial sense is really like. You are sitting on the piazza, about afternoon tea time let us say, and talking about nothing in particular with the usual sickly tropical languor, when gradually a sort of faintness comes over the air, the sky begins to assume a lurid look, the street dogs leave off howling hideously ip, concerts for half a minute, and even the grim vultures perched upon the house-tops forget their obtrusive personal differences in a common sense of general uneasiness. There is an ominous bush in the air, with a corresponding lull in the conversation for a few seconds, and then somebody says with a yawn, “It feels to me very much like earthquake weather.” Next minute you notice the piazza gently raised from its underjwopping wood-work by some unseen power, observe the teapot* quietly deposited in the hostess’ lap, and afe conscious of a rapid but graceful oscillating movement, as though the ship of state were pitching bodily and quickly. The man who runs for office on the Greenback ticket is”" seldom, if „ever, elected, but he redeyes a good advertisement, and it never costs him mucli for electioneering, as it requires but one bottle of beer to treat the entire Greenback party.