Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 16 September 1886 — Page 9

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WHERE ARE SAN FRANCISCO'S LITTLE SIDE SHAKES NOW?

Earth's Crust Rising and Vailing in Billowy Waves Over a Third of Her Olrcmnferenoo Heart-rending Scenes in

Hapless Charleston.

Of the remarkable series of great events that have been happening the world over from 1881 to the present, earthquakes form a leading feature. And of these the one to be longest remembered in North America, will be that which laid Charleston, 8. C., in rulhs. It makes one feel, somehow, as if there was safety nowhere. If any place, next to the great western plains, was to be considered safe from earthquakes, it was just that part of the country which has been shaken up. If the theory of the cause of these ground disturbances is correct they ought to be manifest mostly along mountain ranges, as indeed they are.

Scientific authority declares they are caused by the cooling and settling of the earth's mass. It was a gigantic, red hot ball to bogin. It commenced to cool upon the outside. At length a thin crust was formed as it cooled, naturally it shrank. That made the crust crack open and settle, in order to readjust itself to fit the molten kernel within. The process still goes on, and will till the earth is cooled through. Hence earthquakes. Mountain ranges are where the great cracks have broken the surface «uid thrown the edges of the split up and suieways. When the earth is cooled through it will be dead, and there will be no earthquakes.

MAP OF CHARLESTON.

1. Charleston hotel. 33. Postofflce. 14. Customhouse. 15. Hibernian hall and police station. 10. Market hall. 17. Orphan house. 18. Academy of Music. 19. Masonic Temple. 30. Charleston college. 31. Medical college. 22. Roper hospital. 23. City hospital. 134. Jan. J* 25. Citadel.

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Pavilion hotel.

8. Waverly hotel. 4. St. Michael's church. 5. St. Philip'* church 6. Grace church. 7. Central Presbyterian church. 8. Unitarian church. 9. German Lutheran church. 10. Baptist church. 11. City hall. 18. Court house.

To get the situation properly it will be well to consider a moment the location of Charleston. It is in the angle formed by the junction of the Cooper and Ashley rivers. They unite hero and flow to the ocean seven miles distant Sea water and freshwater mingle all in one, and this estuary forms the noble Charleston harbor, landlocked on three sides.

The earthquake came from the sea on the southeast and throbbed across the beautiful, hapless city toward the northwest. What made the visitation still mora distressing was the fact that only six days before it a terrific cyclone had swept over Charleston, doing vast damage. When the dull, awful roar of the earth tremor was heard on that last night of August many thought that it was another cyclone.

Mr. Dawson, editor of The News and Courier, was in his office at the time. How a man feels in an earthquake is thrillingly told by him. He wrote: "From the first to the last it was a continuous jar, only adding force at every moment, and as it approached and reached the olimwr of its manifestation it seemed for a few terrible seconds that IJO work of human HANDS could possibly survive the shock. The floors were heaving under foot,' the surrounding walls and partitions visibly swayed to and fro, the brash of falling masses of stone and brick and mortar was heard overhead, and without the terrible roar filled the ears, and seemed to fill the mipd and heart, dazing perception bewildering thought, and, for a few panting breaths, or while you held your breath in dreadful anticipation of immediate and cruel death, you felt that life was already past, and waited for the end as the victim with his head on the block awaits the fall of the uplifted ax.

Not a man in the office expected to escape alive. The shocks began at 9:53 P. M. The clocks that were stopped by the awful shocks made the record.

FLEKING FOB THEIR LIVES.

All of us remember the pictures the geography books give of earthquakes in torrid countries—walls and towers toppling over and people fleeing for their lives. But none of as ever thought the scene could come to us in our safe latitudes. It has done so, and

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THE EARTHQUAKE. 7

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now we know there,are no laatuaessare from earthquakes. Just as the pictures represented the scene in Hie school books, even so it was in Charleston. Women were braver than the mdsb, it is said, courageously gathering their children together and leading them coolly into the streets, after the men had fled in terror. This feminine courage in great emergencies is often conspicuous.

It was the first shock thbt did the damage in Charleston. There were nearly, or quite, a dozen altogether, occurring withih the next thirty-six hours. The shocks came in waves, as, indeed, everything else does. The first ones were from ten minutes to half an hour apart Those who were cool enough to observe the motion of the tremors declare that the earth rose and fell like the billows of the sea. One man speaks of having seen the sidewalk rise and fall in waves. The effect on the mind of thus seeing the loosening of tho only fabric we have always believed to be stable is indescribably awful. It is this that makes an earthquake so terrible. All the foundations of creation are broken up. "It's a thing you cannot fight," said one. That expresses it All damage done by man, man can resist. Even in a tornado or cyclone he can cling to the earth or take refuge under ground. But when earth herself fails us, what is there to do? Man cannot even run away, for he knows not where the ground will open next He itiight run into the very jaws of the destroyer.

The best part of Charleston is amass of ruins. It was a beautiful city. The churches suffered grievously, owing to their having very.tall spires.

The earthquake area appears to have been the most extensive in modern times. Shocks were felt from British America to Florida, and as far West as Missouri. Cable dispatches bring the news that on the same night distinct shocks were felt at Athens, in Greece. The gas wells at Pittsburg ceased flowing. The bowels of the earth were shaken up for more than a third of the planet's circumference, and death and destruction Were to pay generally.

The center of the quake oh this continent seems to have been at Summerville, S. C. This is a fashionable summer resort for aristocratic Chaj'lestonians, and is twentytwo miles from the city. The whole face of the earth seems to be changed here. Where before were ordinary sand and clay are now bottomless cracks in the mud, brackish water and sulphur smells. It will be a long time before it becomes known just how many persons were killed. In such calamities it is found out how generous human nature is. Aid has poured into the stricken city from all quarters.

The tall, slender spire of St. Philip's Episcopal church stands the 'highest in the city. In its graveyard lies the body of John C. Calhoun. On its site the first church infill sr. PHIUP'S. Charleston was built, a structure older than the present one. Its beautiful tower is ruined^

The most frightful sensation of all, however, must have been experienced by the train load of excursionists on their way from Columbia to Charleston. To find their train suddenly waving up in the air, then bumping down upon the earth, then going up, then down, and soon for several seconds without any known cause for it, at the same time with an unearthly roar sounding in their ears, is an experience utterly unique in history. The front end of a car waved upward, while the rear end went downward, and vice versa. The engineer put the brakes on as hard as he could* and still that marvelous train moved onward. It actually kept the track through this billowy motion of the earth. When the rails were exariiined they were found to be bent in serpentine waves.

The most celebrated building in Charleston, however, is the picturesque old St. Michael's church. It was designed as long ago as 1753 by a pupil of Sir Christopher

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The Unitarian church was a noble specimen of architecture. Its tower was wrecked. Some of the best present piles of debris and ruins.

Fifty thousand persons spent some nights and days of

UNITARIAN CHURCH.

terror in the streets and in vacant lots. Infants were born in several instances, while their mothers lay upon blankets on the ground.

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Wrenn, the architect of St. Paul's in London. In the now demolished tower of the venerable church hung the sweetest chime of bells upon the continent. So fa

MICHAEL'S.

mous is it, so precious to the people of Charleston, that during the late war it was taken down and sent to England so it might not be damaged by the Federal cannon known as the "Swamp AngeL" The chime is very old. An incident that is said really to have happened in connection with the belfry of St Michael's forms the foundation of a fine and pathetic poem that is frequently recited by elocutionists. The hero is a slave man.

Charleston has been particularly unfortunate. War, fire, tidal wave, tornado, and now an earthquake, have spent their force upon the doomed city. Several times the town has been almost ruined. It is enough to discourage the inhabitants.

Enjoying Hotel Life.

A great summer hotel near New York is tenanted by a solitary watchman. Once in a while the watchman goes up to the desk, asks if there are any letters, snubs himself, follows an imaginary bell boy up eight flights of stairs, brings himself a very small pitcher of ice water and gives himself a dollar bill, sits down to a large plate with an oyster cracker on it, and feels that he is really away for the smmer.—Boston Transcript.

PRESIDENTS VACATION.

JEFFERSON OUTDONE IN CRATIC SIMPLICITY. n't

President and Mrs. Cleveland Exchange the Luxury of the Million Dollar Man* sion in Washington for the Quiet of

Iog Cabin in the Adirondack*. ,4,

THE PRESIDENTIAL LUNCH. K.

The tourist traveling through the Adirondack mountains and in the vicinity of Upper Saranac lake, N. Y., might come across a party of four, with a guide and servant, lunching on the bank of a quiet stream. But if the tourist was unaware that President Cleveland was spending a month in that neighborhood, he would never suspect that in the group before him the stout gentleman with the great broad back, covered by a checked flannel shirt, and whose head is partly hid under the gray slouch hat, was the ruler of the greatest nation the world ever beheld. Neither could he detect that there was any more deference paid to him than to any othdr gentleman who might be rusticating in those woods. And yet to this man is intrusted the execution of the principal laws governing 50,000,000 of people. He cannot truly be termed their ruler, for no ruler in the world could trust himself among his people without police or military protection, as the president of the United States does. The broad-backed man is President Cleveland, and the handsome, athletic-looking, lady in tho plain, gray woolen dress and broadbrimmed straw hat is his wife. The othe* lady is her mother, and the jolly looking fourth person, the most richly attired member of the part$, in the bottle green suit, is Dr. Ward, of Albany The spot that the president has chosen for his vacation is the most secluded portion of the Adirondack wilderness, twenty-four miles away from the nearest railroad station. The log cottage which the president occupies is one that was constructed by the guides thereabout in the winter season. On the ground floor area sitting room and bedroom, and above the whole is a large attic room occupied by Mrs. Folsom. Here is a picture of democratic simplicity for you. The bench outside the back door with the water pail and tin basin for ablution is missing, but wooden buttons are on the doors instead of knobs, the bedsteads are made of pine and bark, the quaint furniture, the strips of rag carpet on the floor all remind the president that he is many miles from the White House and its anxieties. The whole cabin and its contents, which the president and party occupies, look as if it could be duplicated for $200. Quite a contrast this with the palatial mansion which they left behind in Washington with its expenses of over 1100,000, a year.

THE PRESIDENT FISHING.

The president is an enthusiastic fisherman. It is said that President Arthur excelled as an adept fly thrower, which may all be, but President Cleveland will always be known as the better all around fisherman. He goes at it in his usual thorough •way. He requires none nor asks any advice from guides. He listens, of course, attentively to any information offered, but in the interchange of points in the piscatorial art he is more likely to give instruction than receive it

One of the guides who accompanied the president on a fishing trip last year encroached on Davy Crockett with the following: He said that when the president first threw his line in Lake Saranac there was quite a commotion among the fish. A great trout stuck his head out of the water with a frightened look on his wet face, and asked, "Is that you, President Cleveland "Yes, my name is Cleveland." "All right, Mr. Cleveland, I am at your service." The fish leaped out of the water to the president's feet as dead as a canned mackerel.

This story, other guides claim, is a fabrication. They hold that the tremendous catches the president secures is not due to any partiality oif the part of the trout, but to the skill and attention which Mr. Cleveland brings to bear cm his rod. Mrs. Cleveland seems also to be fascinated with tho sport, and, under her husband's tutelage, she is likely to become as celebrated as he in these Mparts. In a report of one day's catch of trout t'B figure te vut at 115. while his

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TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 16 1886.TWO PARTS: PART SECOND-

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wife is credited with 49 more of the speckled beauties. As she has had but little experience her success can be attributed to luck, though the charming grace with which she handles the rod should be enough to capture the most timid fish.

Near the president's cabin is the Saranac inn, which will accommodate about seventy guests. It is owned by a company of the president's frieuds, who run it not to make money, btit as a sort of privato club house. The telegraph connects the place with civilizatkn.

The president left the White House on Aug. 10, and ft is his intention to be back at his desk on Sept. 17. Then will the president's woolen shirts be *put away where the moths cannot reach cnem. And the trout without fear may rc«t for another season.

TWO FAMOUS BRIDGES.

High Bridge, Kentucky, and a New OM Across the Hudson* In one of the most beautiful and picturesque locations in America stands High bridge, Kentucky. It spans the Kentucky river, and is the railway crossing of the Cincinnati Southern road on its track to New Orleans. Picnics to High Bridge are the fashion in summer in that region for hundreds of miles around.

A flight of 600 steps leads the foot passenger down beside the bridge to the water below. Once an unwary traveler fell down the steps and was killed..

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HIGH BRIDGE, KENTUCKY.

High bridge is one of the great bridges of the North American continent. Its three spins hre together 1,125 feet long. It is 276 feet high. The idea of a bridge at this romantic spot is more than a generation old. It was first attempted to be carnefl out by the Lexington and Danville Railway company. They planned a suspension bridge. The president of the company had such faith in it that at his own expense he constructed the towers that appear in the illustration. Then the organization failed, and the towers stand to this day a monument of blasted hopes.

The Cincinnati Southern company bought the road bed of the former concern and built across the river abridge of the ordinary construction, in which the towers were not utilized.

NEW HUDSON RIVER BRIDGE.

*The bridge across the Hudson river at Peekskill is not built yet, except upon paper. It is not, but it is to be by the 1st of January, 1888, its charter says. The Union Bridge company, of New York city—Gen. W. C. Hurd, president—has the contract for its construction.

It is to be a suspension bridge, patterned after those at Brooklyn and Cincinnati. Peekskill is a picturesque and wealthy town on the left bank of the Hudson, forty-two miles north of New York city, chiefly noted for being the summer home of Henry Ward Beecher. Close by is Anthony's. Nose, a mountain 1,500 feet high'.- The bridge will cross from the side of this mountain, at a height above the Hudson river of 193 feet. This will leave room below for the passage of ships and steamers. Washington Irving in his highly veracious history says the mountain got its name fronrthe nasal organ of Anthony Van Corlear. The bridge will cross from Anthony's Nose to old Fort Clinton on the west bank. The height above the water of the towers supporting the cables will be something tremendous, 810 feet

It is proposed to connect on the west side of the river with the Erie railway, the Lehigh and Hudson, the New York, Susquehanna and Western, the Ontario and Western, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Pennsylvania railroad, the Reading, the Baltimore and Ohio, the New Jersey and New York, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the Pennsylvania and Slatington and the West Shore railroads on the east side of the river with the New York Central and Hudson River railroad and the New York City and Northern railroad—thus giving direct communication with the elevated railway system of New York city and the New York and Harlem, the Housatonic, the Naugatuck, the New York, New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, and the New York and New England railroads .a direct all-rail connection between the great western and southwestern states and all New England, the western river counties of New York and the city of New York.

Western Farmer—I always ask a man be. fore emptoyin' him if he's ever been discharged anywhar. Stranger—Wal, yis, wance. W. ft—That'll hardly da W hare's you discharged? Stranger—From the arrmy, sor, after the warr was over.—Life.

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UNCLE SAM'S PRINTERS.

THOMAS E. BENEDICT, THE NEW PUBLIC PRINTER, AND HIS WORK.

The 1 Argest Publishing House in the World—A Monument to the Garrulity of Congress, and the Natural Desire to

See Their Forensic Efforts in Print.

The office of public printer, that was for so long a time a bone of contention, lias at last been .handed over to Mr. Thomas E. Benedict, of New York, who was not an applicant for tho position, and whose name was not even thought of by wiseacres in connection *tfth the pjftce. ".W

THOMAS E. BENEDICT.

Thomas E. Benedict was born at Warwick, Orange county, N. Y., in 18S9, His education was obtained at the common school and at the Warwick institute. He engaged in teaching during his early years, and drifted thence into a railroad office, and finally into bookkeeping. He always had an affinity for printing offices, however, and, wherever he lived, was sure to be an industrious correspondent of the local newspaper. He moved to Ulster county in 1863 as a bookkeeper of the Ulster Iron Rolling mill, and in 18T0 started The Ellenville Press ih partnership with his brother, G. H. Benedict The paper gained a reputation for its vigorous Democracy, and in 1873 the firm purchased The Banner of Liberty, which they conducted as a staunch Democratic weekly, gaining for it a circulation that extended to every state and territory of the Union. In 1879 Mr. Benedict was elected to the New York legislature and was re-elected for four successive terms, each year by an increased majority. There he gained the confidence and friendship of Governor Cleveland, Daniel Manning and other leading Democrats, and in 1884 was appointed deputy comptroller, which office he has since filled. He is known especially for his executive ability and unblemished integrity.

Mr. Gilbert H. Benedict, the new chief clerk to the public printer, is a brother of his chief, and was appointed by Public Printer Rounds before his retirement Mr. Benedict was born at Warwick, N. Y., in 1846, and was educated at the Warwick academy. At 15 years of age he fc began work at the printer's trade in the office of The

Putnam County Courier, then edited by his brother, Capt Charles E. Benedict,who afterward" died in the service of the Union

GILBERT H. BENEDICT, ARMY. From there he went to Newburg, where he set type on the old Newburg Telegraph, and thence gravitated to New York city, where, for nearly ten years, he worked in the largest book and job printing concern in the metropolis. After one or two attempts at country newspaper editing, he formed a partnership with his brother, T. E. Benedict, in conducting The Ellenville Press and Banner of Liberty, of which paper he has been sole proprietor for the past three years. He was a member of Typographical Union No. 6, of New York, dining his residence in that city, and is a stanch advocate of labor organizations and the rights of workingmen.

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THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. The mammoth establishment that Mr. Benedict assumes charge of is the largest printing office in the world and located a mile north of the Capitol in what was once called "swampoodle." It requires an'army of 2,500 men and women the year round, with a pay roll of about $135,0Q0 per month to turn out its productions. Over 3,500 tons of paper are fed into the capacious maw of this monster to be evolved into blanks, pamphlets, maps, elegant bound books, in fact everything possible in the way of printed matter. The capacity of this establishment is practically unlimited and the speed with which it can execute work cannot be excelled anywhere. As congress has ordered the printing of every bill when introduced, and reprinted every time an amendment is adopted, and as some of these bills are amended as often as thirty-seven times the numbers of copies of bills printed during a session of congress amounts to millions upon millions. The copy of a bill or report in congress, making fifty or sixty large printed pages, may be received at 10 o'clock in the morning and in two or three hours the printed and stitched or bound copies will be laid on the desks of members. The Congressional Record reports the doings of congress daily, and contains mare matter than two crdinarv dailv newspaoers. and yet let

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the night session be long or short

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THE SEA SERPENT.

There seems to be no longer any doubt of the existence of this marine monster. For a century or more similar serpents have been seen and described, but the stories have been discredited until this summer, when, through the persistence of the monster in exhibiting itself, it can no longer be considered a myth.

In the last century a missionary to Greenland describes such a monster. This was on July 6,1734. Soon after this the bishop of Bergen, a member of the Copenhagen Academy of Sciences, published a "Natural History of Norway," in which he collects considerable evidence to prove the existence of this serpent. In 1817 the sea serpent was first seen opposite Gloucester. Mass., and the Linnaen society of New England, after carefully investigating the alleged apparition, reported that it considered the testimony obtained "sufficient to place the existence of the animal beyond doubt." On Aug. (i, 1S4S, Capt McQuahe, in command of tho Daedalus of the Brisish navy, encountered a sea serpent But this year the monster aas been aeen several times, notably off Gloucester on the Massachusetts const and in the Hudson river and by highly creditable witnr?~?. If the animal is not eventually capt-.nv !, it is to be hoped at lc«jst. a photograph bf r:i may be obtained the .rrvnr:: -y of picture of him will

A Good Case.

A well dressed stranger walked into the office of a Dakota, lawyer and real estate agent and said: "Suppose a man made misrepresentations to me about apiece of land he sold me, wh&t could I do about f' "Have him arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses." "If he said it was good land and it won't raise white beans?" "He could be heavily fined."And that there wasn't a stone on it and I find you could build a stone Methodist church off of every acre?" "Imprisonment, sir, he would be lucky to get off with five years." "That's what I thought Now, if he said there were good buildings, and there proves to be only the lattice-work off of a bale of hay?" "Why, my dear sir, nothing short of fine and imprisonment, and plenty of it, too. It would be a clear case.7' "Much obliged I had about the same ideas myself." "Well, hold on don't you want me to tak& your case?" "Oh, no, I guess not. You see it was apiece of land you wrote to me about, and finally sold me. I've been out looking over it, and have retained this other man across the street to handle my case. I just thought I'd step over and get your views on the subject, too. Well, good morning. Ill see yoti at the trial" —Estelline (D. T.) Bell.

Mottoes.

For a prizefighter: "He that is down need fear no fall." For a seamstress: "Be what yoa seem to be."

For a Wall street speculator: "God tempers, the wind to the shorn lamb." For a messenger boy: J9Be who runs may read."

For a lover whose fiance has .a glass eye: "With all thy false eye love thee For a boy who wishes to hire out to a dime museum: Two beads are better tbanooflD* —Life-

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The

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containing a verbatim account of the day% doing3, will be on each memler".s ksk before the opening of the following day's .session. To do this a wagon is kept going day ahd night collecting copy and returning n.-oofs of 1 speeches to the membeft for curr:.v:i

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room contains

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most improved printing prevse^, from which are delivered each hour about ly0,00t) sheets of printed matter. Thirty immense

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machines are in constant use i:i tho bindery, -j and in the folding room, as oL«where, the latest and most improved machinery is used to facilitate the work. A brief history of government printing is as lollows: I In the first session of th? I^irst rongreas, 1 1789, the printing of bills and journals waa done under the secretary of tlw senate and clerk of the house,

THE SEA SERPENT.

Portrait of the Monster from Descriptions by Capt. Robert Brush. From a careful description of Capt. Robert Brush, of the schooner Mary Ann, we are enabled to present our readers with an accurate engraving of the sea serpent seen in the Hudson river by the captain, and by many othera on several occasions since., v1.1,.'^1

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priation wan made "firewood, s-.tfiunery and printing work,"$l),00(). In Irio the presk dent's message was the first ducumcnt printed. In 1819 each house elected its own printer for the session. The printcrs to congress now became affluent and entertained handBomely. These also gave rise to (he party newsfmper trgau system. The most noted were Gales, Heaton, Blair and Rives. Thepi printing of he"Twen-j ty-seventh congress^ cost $200,000. In 1846' the contract system STERLING P. ROUNDS. was adopted. In 1852 the office of superintendent of publie printing was created. In 1876 the office was changed from congressional to public printer, and appointed by the president. Mr. A. M. Clapp, Mr. John D. Defrees and Mr. Sterling P. Rounds wore the predecessors of Mr. Benedict. The cost of the government printing is now about 12,500,000 per annum.

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