. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. folk were getting theirwares out for the early buyers. A sudden rumblinghurried closer and closer. The houses of the sleep-ing city shook as if seized with a sudden ague. Atfirst came a sharp but gentle swaying motion thatgrew less and less; then a heavy jolting sidewise—then another, heaviest of all. Finally a grindinground of everything, irregularly tumultuous, spas-modic, jerky. It was as if some Titans, laying holdof the edge of the world, were trying to wrest it
. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. folk were getting theirwares out for the early buyers. A sudden rumblinghurried closer and closer. The houses of the sleep-ing city shook as if seized with a sudden ague. Atfirst came a sharp but gentle swaying motion thatgrew less and less; then a heavy jolting sidewise—then another, heaviest of all. Finally a grindinground of everything, irregularly tumultuous, spas-modic, jerky. It was as if some Titans, laying holdof the edge of the world, were trying to wrest itfrom each other by sudden wrenchings. Plaster showered from the walls; nails creakedin their sockets, and pulled and wrenched, and triedto free themselves. Crockery and glasswaresmashed upon the f!oor. Doors flew open—swunground—jerked off their hinges. Furniture rattled their keys in untimed snapped and fell. Houses groaned andtwisted and reeled on their foundations. Outside,streets were seized with writhings. Hill-sides city shook itself like a dog coming out of 16 THE EARTHQUAKE People ran from their houses and crowded streets. In hotels and other places where manylived under one roof, the commotion nearly reacheda panic. They crowded and jostled one another intheir flight down the stairs, and, reaching the street,ran about in vari-colored night garments, overawedby the unaccustomed experience. Some womenscreamed, some wild-eyed men wept in the frenzyof their fear. And as they ran and wept andscreamed, the temblor ceased. Abruptly it wasgone—mysteriously, without warning. Some saidit had lasted two minutes—five—an eternity. Inreality it was over in forty-eight seconds. Throughout the city was heard the grating andgrinding and rattling of houses, and the crash offalling chimneys. In the neighborhood of the CityHall the noise was appalling. The heavy iron col-umns filled with concrete, with their massiv
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