Twain SFEarthquake

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MARK TWAIN DESCRIBES A SANFRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

BY PAUL J. CARTER" IM SMILEY and His Jumping Frog" was published in the NewJ York Saturday Press on 18 November 1865. On that same day theNew York Weekly Review announced (xvI, 5): " . . . a contribution fromthe sprightly pen of MARK TWAIN, one of the cleverest of the San Fran-cisco writers, will appear . . . next Saturday." Accordingly, on Saturday,25 November, the Weekly Review printed "The Great Earthquake inSan Francisco" over the signature of MARK TWAIN.Twain bibliographers, however, do not mention the "Earthquake"piece. Merle Johnson lists two of Twain's articles as appearing during1866 in the WeeklyReview-"A Complaint About Correspondents"and"Mark Twain on Chambermaids."'Edgar M. Branch accepts Johnson'slisting.2 Johnson evidently based his assumption that the two articles

1A Bibliography of Mark Twain (New York, 1935), p. 245. Twain's comments on "AComplaintAbout Correspondents,"n a letter to his mother and sister, reveal his early useof autobiographical material and something of his literary strategy at that period of hiscareer. Afraid that his mother and his niece, Annie Moffett, would recognize themselvesin the sketch, Twain warned them: "If it makes Annie mad I can't help it. If it makes Mamad I can't help it. I don't mean them any offence at all-I am only using them as typesof a class-I am merely hitting other people over their shoulders" (from holograph letterdated 20 Jan. 1866, in the Mark Twain Papers, Univ. of Calif. Lib.; copyright 1958 by theMark Twain Co.; selection reprinted by permission of the Mark Twain Trustees).2 "A Chronological Bibliography of the Writings of Samuel Clemens to June 8, 1867,"American Lit., xviII (May 1946), 143 and 153. See also The Literary Apprenticeship ofMark Twain (Urbana, 1950), p. 129, by the same author. Actually 7 Twain items ap-peared in the WeeklyRev. during 1866. The titles and dates of publication are as follows:"The Christmas Fireside," 3 Feb.; "An Open Letter to the American People," 17 Feb.;"A New Biography of Washington," 5 May; " 'Mark Twain,' At Sea," 2 June; "TwoViews of Honolulu," 9 June; "How, For Instance?," 29 Sept.; "Depart, Ye Accursed,"15 Dec.

"An Open Letter to the American People" was reprinted with the title "A ComplaintAbout Correspondents" without this headnote: "There is a vacant chair in nearly everyhousehold in the Union, from Maine to Louisiana, from Wisconsin to Florida; and theforms that should fill them are scattered far and wide among the mines and ranches ofCalifornia, Nevada, Oregon, Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado-everywhere thatgold lures, or adventure invites. Between the wanderers and their friends at home a fewletters pass during the first months of the formers' absence, and then all correspondenceceases. The writer of the following 'Open Letter' desires a word with the nation at largeon the subject.""Two Views of Honolulu" is the title for reprints of "The Steed 'Oahu' " and "Eti-quette" from the Sandwich Island Letters; "How, For Instance?" was reprinted with thetitle "An Inquiry About Insurances"; "Depart, Ye Accursed" was reprinted with the title"Mark Twain on Chambermaids," or "Concerning Chambermaids."

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998 Mark Twain Describes a San Francisco Earthquakefirst appeared in the Weekly Review upon the acknowledgment in theCalifornian when it reprinted the articles. The probability that "TheGreat Earthquake in San Francisco" was not reprinted in Californiapapers perhaps explains Johnson's failure to identify it in his bibliog-raphy.3"The Great Earthquake" article is an important addition to Twainbibliography for several reasons. In the first place, it is a good exampleof the kind of writing that Twain, with his characteristic lack of criticaljudgment, considered superior to that in the "Jumping Frog" story."To think," he complained in a letter written shortly after the "Frog"appeared, "that after writing many an article a man might be excusedfor thinking good, these New York people should single out a villainousbackwoods sketch to compliment me on! ... a squib which would neverhave been written but to please Artemus Ward."4In the second place,the article was the source for Twain's description of the earthquake inRoughing It,5 and a comparison of the two versions reveals how readilyTwain slid into burlesque when trying to rework the details in his source,the kind of burlesque which is the conspicuous weakness of RoughingIt.In the third place, the publication of the earthquake article is importantevidence, especially when considered in conjunction with the wordingof the prepublication announcement in the Weekly Review, of Twain'sgrowing reputation in the East before the "Jumping Frog" brought wideacclaim. Finally, the fact that the piece appeared in the WeeklyReviewis significant, since it points to Twain's acceptance by a relatively "cul-tural" paper, the Reviewbeing dedicated to the advancement of the finearts in America, especially music. It featured music criticism, reviews,notices, and biographical sketches of musicians, but it also printed ma-terial on the related arts, including selections from the best foreignliterary sources and "the best stories, sketches, essays, poems, and mis-cellaneous articles" of American writers.6Bret Harte and Artemus Wardwere contributors to the WeeklyReview,and may have influencedTwain'sdecision to contribute to the paper. In the same letter in which he scornedthe popularity of the "Jumping Frog," he announced that he and Hartehad quit the Californian to write for Eastern papers: "for the New York

3 Twain's brief sketch, "Earthquake Almanac," which was inspired by the same SanFrancisco earthquake described in the Weekly Rev., appeared in at least 2 Californiapapers-San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle and the Golden Era-a few weeks after thedisaster. Its appearance may explain why the same papers were not interested in reprintingthe long WeeklyRev. article on the quake.4 Albert B. Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography (New York, 1912), p. 278.

6 Vol. II, Ch. xvii. See also Twain's recollection of the 1865 earthquake in an interviewin 1906 reprinted in Mark Twain's Speeches (New York, 1910), pp. 282-283.6 Statement of policy in issue of 23 December 1865.


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Paul J. CarterWeekly Review-and possibly for the Saturday Press" (Paine, p. 280).The article in the WeeklyReviewwhich encouraged him to make sucha decision was "The Great Earthquake in San Francisco." It is here re-printed for the first time.7

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN SAN FRANCISCOEDITORS REVIEW. San Francisco, Oct. 8, 1865.

Long before this reaches your city, the telegraph will have mentionedto you, casually, that San Francisco was visited by an earthquake to-day,and the daily prints will have conveyed the news to their readers withthe same air of indifference with which it was clothed by the unimpas-sioned lightning, and five minutes afterward the world will have for-gotten the circumstance, under the impression that just such earth-quakes are every-day occurrenceshere, and therefore not worth remem-bering. But if you had been here you would have conceived very differentnotions from these. To-day's earthquake was no ordinary affair. It islikely that future earthquakes in this vicinity, for years to come, willsuffer by comparison with it.I have tried a good many of them here, and of several varieties-somethat came in the form of a universal shiver; others that gave us two orthree sudden upward heaves from below; others that swayed grandlyand deliberately from side to side; and still others that came rolling andundulating beneath our feet like a great wave of the sea. But to-day'sspecimen belonged to a new, and, I hope, a very rare, breed of earth-quakes. First, there was a quick, heavy shock; three or four secondselapsed, and then the city and county of San Francisco darted violentlyfrom north-west to south-east, and from south-east to north-west fivetimes with extraordinary energy and rapidity. I say "darted," becausethat word comes nearest to describingthe movement.I was walking along Third street, and facing north, when the firstshock came; I was walking fast, and it "broke up my gait" pretty com-pletely-checked me-just as a strong wind will do when you turn acorner and face it suddenly. That shock was coming from the north-west,and I met it half-way. I took about six or seven steps (went back andmeasured the distance afterwards to decide a bet about the interval oftime between the first and second shocks), and was just turning the cornerinto Howard street when those five angry "darts" came. I suppose thefirst of them proceeded from the south-east, because it moved my feettoward the opposite point of the compass-to the left-and made me

7 I am indebted to the Council on Research of the Univ. of Colorado and to the YaleUniv. Lib. for the photostat of the WeeklyRev. and to Professor Henry J. Pettit and Mr.Herwig Zauchenbergerfor editorial assistance.

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1000 Mark Twain Describes a San Francisco Earthquakestagger against the corner house on my right. The noise accompanyingthe shocks was a tremendous rasping sound, like the violent shaking andgrinding together of a block of brick houses. It was about the most dis-agreeable sound you can imagine.I will set it down here as a maxim that the operations of the humanintellect are much accelerated by an earthquake. Usually I do not thinkrapidly-but I did upon this occasion. I thought rapidly, vividly, anddistinctly. With the first shock of the five, I thought-"I recognize thatmotion-this is an earthquake." With the second, I thought, "What aluxury this will be for the morning papers." With the third shock, Ithought, "Well, my boy, you had better be getting out of this." Each ofthese thoughts was only the hundredth part of a second in passingthrough my mind. There is no incentive to rapid reasoning like an earth-quake. I then sidled out toward the middle of the street-and I may saythat I sidled out with some degree of activity, too. There is nothing likean earthquake to hurry a man up when he starts to go anywhere. As Iwent I glanced down to my left and saw the whole front of a large four-story brick building spew out and "splatter" abroad over the street infront of it. Another thought steamed through my brain. I thought thiswas going to be the greatest earthquake of the century, and that thecity was going to be destroyed entirely, and I took out my watch andtimed the event. It was twelve minutes to one o'clock, P.M.This showedgreat coolness and presence of mind on my part-most people wouldhave been hunting for something to climb, instead of looking out for thebest interests of history.As I walked down the street-down the middle of the street-fre-quently glancing up with a sagacious eye at the houses on either side tosee which way they were going to fall, I felt the earth shivering gentlyunder me, and grew moderately sea-sick (and remained so for nearlyan hour; others became excessively sleepy as well as sea-sick, and wereobliged to go to bed, and refresh themselves with a sound nap). A minutebefore the earthquake I had three or four streets pretty much to myself,as far as I could see down them (for we are a Sunday-respecting com-munity, and go out of town to break the Sabbath) but five seconds afterit I was lost in a swarm of crying children, and coatless, hatless men andshriekingwomen. They were all in motion, too, and no two of them tryingto rtn in the same direction. They changed [sic] simultaneously fromopposite rows of houses, like opposing regiments from ambuscades, andcame together with a crash and a yell in the centre of the street. Thencame chaos and confusion, and a general digging out for somewhereelse, they didn't know where, and didn't care.Everything that was done, was done in the twinkling of an eye-there


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Paul J. Carterwas no apathy visible anywhere. A street car stopped close at hand, anddisgorged its passengers so suddenly that they all seemed to flash out atthe self-same instant of time.The crowd was in danger from outside influences for a while. A horsewas coming down Third street, with a buggy attached to him, and fol-lowing after him-either by accident or design-and the horse was eitherfrightened at the earthquake or a good deal surprised-I cannot saywhich, because I do not know how horses are usually affected by suchthings-but at any rate he must have been opposed to earthquakes,because he started to leave there, and took the buggy and his masterwith him, and scattered them over a piece of ground as large as an or-dinary park, and finally fetched up against a lamp-post with nothinghanging to him but a few strips of harness suitable for fiddle-strings.However he might have been affected previously, the expression uponhis countenance at this time was one of unqualified surprise.The driverof the buggy was found intact and unhurt, but to the last degree dustyand blasphemous. As the crowds along the street had fortunately takenchances on the earthquake and opened out to let the horse pass, no onewas injured by his stampede.

When I got to the locality of the shipwrecked four-story buildingbefore spoken of, I found that the front of it, from eaves to pavement,had fallen out, and lay in ruins on the ground. The roof and floors werebroken down and dilapidated. It was a new structure and unoccupied,and by rare good luck it damaged itself alone by its fall. The walls wereonly three bricks thick, a fact which, taking into account the earth-quakiness of the country, evinces an unquestioning trust in Providence,on the part of the proprietor, which is as gratifying as it is impolitic andreckless.

I turned into Mission street and walked down the Second withoutfinding any evidences of the great ague, but in Second street itself Itraveled half a block on shattered window glass. The large hotels, fartherdown town, were all standing, but the boarders were all in the street.The plastering had fallen in many of the rooms, and a gentleman who wasin an attic chamber of the Cosmopolitan at the time of the quake, toldme the water "sloshed" out of the great tanks on the roof, and fell insheets of spray to the court below. He said the huge building rockedlike a cradle after the first grand spasms; the walls seemed to "belly"inward like a sail; and flakes of plastering began to drop on him. Hethen went out and slid, feet foremost down one or two hundred feet ofbanisters-partly for amusement, but chiefly with an eye to expedition.He said he flashed by the frantic crowds in each succeeding story likea telegraphic dispatch.

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1002 Mark Twain Describes a San Francisco EarthquakeSeveral ladies felt a faintness and dizziness in the head, and one,

(incredible as it may seem) weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds,fainted all over. They hauled her out of her room, and deluged her withwater, but for nearly half an hour all efforts to resuscitate her were fruit-less. It is said that the noise of the earthquake on the ground floor of thehotel, which is paved with marble, was as if forty freight trains werethundering over it. The large billiard saloon in the rear of the office wasfull of people at the time, but a moment afterwardnumbers of them wereseen flying up the street with their billiard-cues in their hands, like asquad of routed lancers. Three jumped out of a back window into thecentral court, and found themselves imprisoned-for the tall, spike-armed iron gate which bars the passage-way for coal and provision wag-ons was locked."What did you do then?" I asked."Well, Conrad, from Humboldt-you know him-Conrad said, 'let'sclimb over, boys, and be devilish quick about it, too'-and he made adash for it-but Smith and me started in last and werefirst over-becausethe seat of Conrad's pants caught on the spikes at the top, and weleft him hanging there and yelling like an Injun."And then my friend called my attention to the gate and said: "There'sthe gate-ten foot high, I should think, and nothing to catch hold of toclimb by-but don't you know I went over that gate like a shot out ofa shovel, and took my billiard cue along with me?-I did it, as certain as Iam standing here-but if I could do it again for fifteen hundred thousanddollars, I'll be d -d-not unless there was another earthquake, any-way."From the fashionable barber-shops in the vicinity gentlemen rushedinto the thronged streets in their shirt-sleeves, with towels round their

necks, and with one side of their faces smoothly shaved, and the otherside foamy with lather.One gentleman was having his corns cut by a barber, when the pre-monitory shock came. The barber's under-jaw dropped, and he staredaghast at the dancing furniture. The gentleman winked complacentlyat the by-standers, and said with fine humor, "Oh, go on with yoursurgery, John-it's nothing but an earthquake; no use to run, you know,because if you're going to the devil anyhow, you might as well start fromhere as outside." Just then the earth commenced its hideous grinding andsurging movement, and the gentleman retreated toward the door, re-marking, "However, John, if we've got to go, perhaps we'd as well startfrom the street, after all."On North Beach, men ran out of the bathing houses attired like theGreek slave, and mingled desperately with ladies and gentlemen whowere as badly frightened as themselves, but more elaborately dressed.


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Paul J. CarterThe City Hall which is a large building, was so dismembered, and itswalls sprung apart from each other, that the structure will doubtlesshave to be pulled down. The earthquake rang a merry peal on the CityHall bell, the "clapper"of which weighs seventy-eight pounds. It is saidthat several engine companies turned out, under the impression that thealarm was struck by the fire-telegraph.Bells of all sorts and sizes were rung by the shake throughout the city,and from what I can learn the earthquake formally announced its visit on

every door-bell in town. One gentleman said: "My door-bell fell to ring-ing violently, but I said to myself, 'I know you-you are an Earthquake;and you appear to be in a hurry; but you'll jingle that bell considerablybefore I let you in-on the contrary, I'll crawl under this sofa and getout of the way of the plastering'."I went down toward the city front and found a brick warehousemashedin as if some foreigner from Brobdignag [sic] had sat down on it.All down Battery street the large brick wholesale houses were prettyuniversally shaken up, and some of them badly damaged, the roof of onebeing crushed in, and the firewalls of one or two being ripped off evenwith the tops of the upper windows, and dumped into the street below.The tall shot tower in First street weathered the storm, but personswho watched it respectfully from a distance said it swayed to and fro likea drunken giant.I saw three chimneys which were broken in two about three feet fromthe top, and the upper sections slewed around until they sat corner-wiseon the lower ones.The damage done to houses by this earthquake is estimated at over halfa million of dollars.But I had rather talk about the "incidents." The Rev. Mr. Harmon,

Principal of the Pacific Female Seminary, at Oakland, just across theBay from here, had his entire flock of young ladies at church-and alsohis wife and children-and was watching and protecting them jealously,like one of those infernal scaly monsters with a pestilential breath thatwere employed to stand guard over imprisoned heroines in the days ofchivalry, and who always proved inefficient in the hour of danger-hewas watching them, I say, when the earthquake came, and what do youimagine he did, then? Why that confiding trust in Providence whichhad sustained him through a long ministerial career all at once desertedhim, and he got up and ran like a quarterhorse.But that was not the mis-fortune of it. The exasperating feature of it was that his wife and childrenand all the school-girls remained bravely in their seats and sat the earth-quake through without flinching. Oakland talks and laughs again at thePacific Female Seminary.The Superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School in Oakland

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1004 Mark Twain Describes a San Francisco Earthquakehad just given out the text, "And the earth shook and trembled," whenthe earthquake came along and took up the text and preached thesermon for him.The Pastor of Starr King's church, the Rev. Mr. Stebbins, came downout of his pulpit after the first shock and embraced a woman. It was aninstance of great presence of mind. Some say the woman was his wife, butI regard the remark as envious and malicious. Upon occasions like this,people who are too much scared to seize upon an offered advantage, arealways ready to depreciate the superior judgment and sagacity of thosewho profited by the opportunity they lost themselves.In a certain aristocratic locality up-town, the wife of a foreign digni-tary is the acknowledged leader of fashion, and whenever she emergesfrom her house all the ladies in the vicinity fly to the windows to see whatshe has "got on," so that they may make immediate arrangements toprocure similar costumes for themselves. Well, in the midst of the earth-quake, the beautiful foreign woman (who had just indulged in a bath)appeared in the street with a towelaroundher neck. It was all the raimentshe had on. Consequently, in that vicinity, a towel around the neck isconsidered the only orthodox "earthquake costume." Well, and why not?It is elegant, and airy, and simple, and graceful, and pretty, and are notthese the chief requisites in female dress? If it were generally adopted itwould go far toward reconciling some people to these dreaded earth-quakes.An enterprising barkeeper down town who is generally up with thetimes, has already invented a sensation [sic] drink to meet the require-ments of our present peculiar circumstances. A friend in whom I haveconfidence, thus describes it to me: "A tall ale-glass is nearly filled withCalifornia brandy and Angelica wine-one part of the former to two ofthe latter; fill to the brim with champagne; charge the drinkwith electric-ity from a powerful galvanic battery, and swallow it before the lightningcools. Then march forth-and before you have gone a hundred yardsyou will think you are occupying the whole street; a parlor clock willlook as big as a church; to blow your nose will astonish you like the ex-plosion of a mine, and the most trivial abstract matter will seem as im-portant as the Day of Judgment. When you want this extraordinarydrink, disburse your twenty-five cents, and call for an 'EARTHQUAKE'."

MARK TWAINUNIVERSITY OF COLORADOBoulder

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