1 62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



occupants out." Several panics occurred in schools. One man relates 

 that his wife and sister " rushed to him." Nurses were alarmed in a 

 hospital. Telephone girls left the switch-boards in Chicago, and 

 " were scared " in Clinton. A particular mention is made of a seam- 

 stress who was alarmed, and of another woman who sank frightened 

 on a bed. But in no case is a man specially mentioned as having been 

 afraid. In places where men were scared, fright was general, and 

 there was then no cause for such special mention. The evidence of 

 this difference can hardly be charged to an unconscious discrimination 

 by the reporters in favor of the stronger sex. It must be regarded as a 

 noteworthy incident in this earthquake that its intensity was near 

 that limit, which is strong enough to scare women but not men. This 

 limit must approximate seven in the Rossi-Forel scale, and the un- 

 sentimental seismologist may hence add another criterion for correctly 

 locating the seventh isoseismal. 



One general observation which has a practical bearing should per- 

 haps not be left unmentioned. It is that the earthquake was more 

 strongly felt in the upper stories of high buildings than on the ground 

 floors. In Dubuque " the upper part of the high buildings swayed." 

 A reporter in Burlington says that the shock was " felt most in the 

 upper stories of tall buildings." " The floors shook in the upper stories 

 of large buildings " in Clinton, and in Davenport " the tremors were 

 mostly noted in high office buildings." In Chicago the shock was not 

 felt on the ground floors, but mostly " only in the higher stories." The 

 top floors are especially mentioned as having shaken in some of the 

 university buildings in Evanstown and in a college building at Cedar 

 Eapids. In the architecture produced by the demands of industry and 

 business in this part of the world, the eventuality of a severe earth- 

 quake has not entered as an element of consideration. The experience 

 of a half century shows that this neglect is probably justified. Never- 

 theless, it is appalling to contemplate how different the story of this 

 recent jar would appear if the intensity of the disturbance had been 

 just a little greater than it was. From our past experience we may safely 

 infer that the valley of the upper Mississippi is in a region where earth- 

 quakes are not frequent. Are we also justified in believing that when 

 such disturbances do occur, they will not be severe? The violence of 

 the New Madrid earthquakes a hundred years ago makes the answer to 

 this question uncertain. Time alone will tell. 



