Vol. III. No. 17 
on 
SS 
DTH SHORE BREEZE 
A.WEEKLY’ JOURNAL: DEVOTED-T0-THE: BEST: INTERESTS:OFTHENORTHSHORE 
MANCHESTER, MASS., SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1906 
. institute. 
Three Cents 
TERRIBLE CALAMITY 
John I, Allen, Manchester Boy, Writes of the 
Earthquake—“ Rich and Poor Are the Same 
in ’Frisco Now,” He Writes, “And the 
City Needs All the Help That Big Hearts 
Can Do for It.” 
The readers of this paper will be 
interested in reading of the San Fran- 
cisco calamity from the pen of an eye 
witness. John I. Allen, son of Captain 
and Mrs. John Allen of Washington 
street, Manchester, who went to San 
Francisco last fall to take charge ot a 
gas and coke plant, survived the quake 
and from Oakland he wrote a letter to 
his brother, Benjamin Allen, of the 
Knickerbocker Trust Co, of New 
York. Mr. Allen sent a copy of the 
letter on to his father in Manchester, 
yesterday, and through him we are able 
to give the BREEZE readers some idea 
of the direful calamity. The letter is 
as follows: 
OAKLAND, CAL., April 21, 1906. 
‘Dear Brother: Oh, Ben, it’s awful 
what has happened to ’Frisco. The 
city is burnt down,—this a fact. All 
business buildings are flat; though 
along the water front there are a few 
buildings left, such as the S. P. Ferry 
house, etc. Now I want to let you 
know all I can about the condition of 
the Gas company, as you must be 
anxious to know the facts of the real 
condition. 
“The earthquake came at 5.13 
A.M.; it was just breaking day and I 
was sitting out in the yard along-side 
of two boilers, which are kept with 
steam all night. I was with the man 
who tends them, talking, when I no- 
ticed the pipes began to rattle and the 
man ran out of the shack. I did not 
know what it was, but it began get- 
ting worse, so I ran for the governor’s 
room, or at least tried to, but the 
ground under me was heaving to and 
fro, just like the waves of the ocean. 
I fell down and got up and tried to 
run again, but fell again. I finally 
succeeded in standing up and looked 
(Continued on page 11, ist column] 
No Improvements for 
Manchester Harbor This Year. 
The appropriation by Congress of 
money to complete the work start- 
ed some years ago in dredging out 
Manchester harbor, it appears, will 
not be forthcoming this year. A 
committee was appointed at the 
annual town meeting to take the 
matter up with Congressman A. P. 
Gardner. 
W. W. Lufkin, private secretary 
to Congressman Gardner, in _ his 
last weekly letter to the Beverly 
Times, said: 
“Congressman Gardner waited 
on Chairman Burton, of the house 
committee on Rivers and Harbors 
this week, relative to the matter of 
the continued improvements’ of 
Manchester harbor. 
“In the summer of 1903 the board 
of engineers of the war department 
made an examination of the harbor 
and reported that it would be nec- 
essary to appropriate $18,000 to 
continue the dredging up to the 
town wharves, and recommended 
that if this amount be appropriated 
that it be in one sum and that no 
further improvements’ of _ this 
harbor be considered. In 
spite of this report, how- 
ever, the Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors, failed to include any ap- 
propriation in the last river and har- 
bor bill, taking the ground that it 
was an inner improvement and that 
the commerce carried on did not 
warrant it. 
“At the last annual town meeting 
a committee was appointed to come 
to Washington and investigate the 
question with a view to influencing 
the committee to change their de- 
cision and grant an immediate ap- 
propriation to continue the work. 
Chairman Burton informed Mr. 
Gardner that the committee would 
hold no hearing this session, except 
for emergency work, and he did not 
consider Manchester one of the 
emergency cases. Accordingly, no 
hearing will be held this session; 
THE THEORIES 
OF EARTHQUAKES. 
Some Famous Disturbances and 
Various Scientific Conjectures on 
the Causes of the Trouble. 
By W. S. C. Russell. 
(Breeze readers will be interested in read- 
ing extracts from an article written by W. 
S. C. Russell, a former Manchester teacher, 
but now head of the science department in 
the Springfield (Mass.) High school, pub- 
lished a few days ago in the Springfield Re- 
publican.—Ed.) 
The present earthquake in Cali- 
fornia will go down in history as the 
greatest catastrophe on this conti- 
nent within recorded time. It is 
now fresh in every mind, and the 
event so closely following the vio- 
lent outburst of Vesuvius, has led 
many to connect the two as cause 
and effect. Earth tremors have re- 
ceived so much _ scientific study 
within the past 50 years that phy- 
Sicists are pretty well agreed as to 
the cause of such phenomena. This 
material is so much involved in 
lengthy discussions and deductions 
that it is not within the reach of the 
average reader. For this reason a 
brief statement of seismic history 
and a presentation of the present 
views on the subject may be of in- 
terest. 
Earthquake phenomena have been 
recorded from nearly 20 centuries 
B. C. These notes are prominent 
among the scientific writings of an- 
cient times, not because there was 
much exact knowledge relative to 
them, so far as cause and_ effect 
were concerned, but because of the 
consternation and superstition 
which the swift destruction of life 
and property engendered. 
Continued on Page 22, 1st Col. 
but it is likely that the committee 
will come on and be heard next 
year, when the general hearings in 
preparation of the next river and 
harbor bill will be commenced.” 
