The Man Who Rocked the Earth | Page 4

St. Louis was felt by many
millions of people all over the world, but, as in most countries it occurred coincidently
with pronounced earthquake shocks and tremblings, for the most part it passed unnoticed
as a specific, individual phenomenon.
Hood, in the wireless room at Georgetown, suddenly heard in his receivers a roar like that
of Niagara and quickly removed them from his ears. He had never known such statics. He
was familiar with electrical disturbances in the ether, but this was beyond anything in his
experience. Moreover, when he next tried to use his instruments he discovered that
something had put the whole apparatus out of commission. About an hour later he felt a
pronounced pressure in his eardrums, which gradually passed off. The wireless refused to
work for nearly eight hours, and it was still recalcitrant when he went off duty at seven
o'clock. He had not felt the quivering of the earth round Washington, and being an
unimaginative man he accepted the other facts of the situation philosophically. The
statics would pass, and then Georgetown would be in communication with the rest of the
world again, that was all. At seven o'clock the night shift came in, and Hood borrowed a
pipeful of tobacco from him and put on his coat.
"Say, Bill, did you feel the shock?" asked the shift, hanging up his hat and taking a match
from Hood.
"No," answered the latter, "but the statics have put the machine on the blink. She'll come
round all right in an hour or so. The air's gummy with ions. Shock, did you say?"

"Sure. Had 'em all over the country. Say, the boys at the magnetic observatory claim their
compass shifted east and west instead of north and south, and stayed that way for five
minutes. Didn't you feel the air pressure? I should worry! And say, I just dropped into the
Meteorological Department's office and looked at the barometer. She'd jumped up half an
inch in about two seconds, wiggled round some, and then come back to normal. You can
see the curve yourself if you ask Fraser to show you the self-registering barograph. Some
doin's, I tell you!"
He nodded his head with an air of importance.
"Take your word for it," answered Hood without emotion, save for a slight annoyance at
the other's arrogation of superior information. "'Tain't the first time there's been an
earthquake since creation." And he strolled out, swinging to the doors behind him.
The night shift settled himself before the instruments with a look of dreary resignation.
"Say," he muttered aloud, "you couldn't jar that feller with a thirteen-inch bomb! He
wouldn't even rub himself!"
Hood, meantime, bought an evening paper and walked slowly to the district where he
lived. It was a fine night and there was no particular excitement in the streets. His wife
opened the door.
"Well," she greeted him, "I'm glad you've come home at last. I was plumb scared
something had happened to you. Such a shaking and rumbling and rattling I never did
hear! Did you feel it?"
"I didn't feel nothin'!" answered Bill Hood. "Some one said there was a shock, that was
all I heard about it. The machine's out of kilter."
"They won't blame you, will they?" she asked anxiously.
"You bet they won't!" he replied. "Look here, I'm hungry. Are the waffles ready?"
"Have 'em in a jiffy!" she smiled. "You go in and read your paper."
He did as he was directed, and seated himself in a rocker under the gaslight. After
perusing the baseball news he turned back to the front page. The paper was a fairly late
edition, containing up-to-the-minute telegraphic notes. In the centre column, alongside
the announcement of the annihilation of three entire regiments of Silesians by the
explosion of nitroglycerine concealed in dummy gun carriages, was the following:
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FALLS
EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS FAMOUS MONUMENT
SHOCKS FELT HERE AND ALL OVER U. S.

Washington was visited by a succession of earthquake shocks early this afternoon, which,
in varying force, were felt throughout the United States and Europe. Little damage was
done, but those having offices in tall buildings had an unpleasant experience which they
will not soon forget. A peculiar phenomenon accompanying this seismic disturbance was
the variation of the magnetic needle by over eighty degrees from north to east and an
extraordinary rise and fall of the barometer. All wireless communication had to be
abandoned, owing to the ionizing of the atmosphere, and up to the time this edition went
to press had not been resumed. Telegrams by way of Colon report similar disturbances in
South America. In New York the monument in Central Park known as Cleopatra's Needle
was thrown from its pedestal and broken into three pieces. The contract for its repair