Daily Press And Dakotaian

The Earthquake at Richmond, Va.

A brief account of an earthquake at Washington was published in our telegraphic reports on the 22d. It appears that Richmond, Va., was nearer the scene of the convulsion than any other important point, and a correspondent gives this account of what occurred there:

Everybody agrees that the first of the shocks was the most terrific and startling of them all, shaking and swaying the houses like the rocking of a cradle, rattling glasses and glassware, ringing bells and, in many instances, throwing persons from their beds with force and violence to the floor. This latter incident occurred at several of the hotels and numbers of private dwellings, and the effect was at once to produce a panic and the wildest consternation that can be imagined. Men and women alike rushed into passages and streets, screaming with terror, unable to realize such an awful visitation, and in the confusion and uproar which ensued escaping the effect of the second "shake," which followed in about three minutes after the first.

THE SECOND SHOCK.

This latter shock was less violent, but, like the first, it came with the same rumbling and as if suppressed sound of thunder, the same rushing noise, like a whirlwind, and the same shooting meteors in the empyrean, which was filled with electricity, producing the most brilliant and at the same time the most astonishing effects. Those who were calm enough to witness the latter display in the streets became terribly impressed with this extraordinary demonstration of nature, and there was many a mental resolution, tending to a reformation in the future, made in the few minutes that it lasted.

THE THIRD SHOCK.

In about twenty minutes from the first shock the third occurred, and this was still less violent than even the second, but accompanied by the same atmospheric phenomena as the preceding two.