The Big Sandy News

THE EARTH RENT

Great Excitement in Summit County, Ohio.

Houses Shaken and People Thrown From Their Beds.

AKRON, O., Feb. 15.—At two o'clock this morning many people in this city were awakened by their houses being shaken, while the residents of Sandy Hill, four miles south of here, were thrown from their beds, and their windows and ceilings cracked and fell to the floor. The first intimation of the disturbance came in the way of a terrible report, as of some great explosion in the vicinity of Sandy Hill, followed by houses swaying so that the denizens of that place fled in great alarm. This morning a great fissure was noticed at the seat of this earth disturbance. The families of Henry Snider, Lester Allen, Uriah Thornton, A. A. Schwartz and James Porter, residing where the phenomenon manifested itself more forcibly, were terribly frightened, and some of their houses were badly shaken up. Similar occurrences were noted in this same district twenty-five years ago and again in 1882. Prof. Claypool and Prof. Reed have made examinations of the fissures, and have advanced the theory that the phenomenon was caused by the escape of gas from beneath the superficial layers of gravel and sand. Others, however, refute this, as gas-drillers in that vicinity have struck only very small quantities of the invisible fluid. The explosion last night made a noise like the discharge of a cannon, and was followed by low, rumbling sounds, the first noise being heard here at nine o'clock last night, while low mutterings continued up to the time that the final explosion came.