“The morning of the tremendous catastrophe probably dawned upon
the usual restless crowd of gold-getters intent upon their several
avocations. The streets were filled with the expanded figures of gayly
dressed women, acknowledging with coy glances the respectful salutations
of beaux as they gracefully raised their remarkable cylindrical
head-coverings, a model of which is still preserved in the Honolulu
Museum. The brokers had gathered at their respective temples. The
shopmen were exhibiting their goods. The idlers, or 'Bummers,'--a term
applied to designate an aristocratic, privileged class who enjoyed
immunities from labor, and from whom a majority of the rulers
are chosen,--were listlessly regarding the promenaders from the
street-corners or the doors of their bibulous temples. A slight
premonitory thrill runs through the city. The busy life of this restless
microcosm is arrested. The shopkeeper pauses as he elevates the goods
to bring them into a favorable light, and the glib professional
recommendation sticks on his tongue. In the drinking-saloon the glass
is checked half-way to the lips; on the streets the promenaders pause.
Another thrill, and the city begins to go down, a few of the more
persistent topers tossing off their liquor at the same moment. Beyond a
terrible sensation of nausea, the crowds who now throng the streets do
not realize the extent of the catastrophe. The waters of the bay recede
at first from the centre of depression, assuming a concave shape, the
outer edge of the circle towering many thousand feet above the city.
Another convulsion, and the water instantly resumes its level. The city
is smoothly ingulfed nine thousand feet below, and the regular swell
of the Pacific calmly rolls over it. Terrible,” says Schwappelfurt, in
conclusion, “as the calamity must have been, in direct relation to the
individuals immediately concerned therein, we cannot but admire its
artistic management; the division of the catastrophe into three
periods, the completeness of the cataclysms, and the rare combination of
sincerity of intention with felicity of execution.”
A NIGHT AT WINGDAM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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