Page:Accidents and disasters on land.pdf/8

 Even the outer door was riven from its hinges, and transported with such force across the street, that it smashed a window on the opposite side. A brick partition which divides the shop in question, from that occupied by Mr Pagan, draper, was also thrown down, and the goods within, tossed from the shelves, and strewed about the floor, like litter in a stable. In a room above the shop, two individuals were sitting drinking a glass of toddy, and while in the act of interchanging friendly conversation, the grate, as if endowed with the powers of locomotion, suddenly moved from its proper position, and at the same moment one of the interlocutors was pitched to the "far corner of the appartment." The other who is a very heavy man, stuck like a rock to his first position, and it is believed that his superior specific gravity prevented him from being put to any inconvenience. And here we may notice a remarkable circumstance. One of the individuals just alluded to, had his glass in the right hand, and a tea spoon in the left, when he was suddenly removed from his seat at the table; and so astounding was the whole affair, that he still retained these articles after he had escaped from the scene of danger, and had journeyed a good way up the streets of Lockerby. When spoken to on the subject, he appeared like a person awakened from a dream; and altogether, the explosion we have noticed, produced all the effects of an earthquake in the town of Lockerby and its immediate vicinity. Mr Johnston’s father-in-law is so severely scorched, that he