1. When and where were these
  images captured? 

  2.  What is happening in these images? 

  3. What specific people/objects do
  you see? 

  4. What do you notice about the
  object's condition or the people's
  expressions or appearance? 

  5. Why would the person
  choose this particular scene to
  capture? 

  6. What information do the words
  accompanying the images
  provide? 

  7. What is missing from the
  images? 

  8. What problems for people are
  suggested by the images? 

  9.  What is interesting or surprising
  about these images? 

  10. What additional information
  about the event did you learn from 
  these images? 
 

1. When and where did this interview take place?

2. What encounter with nature is described in this personal account?

3. How long after the event occurred was this inteview made?

4. What words or phrases best create a visual image of the event?

5. What attitude towards this event does the person seem to have?

6. Who or what at does this person seem to believe is responsible for this event occurring?

7. What problems or effects does the event seem to have had on people's lives?

8.  What lesson does this person seem to have learned from this event?

9. Is there anything interesting or surprising to you about this person's reaction to the situation?

10. What new insights into the natural event does this interview provide you?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lyrics Analysis:
 

1. If there is a cover to this piece of
  sheet music, examine it carefully. 
  What message does the cover give
  you about the event? 

  2. What natural event is this song
  about? 

  3. Read through the lyrics. Write a 
  summary describing the main idea
  of the song. 

  4. List any words in the song with
  which you are not familiar. 

  5. Choose one or two phrases of the
  song that are interesting to you.
  Explain why they caught your
  attention. 

  6. Who or what does the song
  writer feel is responsible for the
  event? 

  7. What problems or effects of the
  event are mentioned in the song? 

  8. What new insights does this song
  give you about the event described? 

  9. What surprises you about the
  song? 

  10. What questions do you have? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Additional Resources:
 

  1. What additional information
  about the event did the other sources
provide? 
 
 
 
 

Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916
Library of Congress

Recollections of a newspaperman; a record of life and events in California, by Frank A. Leach
 

CHAPTER XV 

GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE OF 1906 

Destruction Wrought in San Francisco and Neighboring Places--The Battle to Save the Mint Building--How San Francisco's
Financial System Was Re-established--Nation-Wide Generosity Shown to Victims 

PERHAPS I should class my experience in the great fire and earthquake of April, 1906, as the most exciting feature of my administration as Superintendent of the mint in San Francisco. While I would not seek another such experience, I have often said that
I was glad the opportunity fell to me to be present and in the midst of one of the great disasters of history, but I shall always censure myself that I did not make a record of what I saw, as well as the observations of other people and my own thoughts while the
circumstances and details of the awful affair were fresh in my mind.

I was  suddenly awakened soon after 5 o'clock on that memorable morning of April 18, with the hundreds of thousands of others who lived within a radius of a hundred miles of this section, to a realization of being shaken by an earthquake that seemed to threaten to tear our house to pieces. The building danced a lively jig, jumping up and down a good part of a foot at every jump, at the same time swaying this way and that; the walls and ceilings were twisting and squirming, as if wrestling to tear themselves asunder or one to throw the other down. Then there were the terrifying noises, the cracking and creaking of timber, the smashing and crashing of falling glass, bric-a-brac, and furniture, and the thumping of falling bricks coursing down the roof sides from the chimney tops. Now and then there would be a louder crash and roar, coming from some distance, that told, plainer than words, of the awfulness of the visitation and the greater destruction of property, if not life. 

The air was filled with dust. It seemed as if the shaking would never cease. Every vibration seemed to be followed by another more fierce, stronger, and more destructive. I lay in bed and saw the debris of wrecked chimney tops go sailing down past our bedroom windows. I felt that I was in as safe a place there as anywhere else in the house while the shaking lasted, and much safer than to attempt to go out of doors. Then I also felt that if the terrible disturbance was primary to the end of all things we might as well meet our fate right where we were. I confess that for a few seconds I was impressed with the idea that the end of the world had been reached. I did not get out of bed until the shaking ceased.

After an early breakfast, and finding that none of our family had been hurt, I walked down town to see what had happened and hear what I might from other places. Upon reaching Fourteenth and Broadway my thoughts for the first time touched upon San Francisco,
and I instinctively turned my eyes in its direction. I saw that the heavens above the city were filling with the black smoke of a great fire, which was rapidly finishing the work of destruction begun by the earthquake, and that a disaster more appalling than anything
ever dreamed of and more extensive in destruction of property ever before known was now upon the unfortunate city. ..

It was a terrible sight. Flames were leaping high in the air from places scattered all the way across the front part of the city. Great clouds of black smoke filled the sky and hid the rays of the sun. Buildings in the track of the rapidly spreading fire went down like houses of cardboard; little puffs of smoke would issue from every crevice for a brief time, to be suddenly followed by big clouds of black smoke which would hide things for an instant, as if in attempt to shut out the vision of the tragedy being enacted. Great masses of flame would quickly take the place of the smoke and shoot up above everything, announcing the consummation of destruction, and then sweep on to the doomed one next in order. I could see that the devastation was going on in the very midst of the most important and costly part of the city--the wholesale, financial, and retail districts. 

California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
Recollections of a newspaperman; a record of life and events in California, by Frank A. Leach - Part 15 , Library of Congress

Lyrics:
 

The Stricken City

I am swept across the desert by the sorrow of my soul
To the glowing golden city where waves of anguish roll
I can see the sheen and shimmer that envelope sky and street
I can see the smiling face of friends I used to meet;
I can feel the subtle essence that, thro' out a world-wide quest
Thrills heart and brain and pulses nowhere as in that West.
Supreme Pacific wonder, fair Goddess of the Gate
The world has paid you homage, theworld bemaons your fate
We loved you in your beauty as you reigned beside the seas,
We love you, scorched and stricken, as you plead upon your knees.
In days of pride and glory you were generous and broad
You were like an earth expression of the opulence of God.

And it took the cosmic forces and the awful grip of Space
To rob you of your courage and drive radiance from your face.
You offered us your sunshine when native skies grew cold.
And when our purse was empty you offer'd us your gold.
Oft when our own, unseeing, gazed on some work of art,
You looked with larger vision and offered us your Heart.
Oh! stricken friend and hostess, you kneel among the dead,
And all that moves or stirs us were best in Actions said.
Shake out your golden tresses; our hands shall bind them up
And left the empty goblet; our gourd shall fill the cup.
Behind the smoke and horror let your prophetic eyes
Perceive God's chosen city from your own ashes rise.

Source of original document: 

Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 (from Duke University)
Library of Congress American Memory Collection

Nature's Fury web pages published and maintained by P. Solfest and K. Wardean
E-mail comments welcome at:
psolfest@altoona.k12.wi.us
kwardean@altoona.k12.wi.us