AN AMATEUR EARTHQUAKE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8865, 16 July 1907, Page 1

AN AMATEUR EARTHQUAKE.

Apropos of the stolidity and impassiveness of the Japanese character, Professor Milne, the Isle of Wight earthquake 1 ‘ specialist, 1 ’ tells a story which has to do with Mutsnhito himself; it might he called “The Emperor and the Amateur Earthquake. ’ ’ Tiie professor was, at the time, in Japan, studying infant earth tremors, which are almost daily occur ence in parts of the islands; and his observations, as recorded on his seismograph, had greatly interested certain native scientists, who carried to their monarch word of what the Englishman was doing. iTheu Mutsnhito asked to see the seismograph actually in action. So Dr. Milne rented a large piece of waste ground, erected on it houses and to .vers, mined the whole wife dynamite, and then, at a safe distance, set up his seismograph and a pavilion from which the Minado might start the show and see it. He appeared, prompt to the moment, calm and imperturbable. Calmly he pressed the button which exploded the charges, and with unmoved calm gazed out upon the wreckage which filled the air. No expression of surprise was there ; no least sign of excitement. Then the professor showed the Emperor the seismograph, pointed out how the needle had varied through the action of the explosion, and explained the principle upon which it worked. After all of which the Son of Heaven at last vouchsafed to spean—a laconic, passive “Really.”