CALIFORNIAN NEWS.

West Coast Times, Issue 908, 20 August 1868, Page 4

CALIFORNIAN NEWS.

The " Territorial Enterprise" (Nevada) of May 29th, gives the following account of the

SHOCK OF EARTHQUAKE IN VIKJINIA.

Last night four distinct shocks of an earthquake occurred in this city between the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock. The first was at 17-o- minutes past 9, the second at 2.27 minutes, the third at 9.30, and the fourth a few minutes after 10 o'clock. The first shock lasted about three seconds, and was verysevere indeed, sending everybody into the streets ; the second was almost if not quite as severe as the first, while the third and fourth were tolerably light. The first effect was to send everybody travelling for the open air about as fast as their legs could carry them, and its second was to make them very willing to stay there. No buildings were shaken down or very badly injured, which isastonishing, .considering the severity of the shocks experienced. Some bricks were shaken from the top of the Court House, and the building, which is of brick and five stories high, reeled and cracked in a most frightful manner. The Odd Fellows had a meeting in it at the time, and all the brethren present rushed pellmell down the stairs and into the streets with their regalia on. The doors of the the International Hotel, opening on B street, could not be closed by about one foot after tho first three shocks, and the doors of Haas and Co.'s store in the same block were in the same fix. Plastering was thrown down from ceilings in almost every brick bui'ding in town, aud there was everywhere a frightful racket. We have not heard of any damage being done in the mines, though we only visited the Savage works. The shocks were felt very plainly by those in the underground works, and there was a terrible rumbling heard. Some of the miners say that it sounded as though the whole upper part of the mine had caved in and immense quantities of rock were tumbling dQwn the shaft. The big 300 horse-power engine was stopped by the first shock, and it was with difficulty started up again. David Bowie, superintendent of the Gould and Curry mine, informs us that the earthquake was felt at the lowest point of the Bonner shaft. The men thought something was- falling down the shaft and got out of the way. At the 225 foot level it' was felt very perceptibly. EAETHQUAKE AT SEA. Captain Corno, of the brig Brewster, which arrived,, at this port on Satin-day night, says the Portland " Evening Bulletin," reports that at four o'clock p.m., on the 18th of May, when in latitude 44.7 N., longitude 129.35 W., felt a severe shock of earthquake, which so shook the vessel as to throw 'the men off their feet, and the watch below out of their berths. The doors of the galley wore t l rown from their sides, and the crockery in the pantry was broken. The captain and first mate were in the cabin working time at the time of the shock, which they aver was preceded by a rumbling noise like distant thunder. Both ran i;pon deck, under the impression the vessel., had struck a rock, and the pumps were immediately sounded. Almost half a minute after the first shock a second was distinctly felt by all. ALLEGED 3ITJEDEH O2S T THE HIGH SEAS. During the past week, in the month of March, 1868, the barque Jennie Prince, of 940 tons burthen, saiied from San Juan del Sur for the port of Honolulu. She had a motley crew aboard — representatives from the frigid as well as the torrid climes. The name of the master was Sam Prince, and first officer Lombard. There were twelve hands before the mast — eight men and four boys. Amongst the -former was a Swedish sailor named or known as " Bill Annison." The chief of the culinary department and kitchen cabinet was a negro, a- native of the Bermudas, known by the name of Heber Outerbridge, and 22 years of age. On the 26th April the two encountered each other on shipboard, and "words ran high" between them. At this time, however, the enmte was confined to a war of words. About four o'clock on the morning of the 9th, George T. Fagan, who had just " turned out " for his duty, found the dead body of the Swede Annison lying on the hatches, aud covered with a sail. The head presented a_ frightful spectacle.haviDgbeen beaten in as with some belaying pin or other heavy weapon. An alarm was instantly given. The captain, on coming on deck, exclaimed. " Who has done this murderous deed ?" Outerbridge, it is stated, confessed that he had been hammering tho man. A big capstan bar was found covered with blood. Outerbridge says that " Bill" threatened to kill him. On the arrival of Ihe barque at Honolulu, Outerbridge was at once delivered up to the civil authorities. Fagan and a colored sailor being also detained as witnesses, while the Jennie Prince continued on her voyage. The prisoner and witnesses were subsequently delivered up io-the Commander of the United States steamer Laekawanna, then lying in the harbor of Honolulu. On her they were brought to San Francisco, the Laekawanna arriving hero on the 27th instant. Yesterday the prisoner and witnesses were brought up to the United States Marshal Band's office, for a preliminary examination of the case before the United States Commissioner Whitney. The hearing of the matter was, however, unavoidably postponed, and prisoner and witnesses remanded to gaol.

A WOMAN TItnOWIT OFF A BAIrCOIfT AND

KILI/ED BY IIKB IIUSBAND.

Charles O'JNeill, a man of intemperate habits and violent temper, who has frequently been before the Police Court, and once served out a term in tho county gaol for wife-whipping, was arrested yesterday by Captain Lees, on a more serious and terrible charge — that of murder. The circumstances of the case, so far as know n, are these: — O'Neill and his wife, Ann, lived together unhappily for years, he frequently beating and abusing her shamefully in his drunken frenzy, and finally they agreed to separate. They sold their homestead for some 2000 dollars, and then divided the money equally, nearly a year since. He took his share of the money and went to New York, while she remained here with their son, a boy some twelve or thirteen years of age: Recently he returned, and found her living in a house on Baldwin Court, out of Fol-

soni street, and commenced annexing her about money, demanding that she should give him also her half of it. She refused to give up her half, stating that s>hc had spent it ; but the two lived together nevertheless in some sort of intimacy until yesterday. Before getting up he beat her savagely in bed, and between eight and nine o'clock some of the neighbors saw them struggling together on the balcony in the rear of the house. He at length got the mastery, and" pitched her, head foremost, over the railing or Vannistcrs into the area below, and she, falling upon her head, was killed instantly, her neck being broken. He admitted, to a woman living near by, that he did it, but on being arrested denied it. Their son was a witness of the frightful struggle aud the horrible death of his mother by his father's hands. The deceased was about thirty-five years of age, the prisoner somewhat older, and both natives of Ireland. — "Alta California," (Jth June.