A vast number of the populace ascended the citadel hill early in the morning, to get out of the way of the general destruction, and many of the infatuated closed up their shops and retired from all earthly business.

But the strange part of it was that about three in the afternoon, while this gentleman and his friends were at dinner in the hotel, a terrific storm of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, broke forth and continued with dire fury for two or three hours.

It was a thing unprecedented in Smyrna at that time of the year, and scared some of the most skeptical.

The streets ran rivers and the hotel floor was flooded with water.

The dinner had to be suspended.