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Show ssssW QW AND FIRE T VISITjAMIA I Fate of San Francisco Over I takes the Beautiful City of Kingston. After the First Shock the Flames M Sprang From the Wreckage to H Carry on the Work of Destruc- B tlon Hospitals are Filled W With Victims. Washington. According to dls- W patchoB from Santiago, Cuba, and SL H Thomas, D. W. L, tho city of Kingston, II tho plcturcsquo capital of the island of Jamaica, has been dovastatcd by a violent earthquake. I Dotalls of tho dlsnstor are lacking, 1 as direct communication with tho H stricken city has been cut off. Th I land lines hnd been reconstructed to I within flvo miles of Kingston Tuea- I day ovcnlng, nnd from meagor reports) I received through such chnnnols as I wcro open, It was loarncd that many I of tho moBt Important buttdlngB have I been destroyed nnd that thcro has I been serious loss of life. I So far as tho rcporta indicate, the I fatalities number less than ono hun- I dred, though tho hospitals are filled I with Injured nnd tho list of victims t may bo materially Increased. j Kingston and tho other points of In- li terest of tho island nro at this season of tho year throngod with tourists from both America and England, nnd tha greatest apprehension is folt for the safety of many persons who hnd j recently arrived at tho Jamaican re I sorts. Tho first great shock wns folt about 3:30 o'clock Monday afternoon and flames Immediately sprang from th wrcckago to carry on tho work of destruction. de-struction. Tucsdny afternoon tho fire was still burning, although It was bo-llovcd bo-llovcd to bo undor control. Tho Myrtlo Bank hotol, tho principal princi-pal hotol at Kingston, which probably Bholtercd tho great bulk of visitors on Uio Island, is reported destroyed. Tho fj great military hospital was burned and D forty soldiers aro reported dead. Sir James Ferguson Is said to have- W been instantly killed, bi)t according to I .London reports no oth.Kugllshmnu, 1 Canadian or Amorlcan lH'bolloved to " ''"" bo missing. H The oxtont of tho destruction which has been wrought In Kingston, a city I which already bears the scura of a I numbor of disastrous visitations of lire, earthquake and cyclono. In years gono by, Is still loft Inrgoly to the imagination. Tho city Is ono of low-lying buildings, build-ings, clustered along the shores of ono of tho finest nnd most securely landlocked harbors in tho West Indies. The population, which nunihors 50,000, is largely mado up of native blacks. Many stoamers carrying tourists to Jamaica woro onroutu to tho Inland B when tho enrthquako occurred, but it 1 bo happened that, according to pched- t uIcb, nono of tho ships from Now York H or Boston wns In Kingston harbor l Monday afternoon. ,1 |