Show NINETY SECONDS During burin This Brief Time a City Crumbles s Into nt Dust and Atoms I can an n Chronicle ra in the center of or the back cart tira r rne A world was seized with a aB ar aon t th til tiro of I ne e 1 11 lut and aad In ln the nine on B r Ul nl that hat t the rigor Igor continued a at aE t p rumbled into ruins thou thour E r TS ss inhabitants i were killed andt and t f ande maimed and crippled v as a In the thet t a u Central America about miles mUes ie e ty t y vas v is situated tk ui tai I and was second 11 j I cir n n i r aJ al importance It was waso Cr o he the thE coffee wheat sugar a 1 J 10 o district and famous for tor forture luf tare ture of or cotton and woolen s Iti It t streets tret ts were narrow but butr in r javed fa ved and provided with za J 1 lights letter boxes fountains There were 1 n r jus uv U n uns ms good hospitals four tour g 7 V L ink public lavatories pen r public buildings SEf s e V beautiful old churches a 3 ne w in ruins and the sur v 1 inhabitants are arc rs jg ir I r city 3 ll J league or more moreo ay 11 to o t table fable land of bc b 3 and the residences of the thes thet s tyre pre built of brick adobe t tier er I Ian an an rn m and what Is la known as aril n 11 a variety of dry clay that ut t Ii i 1 J after alter the manner manners aft s t n fl but hardens to the con conten ten r sandstone after being ex exair exair d t I Co air All the better rest resi pS g huilt about the customary I 1 rut usually the windows i and doorjambs doorjambs were of sculptured stone There were only three or or four buildings b In the city probably probably ably abl ten tenor or a dozen of two story and the others only end on the city was built to withstand eart quakes There Thore was promise of f crops in the dis district distrIct district demands for its manufactures were Increasing anti ami there was every indication of ot an an era of prosperity that was the condition on the evening of the of ot April last It was shortly after the dinner hour hout about and a violent rain and electric storm was Ras asi raging rasing gIng housing nearly everyone ih the tIie city As a rule the Indians retire ear early early ly but many of ot them were on the out outside outside side of or their houses up to the time the storm began many of them had re remained remained remained outside or awake nearly neady alt ali lt of or orthe the night before fore They have h ve a legend that when their city Is about to be visited vis visited vIsIted by hya bya a dire calamity warning Is given by a as fiery ball that shoots across the heavens They say it presaged the coming of the conquistadores nearly tOO years ago and that it has since ince heralded every disastrous earthquake and volcanic There was a commotion in the native quarter the evening before when a meteor shot across the sky but the educated classes gazed Idly curious at its luminous trail and laughed at the fear of ot the In Indians Indians Indians But the laugh lau h could not quiet the fear and the natives passed the night In dread The day following it Ith h n was the same and only the terrible storm that swept down from the heights of Santa Sa ta Maria Marla and Cerro Quemado drove them indoors Thus were they all housed when the first game came It was as if the world had co with some Imm v tib People were thrown prostrate on their floors buildings crumbled and break were hurled across aCro the streets an and ans In n less than ji a t minute the happy prosperous city was turned into a charnel charnel bouse from ue The he thunder roared and crashed from peak to peak continuous flashes of lightning played over the doomed city the rain poured in torrents tor torrents torrents rents the lighting plant went down and the blackness of the fearsome night was broken tidy by the elec electricity electricity trinity of heaven Through the roar of the storm an the crash as asor of falling worlds rang the screams of the wound wounded ed and the shrieks of the yet unia unInjured as In an agony of or fear they groped and staggered blindly through the dark imploring the Creator to stay his hand To them it seemed the end endI I of all things and the beginning of chaos Thus far a only one man who was there during the horrible night and for tor forten torten forten ten days after has reached this city i He is Jose I L Barrillas a Guatemala la I coffee planter and in In telling his ex exI experience I I he said It Is not likely that the the total num number number number ber of dead will ever eyer be known By far tar the greatest mortality was among the native population Their houses honses are constructed of adobes made of mud and aId sand and under the shock of the earth earthquake earthquake earthquake quake they collapsed ed and buried en entire ent entire tire t e families la in t their ruins Among the Caucasians there thee were a n great many injured slightly some seriously but the casualties among them were not known at the time I left The greater number of injuries were received In the streets where many foolishly ran for safety Those who fled to the patios pall os or courts of their houses escaped uninjured d The streets are very narrow and were filled I I with the ruins of the buildings on either sI side e 1 the pr prevalence V enee 9 11 the electrical ele l 1 storm s orm sur some ie accident t happened hap happened to the machinery and the lights were turned off oft Before the damage was repaired came the earthquake and the power house collapsed The da dat days e acid nights that followed were full of horror After the minute and a half that seemed an age in which the damage was done the he entire population ought the safety of an Open pen plain outside the city and acid there re remained remaIned remained during the night women and tender ten der children being g exposed expo eQ to the th storm When hen the came cam cammen men went back Into the city and soon returned with faces a shade whiter Many would not permit their wives and children id to t see what wha they di y had seen and so hurried them oft off to the village of Zunil seven seen mites away aw Ox X carts and all manner mancer were pressed into service In which were hauled the aged and Infirm while the others walked Once at the village those thoe who Tho had been tenderly nurtured were obliged to t live for forty days in old sheds bare mills factories In anything that afforded a roof root There the heYO wo women men and children remained while the themen themen themen men went back to the city daily In the hope of restoring order but ut it seemed an Impossible task Telephone and tel telegraph telI telegraph wires had gone down and it wasl was necessary to send couriers down the mountain to the nearest railroad station miles mUes away awa where communication tion could be had with the capital The government acted promptly but owing ow I ng to the state of the roads It was several days before adequate relief arrived The president sent a quantity of tents which were erected on the plain and andin andIn andin in which the homeless natives were housed while the work went on among the ruins Field hospitals were hastily erected and a corps of physicIans ns and surgeons with a large complement of nurses cared for the sick arid and injured The then organized into burial parties and went w nt to the assist assistance assistance assistance ance of the regiment of soldiers that had d been dispatched dispatched from f o Guatemala i I City The ghastlY sights nf J the next few days and the we iVe F everywhere encountered have haye already been told by Mr Barrillas in the l Chronicle of May 24 of that every ev everywhere the streets st rs of o the she wounded that at pinned PIn ned und under er fallen fa lIen tim um timbers timbers bers and debris under ander the torrential rain had drowned their th er screams for aid as they felt the water slowly 1 but Out steadily ste I rising around them in the dammed streets unheeded since there were none to t answer In a few hours It was found faund that burial was out of the question In j the cemeteries in com common common common mon with the cities of Mexico eDCO and oth other er Central American cities are above aboveground aboveground ground They are simply simp the walls of which are eight oaten orten or ten feet thick k In these walls are the tombs one above aboe the other row on row around a square inclosing several acres a acres res and resembling nothing so muchas much muchas mu h has as a avast vast number of huge pigeon holes the tombs being only large enough to contain a single casket At tenango the earthquake had bad burst b open m these tombs and the caskets with their dead bad had been thrown out cut Into the open and the tombs wrecked wr Burial was therefore not possible and andas andas andas as the decomposing d c bodies threatened threaten to breed a pestilence cremation was ordered by the authorities Large targe quantities o 0 kerosene were procured the dead gathered red Into l to heaps with combustible com combustible combustible material l the whole saturated with the inflammable oil and the torch to h applied These funeral pyres were burning for several days The authorities soon found that 1 ghouls g were at work and orders to I anyone found toun d looting were j Issued Within ten days after the or order order I der twentysix men had been shot by bythe bYj bythe the soldiers The city had an excel excellent excellent I lent system of waterworks the supply being obtained from Lake about ten miles mUes distant The earth arth earthquake earthquake quake broke the pipe lines and for five days the Inhabitants were obliged to subsist an on the water dathe ithe pools and andt t and suCh sU rain water as they could catch In basins Outside the city and its Immediate vicinity the damage was proportionate lyas h great at Sl rOul ern were broken off and hurled h r c Into the valleys alleys crushing everything In their line of fall and stopping the roadways Crevices Cre as wide as average sewer trenches tre ches and bottomless opened in the earth and nd made traveling aveling t Ung a danger Many coffee plantations were badly damaged and valuable machinery ma bro broke broke broke ke nand twisted A number num number number ber of populous villages In the vicinity were practically destroyed and in pro proportion proportion proportion portion to population the loss of life lIf was as great as that in As yet the total number n of deaths and the financial loss Joss cannot be estimated |