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Show 1 I5LAN0JS1IG TERRIFIC CATACLYSM IN THE PHILIPPINES LOWERS MANILA TWO FEET. Earthuake, Volcano and Tidal Wave Combine In Bringing Destruction to Five Villages and Causes Death of Three Hundred. Manila. latest government reports confirm the previous reports that three hundred persons were killed by the earthquake and eruption of Mount Taal on Monday. No Americans are among the number. It Is Impossible to estimate how many natives on the west shore were buried in the ashes, but It Is known that twenty-one were suffocated and five fatnily burned. Five villages were obliterated and three partly destroyed by a twenty-foot wave which followed the early shocks. Coincident with this a superheated blast from the volcano practically t cremated those who escaped drown- ing. ' Mount Taal rises In the center of Lake Taal, a body of water not more than fifteen miles In circumference. It Is thirty-four miles from this city, from which dense clouds of smoke rising ris-ing from the crater are plainly visible. The observatory authorities believe that Manila is In no danger, but there Is some alarm among the natives, who recall the destruction occasioned by Mount Mayon, the other volcano of Luzon, In 1897. So far, however, it has shown no threatening disturbance. Investigators of the bureau of ad- 1 ence report that with tho first violent ' eruption of Taal on Saturday, the vol- ; i canlc island appeared to sink five feet ; and the waters of the lake rising awept the shores a mile Inland, carry- 1 ing away the bamboo shacks and 1 catching a score of natives. ' |
