Show W visits adventurers CLUB 1 HEADLINES FROM THE LIVE LIVES S OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Fl 1 through a tropic holocaust by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO well EVERYBODY sir fellow adventurers people have all kinds of troubles in this bothersome old world of ours you have your troubles and I 1 have mine maybe the old spinning ball would be just TOO nice a place to live on if we have our share of adversity to make the sweet seem sweeter and the bright seem brighter still anyhow I 1 have a fetter here from alberta L hitchins of new york city who has had her ler troubles plenty of em but who let them bother her very much no sir because every time she begins to think her troubles are too much for her she looks back on that horrible day in kingston jamaica in january 1907 and realizes that what looks like troubles to her hei now dont really deserve the name of trouble at all on that fateful day mrs hitchins was sitting in the office of J eustace burke brothers the firm for which she worked she mrs hitchins then just alberta the assistant cashier with her in the office was her boss her sister one or two other women who worked there too outside it was a clear tropical sunshiny day from overhead came the rumble of machinery in a bottling plant on the floor above when the earthquake struck at in the afternoon a distant ominous omi rious rumbling sound startled all kingston in the office where alberta worked however nobody paid any attention to these sounds sods the bottling plant on the floor above was always noisy rumblings gs were nothing new to the employees of burke brothers the first intimation that alberta had that anything was wrong was when she happened to look up from her work and sav lafr that the wall in front of her desk SEEMED TO BE BENDING BENDIN OVER GOVER at the same time she felt herself suddenly inexplicably slipping from her chair she jumped to her feet from overhead a shower of plaster fell littering her desk all at once things seemed to be flying in all directions then than in a moment all was quiet again in the office there was a moment of tense silence then alberta heard the voice of her boss saying my god an earthquake san francisco all over again alberta took a quick look around the ofa V R tottering wall fell with a crash flee fice there were five people in it miraculously not one of them was injured alberta heaved a sigh of relief too soon at that moment the trembling started all over again from outside came the sound of a piercing shriek A woman in the next building alberta started toward the door felt someone grab her by the arm it was her sister dont go out there her sister cried A tottering wall fell with a crash the womans comans voice was stilled terrible scenes in the streets the boss started to gather up the companas comp anys books and put them in the safe the girls turned to and helped when that was finished alberta and her sister made their way out to the street and started to head for home down by the waterfront the town was a shambles buildings were down everywhere walls were down streets a mass of wreckage debris strewn everywhere men women children even animals were stretched out on the pavement dead or frightfully injured everywhere cries for help people pinned under falling buildings half buried in the wreckage shouted pathetic appeals for aid that almost drove alberta and her sister mad with pity and to add to the horror fire broke out everywhere and many who could otherwise have been saved had to be abandoned by the rescuers to a living death in the flames it was the most harrowing sight two girls had ever seen they struggled home to find their mother and younger sister alive but frightfully injured they had just been dug out from under the wreckage of what had been their home earthquake shocks were still corning coming at intervals alberta and her sister cast about for medical aid for their mother and the little girl the hospital was miles away and in ruins the only safe place left was the sea they took them aboard a vessel anchored in the harbor and put them in care of the ships doctor there were hundreds of other people on that boat hundreds of refugees from the stricken city all afternoon they straggled aboard doctors volunteer nurses came from the town they turned that boat into a hospital ship for the care of the injured tragedies in a night of horrors night came a night that transformed the city into a red inferno rimmed by the cosmic blackness fire flamed up anew in a hundred different quarters buildings tottered walls crumbled the shrieks of the victims continued all through the night dogs howled in the streets fanatics sang wildly people went insane for no other reason than that which they had seen and heard terrible scenes were enacted in those grim hours A father and son were trapped between two walls of a fallen building rescuers were striving to get to them they were almost free when flame shot through the building driving the rescuers back the trapped mans business partner had just time to pass his hand through a hole in the wall give his friend a last handshake before the flames were upon him and he had to dash back the cries of his associate and the boy still ringing in his ears in the heartrending scenes that went on through that terrible night alberta almost lost her mind before long it was over she was a woman her moving in a daze somehow she lived through it somehow kept sanity and now now alberta is married As the mother of three children she has responsibilities sometimes troubles but when she has troubles she looks back at that awful january day in kingston and wonders what the people who bled and died feeble little woes boes in that holocaust would think of her O service |