The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-10-20

who were covered, aad so protected by t4
falling beams and rafters; but all who es
capped to the street are said to have persisted
for the unhappy walls as they came tumblinE
down, thrown outward too by the beams ane
roofs, left them no escape. For a like rea
son the "pstios, or small inner court-yards
surrounded by four inner walls and corridors
were near about as dangerous as the street
In the thickly bails part of the town most
of the unipjured took refuge precipitatey in
the "solar" or open yard in the rear of their
dwellings, it requiring Of course some little
time for the topping walls to reach the
ground. Persons who escaped say that they
fels as if the end of the world had come, and
they alone remained alive. A cloud of dense
and suffocating dust shut out the light of
Gay, so that brief darkness added to the
horrors Of the scene. There had been Of
course no time for shrek of terror; but
the means of the wounded and mangled, and
cries, often Intellectual for hello, were not
long in making themselves heard.
The number of the victims of shis disaster
will never be accurately known, for two rea-
sons: 1st The survivors soon scattered 20
the four winds 2nd. Because the census
in Colombia embraces the whole district, and
not the town proper. $4,000 or $4,000 was
the population of San Jose with its outlying
district, and so the report went forth that
out of population of IA, 900, only some 200
escaped; this being for some time the esti-
mate of the saved. The real population of
the city was l suppose about 5000 or per-
haps 10000. On the outskirts and in tho
less compactly built parts of the city, few
seem to have perished, there having not been,
as was first reported, any oVerturning of the
earth, nor sinking of the same, nor inunda-
ton Of waters; while the more slight con-
structiOn of the houses, built with posts, with
splits of bamboo tied transVersely, for outer
and inner wall, filled in with earth and plas-
tered oyer) gave the humble classes all the
advantage. This time atleast ''pallid dealt"
came with very unequal steps calling at the
dwellings of the great and tee cabins of the
poor The most reliable estimate is that
1000 persons perished in San Jose alone,
without counting the victims Of other small
er towns around, several of which were as
utterly overthrOwn as was San Jose. With
in radius Of y or IA leagues houses were
thrown down, churches leVeed, or sadly rent,
and considerable parts of towns and cities
fell, even where the destruction was very
partial. Few houses whether in town or
country escaped without more or lesa damage.
The Spanish style of cemetery is to build
three tier of vaults above ground, large
enough to slip in coffin endwise, in the in
ner side of the wall; foreigners and ithe
eoorer sort Of the people claiming ;hs pfiy-
ilege of minglng their ashes with the mother
earth. A gentleman who visited the scene
of destruction, said to me that on passing
graveyard near the road side, he was horri-
bly, shocked at seeing the walls, vaults, cOf-
6ns, and sometimes exposed bodies, or bones,
all hu1dled together in this general ruin,
which spared not even the dwelling places of
the dead
Midway between San Jose and Rosario
earth was overturned; gaping and impass-
able raVines opened, and forest land, or the
shade trees of cocoa plantations, uprooted
and heaped together, making that road quite
impassable. Some four or FIVE leagues from
San Jose on the road to Pamplona (12 or IA
leagues this side of San JOSEF where, when
l passed, the road was one of desperate de-
scents and ascents, and good road was cut
ting at much toll and expense along the
betting brow of the mountain, oVerhangiDg
rapid river many hundred feet below, the
rocks and earth were hurled down with great
violence, and that then almost finished road,
as well as the old one, rendered. in places
quite impossible. a gentleman from this
place had charge of large body of the
Pamploua penitentiary cOnvictS working
there at the time; several of them we're kill
ed, and naturally enough ne had no small
trouble to prevent both guard and c0nvic.s
from making general escape.
Who could describe the suferings of the
survivors of San Jose, who arose that dread
ful morning in the possession of all that
makes life dear, when on that dismal after
noon long and heavy rain set in, accom-
panied with penetrating cold, unknown in
that ardent climate without home, without
food, without shelter; parents without chill
dren, children without parents, husbands
without wives, wives without husbands, many
Of them mangled, and all Of them stunned
and overwhelmed by the suddenness and COM
pleteness of their ruin, and without the light
or consultations of the pure gospel to dissi-
pate at least part of their gloom, with the
precious assurance and promise of the word
of God Till they could get away, hasty
shelters were improviaed; but though their
trunks, clothing and only food were so near
by, they were too securely buried to be Of
any avail.
The shocks were continued for many days,
the principal one being distinctly felt here,
and as far as Bogotd, 200 miles further south,
For more than 100 miles around, suppose
49, fnm nnnnln alant In their hnnses. for