Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-01-29

/ "A Crl0tOO0I. Centre
turbance-Churches Dismantied. 0mces
| OverthrOwn. Jails TOtter-
ing and sStream Impreg-
mated With Sulphur.
Cable to the Herald.
The recurrent earthquake shocks in
Vuelta Abajo and Havana have thoroughly
alarmed the timid inhabitants of Western
Cuba. Toward five o'clock ON the MORN
ing of Sunday, January the 25, slight Os-
cillation in this city reused a comparatively
few from their slumber Later a sinister
heave tossed people from their pillows and
caused no little CONSERVATION. These recent
tremOrs have been multiplied at certain
points of the interior, where ON the night
Of the 25th three shocks are recOrded-at
nine, eleven and two o'clock. From San
| Diego, Santiago dc las Vegas, Pinar del
Rio, CienfuegOs, Mariel, and elsewhere,
come accounts of earthquakes and public
terror, mOnopOlizing the press to the ex-
clusiOn of other matter. San CristObal,
the apparent centre of the disturbance, is
town Of about thousand inhabitants
and one hundred houses. 1t is seventy
five miles from Havana and seventeen
miles from Majana bay, on the south
coast.
A visit discloses the fact that the con-
cussiOn there last Thursday night nearly
tumbled the place to ruins. The church
stands tOttering, with its portico disman-
tied in front, its pillars razed, it's cupOla
awry, its windows shattered and its altar
disturbed. The priest escaped from his
house while the wall was falling. The tel.
egraph office is half demolished. The gov
ernment and principal buildings are unten-
able. A drug store, which was large and
heavily stocked to supply the surrounding
IS p6 m ha inf
strewn deep with debris from empty
shelves. A primitive and cumbersome
Jail filled with prisoners and their guards,
is dismembered in every part. The pres
ence of mind of the inmates was unique.
The prisoners instantly leaped for liberty,
and the guards as promptly interfered.
One convict was shot dead after emerging
through a crevice made by the earthquake
and bursting open an outer door. Three
guards were wounded in the melee. Four
teen others of the inmates are in hospital
with injuries sustained from falling beams
and masonry.
The dwellings, suffered OH line distinct
ly traceable through the town, intersecting
the aforementioned building and leaving
others almost unharmed, though most OF
them were badly built of adobe. An
American from Portland, Me-, was nearly
crushed under his kitchen chimney. A
small stream runs past San CristObal, and
the railroad bridge that spans it had its
foundations so shaken that trains now cross
at snail-like pace until repairs can be
made. On the verge of this stream sew
eral assures are discernible. being from
three to ten inches wide and from forty to
one hundred feet long. Some OF them al
of considerable depth. The inhabitants
aver that on the morning after the earth
quake these assures emitted sulphurOus
vapOrs, and that the stream itself was
strongly impregnated with sulphur and
salt.
A military guard and committee of en-
gineers were dispatched to San CristObal
by the government, and their decision is
understood to be that 10 injured structures
shall be repaired, but all Elust come down
and be rebuilt. Meanwhile scores of resi-
dents are leaving spot that is now deemed
to be accursed. The widest theories are
rife, based on superstitiOns three centu-
ries old. In the country dozens of evil
influences are held to be accountable, while
in Havana the New York gas cOmpany's
fresh trenches are denounced by negro
preachers, who prophesy speedy apOca-
lypse, preceded by a swallowing up of the
earth. The captain general and his army
are in the centre of the island. Meantime
the government has taken measures of
temporary relief for those who have been
excluded from their homes at San CristO-
bal and elsewhere.