Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-10-25
Letter from Cuba.

!
in Cuba, where he superintends the rum
ming of several large engines used upon
the sugar plantations near Sagua. He
narrowly escaped from death during the
great gale or cyclone of September 4lh.
1 in which more than one thousand lives
were lost and several million dollars
worth of property destroyed. As he WAS
upon the Santa Teresa estate, which was
totally destroyed. in about the center of
the greatest devastation, the following
extracts from letter written to his fam
lily may be interesting, but has not be-
| fore appeared on account of the Fair re-
ports.
Sta Teresa, Sept. 4, 1883.
/ sent you a letter Monday and to-day
| is Wednesday. Yesterday at about ten
o'clock in the morning the wind com
menced to blow from the west and at
daylight 1t was blowing a pretty strong
gale but not so hard as to prevent our
commencing work. At about s o'clock
it blew so hard and the rain was so severe
that the wind drove the rain through our
building, which was open from the caves
to the ground ! soon noticed that the
big chimney began TO sway, there were
three of the chimneys, one for the en-
| CINE and two for the boiling house, they
were perhaps two hundred feet apart.
Next | saw the roof of the building be-
gan to rise and fall with the wind and
at about 10 A. Nit went of in two pieces
The building was in the form of a cross
with the chimneys in the angles, ! was
standing near the center of the building,
as thought that would be less liable to
20, the main portion of the building be-
ing towards the west, the direction from
| Va hinh tho Wind au "a N 70 min
one of the big chimneys went down but
the crash could hardly be heard on ac-
count of the bowling of the wind. One
half Of the building was covered with
tile, made of the same material as the
brick, one foot long and three-fourths of
an inch thick, Gu vcd. and laid tie first
tier with the concaye side up and the |
next with the convex side up, the re-
mainder of the roof was covered with |
sheets of zinc about 20 inches wide by u |
long and the air was full of these sheets |
of zinc and tile. Soon after the chimney |
fell looked up and saw one half of the |
roof over my head rising aud | thought |
it was time to start, | went out of the |
west side, as | was sheltered on that |
side by the blacksmith shop, aud ran
over to the Supt's. house, about 200 feet |
away. When | reached there saw that
all of the roof of the building had left
had gone and also the two chimneys but
had not heard any crash. Ny three |
rooms had stone walls and Is the walls |
were very solid had no fear of their
blowing down but they were in direct
line east of one of the great chimneys,
when looked around saw part of
the big chimney in my bed, and said, all
right, if you like the bed lie there. The
house of the superintendent is long
one standing up about five feet from the
ground, with low posts, piazza seven
or eight feet wide surrounds the house.
under the house is a stone wall and un-
der the piazza Is another stone walt, the
floor timbers lie across from one wall 10
the other, so you see there was "A nice
cellar under the house, into this we went
and were safe. At noon the wind went
down for short time, all of this time il !
had been changing around to the north
and thence to the east, at six in the even
ing it was blowing from the south. At
about II p. VI. the wind began TO rise
again and at o'clock all the roofs on
the big sugar house were gone. There is
not a whole roof on thee state, $780, 900
Will not put the buildings in repair. The
big fly wheel of the engine was broken
4
trees were carried hundred feet stand
ing upright, trees four inches in diane
ter were torn out of the ground. The
carts had all been repaired and were at
the west side of the buildings, all of the
horses and two yoke of oxen were near
them and the whole were blown into one
pile, the oxen at the bottom There are
no trains and the telegraph wires are all
down to-day. This morning looking
towards Sagua we can see the river out
side its banks and going into the coun-
try. Yesterday we ate breakfast at
about 4 A. NJ. and then anything we
could get, but could kindle no fires.
There was a fine grove of cocoanut trees
here yesterday, to-day there are but four
or five and they are as bare as posts.
Sunday, Sept. 9th. There has no
mail gone to Havana vet so | have not
been able TO send the letter written the
day after the cyclone. If | could but
write so that you could half realize how
fearful that was. Many places cannot be
rebuilt ON account of want of means. /
forgot TO tell you how the great bell
rang all day, during the storm. Yester-
day the first trains came from Sagua.
More than half of Sagua is in ruins. One
woman was found with a child tightly
elasped under either arm and all were
dead Many families were swept away,
none left. You cannot imagine how ter
rible it all is. The administrator of the
Puma was detained here twenty-four
hours before he could get across the Tiv-
er and go to Sagua. Every house on the
Puma is down and the engine is badly
broken. | expect to go there this week.
All the places near the Puma are down
and think neither of the five can re-
build. At the town end of the railroad
of the Puma schooner was lying at the
wharf and after the storm it was found
lying high and dry, twenty rods from
the wharf on the railroad track. The
river from here to the mouth, about -
miles, runs west, the banks here are
very high but the water was blown up
the river so that it came to the edge of
our yard. One-half mile below here the
railroad crosses the river and five years
ago the water was so high that the track
ON the bridge was covered with water,
tha ao,nnonv fhan raised tho hridUa five