Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-02-21
A COUNTRY IN RUINS.
Costa RiGa COnYulSGd by Earthquakes
The Topography Of the Country
Completely Changed.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES.

New YORK, February 16.-A letter just
received from Costa Rica says: San Jose,
the capital of the republic, has been COM
pletely destroyed by earthquakes, begin
ming on the evening of December 20 and
the latest and severest passing over yes
terday. As nearly as can be aScertained
about 200 lives have been lost thus far,
and the injured number nearly 600. The
homeless multitude of terrOr-stricken sur
vivorS wander about in state of demOr-
allied CONSERVATION easier imagined than
described. At every point one is met by
scenes of convulsiOnS and deSOlatiOn. To
find oneself living seems marvellous.
\ TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
A little house on pOrtrero (graSS pas
ture) was inhabited by man with his wife
and five children. At the first shock they
ran out of the house wildly toward sugar
plantation. What happened is best de
Scribed in a translation of the terrified
wOman's recital to your correspondent:
"Three of the children went with my huS-
band. | carried the baby in my arms and
led little Juanita by the hand. We had
gone but short distance and my husband
was about one hundred yards ahead of me
when the earth seemed to melt to water
and rise up over my husband and children
in a great wave. For moment | saw
them struggling wildly as though drown
ing Their death shouts nearly caused me
to drop, and they were gone forever, and
no sign Of the place where the earth had
opened and swallowed them was left to
show where they had been. | turned in
another direction, but the earth seemed
to rise and fall all around me. For five
terrible minutes, which seemed ages, l
struggled through the moving mass, which
came to my hips. Little Juanita was
quickly torn from me, and all | could do
was to save the baby by holding him as
high as | could, my one desperate resolve
being to reach Alajuela." She reached
Alajuela about an hour after the shock,
thoroughly exhausted and more dead than
alive. She is now in the care of some rel
atiYeS, who are doing everything to quiet
her grief Her terrible experience has
turned her hair from jet black to snow
white, and though the account she gives
is coherent enough, she is on the verge of
losing her reason.
Your correspondent passed by the scene
of this strange experience by going lit
tie out of the way back to San jose
Houses and plantations have completely
disappeared, and where they once were
now appears waste of earth like unto a
new plOughed field A hill that bounded
the West side of the plantation week
ago is now on the East side. where before
was grass plain.
Where yesterday was green of waving
sugar cane, or coffee trees, or pasture on
which cattle browsed peacefully, all has
gone-utterly vanished, with all that was
living or human, with man and his habit
alton, beast and growing crops, roads,
fields, and murmuring streams. III their
stead only the aweSOmeneSS of brown and
barren EARTH like that of an uptUrned
grave. Every landmark, every feature of
the topography is Obliterated.
In all Central America there was no
more picturesque and delightful city than
this little capital of Costa Rica, upon
which has come this sudden and terrible
devastation. Occupying delightful and
elevated plateau nearly midway between
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and 1900
feet above the level of the sea, the town
was the home of population of nearly
10000 souls, busy commerce, charming
AndaluSian society, and center of ad-
vanced progress and culture. Its regu-
larly laid out and well paved streets, lined
with handsome residences, its magnificent
cathedral of classic architecture, its great
and busy market, with glass and iron roof,
its university and schools, its plazas and
ancient churches, its flowers and fOun-
tainS, its theater and its bull ring, its mills,
factories and stores are mass of ruins
The city's destruction is as complete as
was that of POmpeii.