The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-01-25

and solidity prevents them from falling
before the ordinary ter remote or trem-
bling of the earth, which is of almost
daily and nightly occurrence, but have
not prevented many and many catas-i
trophe. ~
The worst one within the memory of
citizens now living occurred in 1868,
when hundreds of people were killed OUT.
right, thousands seriously wounded,
twenty-five churches, including the:
splendid cathedral, destroyed, and be-
tween four and five thousand buildings
leveled to the ground. Happily it did.
their beds, and, thanks to the warning
given by premonitory shocks and the
prevailing low hight of the buildings
so that the falling walls did not in most
places cover the whole of the streets, the
loss of life was less than it would other
wise have been. l have heard the story
of that terrible time from the lips of sew
eral who lost home and loved ones by it.
The first shock was felt about 5 o'clock
p. NJ. in slight tremor of the ground.
which increased in violence at intervals
of fifteen or twenty seconds, until pres
emily the buildings began to toppfe. The
instant a te,wemote is felt, the people
rush pell-mell out of the doors, at what.
ever hour of day or night, regardless of
preservation; and Immediately after
wards, soon as the man whose express
business it is can reach the belfry, every
bell in the city begins to toll as an ex-
preston of prayer for deliverance or of
appeal if the terror has not subsidized.
On the occasion described, the quaking
ofthe earth was accompanied by an awful
rumbling, similar to the noise of an ava
lanche, and in less than three minutes the
church towers fell and the bells came
crushing to the ground. The great effort
of everybody was to keep well in the mid
die of the widest streets, to be more ont of
the reach of flying stones and timbers,
and to reach the broad open space of the
main plaza as the safest place; but the
earth shook so that it was extremely diff
ficult to keep ones feet, and in their flight
scores were buried under falling walls or
killed by the debris that filled the air.
The whole city was enyeloped in clouds
of dust and darkness, and above the sound
of the horrible rumbling re-echoed cries
of human anguish, the frantic believing
of beasts, the bowling of terrified dogs
and the cracking of tumbling buildings.
Not single house was left entire in Are
quipa, and but one church tower re-
mained-that of Santa Catarina; but it
was so damaged that it had to be pulled
down.
For weeks the citizens were compelled
to live in tents pitched near the bank of
the river, and for many days none dared
to return 20 town, because the rumbling
and shocks continued. Of course the
rougher element ventured forth first, and
many families whose valuables were
spared by the earthquake, or were but
partially buried by the debris, lost all at
hands of thieves. Meanwhile Mount
Misti, which had not been in eruption
before during the historical period, vom-
Of md How o,,1
clouds of smoke, the latter completely
hiding its sides from view, but through
the darkness came the horrible sound of
falling powders and roaring as of
colossal furnace. The usually calm river
was rendered impossible and unfit for
use, by reason of its sudden violence and
sulphurous odors, while the rise in it's
six hours several villages in the adjacent
valley We're swept entirely out of exist
ence.
The sick in the hospitals and the pris-
oners in the cdrcel, being unable to flee,
were buried in the ruins. Just now, after
twenty-three years, they are clearing out
the debris from the fallen walls of what
was once the women's hospital and occu-
pied square in the central part of the
city. We often extend our morning
walks in that direction, and seldom pass
without seeing skull, trunk or some
other portion Of human skeleton, re-
moved with the dust and stones and
crumbled plaster. Fast as the workmen
shovel into the debris it is dumped into
boxes that are run in on an improvised
railway, while a cart stands near into
which the bones are mostly piled and car
ried Off to the cemetery. The last time
we paused to watch the progress of the
work, one of the diggers picked out an
arm bone, wrapped it in bit of coarse
Il 4I1AA
it, and presented it to me for g'ecuerdo-
gruesome souvenir Of not the least sad
part of the great catastrophe. Eighty
women, helpless in their beds, buried
amid topping walls and not one of them
saved! 1t is to be hoped that all were in
stantly killed, and none left wounded to
perish by slow starvation. Stranger still
it seems that their remains were never
taken from the heap in which they fell,
but were left unburied for more than
twenty years in the heart of the city.
FANNIE B. WARD.