The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-03
HAVOC ~ THIRTY SECONDS-

| foundation work. such being the purposes
for which the church walls are now coming
down.
! HAVOC IN THIRTY SECONDS.
! An earthquake Of thirty seconds duration
/ in June. 1863. killed 400 persons in this city
and injured 1900. 1t occurred early in the
evening, when service was in progress in
the Cathedral 1t was the eve of Corpus
Christi The walls parted and the roof fell
in, so that nothing remained standing ex-
/ cept part of the tower. OF the 1000 persons
| in attendance not 100 escaped unframed.
| Some who were saved had TO dig their way
/ out through masses of stone mortar and
thing which had so fallen as simply to coop
! them in. In the choir loft the occupants di-
| vided IN order TO descend by stairways at
| the right and left of the organ. The stair
! way at the right fell with the crashing
wall, killing everyone who had taken flight
| that way. That at the left, built against
the tower wall. held in place. and the refu-
| gees there got away without physical dam
/ age except few bruises from stray bits
| of wall and roof DETECTED in their direction.
Men raked over the ruins for three days be-
/ fore they were clear Of the bodies. The Of
/ fetal account Of the shock reported the de-
struction of twenty-eisht public buildings
and such damage to forty-six others that
| they had TO be built anew: and the wreck
age of so private buildings, of which 52S
were thrown to the ground. Waves on the
| beach rose three feet above mean high
water mark, and moved inland nearly one
/ quarter of a mile.
The government building went down. Its
| foundations of great granite blocks. COW
| ering an area of fully two hundred feet
| square, furnish ever present evidence OF
the ruin there wrought Since that time
| the central government has been housed
across the plaza in the Ayuntamiento. on
| the site on which the City Hall stood. That
building also went down, but when public
\ repairs were made the plan was to leave
the most costly structures to the last, and
reconstruction of the palace never
reached. From the palace had extended
bridges over the side streets. one to the
Audiencia. or building of justice. and the
other to the Intendencia. which housed the
treasury. custom house and other revenue
Offices A portion of one of these sites not
yet built over shows a strip of broken
stone wall at least three feet thick. a
lot separated from the Ayuntamiento by
narrow street contains pieces of wall in
dicating the boundaries of the government
hospital until that night. II had frontage
of 100 feet and a depth of 500 or more, and
was of solid stone construction. Churches
fell in all the districts. There a girls
school, Sta. Potenciana, for the orphans of
Spanish soldiers, located on the corner OPP
posite the ruins of the Jesuit Church, which
mad fallen in 1852. 1t had been built with
broad stairways from entrances on the two
streets. The girls fairly flew down the
stairways. There were 200 of them, and
everyone got out safely, although the build
ing fell within half a minute after the
beginning of the shock. Sta. Isabel.
other girls school, took them in, and the
two schools have since remained united.
NAILED FEET TO FLOOR.
In one house a barefooted native dropped
to his knees when the shock came, with
his back to a mantel piece on which stood
large metal clock. with pointed orna-
ments like spires at the corners. The clock
tipped upside down in falling and the spires
nailed the natives feet to the floor. Part
of the Bridge of Spain, which seemed then
as now as firm as a highway, proved I'M
equal to the strain that night and traffic
across the Pasig had to seek some other
channel for a while. Not far from the
bridge, on the north side, a slab of stone
from a wall caught fleeing native and
fastened him securely to the ground
that Ii took several hours work TO loosen
him. He twisted himself a little after
he had been freed, if 70 shake his
bones back into place, and then trotted
off apparently unframed. Nipa huts. built
to bend before storms like trees in the
wind, seemed TO have their elasticity fright
ened out of them by the earthquake. and
lay sprawled on the ground all over the
city.
The few who ventured out that night
found relief parties at work, but the streets
otherwise deserted. Even in the busiest
districts desolation ruled outdoors. Now
and then a scudding figure, nerved by the
appeals of frenzied families. ran through
the shadows and among the sepulchers that
the night had made, searching for someone
whom he dreaded to find. and knocking
with timid hope at the doors of hospitals
and of the emergency refugees scattered
about. But in all the dwellings there were
lights. and the inmates huddled close to
them. on their knees counting their beads,
crying and praying aloud.
The damage by that earthquake in Ma
Mia was estimated at about $S.OO0.O00. 1t
moved the pity of many persons here and
elsewhere and a fund, believed to have
amounted to between 100000 and 100000,
poured in for their benefit No one had to
account for ii. and no one did. Governor
Taft recalled this circumstance recently in
a letter which he wrote to the promoter of
a plan for a monument to the memory of
Dr. Jose Rial whom the Filipinos regard
as their chief martyr. The Governor sug-
gested that If the fund were to be raised
by popular subscription advance provision
be made for safe deposit and proper &C
countability. The earthquake rake-off Is
said TO have exceeded $1,000
In 1850 Manila had a shock, not COM
parable with that of 1863. although more
severe than any in intervening years 1t
worked considerable destruction of prop
erty, especially to buildings that still car
Tied tiled roofs There was another nota-
BILE shock in 1857. lasting for some time. but
quite free from violent motion. How long
a visitation such as that Of 1863 may delay
its coming is wholly beyond conjecture.
Poor as are the records of earthquakes
previous TO that one, IL would seem as
though such extensive destruction as that
worked would have been mentioned had II
occurred before. Yet there is no story OF
loss OF life and property so appalling ex-
cept that relating 10 an earthquake in 1915
which DESTROYED ALI of the puhlic huiId-