The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-20
TERROR IN CAUCASUS
TERRIBLE EFFECTS OF EARTH
QUAKE WHICH SWALLOWED
UP THOUSANDS
MOST GIGANTIC CATACLYsM
Afraid That Further Seismic Dis
turbances May Develop Active
Volcanoes in Center of Oldest
Oil Region of World.
Special to The Globe.

Special to The Globe.
BAKU, March 19.-Thousands Of lives.
instead of hundreds, as at first intimated
were lost in the recent earthquake in .he
1rans-Caucasian region, which now
proves to have been one Of the most ire
mendous cataclysms that ha shapened
recently.
Besides Schemacha. villages in a circle
Of over dozen miles were affected. and
the total number lost may never be
known A reign Of panic exists in the
Trans Caucasus in consequence Of the
fear that other seismic disturbances win
follow:
This is not the first time Schemacba
has been visited by earthquakes IN 1889
and again in 1872 the town was badly
damaged and many lives lost by the
same means. Schemacha was a pleasant
town Of $4,000 Inhabitants situated in
the center of the wine growing region
lt IS magnifcently situated, $50 feet above
sea level on a southern spur Of the eau
casuS ranges, at the extreme southeast
corner OF the Tfans-Ca ucasuian Russia
IL IS distant about 100 miles from Baku
on the western shore Of the Casnian
me town was once noted for its manufac-
lures OF SILK, but they have mostly died
OUT and it lately formed d base OF com
merclal activity for supplies needed Nv
BIZ FoHOAdNAOn OF the caucasus.
Inc most terrible thing about the
earthquake was that no conspicuous nre-
mohltory signs of the CONFUSION were
gwen. The first shocks were so slight
Ihat no notice was taken particularly
as they are by no means an unusual phe-
homenon in the neighbrohood
Eye witnesses of the affair describe If
as having been so horrible as to par
alyze the people with fear, preventing
even those uybn
escaped from saving themselves. IT
was about noon on a Thursday, which
was market day in Schemaka, and the
market place was full of people bartering
Dusily.
With an almost miraculous suddenness
a sullen detonation, resembling thunder
was heard, mighty crevasse was OPEN
ca, the earth yawned with a horrible.
almost conscious rapaoity, and the whole
CT Schemacha trembled, rocked, collapsed
and was a city no more.
Public buildings, including, churches.
barracks, the hospitals, railway station.
private buildings of all kinds. tottered
IKE pack of cards burying thousands
in heaps Of ruins, and in the assure
which had been formed in the earth's
crust.
The work of rescue continued for sew
eral days after the shocks ceased. per
starving condition days afterwards.
The appealing cries from those whom
1T was impossible to rescue were some
thing indescrbable. The horrors Of tha
survivors We're Intensified by them and
by the generally hopeless task of search
ing for the lost. Mothers who had lost
their children waved their arms frantf
cally over the abyss and in some cases
actually threw themselves into the Gre
vase after their loved ones. Little ones
who had lost fathers and mothers walked
about crying for them. and adding to tia
appalling confusion.
The region in which Schemacha is sit
uated is one of the most interesting in
the world. 1t occupies the isthmus be-
tween the Black sea and the Caspian
and has given the name to one of the
chronological divisions OF the human race
There is really a peculiar blending of
races at this point, a mixture of de-
scendants of Persians, Assyrians, Arabl-
ans, Jews, Phoenicians inhabitants of
Asia Minor and the Caucasus. The prin-
cipal tribes today are Tsherkesses, or
C1rcassians, Ossetes, Lesghians Abscha-
slams, Georgians Suans and Tchetches.
The GeorgianS and Ossetes are at least
nominaliy Christians, while the Lesghians
are blgoted Mohammedans The Byzan-
tine emperors and kings of Georgia plant
ed Christian churches throughout this
region, many ruins of which remain. some
being very beautiful. The Christianity
practiced by the people today VINO pro-
fess it has a large flavor of paganisn
The people are extremely valorous, and
very found of freedom. They are also
cruel and treacherous. The rural popu-
lation lives principally on the fruits OK