The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-12-23
Written to a Dublin Physi-
clan by His Son Who
Was in Santiago.
TERRIBLE SCENES OF DEvAsTA-
TON DEPICTED BY A COLLEGE
STUDENT IN A MANNER THAT
WOULD DO CREDIT TO AN Elk
PERIENcED PRESS coRRE-
sPoNpENT.
BY Timothy J. o'connor.

6y timothy y. O'Connor.
Dublin, Dec. 22.-It is a far cry
, from Santiago and Valparaiso to Dub
lem and 1t is a long time since the
Chilean earthquake and yet what art
, perhaps the best written letters in
connection with that incident are
those which have been received by 9
, well known Dublin doctor from his
son, signed Jack" and dated at IN
tornado National, Santiago, Chile
August 81 The letters are certainly
, worthy of far wider circulation
than have been given them. Among
other things the son of the doctor
writes:
Here we are living in easy luxury,
the guests of the government, lodged,
fed, clothed and supplied with every
thing we could require from a tooth
brush to a portmanteau by the per-
sonal order of the president. The
story of the catastrophe is a fright
full one.
'The evening before the earth
quake we were playing football by
triple rainbow of extraordinary
|
its colors tinted the atmosphere all
round. 1t was the talk of the even
ing. and the old Spanish majordomo
said it predicted bad weather. Next
| day rain fell at a high temperature
and no one thought any more of the
matter. We had dinner as usual at
half past six and when the boys went
to study l went to my room to read.
/ could not fix my attention to read,
so spent my time looking through
the graphic about the king of
SPANS wedding and saw some photos
of the San Francisco disaster in the
same number.
AT ten minutes to eight l felt a
strong "trembler' but thinking it was
only our ordinarily little blood cur
dlers l did not at first take any no
tice. With increasing rapidity the
trembling increased and when l felt
the whole house swaying | jumped
up and opened my door but as l did
there was a frightful torremento-
earthquake. The house bounding out
of its foundations, jerking, wrestling,
straining in the hands of some awful
supernatural power, the walls ripping
open, gaping idiotically, and then fall
ing with sickening crash; l chung
to my door, the safest place in such
danger. The house seemed to
have gone mad and danced in its
homicidal frenzy Washstands, chairs,
bookcases and lighting lamps were
flung about the room like confetti.
The rumbling continued, but the
smashing and crashing, the crying.
talking and shouting of orders rose
loudly. l rushed into my room, trip
ping over my bookcase, picked up my
lamp and blew 1t out. The next room
was empty; Griffith had flown; his
lamp was blazing on the floor. ! ran
to the staircase and shouted for some
one to come; the house was on fire.
Il saw two panic-stricken little boys
at the foot of the stairs standing like
a stag before the foot of the pack.
I pushed into the garden door and
found Toro, a boy of about Is Ga
nephew of Balaeceda, the great presi-
dent of Chile) and two boys of about
the same age, Nietos, of the great
Nieto family. the great millionaires
of Valparaiso. We rushed upstairs
and gathering bed clothes of all sorts
tackled the flames. 1t was a terri
BILE fight; the bed had got the flames;
the smoke was frightful and any mo-
ment our retreat might be cut off
by the collapsing of the walls-as it
was they gaped and grinned, and
something threw bricks and motar
at us, and generally behaved like
half-witted boy at a burning house.
At last we gave a cheer; we had
won; the enemy's fire had ceased and
great clouds of smoke alone arose. |
asked for the light one was holding;
a moment poked about on the floor.
| was looking for mothers photo
graph; | could not find it. Nieto
picked up my big top coat and begged
me to come. We must go out and
put out all the lamps in the
house. What a terrible journey. |
Sometimes it was necessary to go
back and up and down the stairs an
other way because of the fallen walls. !
AT last we were all able to leave |
the house. The boys were all gathered /
in the glorietta, half way down. the |
vineyard. Eastward Don Emilos !!
Claro's beautiful residence burned !
like a beacon fire in the night. South /
ward the town lay and one thought /
of De Quincy's Essay on Roast Pig" /
Northward was open country-that is |
miles of walnut trees and in the dis /
lance the Andes; and to the west was Z
cur residence; and behind it the res
idence of Don Adolphe Eastman, and !
some said his house had caught fire: !
and when we went to see we found !
it was ours and the flames had got
beyond control, and that we had lost
everything we had in the world. /
went into one wing with Mr.. Hamil-
ton and we threw bedding out of the
window. The second earthquake
came then and as the walls continued {
10 crash We abandoned the house and
so many things we loved to the
danes. We had no time for regrets.
Lecky and / were sent into the town
to telephone to Valparaiso and San