Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-23
1000 DIED; LOSS, $50, ooo, 900.
Magazine Writer Says Americans
Were Ill-Treated in Kingston.

NEW YORK, January 23.-Broughton
Brandenburg. the magazine writer. says in
the New York Herald today Of the earth
quake situation in Kingston:
Hard on the heels of the blow of death
and destruction came signs of English pref
udice against Americans. Little signs OF
minor snobbishness such as all travellers
observe rapidly intensified into deliberate
acts of selfish churlishness and even bru-
tally which are SO remarkable that it re-
quires an earthquake to account for them.
This is in no wise true of the native white
Jamaica women or men. The negroes cursed
Americans wherever they appeared, after
they had recovered from their panic, blam-
ing Americans and their money for the
woe of Jamaica. The evil attitude upon
the part of the thorough-going British
found it's climax in official neglect and
mistreatment and the gross acts of Capt.
Parsons of the steamship Port Kingston
acting directly under Sir Alfred Jones, Sir
Ralph Moor, Lord Mountmorres and others.
AT the Constant Spring Hotel, owned by
the Elder-Dempster company, or the Dr.
rect West India line. of which Sir Alfred
Jones is the chairman and many of his
large party Of eighty are shareholders, his
party was associated with a slightly larger
number of Americans. There had been
nothing but the usual distance and for
mality between the two companies until
the earthquake happened. At once trif1ing
instances of the Englishman looking out
for himself first occurred.
Small boats of all sorts had been deliver
ing all afternoon and evening wounded and
refugees, Jamaicans, Americans, Germans,
etc, aboard the Port Kingston to be cared
for. DR.. Arthur Evans Of the ship and
Nurse Cross, accompanying a woman Of
Sir Alfred Jones party on the voyage out
on the Port Kingston a few days before
service he
highly honored. On Monday night Sir Ralph
Moor obtained large number Of carriages
and appeared at the Constant Spring to
take the English refugees aboard the ship
but the greater number declined to go
while the wounded and refugees were
aboard. number of Americans were ask
ed to go in the carriages and accepted.
Helpless, Ordered Ashore.
The next day orders were issued at noon
on board the ship that everybody on board
must be on shore by o'clock, as she was
to sail under sealed orders. By this time
the refugees knew there was no place on
shore to take them, that the blacks were
fighting In the streets for food and many of
the men were on shore endeavoring to res
cue baggage or find missing friends. The
party aboard was mostly Of women and
children. and these begged and pleaded with
Sir Ralph Moor and Capt. Parsons to be
allowed to remain aboard till they could
>.
Among those who made personal appeals
were a Mrs. De Lisson. whose husband was
aboard helpless, and she left to care for the
four small boys: Mrs. Edgar de Cordova
and her family, her husband having been
killed in the streets; a Mrs. Troler, alone
with two little girls, one of them suffering
with pneumonia, and others.
Mr.. Emil A. B. Winkler Of No. 81 Broad
way, New York, and Mr.. Adolf Harder,
late purser of the Prinzessin Victoria Luise,
hearing of the order, hurried to the rail-
way dock at which the Port Kingston lay
and assembled the astounded, bewildered
angry refugees In the shade Of the Ham
burg-American dock.
The poor sufferers, many of them delirious
with fever. many suffering from internal
injuries which should have precluded their
removal, were carried ashore and laid in
long row on the uneven dirty planks of the
railway shed, usually serving as banana
wharf. A train was shunted in and all that
1t could carry were taken away to Spanish
Town, where the best accommodations for a
lot of wounded people before the earth
quake were very bad. The others were left
lying on the dock and on Thursday morn
Ing, in company with Commander Robinson
of the Indiana, / showed him the pitiful
row. IN the same dirty, L.oody clothing they
wore when stricken, lying on blankets,
scraps of tarpaulin, few old steerage mat
tresses, and including man with both
thighs broken, a woman dying from many
injuries, man and a woman with frac-
tured skulls, etc. A few were taken away
whereabouts. From the time Commander
Robinson saw these unfortunate people un-
til he could get and make report and
doctors could be hurried with launches to
take all on board the American ships, all
but three were hurried away by the off,
cials on the spot, who suddenly woke up to
what their acts seemed to outsiders.
Food Refused by English.
Capt Richard Vahsel, now in charge OF
the wreck of the Prinzessin Victoria Luise
seeing that the Hamburg-American dock
was in danger Of destruction by fire late
Monday night, organized the little squad of
picked men left from his ship and with
the assistance of Second Officer Heinze got
out odd pieces of hose and formed a brigade
to fight the flames. He saved the Elder
Dempster dock, No. coal dock. the Ham,
burgAmerican and the railway dock. The
food on the Hamburg American was raw
food in large bulk, barrels of -four barrels
of dried apples. &c. He made application
to Capt. Parsons for food enough for one
meal for the men who had saved the Port
kingstons dock and also the berth at
which she then lay and was refused
The Hamburg-American dock had become
known the refuge for Americans, and in
out notifying either Capt. Peploe Forwood
the general agent sleeping on the dock, his
own home being destroyed, or any one in
authority, Capt. Parsons put an armed
when in the night some of the women ran
out during a tremor they were roughly
handled by the guard and Parsons came
down storming. threatening to shoot any
one who left the dock.
Sir Alfred Jones party appeared on
Wednesday night in full gaze of the Ameri-
can refugees In evening dress dined and
after song service of praise and graft
tude over their salvation turned in. The
Americans on the adjoining dock sleeping
on their trunks, on bales of hay a few
mattresses from the wrecked ship, on sacks
of coffee, or on the dirty floor Of the dock,
seeing the abundant room and comfort
aboard the Port Kingston, sent a commit
,, tee. the Rev. Father ODonovan of Boston,
Calvin l.. Payne, a banker, of Indiana polls,
and the Rev. II. F. Aud of Hatboro, Pa,
on board to take signed petition asking
that the American refugees a whole and
! II not as whole. merely the women and
children, might go aboard, spread their
wraps on the decks and sleep, promising to
go and come in orderly fashion and urging
that the repeated shocks kept the women
and children in u state of fear that only
the knowledge that they were safe on a
ship would assulge. Capt Parsons and
| Sir Alfred Jones were both addressed.
Bulldozed by Captain
/ Captain Parsons refused to allow the
| committee on board, and coming Off used
vio.ent language to the committee In re-
fusing. In a few minutes he came on the