Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-01-18
Capital ofJamaica
Mass of Blackened
and TaviSted rains
Bodies of Hundreds of Victims Still Buried
in Debris Not Single Inhabitable
House Remains in Stricken City.
Financial Loss Placed at $25,OOO,OOO.

TBy Morning journal Special Leased Wire. !
London, Jan. 17.-Some graphic de-
tails of the Kingston disaster are given
in one of the latest dispatches received
here, dated from Holland bay Janu-
ary Is, According to this report, the
whole city of Kingston seemed to
shrivel up, buildings crashed together
and fell in crushed mass under the
first shock. The business streets at the
time were well filled with tourists, and
according to this correspondent no
doubt many of them were caught in
the falling brickwork and buried in
the debris. Fire broke out immedi-
ately after the crash at three separate
points. The fire department station
was wrecked, rendering resistance to
the flames impossible. The eonflagra-
tion continued unchecked until Tues
day morning by which time the whole
business quarter of Kingston had been
wiped out, the damage in the area
comprising about a square mile. All
the large warehouses in the lower part
of the city were consumed and not a
single house anywhere remained un-
damaged, the majority being unfit for
habitatlon. When the dispatch was
filed the bodies of many persons who
had been stopping at the Myrtle Bank
hotel were still beneath the wreokage.
a conservative estimate of the cas-
ualties made by the police of King
ston place the number of killed at
1,2O0, Judging from the number of
bodies already discovered in the few
buildings which have been examined.
This estimate, the correspondent adds,
is likely to be largely increased when
a thorough search is made of the
wrecked buildings.
THE treasury on Harbor street was
standing, but the postoffice and court
house were in ruins. The government
offices were unsafe for occupation the
government house was badly damaged
the Colonial bank was burned out the
Nova Scotia bank was heap of ruins
The Roman Catholic cathedral, the
parish church and the Scotch, West
Ryan and Baptist chapels had disap-
peared and the theatre was destroyed.
AT Port Royal at the entrance of
Kingston harbor, one of the batteries
sank and a gunner was killed.
The ships in the harbor were trans
formed into hospitals. The cabins Of
the steamer Port Kingston were fuli
of dead and dying DR.. Evans, the
ship's doctor, was busy from tive
o'clock in the evening to o'clock
the next morning.
When Captain Young of the Royal
Mail steamer Arno was killed First
Officer McCauley assumed command
of the vessel and seeing the hre
spreading ashore, he steamed along
side the burning Royal Mail com
pany's wharves and there fought the
fire all night long and saved one OF
the piers In the meantime the docks
of the Arno had become covered with
burned and injured persons who We're
without aid to relieve their sufferlngs.
There had been a great exodus of peo-
pie from Kingston to the hill-tops'
ships and other places of safety. Many
seAeAFafids were camping in the open.
The entire city will have to\b re-
built. One official estimate places the
loss at $25,000,000
A number of assures in the( earth
have appeared, the street car tracks
are out Of shape, the rails are twisted,
the water mains and the gas and elec-
tric pipes and wires are in complete
disorder, while the destruction OF
the bonded warehouses fills the AIR
with an overwhelming odor of rum.
The statue of the late Queen We
toria, in the center of the city, was
reversed, by the earthquake, but II Is
otherwise intact.