The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-02-05
HORRORS At
KINGSTON
Graphic Narrative by a
Nurse Who Was an
Eyewitness.

LyC-ViliiCSS'
PHILADELPHIA, January 90.
graphic story of the Kingston cata
trophe was told today by Miss Grac
Barton Turner, who, with her mothel
Mrs. Albert Turner, was rescued froI
the falling walls of the Hotel Roya
in Kingston by Mr.. Longley, of thi
city.
Miss Turner is a trained nurse
well as a teacher of physical culture
and for the past five years she ha
been a member of the Red Cross Soel
ETY.. Before the tortured earth IL
Kingston had finished quaking she he
roiealIy boarded a train laden will
| dying and mangled and cared for then
while they were being conveyed from
Kingston to the hastily erected hos
pitfalls in Spanish Town, an hours ruI
from the stricken port.
An American girl among a strange
people, she nursed those who were alien
to her with the courage and devotion
for which the nurses of the Red Cross
Society are known the world over.
CATER Mr.. Longley had so bravely
rescued mother and me-" said Miss
Turner today, land had seen that we
were safe and sound beside the race
track outside of Kingston, / began to
get over the dazed feeling that the
awful scenes and awful rocking of
the earth through which we had pass
ed had given US.
CRIES OF THE INJURED.
''The terrible cries of those who
were being torn limb from limb or be-
ing crushed in stone and wood, the
shrill weeping of women and children,
stirred my dull senses and 1 began
to grasp the whole situation we were
in. My mother is old, but she helped
me tend the wounded.
"Those terrible cries! / shall never
forget them. A few feet away from
mother and me 1 saw little English
girl, face all cut with glass and right
arm hanging limp and broken. She
was crying bitterly for her mother. l
secured a quantity of bandages and
splints from the hospital in the sol
diers' barracks after a lot of trouble,
and dressed the wounds and her face.
81 tried to comfort her, but she
was inconsolable for the loss of her
mother. She had, indeed, lost her moth
er-poor child-for we found the
woman-still young and pretty-dead,
beneath beam that had crushed her
in her home. a few feet away was
lying the body of her other child, a
boy, whose head had been crushed like
an eggshell by falling masonry.
"AH the natives were crazy with
fear. Ny Red Cross training stood
me in good stead. 1 went in the ruins
of Kingston to help those still living.
1t is difficult to depict what L saw.
Everywhere were ruins, ruins. Build
ings had tumbled down like houses
of cards; overhead there was a somber
haze. while here and there could be
seen protruding leg or arm, eloquent
of the tragedies enacted while the
earthquake eonvulsed the island.
NEARLY MADE HER FAINT.
"There was one tragic case that
nearly made me faint. Beneath the
ruins of little cottage we stumbled
upon the bodies of a mother and her
six children. All had been killed at
the same time. While we were ex-
aiming each body in the hope of dis
covering some spark of life, we were
aroused by a frantic, hoarse voice be-
hind US. 1t was filed with grief un-
speakable.
Then a soldier thrust his way among
49, S1SA OhC dWA0A iOOh dl AhC OV0iOS
and then staggered back, his hands
pressed over his eyes. Not a sound
did he utter. but his great, strong body
shook convulsively. and never have
seen such evidences of silent suffer-
ing upon a human face. He turned
slowly away, seemed to hesitate a mo-
ment. and then. before any of us could
interfere, deliberately killed himself by
shooting himself through the head with
his revolver.
Naturally, was completely upset
by this occurrence and the scenes be-
came so trying to my nerves that
was warned by physician that 1 had
better desist. I would have stuck to
the work if had ben alone, but 1 had
my mother to think of. as well as my
father at home.
RESOLVED TO RETURN.
Food was scarce and I finally agreed
with Mr.. Longley that we should take
the first vessel that would bear US
back to the States. We found that
there was little chance of our getting
out of Kingston by water. so great was