The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-17
CITY. sHRIVELED UP.
buildings Crashed Together and Fell
Under First shock

|
| Under First Shock.
London. Jan. 17.-Some graphic de-
| talls OF the Kingston disaster are CIV
| en- In one of the latest dispatches re-
celVed here, dated from Holland Bay.
January 10 According to this report
the Wnole city of Kingston seemed to
shrivel up, buildings crashed together
anu TEL IN crushed mass under the
hrst shock. The business streets at
the time were we'll filed with tourists,
and, according to this correspondent
no doubt many of them were caught
in the falling brick work and buried
in the deris
Fire broke out Immediately after
the crash at three separate points
The fire department station was
wrecked. rendering resistance to the
names impossible. The conhagration
continued unchecked until Tuesday
morning by which time the whole
business quarter of Kingston had been
ing ABOUT square mile. All the large
warehouses in the lower part of the
city were consumed and not single
house anywhere remained undamag-
ed, the majority being unfit for habi-
tation.
When the dispatch was filed the
bodies of many persons who had been
staying at the Myrtle Bank hotel were
still beneath the wreckage.
A conservative estimate of the cas-
ton place the number of killed at
1900, judging from the number of
bodies already discovered in the few
buildings which have been examined.
rms 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 70
government house was badly damag-
ed, the colonial bank was burned out
the Nova Scotia bank was a heap OF
ruins. The Roman Catholic cathe-
Scotch Wesleyan and Baptist chapels
had disappeared and the theater was
destroyed.
At Port Royal at the entrance of
Kingston harbor, one of the batteries
sank and gunner was killed.
The ships in the barber were trans
formed into hospitals.
The cabins of the steamer Port Kings
ton were full of dead and dying. Dr.
Evans, the ships doctor, was busy from
O'Clock in the evening to o'clock the
next morning. When Captain Young of
the Royal Mail steamer Arno was kill
ed First Officer McCauley assumed
command of the vessel and seeing the
fire spreading ashore, he steamed
alongside the burning Royal Mail COM
pdIy y WI1dFNeS ana there fought the
fire all night long and saved one of the
piers. In the meantime the decks of
Arno had become covered with burned
and injured persons, who were without
a doctor to relieve their sufferings.
There has been a great exodus of people
from Kingston to the hill tops, ships
and other places for safety. Many thou
sands are camping In the open.
The entire city win have to be rebuilt
One unofficial estimate places the loss
at $25, 900, O00
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 electric
pipes and wires are in complete disor-
der, while the destruction of the bonded
warehouses fills the air with an over
towering odor of rum.
The statue of the. late Queen Victoria.
in the center of the city, was reversed
by the earthquake, but it is otherwise
intact. x