Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-02-01


Of the Crushed Terrible.
Miss Grace Barton Turner of Pas.
sale, n. j.. one of the first three sur
vivors of the Kingston earthquake to
make their escape from the stricken
city. recently told ut the office of the
New York American this graphic story
of the tragedy:
History says that there have been
more awful tragedies than that saw
last Monday and Tuesday Gan. II and
l5l, but If that is true history has been
poorly written. for never have | read
| anything half so terrible as that. 1t
was so horrble-thcre were SO many
dead lying contorted and mangled ev-
erywhere; such fearful wreckage. with
the whole city In ruins and burning as
Nero's Rome must have burned; such
dissolution, shrieks, groans and hys
teric prayers! Oh, ! guess my senses
must have swooued, for no brain could
conceive of the Grazing terror of it all
had been travelling in Jamaica
with my mother, but we had been liv-
ing In Kingston at the Hotel Royal for
several weeks. Mr.. Longley, whom |
have known since childhood. was also
| stopping at the hotel, and on the day
| of the first earthquake shock he had
| gone to the steamship office to book
| our passage home on the Sampson.
| I ba1 hnap panL inc and Nyos stand.
| ing in the bathroom on the second
| floor. Mother was getting ready down
| stairs. There came Il rumble, low at
| first, then nearer, and the building be-
gan to shake Before | could even
grasp at the doorknob for support the
| hotel was rocking as though il were u
ship in an awful storm at sea.
screamed with fright as the wall
Of the bathroom collapsed and crash
ed to the ground outside, leaving me
standing at the very edge of the totter
Ing floor. | ran to the hall to meet
mother coming up the stairs. She was
injured, with great bruise on her
side All the time the building trem-
bled violently. but even in the excite
ment of the moment remember that
could hear the crashing of other build
ings the shrieks of dying men and wo-
men and din that sounded like the
thunder of a hundred falling cities.
Then our own building went down. |
would have been buried with my moth
er in its ruins, but just then Mr.. Long
ley. my fanee. came running through
the wreckage. He caught up both Of
us and carried us to the street and saw
that we were safe and sound at the
race track outside Of Kingston.
The terrible cries of those who were
being crushed by stone and wood the
shrill weeping of women and children,
stirred my dull sense, and | began to
grasp the awful situation. My mother
Is old, but she helped me tend the
wounded Those terrible cries, l shall
never forget them, A few feet from
mother and me | saw a little English
girl, face all cut with glass and right
arm hanging limp and broken. She
was crying bitterly for her mother. |
secured quantity Of bandages and
splints from the hospital at the SOL
diers' barracks after lot Of trouble
and dressed the wounds of the child.
tried to comfort her. but she was in
consolable for the loss of her mother.
She had indeed lost her mother, poor
child, for we found the woman, still
young and pretty, dead beneath a
beam that had crushed her in the par
lor Of her home. A few feet away was
lying the body of her other child, a
boy, who had been crushed by falling
masonry. All the natives were crazy
with fear.
My Red Cross training stood me In
good stead | went into the ruins of
Kingston to help those still living. |
could not tell what saw. Everywhere
were ruins. Houses had tumbled down
like houses of cards. Overhead there
was a somber haze, while here and
there could be seen a protruding leg or
arm, eloquent of the tragedies enacted
while the earthquake convulsed the
island.
There was one tragic case that near
ly made me faint. Beneath the ruins
of little cottage we stumbled upon
the bodies of mother and her six
children. All had been killed at the
same time. While we were examining
each body in the hope Of discovering
some spark of life we were aroused by
a frantic. hoarse voice behind us. II
was filled with grief unspeakable.
. Then a soldier thrust his way among
us. east one awful look at the bodies
and then staggered back. his hands
pressed over his eyes. Not sound
did he utter, but his great, strong body
shook convulsively, and never have
seen such evidences Of silent suffering
upon human face. He turned slow
" away, seemed to hesitate moment
, and then. before any of us could inter
vene. deliberately killed himself by
shooting himself through the head will
his revolver Naturally | was com
pletely upset by this occurrence ano
, Yhe scenes became so trying to tint
nerves that | was warned by physl
: cian that | had better desist. Woulc
! have stuck to the work II had peer
, alone. but I had my mother to thini
of as well as my father at home.
Food was scarce, and finally agreed
with Mr.. Longley that we should taxi
tho first vessel that would bear III
back to the States. We found ina