The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-08
Reception Day For Madero Is Made One of
 Tragedy
MEXICO CITY IN
 REIGN OF TERROR
Falling Buildings Crush 63 to Death, Wound 75 People and Property Loss Estimated at Sl00,000.
 Poor Were Victims

l QuahO WHICH fiSitSu ilit CepiAdi lHas morning and injected note of tragedy into what was expected to be day of pure rejoicing. When the work of search- | ing the ruins is completed it Is possible that the list of dead win be heightened somewhat. hiding here and there throughout the city there doubtless are many wounded who, with traditional fear of the authorities and government hos pitals. are anxious 10 erade discovery The property loss is but an estimate and is based upon calculations made by own- CTS and contractors. Little of the loss is covered by insurance.
 It was 4:26 o'clock NMhen tie first shock
 was felt. According to the meteorologi-
 cal observatory, the greatest intensity
 was reached at the end of the first min ute, but the instruments continued te re-
 cord the shocks for 14 minutes more It } was of vacilatory. twisting character
 but almost free from regulatory notion More than half of the dead accounted for were soldiers. They were caught be- heath the falling walls of the artillery
 barracks in San Cosme. a locality near the Mexican Central station. Another tplace where the earthquake took it's toll or death in considerable numbers was at the city power plant Of the street car company. Here six were killed and six wounded. Two others are in the debris. consisting partly of steel rails which had been stacked in the iron and wood de- partments and which collapsed. The vic tims were inhabitants of little shacks built along the side of the structure.
 With these two exceptions the death list I was made up of single cases or in some instances of two and three caught be- heath falling walls in the poorer build- ings of the district affected
 Although the shock was plainly felt in
 all parts of the city few realized the 7 magnitude of the catastrophe until late in t the forenoon, due to the fact that the
 casualties were confined to compara- e Lively small area.
 Entire City Shakes Accustomed as me people of the city = are to earth shocks and their harmless ness on former occasions. they were slow
 to learn that this was the most serious shock in score of years
 No personal property of Americans was damaged and with the exception of ono
 Chinese. no foreigner was injured The
 
 Chinese was killed. In the barracks
 where the soldiers were killed 12 women
 also lost their lives. They were the wives of the artillerymen. These women have the privilege of spending the night within the walls of the barracks The barracks was old structure built a l generation or more ago. but, unlike many of the older edihces of the city, it's walls were comparatively thin. Seventy-two
 soldiers were sleeping In the house. Ap- | lf.,,N yi,11af afol.r hD1 arfa sb1 ; first floor the remainder on the second The outer wall fell away and the roof crashing down on the sleeping men, hurled them down through the floor on
 to their comrades below The bodies of 90 soldiers have been recovered. Three , are missing and 16 are wounded. few [ dangerously Instantly those who escaped begun the work of rescue. Word was sent to company of the engineering corps, who soon arrived and began as- ssting in tho work of shoveling away the broken rock and mortar. Women whose
 soldier-husbands were in the pile stood
 by waiting In groups while the little brown children clung to their mothers
 dresses and stared curiously at the grue- some scene. Ambulances carried the
 wounded to the military hospitals and the dead to Dolores cemetery.
 Three blocks from the barracks the wards of the Mexican Central, which Ma dero had been scheduled to enter, pre-
 sented another spectacle of the shocks intensity There a long wall separating
 these yards from those of the Mexican
 railway was thrown down. Mexican
 locomotive engineer who was lying by
 it's side was crushed to death ware
 house of the Mexican Central is almost
 a wreck, one wall and portion of the
 building having collapsed. About one third of the roundhouse was torn dowh No casualties were reported here.
 Poor Were the Victims
 In none of the advices received at po- lice headquarters is there mention or sne death of any person of prominence. The
 victims were those whose homes were m
 cheaply built houses, shacks in most
 cases whose walls had little power or
 resistance.
 The fury of the shock was spent in the northwestern and western parts or the
 city. The most damage done was in fnat
 quarter of the oity known as santa Ma ria although cracks in the pavement and walls toppled over serve to marx i.s course as far to the south as Coionia
 Roma, district inhabited larsev ny ] Americans. In this district, however, nt-
 tia real damage was done and no deaths
 have been reported.
 CracLs show here and there In tho pavement throughout the district aHevreo: and now and then the asphalt IS puckieo , ,ntil the ridge is three to five inches above the level of the street. Wals made usually of soft stone or even .. adohe bricks have fallen in scores or nlaces. giving to some localities great iv damared aspect In nine cases out n, 1o these walls fell Into open yards or into the street. In one case, however. low falling wall killed servant She , was one of the household of Francisco . Escandon, . cousin of the resigned gov !, arnor of the federal district She was caught beneath it while running from the servants quarters to the house. The water mains of the city were prac-
 t,callv uninjured, and the light and power on operations Before the last shock lad passed the current had been turned afr but merely as a matter of precaution. , Some slight damage was done to the
 street car tracks. but not enough to in , terfere with traffic except on one line. In ] front of the Mexican Central station the
 track was twisted enough to delay oper- ations for few hours.
 The protection of the front wall of Be- lem prison was thrown down into the , street No great amount of damage was , done A long crack reaching from bot i.