Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-02-09
observation-disclosures
OF Eruption Number
OfDeadNOtknOW
At Present Time.
Beautiful City Of kagoshIma Is
Partially Destroyed.

San Francisco, Feb. S-The first de-
tailed account of the terrible eruption
OF Sakura Jima, on the southern coast
of japan. as received here Saturday
by mail from the Toxic correspondent
of The Associated Press places the loss
of life. conservatively estimated at
several hundreds"
Not only was the island of Sakura
Jima itself, with its dozen villages,
flooded by a torrent of flaming lava
ard buried under a hail of ineandes-
cent rocks. but the beautiful city of
kago-shima, overlooking the Golden
Gate of Japan, was partially destroyed,
several towns and villages on the
mainland to the east were hit, and the
villages of Akaminzu, Yokohama and
Kolke were literally swallowed up in
the moulten lava. Until they are dug
out no specific count of lives lost will
be possible. The account in part fol-
lows.
while a Tokyo audience of Japan
ese was assembled at the Imperial
theater. viewing moving pictures of
the last days of Pompeii, the subterra-
mean fires of their own empire, i'm
prisoned for more than a century, were
surging upward beneath the isle of
Sakura Jima, in the southermost part
of the realm.
Shrieks Fill the Air.
1.-THE $4,000 inhabitants of Sakura
lima fled wildly in all directions, in
pitiful quest for food and shelter.
Shrieks of terror filled the lair from
one end of the island to the other.
MANY old men refused to try and
save themselves and had literally to
be dragged along by the younger.
Women and children were sent off
first, the women carrying their infants
slung Japanese fashion across their
backs. their hands filed with portable
household goods. Some shielded them
selves with mattresses; others wore
metal and earthern pots for helmets.
It was a wild, rell-mell rush.
Volcanoes long supposed extinct in
other portions of the realm leaped in
to sympathetic action, and ashes fell
like snow as far north as the cities of
Osaka and Kobe, as far south as the
BONN islands, and as far west as
Dairien, while the air was weighted
with sulphurous fumes and distant
Toxic itself was mantled in a sinis
ter, yellow cloud.
by this time, the cascades of lava
and the ceaseless, mereiless rain OF
meteors had set fire to the sugar cane
and bamboo forests. Houses burst in
to fire as if from spontaneous combus
ton.
Mountain Roaring Furnace.
arrived at the shore, the villagers
and peasants flung themselves into
sampans moored on the beach or
plunged into the gulf. The mountain
was now a roaring furnace and the
heat was unbearable. From Kagoshima
a dozen steamers came full speed to
the rescue. Their prompt aid and that
of sailing and rowing craft saved
thousands from drowning.
But in the meantime things were
not going well in Kagoshima itself. A
strong east wind filled the streets with
hot ashes and red hot cinders. Houses
began to collapse under the weight or
to catch fire from the cinders.
There followed a mad rush of the in
habitants for the railroad station. Box,
freight cars were backed into the sidngs
and with remarkable promptness the
crowds were carried to safety.
ITO the westward began steady flight
along the highways A number of Amerf-
cans. among them several missionaries,
escaping in this direction
"As soon az the authorities at Tokyo
had an inkling of the serious nature OF
the disaster a dozen warships were dis
patched to the gulf They found the wa
tors furiously agitated and thickly crust
ed with pumice stone.
For week the volcano continued in
termittentIy its flow of white hot lava
and bombardment of incandescent Gin
ders
IAN official estimate of the damage
gives $1,000 destitute, II bridges destroyed
and more than 1000 houses either de-
stroyed or badly damaged.
This physical damage is for Kakoshi-
ma alone. On the island the destruction
was entire. sakura lima is waste OF
pumice and lava, naked and desolate"