The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-06

past four years. The lumbermen de- clared that no price advance would be permitted in the near future of thousands now homeless shall not be left to die.
 Premier Yamamoto and Viscount Goto, foreign secretary, are supervis- ing the relief work in Tokio. The premier has ordered the fleet to rush food supplies to all stricken cities.
 Crown Prince Hirohito is supervis- ing the distribution of 10,000,000 yen ($5, 900. .000) which has been donated for relief by the emperor.
 Along the seacoast, over the noun tais, a pilgrimage of sorrow is mov- ing toward this city. Roads are crowded with refugees, who, know ing that they cannot survive in the blackened desolate lands of despair are attempting to reach the towns upscathed by the disaster,
 The wretched, travel-worn crea- lures who have already arrived are being housed in the public buildings. Hospitals are crowded, while school palaces and other buildings are be- ing thrown open.
 Tragic tales are told by the refu- gees pouring into this city. giving the the first actual pictures of those who were tragic participants in the ter- TOT, which shook central Japan. smash Destroyed City.
 A foreign refugee, who reached this city from devastated Y Yokohama We'd nesday, and told of the horrors there Here Is the story as he recited it to me. simple, but frightful narra- tive:
 At the first smash the city fell.
 With the sinking of the land in the lower town. water spurted through innumerable cracks in the earth.
 Within 10 minutes after the first shock the streets were 10 inches un- der water.
 The city was absolutely and com pletely ruined.
 Under these ruins lie the bodies of many prominent foreigners. busi- ness men, clerks and the stenogra- phers in the various foreign estab- lishments.
 The bluff (upper section of Yoko- hama, where foreigners lived), is ab- solutely cleared of all habitation, and all life.
 Tn the majority of cases the houses crashed completely.
 From the hideous wreckage came frantic calls for help
 Aid could be given in only a few cases.
 The flames broke out immedi :
 They burned everywhere, swept onward by a fierce wind.
 '1n native parts of the country, thousands of Japanese seemed to die simply of heart failure, dropping in the streets, apparently uninjured.
 All means of escape were cut off.
 Under the hissing curtain of flame the people knelt in prayer, needless of the roaring inferno about them.
 They seemed dazed. indifferent as to their own fates, and callous of the miseries of those about them.
 They stared numbly at the furnace doors of houses whence came mad shrieks of aid.
 There were many cases of herioism.
 "Japanese servants refused to leave their foreign mistresses or their baby charges, dying with them rather than flee.
 T saw one coolie standing amid | flames, helping women and children escape from the doorway of a burning house. His clothing and hair were afire. His face was distorted with | agony. Yet he remained there until | he fell dead, mercifully asphyxiated Practically all foreigners were 1 taken aboard 15 steamers in the har- l bor Monday. I believe that only about a dozen were left on land
 The French liner. Andre Lebon' was crowded with Europeans, includ- ing the French ambassador, who walked from Tokio to Yokohama
 After the quake, several foreigners