The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-25
TRAGEDY MINGLES WITH HUMOR IN
 TALES 0F DISASTER
Survivors Arrive In America On Pacific Liner PreSi-
 dent Pierce

l SAN FRANCISCO. Sept. 24.-Stories { cf survivors of the great earthquake being pulled half dead from the mud of Yokohama Bay and of other refu-
 gees, crazed by the tremor and the onrushing torrent of fire, rushing wounded and naked through the streets without the hope of any safe destination, were told by number of refugees of the great disaster who arrived here ttday on the Pacific
 Mall liner President Pierce. Their stories mingled the tragic and the humorous.
 George B. Warn, leader of the orr chestra a t the Imperial hotel Tokio, told of the efforts of himself and his players to calm the excited guests with American jazz while the earth trembled and the fire ragged. Dr. Roscoe Etter of Hubbard. Tex, told If going to summer resort at
 the base of Fujiyama for his health and deciding after the earthquake
 that for the time being at least there were healthier places in the United 1 States.
 My little six-year- r-old son. Eugene,
 was standing on a small bridge" Dr,
 Etter said. "The bridge collapsed and
 he was thrown into the. stream be- ! meath. Without whimper he clam 1 bered up the bank and made his way home We made our way out on pack horses. The resort was almost completely destroyed"
 Entrapped By Books.
 Miss Jean Abbott, daughter Of James F. Abbott, a commercial st-
 tache of the United States embassy.
 said:
 we were at home when the shock came. We saw that there was no
 chance for the place to be saved so
 we took refuge in the tennis court
 of the embassy compound. My father was trapped In the embassy. A great pile of books fell on him and there seemed to be no chance for him. But he was rescued just In time.
 eve finally made our way to the American destroyer Whipple, which negotiated the dangerous passage from Yokohama to Tokio and brought a number of refugees back to vessels in Yokohama harbCr.' | Miss Jesse Flenner. Washington, ! n. C., was a passenger on the ship ] ping board liner President Jefferson i and she told of the arrival of that
 vessel in Yokohama harbor al &. m.
 on the day after the earthquake. We picked up refugees who had ] been in the mud of Yokohama har- 1 bor from two to seven hours, some ! of them Americans" she said. "One 1 American woman had swallowed so
 much mud that we had hard time ' IeFlNllB Iltis ie Am +ee'iiS NNii4
 plained that they could not get 1 aboard the Japanese liner Koreak Maru because that vessel had re-
 ceived no orders from Tokio to take
 them on board.
 "I saw 300 badly wounded persons l on the Canadian Pacific liner Elm press of Australia on which boat l assisted in nursing them and others, although I had had no experience as ! a nurse.
 
 Warships Didn't Help.
 "Three Japanese warships cruised about the harbor the day after the l disaster, but apparently did little or nothing to help. The Americans
 were first and foremost in relief 1 work"
 II. E. Mills. wife and child of Chi ! cago were other passengers on the Whipple On the return of that vessel to Yokohama.
 'In one building alone, A concrete
 affair of faulty construction, l saw
 at least 500 Japanese worl1men either dead or dying,- crushed beneath the
 structure when it fell on them" Mills ] said. we stayed from Saturday to Thursday in Tokio."
 i One woman, made a widow by the l disaster, came on the President
 Pierce in the person of Mrs. W. ] Niven, whose husband was killed in | the collapse of a Tokio club, Sam J. ] WardeII. American vice consul at 1 Yokohama. whose home Is in Nash vile. Tenn, was also passenger. | He was in the consulate when the consul general and his wife were ] killed. Wardell and six clerks 1 escaped from the consulate and ran
 to a park six blocks away.