The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-04
BODIES BURNED BY' HUNDREDS TO KEEP.
 PEST|LENCE AWAY.
Unsuccessful Effort Made To ASSaSSinate Premier
 Amanoto
By RAY G. MARSHALL Leased Wire To The ARe-HeraId)


 pictures-crumblin flame swept cities filtered with dead, the flight of pain stricken thousands, roar and tremor of earthquake shocks, stark terror and black desolation, shadowed by the inferno of burning volcanos.
 The death toll increasing with ev- cry new dispatch. rolls toward quarter million.
 And a hundred thousand are dead in stTiken Tokio, an equal number lie in the ruins of wave and flame gutted Yokohama. Along the coast lie dozens of crushed ruined towns, restors and villages.
 Flashes in the frantic picture of despair show ghouls robbing the stocked dead, bodies incinerated by hundreds to prevent pestilence tor tured wounded dying without food, water or medical supplies.
 Ami the panic an attempt was made to murder Premier Yamamoto. Dis patches report that the would-be as- sassines entered the naval club, dis guised as servants, and Sprang upon she Premier when he returned from B conference called hurriedly after the first shuddering earth tremor. They were overpowered. Since the attempted murder the Premier has been missing, believed to be in hiding.
 The brief bulletin, in one of the
  gave Pekin word of the Japanese catastrophe, offers no further in- formation on the murder attempt, which would have khocked the world had 1t not been overshadowed by the gigantic tragedy of a nation.
 Out of the ether, another wireless message flashes into the Pekin radio station. Police have shot all anim als n the Asakusa zoo, fearing that they would escape among the frenzied throngs.
 All Glasses Victims.
 Death has swept from peasants huts to homes of royalty. Princess Yamashina, mother of Prince Kay anomiya, is reported to have been, killed in the fall of her home at Kamakura. Prime Mathukata was fatally injured.
 Prince Hirohito. Prince Regent of Japan, is variously reported safe and missing.
 Enoshima Island is reported to have sunk into the sea. Many vessels of the Japanese navy were washed ashore near Yokohoma when the tidal wave crashed upon them.
 Nothing is known of the fate of Americans in Japan. The U. S. ,. Huron. steaming at full speed toward the island, is attempting wireless communication with the Japanese steamer Korea Maru" In Yokohoma harbor in an effort to ascertain the condition of American residents. The majority of members of the American legation in Tokyo were due to be snending their vacations in the noun tains. Liners in Japanese ports are belleved to be safe. The majority of them withdrew from harbors the moment the earthquake hit the sea- ports, as their captains knew a tidal wave would follow.
 The entire orient awaits word of foreign casualties. Every member of American colonies in orient cities have friends or relatives in Japan. 10000 Burned AnSe.
 Iwaki dispatches report that 10000 residents of the Honjo ward in Toklo, who fled for refuge into a former military compound were burned alive in frenzied frightful holocaus, They were penned within flaming walls when fire destroyed bridges that crossed a moat surrounding the compound. converting it into an in- cinerator.
 Ten thousand are without food in Tokio. Thousands of refugees who fled to the country are lying ex- hausted and dying along highways and railway tracks. Many have been driven mad from want of water.
 In the ruined city behind them plundering continues. The police and military. striving to rescue wounded and dying from the debris. are un able to protect property from van dals. Fortunes in gold and jewels lie amid smoking ruins, open to all
 The Tokio wards of Hon1o Fukagawa, Nihombashi. Alaska and Shiba have been flattened out. de- stroyed and burned over. Tottering sk eletons of buildings topple and crash into streets stacked with corpses.
 Lumber cannot be obtained for collins and municipalities are re- sorting to wholesale cremations in hundreds of towns by throwing the broken bodies of the dead into blazing buildings.
 Before these awful furnaces stand Buddhist priests. giving the burial sei vices in the wholesale eremations. Pestiience Fear Stalks Land.
 The fear of pestilence stalks through the land.
 Shiduzka, famous port of the tea trade, has been wiped out, while the seacoast is black with brushed Villages, whirled into a maelstrom of choas by the tidal wave.
 The government has ordered all available wa:shtps to skirt the coast, ascertning the situation ald rendering whatever aid is possible
  sons are homeless in these villages.
 An aviator who flew along the coast reports that he saw no build ings whatsoever standing in Yoko- hama and Kamjura. while other towns had apparently been swept away en masse by the tidal wave.
 The American Red Cross here Is arranging for relief through the China branch of the Korean govern ment. Quantities of food are being Al .fs.y, railways to ports where ships are waiting.
 Wireless dispatches estimate that 1000 tens of rice are needed lm- mediately for the foodless in Tokio. Supplies are being rushed toward the capital from Osaka
 Tokio. itself one of the 'proudest of orient cities. is a scene of des- o'ation. Among the magnificent buildings destroyed are the Peers reau of the department of the in- terior, the revenue office. the Girls Business school. the Imperial uni- versity, the Imperial theatre. the Mitsukoshi department store, the Shieeokiya department store and the Dental college.
 The homes of several princes of the Mitsupishi and Mitsui families have been wiped out. The military arsenal. the Hoshi pharmacy. and six railroad stations are heaps of charred debris.
 Ancient temples, shrines of re- lieious and favorite spots with American tourists, have crumpled into dust. The wrestling hall, the east Imperial palace, the city bridge, the city electric works and the rail- way Headquarters building have been destroyed.
 Both the Italian and French em- bassies are in ruins.
 The Methodist bookstore and the Central Telegraph and Telephone of fees were among the last buildings to be burned.