Evening star., 1923-09-17
Quake Refugees Bring Tales
Of Frightful Scenes in Japan
Women Tell of Escape From Wrecked
and Burning Buildings and Terrify-
ing Carnage in Stricken Cities.

panic and disorder reigned until
foreigners assisted in the work of
relief.
The most impressive sight of the
whole experience was furnished by a
British cruiser. which came racing
in from God knows where and went
straight where she was most needed"
declared Arthur Jackson of Yoko-
hama who is accompanied by his
wife. I'VE passed her while on the
rescue ship bound for Kobe. She few
past us at the rate of thirty-five miles
an hour. She missed being the first
warship at the scene of the disaster
by a few minutes, a Japanese ship
beating her.
The cooperation among the British.
American and other foreigners at
Yokohama and Toxic in organizing
ana directing the work of relief was
marvellous. in the opinion of those
who benefited from its effects.
NO buildings other than those built
OF steel and reinforced concrete are
standing today In Yokohama and very
rev of these, according to c. H.
Flimper of New York. The strongest
ground and the steel frames were
bent and twisted beyond all repair
Grand Hotel Disaster.
The whole of the dining room statf
OF the Grand Hotel met instant death
Fhey were preparing tiffin when the
building caved in and Immediately
caught fire, making the kitchen and
dining room section of the hotel a
crematortum. Guests and employees
of the hotel quartered in the annex
had the best chance of escape, yet
only one room boy, two clerks and
three guests were saved.
The manager of the Russo -Asiatic
Bank was buried under a mass of
debris when the bank building COL
lapsed. A pillar fell across his leg
and some one in an effort to extricate
him cut his leg off with an ak. He
was rescued, but bled to death shortly
afterward.
Mrs. William MCGOWAN was COM
pletely buried by plaster and other
wreckage and had to be dug out by
was little the worse for her experi-
ence.
providential hand held the EN-
press OF Australia on an even keel
when it was caught in the earth
quake and tidal wave, according to
IteV. Francis g. Gilbert, Boston, mis-
slonary, who was aboard the vessel
in Yokohama harbor when the dis
turbance came
Kecounting his experience, he said:
IL threw the great vessel twenty
fVe feet out from tho wharf. and in
doing so the wire moorinR ropes
Jerked out the heavy mooring pins
and piles of the wharf set in cement.
Ihen barges, some of them oil barges
which had been torn loose, thirteen
or nftten or them altogether, jammed
around the Empress and took fire,
all burning at the same time. AT
one time the bow of the ship was
plunged right through burning
building. Before the vessel could
work her way out of this, some Of the
oil barges were burned down to the
waters level. There, with burning
OIL sixteen to eighteen inches deep,
the flames shot fully 800 feet up in
the air. That oil on the water burned
for six or seven hours
The Rev. Gilbert confirmed the
news of the complete destruction of
the naval base Of the japanese nation
at fokousa, about eighteen miles
from Yokohama.
Thousands Die I'm Fire.
Rev. Gilbert said that thousands of
persons were roasted to death In
Yokohama. Persons were caught
under their falling houses and could
not get free before the flames de-
voured them. The quake broke the
water mains SO that there was no
means of fighting the fire. Great fis-
sures were opened in the earth as
big as the liner President Jefferson.
The Japanese government has been
doing everything possible to keep
back the news from the rest of the
world of the real extent of the dam
age" Mr.. Gilbert said.
R P. Daily OF New York and Yoko-
hama, chief oriental buyer for twenty
years for A. A. Vantyne g. Co., New
York, arrived on the President JEFF
ferson with his wife, young son and
three little daughters. He showed the
burns on the backs of the children's
necks where they had been scorched
while the family stood for five hours
in a canal and doused water over
themselves while the flames consumed
everything around them.
Il was busy in our Offices at 26S
Yamashita Cho, Yokohama, rushing
our payments before the bank closed
at noon when the quake came" Mr.
Daily said. I'VE had no time to get
the books away. A heavy steel safe
in the Office was tossed around like
a toy by the vibration.
Mr.. Daily is going to Los Angeles
and Beverly Hills and then on to
New York. He said that the prison
at Yokohama was wrecked and that
the prisoners had escaped. Among
them were a number of Koreans who
were chiefly political offenders. These
men turned out to be marauders and
seemed to be anxious to take ven
geance on the stricken Japanese.
Some of them. he said, were caught
poisoning wells. He saw a number
of them strapped to poles and shot
for their deeds.