Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1907 — QUAKE HAS SLAIN 1,000 JAMAICANS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

QUAKE HAS SLAIN 1,000 JAMAICANS

Ninety Thousand Victims Are Homeless and Destitute. LOSSTO KINGSTON $10,000,000 This Is the Latest and Comes by the Way of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies. Official Reports Give a Much Smaller Fatality Record, but They Are Meagre and Give No De* tails of the Catastrophe. St. Thomas, I). W. 1., Jan. 17.—Reports received here from Jamaica say it is estimated that 1,000 persons have been killed by the earthquake and lire and that 90,000 persons are homeless. The damage to Kingston alone Is placed at fully $10,000,000. Paints a Terrible Picture. Advices received here from Jamaica declare that all people have been warm'd to keep away from Kingston. The stench there is described as aw-

fill. There is no fishier for animais and famine is imminent Money Is useless. Tin* banks have been burned, but the vaults are supposed to be safe. The misery on all sides in indescribable. Kieh and poor alike are homeless. Provisions of all kinds are urgently needed. It is impossible to say win re anybody can be found. Many Dead in the Wreckage. The loss of life is very great, but the exact numbets are not yet known, the'dead being buried under smouldering ruins. I'he mercantile community Buffered most severely, warehouses falling upon them. Many professlonal men are dead or injured. The negroes are looting. Ghastly scenes are being witnessed. All the shops have been lestroyed, ami all the buildings in and around Kingston are in ruins. V< ry few of them are safe to live in. The governor and ills party are safe. It is reported that an extinct volcano in the parish of Portland is showing signs of activity, but this Ims not been verified. No news has yet been received from other parts of the island of Jamaica, communication being very dlfh'iilty.

NOT SO SENSATIONAL Official Reports Meagre, and Disasder Made Less Terrible. I.ondon. Jan. 17.—Very few messages. and these meager and lacking in detail, have been received direct from Jamaica to give additional infoi mation of the devastation and death wrought by the earthquake that ravaged Kingston on Monday afternoon. Sucli intelligence ns has come through, however, shoiys the situation to be apparently more serious than was outlined In the first otlicial reports received nt tlie colonial oilice in I.ondon from the governor of the West Indian island, Sir AlexanderSwcttenlmm, and Hiiinnr Greenwood, M. I’. These con firmed the report printed in these dis patches yesterday. Tlie devastation would appear to have been confined to the vicinity of Kingston, ouedispatch giving ten miles as the radius of damage.' Tlie rest of the island. Including Port Antonio, does not seem to have suffered severely. Tlie estimates of dead range from 100 to hut witli the exception of Sir Janies I’ergtisson and half a dozen other white men, there is no mention of fatalities to foreigners. The tourists from the United States who were at Kingston at the time, estimated at about 2,000 persons, it would seem are stife. The estimates of persons injured are as varied as of the dead, and range from a few hundreds to thousands. A large majority of tin 1 50.000 population of Kingston Is black, and it is probable that nearly nil the casualties were mong these people. It is reported that about forty black soldiers were burned to death In a military hospital near the city. Looting and disorder, including raids on rum-shops by tlie blacks, followed tlie catastrophe, lint prompt repressive measures restored order. Panic prevails, however, especially as the earth shocks continued Tuesday and yesterday,and great numbers of the city’s population have fled to the neighboring countryside.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, KINGSTON, JAMAICA