Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1910 — 500 DEAD IN COSTA RIGA DISASTER [ARTICLE]

500 DEAD IN COSTA RIGA DISASTER

Many Hundred More Reported Injured. JUSTICE TEMPLE RUINED Buildings Leveled In Appalling Earthquake Calamity. PEOPLE ARE PANIC STRICKEN Quakes Continue and Further Fatalities Are Feared.

San Juan, Del Sur, Nicaragua, May 6.— The greater part of Cartago, Costa Rica, has been destroyed by an earthquake. All wires in the district are down. Details are very hreager, but it is known that 500 persons are dead and many hundred wounded. Many buildings were levelled, among them being the Temple of Justice by Andrew Carnegie. The wife and child of Dr. Bocanegra, the Guatemala magistrate to the Central American arbitration court, have been killed. Last reports say that the quakes still continue and that the people are panicstricken. San Juan was also shaken, but little damage was done there. No deaths are reported in that city.

Cartago, capital of the province of that name, lies at the foot of Irazu volcano, fourteen miles from San Jose It has an estimated population of 10,000 and Is the seat of the Central American peace court. Andrew Carnegie gave $250,000 in the summer of 1908 for the court buildings. Cartago was the capital of the country until 1823. It has suffered frequently from earthquakes, having been partially destroyed in 1803, 1825, 1841, 1851 and 1854.’ Beginning last month a series of earthquakes swept over the country. Thirty were reported on April 14. They did piuch damage, but caused few fatalities. San Jose and Port Limon felt the force of the shocks There are 6,000 white foreigners in the total population of 325,000 and they have shaped tlife’pacific policy of the government. Value of the annual commerce in recent years has averaged about $13,000,000. The principal exports are coffee; bananas, mahogany, hides, rubber, gold and silver.