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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



than one hundred lost their lives in 

 this one shock alone. 



The inhabitants were now thoroughly 

 terrified. No one could tell when the 

 thing was going to stop. All waited for 

 the volcanic eruption, which would re- 

 lieve the tremendous subterranean pres- 

 sure and alleviate the situation as it 

 had done in San Salvador six months 

 before, but none came. A great exodus 

 began. People fled from the city by 

 the hundreds, going for the most part 

 to the cities on the Pacific coast-plain, 

 Esquintla. Mazatenango, Quezalte- 

 nango, and Eetalhuleu. 



A new and gruesome situation de- 

 veloped. Hundreds of recently buried 

 corpses were thrown from their vaults 

 in the cemeteries and a pestilence there- 

 from was imminent. The government 

 again acted with gratifying prompti- 

 tude, however, and vast funeral pyres 

 lighted the sky on that and succeeding 

 nights. It is estimated that more than 

 four thousand bodies were then dis- 

 posed of. 



Again the stricken city strove to com- 

 pose itself. Slight tremors still con- 

 tinued but of diminished violence. A 

 few shops opened here and there ; fewer 

 people left the city; confidence was re- 

 turning a second time, when at twenty 

 minutes to eleven in the evening of 

 January 3. the city was rocked to its 

 very foundations by the most tremen- 

 dous shock of all. The earth lifted up 

 as though pushed by some vast subter- 

 ranean agency seeking outlet, held a 

 moment thus, and then in terrific jerks 

 and twitchings. settled back. By stop- 

 watch this mighty movement lasted 

 eleven minutes from its first cataclys- 

 mic second to its last dying tremor. 

 And the destruction which it accom- 

 plished was more than that of all the 

 others combined. 



It is true, that the citv had already 



been fairly well loosened in its joints, 

 but the earthquake of January 3 fin- 

 ished the work of destruction. What 

 the others had spared, it shook down. 

 The lofty twin towers of the cathedral 

 were hurled to the ground like so many 

 pill boxes. The massive pediment be- 

 tween fell in one solid block. The roof 

 caved in. This edifice, the largest, cost- 

 liest, and most magnificent in the coun- 

 try, is in ruins. Even the little chapel 

 on the Cerrito del Carmen built three 

 centuries ago, around which this third 

 capital had been built, succumbed to 

 this last violent movement of the earth. 

 The roof fell in, and only with difficulty 

 some of the faithful extricated the 

 statue of the Christ and installed it in 

 a temporary shelter outside. More than 

 a hundred lost their lives in this last 

 shock, bringing up the total of deaths 

 to about three hundred. The city again 

 was demoralized and thus it was when 

 I left it five days later, coming down 

 to Puerto Barrios on January 8 by the 

 first train to leave the city after the last 

 shock. 



For the third time since its organiza- 

 tion the capital of Guatemala finds 

 itself in ruins. For the third time the 

 work of relief and rel)uilding must be 

 undertaken. 



Nearly one hundred thousand people 

 are now living under temporary shel- 

 ters of the flimsiest sort, matting, can- 

 vas, carpets, curtains, boards, sheet iron 

 roofing, theatrical scenery, tables, beds, 

 carts, wagons — even in the open : and if 

 greater suffering and loss of life are to 

 be averted, these people must be ade- 

 quately housed before the rainy season 

 in June. Money, building materials, 

 and what might be called "allevia- 

 tion and reconstruction" experts are re- 

 quired more than anything else in 

 Guatemala's present extremity. The 

 need is urgent : the oblicration ours. 



