. f 
riioto by Charles Martin 
PORTION OF A TRE;r; TRUNK WITH BARK 
CUT TO pie;ci;s by the blast 
FROM THE VOLCANO 
Note that the bark is not burned 
from the crater and hung over it, and 
was illuminated by sharp flashes and 
streaks of lightning. This lasted about 
five minutes, when the wind dispersed 
the cloud and the flashes of lightning 
ceased. 
"The earthquakes from then on seemed 
to be more violent until, at about 2 :20 
a. m., a great explosion occurred, and we 
saw balls of fire shoot up above the crater 
and an immense column of smoke and 
ashes arose and formed a great cloud, 
which appeared to be several miles in 
height. This was lighted up by a very 
vivid electrical display and accompanied 
by long, heavy rumblings, all of which 
lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. Then the 
wind blew the cloud of smoke and ashes 
in a northeasterly direction, towards Ta- 
nauan, and the smoke continued to pour 
forth from the crater for many hours. 
No further eruption was witnessed. 
"The severity of this explosion drove 
most everybody out of their houses and 
created great excitement, and most of the 
people walked the streets or stayed in 
the plaza until morning, wondering what 
would happen next." 
THE AWFUL SLAUGHTER OF FILIPINOS 
The thousands upon thousands of 
people who were awakened by the final 
explosion in time to see the enormous 
column of ejecta shooting up from Taal, 
and to witness the extraordinary attend- 
ant electrical display, little dreamed that 
in the twinkling of an eye some 1,400 
human beings had perished. Indeed, a 
period of several days elapsed before it 
was realized at Manila that an appalling 
calamity had occurred. This was largely 
due to the fact that there was a sharply 
marked zone of devastation, within 
which the destruction of life and prop- 
erty was practically complete, while out- 
side of this region comparatively little 
harm was done. It is a gruesomely sig- 
nificant fact that the known killed num- 
bered 1,335, while the known wounded, 
many of whom were terribly injured, and 
not a few of whom subsequently died, 
numbered only 199. 
The fall of muJ was deep enough over 
the area of complete destruction to ren- 
der travel excessively difficult, and the 
345 
