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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 





while on January 24 came the fourth and 

 heaviest earthquake^ sufficient to ruin 

 nearly every edifice. 



A HOTEL MADE OF DOORS 



A bit of personal narrative may not 

 be out of place here. I was fortunate 

 enough to arrive in Guatemala City about 

 twenty minutes before the earthquake of 

 January 24, 1918. As has been said, 

 three other heavy shocks had already left 

 their mark upon the city. All the hotels 

 were ruined and temporary shelter had 

 to be sought in shacks set up in open 

 squares. I secured a bed at the new 

 Hotel Roma, which was constructed of 

 doors taken from the old hotel of this 

 name and erected in the old carriage 

 yard in front of the railroad station. 



The sun had scarcely set and a full 

 moon was rising in an unblemished sky. 

 For me there was not on this occasion 

 any premonition, although at other times 

 I have sensed the coming vibration for 

 a brief moment, as one senses a coming 

 storm. The dishes on the table began to 

 rattle and dance and the walls and tin 

 roof to creak and sway. 



We crowded through the doors into 

 the open street, stumbling and falling. 

 From near and far came the roar of fall- 

 ing walls. The yellow dust arose, ob- 

 scuring the moon. Then the trembling 

 died away and ceased, but the dust pall 

 lay over the stricken city. 



These last shocks apparently centered 

 under Guatemala City, with a radius of 

 destruction measuring thirty miles. Fear 

 was felt lest the earth should give way 

 before the fearful convulsions and a 

 volcano form in the city itself. 



The deep cuts of the railroad running 

 to Puerto Barrios were filled in, time and 

 again, and only through untiring labor 

 was the line kept open for long enough 

 periods to rush in supplies. 



Not only were houses ruined, but water 

 mains were broken and the people ex- 

 posed to the dangers of using water 

 which had oozed up in the streets. In 

 the cemeteries the skeletons were shaken 

 out of the burial cists and many remains 

 were afterwards cremated. The loss of 

 life in Guatemala City probably did not 

 exceed two hundred. 



Only a few broken walls remain to 



mark the site of Guatemala's first capital, 

 now known as Ciudad Vieja. The site 

 was selected by the conqueror, Pedro de 

 Alvarado, on St. James Day, 1524, and 

 the actual building was commenced three 

 years later by Jorge de Alvarado. The 

 official title of the city was "St. James 

 of the Gentlemen of Guatemala." The 

 arms granted by Charles V in 1532 were 

 "a shield charged with three mountains 

 on a field gules, the center one vomiting 

 fire, and surmounted by the Apostle St. 

 James, on horseback, armed and bran- 

 dishing a sword; an orle, with eight 

 shells or, on a field azure ; crest, a crown." 



mystery in the destruction of 

 Guatemala's first capital 



There is some doubt whether the de- 

 struction of Ciudad Vieja should be 

 ascribed to an earthquake, to a cloud- 

 burst, or to the two combined, but it 

 seems hardly likely that it can properly 

 be ascribed to an actual eruption of the 

 Volcan de Agua. 



The crater of this volcano is a grassy 

 basin, containing a few pine trees, at the 

 very summit of an almost perfect vol- 

 canic cone, and there are no signs that 

 a lake ever existed in it. The account 

 given by Juarros of the destruction of 

 Ciudad Vieja on September 11, 1 541, 

 runs as follows : 



' "It had rained incessantly and with 

 great violence on the preceding days, 

 particularly on the night of the 10th, 

 when the water descended more like the 

 water of a cataract than rain. The fury 

 of the wind, the incessant, appalling 

 lightning and dreadful thunder were in- 

 describable. The general terror was in- 

 creased by eruptions from the volcano to 

 such a degree that in the combination of 

 horrors the inhabitants imagined the final 

 destruction of the world was at hand. 



"At 2 o'clock on the morning of the 

 nth the vibrations of the earth were so 

 violent that the people were unable to 

 stand ; the shocks were accompanied by a 

 terrible subterranean noise which spread 

 universal dismay. Shortly afterward an 

 immense torrent of water rushed down 

 from the summit of the mountain, forc- 

 ing with it enormous fragments of rocks 

 and large trees, which, descending upon 

 the ill-fated town, overwhelmed and de- 



