STRICKEN VALPARAISO

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 34.

STRICKEN VALPARAISO.

AUGUST 18 the whole world was startled by telegraphic news that severe earthquakes had occurred in the country of Chile, west coast of South America. Sunday morning, August 19, that news was confirmed by cable messages that Santiago was destroyed and 175,000 homeless, and that 5,000 deaths were reported from Valparaiso. The shock occurred at eight o'clock in the evening, and the shaking continued for hours after. Reports were that Valparaiso, Limache, a city of 4,000 inhabitants, Le Ligua, with a population of 15,000, Vina Del Mar, Quilque, and other towns were in ruins and thousands of people homeless.

Valparaiso is the seaport town of Chile, and one of the most advanced and progressive cities of South America. The population is about 150,000, having besides its Spanish and native population a large English, German, and Dutch contingent. The city is so situated in a little hollow bowl facing the coast that it is peculiarly subject to earthquakes, landslides, or tidal waves. Valparaiso means "the Vale of Paradise," but, no doubt, it has seemed to many of those who have formerly rejoiced in it, the gateway to Hades. It was a well-lighted, a well-watered city, having all the conveniences of modern municipalities. But all these seem to have been ruined; in fact, fires followed the earthquake, and the latest advices, August 23, tell us that the fires are still burning, many of them doubtless caused by electricity.

Thousands were killed by the falling of houses, others seem to have been buried under landslides in the hills and mountains at the back of the town. The loss in Chile is estimated at $250,000,000. The conservative estimate of the loss of life is 2,500 in Valparaiso alone.

One of the worst features connected with the earthquake is the fact that it is now midwinter in Chile, and the nights are very cold, and the people in many cases are without shelter. Provision-men, whose hearts seem to be moved by greed, have raised the price of provisions until milk costs two Chilean dollars a liter, and it is almost impossible to obtain meat of any kind. We are told that the situation is very much worse than it was in San Francisco. One hundred thousand people are homeless and penniless. Much of the food supply was destroyed by fire.

The first paper was published in Valparaiso, August 21. The first shock lasted four minutes and fifty seconds, causing the bells of the churches to ring. There was a great heaving motion of the ground. Islands have been thrown up in the sea, the coast line has been changed in many places, great fissures have been filled in the mountains and others opened; in fact, it is impossible to tell from the reports which have come to us anything definitely except that one of the great calamities of the world has overtaken the people of our sister republic.

The night following the first severe shock there were eighty-one more. Since that, they have run up into the hundreds. The earthquake has been recorded in Italy, Albany, N. Y., and presumably at many of the great observatories in the world. One of the tidal waves from its effect reached the Hawaiian Islands, threw the big trans-Pacific Manchuria out of her course, and ran her onto a reef. While all souls were saved, the fate of the steamship itself seems hopeless.

Despatches of August 22 declare that instead of decreasing, the horror of the situation grows with every hour. Fires are still burning in every section of the city, while thousands of men and women are almost without food, half-crazed by the awful calamity. Thousands of them have gone to Santiago, and the authorities are alarmed at the awful condition. The deaths, we are told, will probably reach 3,000, but this is a mere guess. Many who were killed by the earthquake have doubtless been consumed by the flames, even as they were in San Francisco. Few of those who were killed in the open have been buried. In one house fifty children and three Catholic nuns who were attempting to rescue them were crushed to death. Of the one hundred forty prisoners in the jail when it collapsed all but one were killed. Of the forty who were working on telephones, thirty-eight were killed. People arriving in Valparaiso from every direction say that they saw nothing but devastation and ruin wherever they have been.

All of these, we need not say, are evidences that the earth is waxing old, as God has told us again and again in His Word. The time is soon coming when "as a vesture" the Creator shall change them, and they shall be changed, when at His coming in glory His voice shall shake the earth that everything worthless shall be shaken out, that that which is of Himself and can not be shaken may remain.

Some in San Francisco have responded to Chile's awful need, and $10,000 have already been sent from one stricken city to a city worse stricken. As we receive authentic and connected reports from our representatives there, to whom we have cabled, we will lay the facts more fully before our readers.