iV— • I i. .... 'I ... – ..<? —< 1 ]THE GREAT TYPHOON. I

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 11 December 1912, Page 7

THE GREAT TYPHOON.

• ♦: /■■.'■ i NEWSPAPER BLOWN OUT OF ";' EXISTENCE, :, 'A NIGHT OF TERROR. "' '; /The Flcv. J. R. Flynn Anderson, whe i '■& not unknown in Wellington, is at -preeent editing the "Cebu Chronicle," pub- ' ,/lishcd at Cebu in tho Visayan Group ' i (Philippines) writes to say that his paper j has been Mown out. of tho business by j the great typhoon which brought death , ;' ] and devastation to tho island, and his ; lament is that ho has only' ono rusty , : typewriter left with which to keep alive ; tho nVkering torch of journalism. One. thing that is bound to bo, affected ' j by the typhoon is the Manila hemp mar- ■ bet. for many thousands of pounds worth of Tiemp were blown to tho four corners of tho earth in the storm, of the force '-, of, which outsiders can form no concep* tfon. In an article contributed to the "Maa ila Free Press," Mr. Anderson writes:— , '. Filipino Character. "j Americans have seen a Filipino in a new phase of character that has not been j revealed before and all aro remarking on the way in which they have bravely smiled in this bad hour and set about remedying tho damage without complaint and .. \ without idlo repining. Cebu has had. a- : I very hard time of late, first the drought, ' then, the locusts, and now the storm; : but her citizens havo come through their " ; testing and shown some fine traits of man- i imess and courage. Just as tho labouring .■ ■ ! . man has collected what little of his meagre belongings left him by tho storm and i set about drying his shirt and patching : his roof and earning his meal, so the. . ■ businessmen havo collected their scattered. j papers, _ audited their remaining stock,' - and written our orders for a new supply ' without a word - of-complaint. One mail j came to the writer with a smile on his ; face on Thursday and remarked that the i sun had dried bis hemp and saved more than he expected, hut said not a word i about the thousands ho had lost, and'./.. ■ in a humbler way a messenger employed by us requested permission to take away some empty cans to use as household utensils but never told, what afterwards came out, that he was trying to keep ten > nioro distressed relations in his partlyruined house. With this spirit abroad l among tho big and little there can bo no doubt that Cebu will come out of her ! hour of distress with flying colours and win still greater victories. The Dead Wagon. "Even as we write tho 'Dead wagon' •■ i passes with its grflit clanking bell as it carries more unfortunates recovered- from tho sea or from wreckage, yet someone nearby in a nipa shack is strumming a native guitar: it is not callousness, it is ] courage! - , ■ ' "Cebu has always felt itself secure from ! the worst' typhoons, and when number ' nvo signal Svent up, people hardly took' - : notico of it. The masters of craft, of ■ course, took precautions, but the shore, folk expected nothing more than- the '■ usual stiff breeze. As night fell at''six : o clock the rah drove people to shelter, but the stores were open as usual, and it ■• was not until an hour later that the i severity of the wind-began to really make itself felt. At eight o'clock the electric ' lights went out and plunged tho city into darkness, the street lamps gave out, i the eddying winds made house-lights in ; most cases impossible, and in the darkness tho first hint of fear crept into th* people's hearts. Every minute after eight ! the storm took on an increased ferocity- ■' and between ten and midnight the great- i est damage was done. Above the roai .1 of the galo and the hiss of :the> driven ' ' rain, came ominous sounds—tho crash of glass, splintering wood, iron-roofing strik- '. '■ ' ing angrily at its remaining' confines— sometimes but seldom in the awful noises of the night, tho excited shouting of men and the cries of women and children. When Day' Came. ...... Day came slowly, and the storm passed with reluctance; as toward four o'clock the wind, lost some of its fierceness, that unexplainablo sound that betokens human lifo began to be heard more distinctly i atovo the voice of the tempest king. When dawn came it was grey, angry,, sullen, the rain was still falling and the .wind was too strong to face, but liumanity began to assert its presence. Against the brightening sky tho writer could see a clump of mangled coconut trees and .to the left the ratters of an unroofed house, -these two' heralded the sad -truth; all elso came the same. Where there had been a thriving native settlement, noth. ing remained, but piled-up wreckage, the usual clean and busy Magallanes street i was inches deep in mud and strewn with 1 timbers, scattered iron, doors, broken dump of very kind, and a dead pig in a nearby gutter. Then each subsequent hour had its own story; first a few men, then men and "struggling against the wind with boxes and miscellaneous i belongings; then shivering women and children. Scouts, constabulary, police; a clump of people caught our attention; wo I waded across a street up to our knees ' in water, and saw—two women and a little child, one scarred, the others ns>if asleep ' —tho first two. victims wo saw of the i storm. Then round a corner four scouts carrying throe more dead on a bamboo , bed for .a stretcher. ■/ Half the houses in town levelled to the ground, mndonnin. ■ habitable, or otherwise damaged. ; "Tho rest had to come later, the : story of wrecked vessels, fertile vol-. leys .denuded, villages- flattened to ' ; the g'-'und, families missing, -roads - | and orTTges so .damaged as to .render traf. < fie impossible. The Cathedral half-roofed, | Hie United Sorylce Club partially wreck-.' cd, the hotel a scene of desolation, the hospital badly smashed up. Dr. Pond's . .' house, in ruins, Mr. Levering's likewise, and so on, and so on. . '

"Where God Would Have Him Be." ' "Crawling under fallen telegraph poles, dodging swings where wreckage hung from twisted wires, passing round fallcn'liouses,' pausing for breath at every corner sheltered from the wind, aud holding' our drenched garments tighter around our bodies, we went forward on our journey through desolation. "A little gathering of natives near a bunch of wrecked and half-wrecked shacks attracted us, we saw a tall figure in gum-boots aud rain-coat, lie was talking to the natives aiul giving them something, they seemed to hold him in great respect, we wondered who he was, when he turned we saw the heavy gold cross hanging through the buttoned opening of his coat—it was Bishop dorado, where-God would have him be, among his people. A few shivering women and children were in the porch of the provincial building when we passed it, but Treasurer Upington was .there bsforo anyone • else, and for' him' it was the beginning of a long and tiring week, he, too, rose to the occasion.

Through mud and rain and wind came a big white horse, on it was Major Eol> ertson, of the Constabulary, he slowed up, answered questions, gave us a liand on his saddle to help us across a road that was a river, then some of his wen came, up, more dead found, and Major was off at the gallop again goneralling his forces from one end of the city to the other, and arranging for patrols out into the province. In a soaked khaki-coat five foot nothing in size, but ginger to his finger tips, splashing through mud, crawling over obstacles, giving instructions to bunches of scouts, we saw Captain Hutchinson' with his men doing excellent work. Tho native papers have praised tho Scouts and Constabulary, and they deserve, every word said good for them. Dr. Pond and Inspector Pauley were everywhere, with their staff of sanitary inspectors they were working miracles. Wo could hardly believe that the doctor's house was a complete wreck and that ho afid his wife had such a narrow escape, it seemed so improbable that with such, an experience ho could bo so busy about others, still no one seemed to expect any. thing pise, ho did his duty. And so ws could go on. Somo men,rise to the occasion, most did on Tuesday and Wcdnes day last.