Telegram Herald

SLAIN BY HUNDREDS.

London, Oct. 29.—Dispatches were received here Wednesday evening from Japan announcing that the telegraph wires beyond Hiogo and Osaka were down.

It was added that there had been an earthquake at Hiogo, and the rumor was current that a great amount of property had been destroyed and that the loss of life had been considerable.

A private telegram dated Hiogo, received in this city Wednesday night, confirms the report conveyed in former telegrams that a disastrous earthquake shock has occurred in Japan.

This telegram says a severe shock was experienced at Osaka and that the destruction of both lives and property was great.

So severe was the shock that a number of houses were thrown to the ground and many of the occupants were caught in the falling buildings and crushed to death.

A large number of persons succeeded in escaping from there to their homes only to meet death in the streets to which they had fled for safety from the falling debris.

There is no means at present of estimating the total loss of life; in fact, the details of the catastrophe are meager, as all the telegraph wires are broken in the districts affected by the falling of the poles, which were thrown down by the seismic disturbance.

The above-mentioned dispatch, however, states that it is known that in Osaka alone the death list contains the names of 300 of the residents of that city.

Hiogo is a seaport town of Japan, on the island of Hondo, and is situated about 22 miles by rail from Osaka.

Hiogo is a fine harbor at the head of the gulf of Osaka and is adjacent to Kobe.

It is lighted with gas and has a number of fine public buildings, including a town hall, a custom house and government machine shops.

The seaport referred to has an extensive foreign and coastwise trade and a population, in 1884, of about 40,000 souls.

Osaka is also on the island of Hondo and on the sea, 37 miles southwest of Kioto, to which place as well as to Hiogo and Kobe railways have been built.

Osaka has a large foreign trade, arsenals, a great castle, machine shops, a city hall, mint, college and an academy, and is traversed by canals over which are more than 1,100 bridges, some of them of iron.

This city has many theaters and other places of amusements, and it also has 1,200 places of worship.

In point of size it is the third or fourth city in Japan, but in social affairs, fashion, commerce and industry it takes the first rank.

Osaka has five newspapers, hundreds of schools, and a population, according to the census of 1884, of about 500,000.