The following days were spent tiresomely going over the ruins listening to tales of good and ill-fortune, seeking a way out of the city. The American Embassy opened quarters in the Imperial Hotel and began the registration of Americans and any other foreigners who desired to place themselves in its care. The American Ambassador, Mr. Cyrus Woods, and his Military Attache, Colonel Burhett, in spite of the fact that they bad lost their personal belongings'and their homes, laboured ceaselessly on what was clearly becoming to them the most important and the most difficult task of the moment, the exodus of foreigners from Tokio. The land routes were congested ant dangerous and the sea route was uncertain, since it was difficult for vessels to come into Tokio harbour.
Meanwhile' men and women were coming from all parts of the country, telling of terrible sufferings. In Kamakura, there had been a tidal wave. All foreigners were safe, except Mr. Jud Madsen, the artist whose tragic death was particularly gruesome to those who knew his kindly character, his big-heartedness and his love of the beautiful. Madsen was sitting on an enclosed verandah with the young son of Mr. Kinney, the editor of ithe "Trans-Pacific Magazine." They were reading, When the earth-guaka took place, they rushed to the door which they could not open. A beam fell and both were pinned underneath it. Madsen's last words were, "I wish I had been killed outright, Shrimp.' The little boy crawled out only to tell the tale of the death of his companion.
At Miyanoshita, there was a landslide and the people were marooned. One man, Mr. Robert McIntyre, walked 80 miles to ask for relief. He offered to talk back immediately to arrange for the women to be carried over dangerous fissures in the mountain if a destroyer could be sent to their relief. Eventually, an American destroyer was sent io bring them" out. - From Nikko, Karuizawa and other places men came into town, some walking enormous distances to discover tha fate of their families. One man had come up from Yokohama on Saturday morning for business, leaving his wife in the Grand Hotel in Yokohama. He was told thas his' wife had been rescued from the bath-tub on the third floor of the hotel by Lieut. Ryan, of the U. S. Navy, and a Dutchman, Svend Enevoldsen. She was badly bruised and in hospital on the Empress of Australia.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.