B

EGINNING on Monday, January 30, 1911, a series of earthquake shocks of great intensity shook the island of Luzon, the center of the disturbance being in and around Mount Taal, the great volcano situated 34 miles due south from Manila.

In view of the seriousness of the quakes and the extent of the loss of life and damage done, it is surprising that so little attention was paid the disturbance in the press of the United States.

For the succeeding four or five days there were no less than 700 distinct shocks, of varying intensity, but some of them were as severe as, and some more so, than the quake that shook San Francisco in April, 1906.

The volcano has long been considered a menace to the surrounding country, yet, despite this fact, people lived in the villages and on the farms close to it, just as they have insisted upon living and still do live close to Vesuvius, and other volcanoes noted for their frequent violent eruptions. It seems to be the nature of some people to court the disasters that the past has repeatedly shown to be ever imminent.

The worst part of the eruption was preceded by a series of rumblings and shakes. Dense clouds of sulphurous smoke, great rivers of hot mud and showers of ashes ensued. The sight was as grand and imposing as it was terrifying. The panicstruck dwellers by the mountain-side fled

For many square miles about the volcano the land was devastated by mud and ashes. Ashes fell even in far-away Manila, where a thin layer of dust overspread the place.

The greatest shock was about 2:30 a. m. on January 31st. The eruption was then frightful, but magnificent, being accompanied by a startling and imposing electrical display. Spectators describe it as something grand and appalling.

Following the eruption, there were ad

experienced since the advent of the white man; certainly since the advent of the Americans. A curious accompaniment of the disaster was an atmospheric hot wave, the weather being far warmer over a large territory immediately after the event than before, the high temperature lasting for several days. Whether this was a coincidence or a connected phenomenon can only be conjectured.

The volcano is still in violent, magnificent eruption.

Him he undersold.

For McLerragh, missionary

Of the Presbyterians, very

Cautious in his acts,

Told the people how the Yankee

In a subtle way.

It is politics, my sonny,

Capital is making money.

Yellow Peril means

That the West is looting Asia-

Stated simple facts.

There the war scare leans.

S

HORTY was all in!"

In awed tones the news passed through the camp, while startled groups hurried up the hill to stare at the poor husk of a comrade lying there in his tent, unkempt and uncovered, just as he had thrown himself down the night before on that comfortless cot of gunny-sacks, sagging almost to earth in its rude pine frame.

Somehow it had never entered the minds of those who looked that death could come among them here in Chuckwalla, all hale and hearty fellows as they were. The idea came as a shock distinctly unnerving, and there was a feeling that Casey, proprietor of the Oasis saloon, but properly recognized the demands of the situation when he said: "Boys, the drinks is on me!"

And Casey's cheer put new heart into them, so much so, indeed, in the case of Dan Mulligan that he was soon loudly insisting they were but victims of a ridiculous blunder.

"Shorty gone over the range!" he scoffed. "An' what for wud he be cashin' in, an' him aloive an' kickin' but yisterday? Give him toime to schlape it off, I say. Ain't we all seen him stretched out loike a log before this? And didn't he always come out of it? Give him toime, I say."

And with another round of drinks the feeling became general that Dan might be right. At any rate they were all agreed that it was only fair to Shorty to "give

him a show."

In no case, however, was confidence so great that a man could go about his business as though nothing had happened. When desire to "set 'em up" languished, the crowd but drifted to the shade in front of the saloon, where, distributed upon barrels and boxes, they talked of leads and claims, of the "float somebody had found the day before, of the boom Chuckwalla

was bound to have before the winter set in-of anything and everything but the one subject uppermost in every mind, while they waited, waited, trying to postpone the dreadful certainty.

The sun crept higher over the rockribbed hills, flooding the camp with its white-hot glare, but in that weather-worn tent on the hillside, Shorty slumbered on unheeding. By and by came his burros, three small, mouse-colored creatures, nosing inquiringly about, so far emboldened at length that they might have pushed their way inside the swaying tent flaps, but for a skillfully aimed stone from a hand below.

"He was always a fool about them burros," Jim Corwin reminiscently remarked, "fryin' a pancake apiece for 'em every mornin' whether the flour was low or not. I remember oncet over in the Panamint, when he was short of grub and making a dry camp, that thar Jinny takin' a sneak an' gobblin' Shorty's breakfast right off his plate, an' him with no kick comin'. He was sure soft on them burros."

"He had a good heart in him," Red Willis declared with an unconscious sigh, while even optimistic Dan failed to notice the use of the past tense.

But even though hope palpably died as they waited, none the less they doggedly stuck by the determination to give poor Shorty "a show." Not till after they had fortified themselves with the mid-day meal, to say nothing of several new rounds of drinks, did the little company again wend its way up the hill, this time to sadly decide beyond question that the sleeper was not "coming out of it."

"All the doctors in the land couldn't say more nor less than that Shorty's all in," declared Casey, who had made himself chief of the investigating committee. "I expect it's up to us to hold a coroner's inquest now."