London Evening Advertiser
- Buildings Damaged By Shocks
- 650 Now Death Toll In Cuba
- SAYS ALCOHOL WAS SECURITY FOR LOAN
This London, Ontario evening paper of October 22, 1926 carried a wire report on a morning of earthquakes around the San Francisco Bay region that sent hotel guests into the streets, some in nightclothes, but injured no one; the worst it found were cracked walls, stopped clocks and slight damage to a Santa Cruz resort hotel. A report on the hurricane that had just crossed Cuba put the death toll at 650, estimated 200 dead and 1,600 injured in Havana alone, listed more than 300 dead at Batabano, where the storm first struck, and gave town-by-town figures and expected damage of nearly $100,000,000. Locally, a London Township farmer charged with keeping liquor for sale said a motorist whose car had broken down left the alcohol at his farm as security for a loan; the magistrate reserved judgment.
This edition translates three articles from the page: the California earthquake report, the Cuba hurricane report and the London Township liquor case. Because the OCR is heavily garbled, the excerpts were checked against the page images. The earthquake and Cuba texts begin mid-sentence, and all three stop at the end of a column. [?] marks words that cannot be read, and the misprints 'San rancisco' and 'debounched' are kept as printed. The outer columns are cut off at the tile edges, so the bride smuggling story, the Fotheringham story and the left part of the Labrador boundary story are not translated. The commentary does not cover the Labrador boundary dispute because no usable background page was available.
Translation
Buildings Damaged By Shocks
[?] morning series of earthquakes, one of which was described as "fairly severe," visited the San rancisco Bay region and contiguous territories today, causing considerable hysteria, but doing only nominal damage. The weather bureau reported the shocks were felt from Santa Rosa to Paso Robles. Hotel guests debounched into the streets and parks of Oakland and San Francisco, some in night attire, but quickly decided they had been "more scared than hurt." Clocks stopped in places; there was an occasional cracked wall, but a close survey of the earthquake area disclosed no injured person or as much as a toppled chimney. Santa Cruz, 60 miles to the south, reported slight damage to the Casa del Rey Hotel, a big resort structure, and a few cracked walls and stopped clocks. It appeared to be the most severely
650 Now Death Toll In Cuba
[?] injured, but it is said that six municipalities were completely wiped out and that 6,500 persons were rendered homeless. It is thought the material damage will reach nearly $100,000,000.
200 Dead In Havana.
In Havana alone it is estimated that 200 persons were killed and 1,600 injured, and that 3,200 families had their houses destroyed. The two villages comprising the municipality of Batabano on the south coast of the island reported more than 300 dead, and both towns were completely destroyed. They were the first upon which the hurricane struck with all its fury as it came out of the Caribbean Sea, crossed over the Isle of Pines and hit the Island of Cuba. Bejucal, lying midway between Havana and Batabano, is said to have had 30 fatalities. At Gabriel there were 11, Central Fajaro 8, Guira del Melat [?], Camp Columbia 8, Guana Bacoa 3, Matanzas City 8, and Guineas 3. In all these towns and villages great damage is said to have been done, many persons were injured and numerous families left homeless. Several vil-
SAYS ALCOHOL WAS SECURITY FOR LOAN
Left at Farm by Motorist After Breakdown, Says Accused.
Judgment was reserved by Magistrate Hawkshaw in county police court this morning, when William J. O'Brien, a farmer living on Hyde Park highway, in London Township, was charged with keeping liquor for sale. The charge was the result of a raid on the farm on Oct. 12, by License Inspector Walter Bolton, High Constable Wharton and County Constable Alfred. All three told of the raid, conducted because of information received by the license inspector. About 40 cans of alco-
Context
How the Cuban toll reported here compares with later records
The hurricane made two landfalls on Cuba as a Category 4 storm on October 20, 1926, and the article's account of its path, out of the Caribbean, across the Isle of Pines and onto the south coast at Batabano, fits that record. The figures, however, were very early estimates sent by wire two days after the storm. The paper estimated 200 dead and 1,600 injured in Havana alone; a later reconstruction records at least 58 deaths in Havana, many of them people struck by collapsing walls or flying debris. On the Isle of Pines, now Isla de la Juventud, at least 38 people died and more than 200 were injured. The headline total of 650 for Cuba is best read as one stage in a count that was still changing. The paper's expectation of nearly $100,000,000 in material damage cannot be checked against these sources. The only matching round number in the later account is that two relief committees quickly collected nearly $100 million. The aftermath was also violent: President Gerardo Machado ordered police to shoot looters without warning.
The Miami hurricane a month earlier as a yardstick
Readers in October 1926 had a recent comparison. The Great Miami Hurricane had come ashore near Miami on September 18 and caused a US$100 million damage toll across the Bahamas, Florida and the Gulf Coast, the same round figure this paper gave as the expected material damage in Cuba. In Florida most of the deaths occurred near Lake Okeechobee, where storm surge breached muck dikes and drowned hundreds of people. The Miami count also shrank over time: initial estimates suggested more than 1,000 dead in Miami alone, and the official number was later revised downward. In both storms the first casualty reports ran ahead of the totals later recorded, and the Havana figure of 200 dead belongs to that same early phase. The Miami storm also had lasting economic effects, ending Florida's land boom.
Where the same hurricane was on the day this paper appeared
The storm the paper described in Cuba was still active when the edition went to press. After crossing Cuba it moved through the Straits of Florida and the Bahamas, then passed over Bermuda on October 22, the date of this issue. It later weakened, made a clockwise loop and dissipated on October 28. At Bermuda the Royal Navy sloop HMS Valerian, based at the dockyard there, was returning from hurricane relief work in the Bahamas when the storm overtook her. She fought the storm for more than five hours before she sank with the loss of 85 men. So while the paper was compiling town-by-town tolls from Cuba, the same hurricane was causing new deaths far to the northeast.
Why a London Township farmer faced a liquor charge in 1926
In October 1926 Ontario was still under the Ontario Temperance Act, the prohibition law put to a referendum on October 23, 1924. Voters upheld prohibition, but by the narrowest majority of any of Ontario's prohibition referendums. The large cities, the core of Conservative support, voted heavily wet, and the rural areas where the opposition was strongest mostly voted dry. Premier Howard Ferguson's government then proposed replacing prohibition with government-run liquor sales, and that proposal dominated the provincial election held on December 1, 1926. O'Brien's case was heard about six weeks before that vote. The article describes a raid carried out on a tip by the license inspector, a high constable and a county constable, and a magistrate weighing the farmer's story of a stranded motorist. That shows the old prohibition regime was still being enforced in the London area while the province argued over ending it.
What the liquor-control election meant for dry Conservatives
Ferguson's plan put many of his own members in a hard position, because many Conservatives had pledged themselves dry to their local communities during the 1924 referendum. The sharpest break came from William Folger Nickle, who resigned from the cabinet on principle. He then ran in Kingston under the banner of the Ontario Prohibition Union and was soundly defeated. Ferguson's political calculation rested on the referendum map: the large cities that supplied Conservative votes had voted wet. The gamble paid off at the polls, where the Conservative government was re-elected with a majority. In 1927 the province passed the Liquor Licence Act, which repealed the Ontario Temperance Act and created the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. A charge like O'Brien's belonged to a prohibition system that had only months left.
Original
Buildings Damaged By Shocks
[?] morning series of earthquakes, one of which was described as " fairly severe, " visited the San rancisco Bay region and contiguous territories today, causing considerable hysteria, but doing only nominal damage. The weather bureau reported the shocks were felt from Santa Rosa to Paso Robles. Hotel guests debounched into the streets and parks of Oakland and San Francisco, some in night attire, but quickly decided they had been " more scared than hurt. " Clocks stopped in places; there was an occasional cracked wall, but a close survey of the earthquake area disclosed no injured person or as much as a toppled chimney. Santa Cruz, 60 miles to the south, reported slight damage to the Casa del Rey Hotel, a big resort structure, and a few cracked walls and stopped clocks. It appeared to be the most severely
650 Now Death Toll In Cuba
[?] injured, but it is said that six municipalities were completely wiped out and that 6, 500 persons were rendered homeless. It is thought the material damage will reach nearly $ 100, - 000, 000. 200 Dead In Havana. In Havana alone it is estimated that 200 persons were killed and 1, 600 injured, and that 3, 200 families had their houses destroyed. The two villages comprising the municipality of Batabano on the south coast of the island reported more than 300 dead, and both towns were completely destroyed. They were the first upon which the hurricane struck with all its fury as it came out of the Caribbean Sea, crossed over the Isle of Pines and hit the Island of Cuba. Bejucal, lying midway between Havana and Batabano, is said to have had 30 fatalities. At Gabriel there were 11, Central Fajaro 8, Guira del Melat [?], Camp Columbia 8, Guana Bacoa 3, Matanzas City 8, and Guineas 3. In all these towns and villages great damage is said to have been done, many persons were injured and numerous families left homeless. Several vil -
SAYS ALCOHOL WAS SECURITY FOR LOAN
Left at Farm by Motorist After Breakdown, Says Accused. Judgment was reserved by Magistrate Hawkshaw in county police court this morning, when William J. O'Brien, a farmer living on Hyde Park highway, in London Township, was charged with keeping liquor for sale. The charge was the result of a raid on the farm on Oct. 12, by License Inspector Walter Bolton, High Constable Wharton and County Constable Alfred. All three told of the raid, conducted because of information received by the license inspector. About 40 cans of alco -
Source: Holding institution