NICARAGUA: Man after Nature

Banditry, which seemed to crouch quiet like a startled beast after Nicaragua’s earthquake (TIME, April 13), sprang again last week. Possibly the No. 1 bandit, General Augusto Sandino, who had voluntarily announced suspension of hostilities, was not to blame. But on Nicaragua’s east coast bandits of some sort killed U. S. Marine Captain Harlem Pefley, Lieut. Darrah and Sergeant Taylor at Logtown, surrounded another Marine detachment from the U. S. cruiser Asheville (rumor said 25 Marines were killed), caused the U. S. cruiser Memphis to dash over from Guantanamo Bay with a rescue force of 250.

In Managua, quake-devastated capital of Nicaragua, damage was estimated to total $20,000,000, only one-two hundredth of this being covered by earthquake insurance. One per cent of the city’s stone & concrete buildings were declared “reparable.” Bodies buried were estimated to total 975. Two children were extracted from an earthquake-made dungeon, physically unharmed, totally insane.

By air to the stricken city came Will Rogers, contributed $5,000 to relief, appealed to the U. S. for more, quipped: “The water works were destroyed. . . . Everything was destroyed but the brewery. … An act of Providence.”