GEAND SPECTACLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1911, Page 7

GRAND SPECTACLE.

MOUNT ETNA IN ERUPTION. SIXTEEN CRATERS AT WORK, PANIC-STRICKEN PEOPLE. (Received September 12, 3 a.m.) ROME, 13th September. The eruption, of Etna is a grander spectacle than that of 1910. Sixteen craters are belching out fire and smoke, and two of the lower craters are- vomiting lava, which is travelling at the rate of four hundred yards hourly, ravaging vineyards and destroying coW-ages. The pin© forests are burning fiercely. There are incessant earthquake*, accompanied by noises like bombs exploding. The inhabitants of tho country are panic-striken, and aftTseekhlg safety on 4 the plains. ETNA'S RECORD OP DESTRUCTION. Etna has the most evil reputation of all tho world's volcanoes, mote evil even than that of its famous neighbour Vesuvius, It has been under the observation of civilised man lot so many centuries that the history of its misdeeds is very complete. Excepting for the huge chasm of the Val del Bove, which, according to Sir Charles Lyell, must have been torn in it^s flank by some terrible eruption in prehistoric times, the mountain ha* a singularly' graceful and uniform contour. This uniformity is slightly broken by the enormous number of subsidiary cones scattered all over ite surface. One of these— Monti Rossi — is a double crater thrown, up in the famous eruption of 1669, which Was observed and recorded by the Earl of Winchilsea, who was British Ambassador at Constantinople, He states that the eruption destroyed the habitations of 27,000 persons and made two hills a thousand paces high. The actual height afc the present day is 450 ft. Professor Bonney describes the curious appearance of the cones by saying : "So frequent ate these parasitic cones that a model of Etna on a rather small scale looke as if the mountain were suffering from a bad attack of pimples." The peculiar significance of tlte pimples will be realised when it is pointed out that each one may afc any moment become a centre of volcanic activity, pouring out lava, hot ashes, steam, w even boiling water. An in* staflce of the last occurred in the eruption of 1755, when a great flood of water issued from the fissure t6 which .allusion has already been made, the Vat del 1 Bove. Seeing that gome 300,000 people live on the fertile lower slopes of the mouh* tarn, it is no wonder its victims have I been many. Some of the most hortible ! results have been produced when water from oats direction has met lava coming from another. An occurrence of this kind took place in 1843. A stream of lava wad slowly invading gome cultivated land, and many people xvet& advancing as near a.5 potaibHF to its edge, endeavouring to save their property. Suddenly its extremity Was seen to swell up like an enormous blister, and then to burst, discharging a, qua-ntity of steam with a volley of fragments, solid and liquid. Sixty-nine persons were either killed outright or received fatal injuries. Ihe catastrophe was caused by lava, having flowed over a subterranean reservoir of water, thus generating suddenly enough steam to cause the explosion. On the whole, mote than a hundred eruptions are on record in the history of thi* mountain. Thueydides telfe of three separate eruptions wftich took place after the island of Sicily had beeA colonised by the Greeks, but" before the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. The most destructive -occurrence was in j 1169, when Catania was partly de* stroyed. with a, loss, it is said, of 15.000 , lives. In 1669 the mountain flank was i rent by a fissure twelve miles long, from | which lava and steam poured out. Tn j 1852 and part of the following year a torrent of lava was ejected which formed a stream six miles long and in place* two mules broad. The eruption of 1863 was also a long ami violent one, the principal discharges taking place from a subsidiary crater near its summit. DAVIS CUP. ■■ m ■ THE PRELIMINARY TIE. 6> Ttleer»pK~Preu Asswlatlon.-CopyriiH (Received September 14, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 13th September. In the Davis Cup preliminary the American tennis players won the scries against the British players. Tlte play was of a spectacular description. DETAILS OF THE PLAT* KILLS ANITvOLLEYS. (Received September 14, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, 13th September. In Monday's match t)ixon and Beamish defeated Thomas Bundy (California)' and Little. (New York), 6-3, 7-5, 7-5, 6*4. The kills and volleys of the Englishmen were especially brilliant. To-day both cilosing matches w&nt through four sets. M'Laughlin beat Dixon, 8-6, 3-6, 6-3, 8-2. Lamer defeated Lowe, 8-3, 1-6, ,7-5, 6-1. M'Laughlm smashed round fiixon in the most spectacular fashion. In the last f=et he hold the Englishman 4 to "love" before the tatter had scored a single game. His speed at the net won the game. (The contest has be*ti Won by the Lirited States. Seemingly, Lamed has beaten Lowe, and M'LougUin has accounted for Discs, or possibly only one of the remaining matches has been won by America, as that was all that was necessary to giv# them victory— 3 matches out of 6. The United States now will meet Australasia at Christmas time in N«w Zealand.] DEAR FOOD RIOTS IN FRANCE HOUSEWIVES? APPROPRIATING GOODS. tf Telefir*t>l>.-*-I'reM Asifteiatioa.— Copjrltfit. PARIS, 13th. September. Marked disturbances continue in many districts in connection with the dear food agitation, a.nd rioting is occurring where agents of the Confederation of Labour are present. The Confederation is organising many meetings in the poorest parts of Paris. The housewives in some districts are appropriating goods on their own terms when the vendors ask esoesaive prices. Opening r.en- summer shipments from the beet Home and Continental market*;. 10 por cent, discount en purchases es | and over until end of September. Clean goods, at clear cut cash prices. Q§q,