TWO DAYS IN A SEWER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 November 1925, Page 7

TWO DAYS IN A SEWER.

MILANESE GIRL’S TERRIFYING ' ADVENTURE. TWO-MILE JOURNEY UNDERGROUND. An astonishing and terrifying adventure which befej a Milanese domestic servant the other day has stirred tho imagination of all Italy, writes a Romo correspondent of an English paper. Virginia Goi, aged about 30, had for eight years served the family of Signor Meyer, of-Milan, and had won the appreciation and affection of her employers. But latterly she had been afflicted by a neurasthenia, which deprived her of all enjoyment of life; and very early on Thursday last, leaving a laconic word of farewell in her room, she went out to seek death in the waters of the Naviglio, or Milan canal, into which she threw herself from tiie socalled Siren’s Bridge somewhat before dawn. Down this canal she was carried some way until a watchman espied her and attempted a rescue, but in vain. He called two other bystanders, but none of the three could swim, and their efforts to throw ropes and sticks to the young woman were unavailing. To their horror they then saw she was being sucked towards the entrance to an underground channel system, into which she swiftly disappeared calling frantically for help.

1 lie watchman hastened to inform the authorities of what lie had seen, but so excited was bis behaviour that the police assumed him to have suffered an hallucination. Only when Signor Meyer came to corroborate the story with a report of the missing servant's disappearance, exactly corresponding to that described by tiie watchman, was serious credence given to the story. And even then the authorities were not anxious to take action, so inevitably did lit seem that <the unfortunate woman must have been whirled to death amid the rubbish and wreckage of the underground sewers. But Signor Meyer, fortified by a singular pie&entiment that all was not at an end. moved heaven and earth to obtain the institution of a search. After two days he succeeded in overriding the objections of the engineers and the salvage brigade. Seven men of the latter corps were finally told to organise a search with the aid of a special drain expert. The scene of the search way an arched conduit'of some two miles length which debouches at one end on to the Naviglio, at the other into marshy tracts outside the Porta Vittoria. The arch is about .six feet high and the water two feet deep. SEARCH AND RESCUE. The first efforts to advance were in vain owing to the force of the current and the slimy surface of the floor. Further authorities had to be invoked to secure the partial damming of the aperture, and when this had been done the search began in earnest. Slowly and painfully the salvagers advanced, causing consternation to legions of frogs, water-rats, and other more repugnant animals crawling about the steps which Hank the corridor. Contact was kept with another squadron overhead, to which signals were from time to time communicated. Meanwhile a huge public collected on to]), following tiie researches with anxious curiosity. At one point , the irruption of a natural stream threatened to render progress impossible, but with a skilful use of stout ropes the passage was effected. .Shortly: afterwards the waters bifurcate just before issuing into the open air. Just at this point —and it was now five o’clock in .the afternoon—a huddled. form wins perceived seated on the steps, with feet dangling in the water, and breath faintly pulsating. In response to shouts and efforts to bring her to reason, Virginia Goi replied with a low cry. She was carried to a point where she could he hoisted into the street through an aperture Almost delirious shouts of joy greeted the rescuers and the unconscious rescued as they emerged into the street. The amazing thing is that while all experts had declared that the victim must have been beaten to unrecognisable pulp in the terrible two-mile underground journey, she was found almost uninjured, with even her clothes in tolerable order. The doctors suppose . that she was rendered unconscious by fear, and was carried safely up to the point of irruption of tho natural stream. After this point the current is weaker, and the woman, suddenly awaking, was able to drag herself to the steps, where for 48 hours she sat in complete darkness, amid the pullulating life of the slimy stream. Had she been carried a few hundred, yards further she would have emerged to the open air and perhaps saved herself. As it is, hones, though not very confident, are entertained of her final recovery from the coma into which she has fallen.