THE ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 29 January 1909, Page 8

THE ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

DOCTOR'S GRAPHIC ACCOUNT! •

£PEB PRESS ASSOCIATIQN.I (Received January 29, 9.40 a.m.) FREMANTLE, January 29? \ A young doctor* in Messina, named Aliotto Rossi, tells the following story: "I rose early on Monday morning, intending to leave Messina by an early train. It was still dark and I was waiting, ready to start, when the profound silence- which precedes dawn was broken by an extraordinary noise. I can best describe it as like the bursting of a thousand bombs. 'This was followed by the rushing of torrential rain. Then there was a sinister whistling, -as if thousands of red-hot iron rods v were hissing in icy water. I did not realise what was happening until, suddenly, violent rhythmic movements of the surrounding walls made me realise the awful fact that an earthquake was in progress. Around me splintered glass fell thickly. The roof burst, giving off thick clouds of choking dust, which added to the horror of the situation, while the ground was shaken by an extraordinary double movement as if rising and falling, which had the peculiar effect of making me imagine I had been seized suddenly by illness. For a moment I was in a dazed condition, till the thunder of falling stones from crumbling walls made me realise that if I was to escape with my life there was not a moment to be lost. I rushed into the room where my mother and sister slept and succeeded, wi£n the help of a strong cord, in rescuing, not only them, but 36 other people in the dwelling who had given themselves up for lost. Then, with the help of passing soldiers, I dragged out several women and children from under the tottering walls of half-destroyed palaces, which soon after came, down with a crash. There were scenes of indescribable horror. It was difficult to see in the dust -laden half-darkness; but, at every turn, one could not help noticing the ghastly spectacle of human limbs sticking out from a mass of the ruins. - Frenzied relatives, with bare, bleeding hands, sought to dig out dear ones from under the fallen masonry, though often the Trails, ivhicli had not altogether collapsed, came down suddenly and buried them with their dead relatives in a common grave. All the while shrieks and imprecations were heard from miserable, raving fugitives, who rushed half-naked and bleeding through the streets, appearing like spectres in the lurid atmosphere, which began to be lit up by the fires which broke out in the ruins. The waterpipes having been broken, sufferings were intensified by the lack of drinking water. We were driven to assuage the burning thirst by rinsing our mouths in sea water, wherewith we washed even our wounds. All this time, there was a most furious rain-storm which came down like a waterspout, deluging the ruins, and even threatening the unfortunate fugitives with drowning in the mire left by the receding sea. Finally we succeeded in reaching the English steamer Ebro. Most of the fugitives who have given accounts of the catastrophe were too much under the impression of terror, and too full of their agonised search for relatives who were lost, to give any detailed narratives.

Additional entries of Border Leicester, English Leicester, and Shropshire rams are made to Messrs Dalgety and Co.'s Waverley ram foir. Entries for this fair are now closed.