THE ITALIAN DISASTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14915, 10 February 1909, Page 7

THE ITALIAN DISASTER.

INCIDENTS OB’ THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE. " TOO HORRIBLE FOR WORDS.” [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, January 1. Though in England wo have had no heartrending catastrophe to mar our Yulotido pleasure, we have supped lull on horrors these past few days, as the hideous dotails of the Calabrian earthquake’s havoc have come to hand. Fearful as were the San Francisco and Kingston affairs, they pale into insignificance when compared with the appalling visitation which has blotted out Messina, Reggio and half a-score of smaller places, and devastated a whole province of tho Italian kingdom. Tho fearful loss of life at first reported was wo hoped exaggerated, but as tho hours pass, and reliable intelligence comes to hand, the death-roll continues to mount up, aud it seems quite within the bounds of probability that tho total fatalities will not fall far short of a quarter of a million. At Messina and Reggio alone nearly 120,000 aro said to have perished, and of tho 44,000 inhabitants of the latter town loss than ono-tonth are believed to have survived.

Tho real horror of tho most fearful catastrophe (save the Flood) of which we have any record, lies not so much m the number of the dead as in the manner of tho death of a very largo proportion. Thousands met with a swift and merciful death, but thousands more perished in a manner it is mental torture to think about. Wo read of men, women and children horribly maimed by falling beams, iron and stonework, being slowly roasted to death; of men pinned under debris anxiously watching the race between their would-be rescuers and the fire, and being left to their fate when the hungry flames drove the rescuers back; of cruelly mangled, dying creatures shrieking to be put out of their pain; of burnt and sorrow-maddened men and women dashing their brains out against stone pillars or throwing themselves into tho sea; of dying human beings attacked by loathsome carrion birds whilst life yet remained in them; of homeless orphans frozen to death. These and many other things almost too horrible for words we are reading day by day, and yeb—strange as it may seem, the Calabrian earthquake is not the common topic of conversation, in London, at any rate. It is mentioned frequently, of course, but' seldom discussed. You mention it to your neighbour in the train. He makes answer, “ It is too dreadful,” “ hideous affair, hideous,” or with some such terse expression, and that is all in nine cases out of ten. There was much tho same sort, of reticence wlion the British received their severest checks in South Africa, but it was then the sullenness of mortification and anger. To-day it is tho magnitude of the catastrophe that keeps people silent. They are dumb with horror. * SURVIVOR’S TALES. The cable will long ere this hav& placed Antipodean readers in possession of the salient features of the Calabrian earthquake, with its accompanying cataclysm of flood and fire, but many stories have already reached England which may be recounted without traversing again the ground covered by the cablegrams. The escape of an artillery soldier named Gaspare Valenti from Messina was most extraordinary. Waves swept him from inside the barracks into the sea, where a fishing boat rescued him and landed him near Messina. No sooner had his feet touched the shore than he commenced to run away from the scene of the disaster, and eleven hours later he arrived, half dead with fright and fatigue, at Acuedale ; fiftyfive miles distant, having, it is said never ceased running all the way. A gentleman of Brescia, who was staying at tho Hotel Trinacria at Messina, was buried beneath the ruins. He spent five hours in calling for assistance, and found a stick which he waved desperately through a small opening. When at last several persons had noticed his signals and approached, a further tremor put them to flight. Eventually he was rescued by some sailors and taken on board their ship in an unconscious condition. Mr A. J. Ogston, the British ViceConsul at Messina, tells a heart-rend-ing story of the manner in which his wife was killed in Monday’s appalling catastrophe and of the miraculous escape of himself and his daughter. He said:—

“At the first shock I was thrown out of bed. My wife at once rushed to the cot where our little daughter was asleep, and, snatching her in her arms, we descended to the street door, but found it entirely blocked with wreckage. Finding escape impossible that way, we clambered through a window, my wife holding the little girl in her arms. As wo passed tho front of tho palace a balcony suddenly fell upon my poor wife, killing her instantly, but by a- miracle the little girl was practically unhurt. Taking the child in my arms I rushed towards the municipal square, wiicre about fifty other persons had gathered. We quickly decided to flee together to the open country, and during our mad rush through the streets, balconies, columns and cliimneys fell around us in a most terrifying manner. Members of our fleeing party were struck down by falling wreckage, half-a-dozen at a time, and in a few minutes tho party was reduced to twelve, then ten, and then five, and when at last we reached the open country only , four of us remained, the other forty-six having been killed.’’ CHASM IN THE SEA. Signor Ptilco, a Messina chemist, tells tho following story of his experiences : “ When the earthquake occurred I was on my way with others from Messina to Reggio, making the journey by way of tho regular ferry-boat. We were about half-way across tho straits when tho sea suddenly became frightfully agitated, and a great chasm appeared "to open up in the water. 1 verily believe wo touched the bottom. Then we wore picked up by a hugo wave, and its trough again appeared to strike the bottom, but by a miracle we escaped, and eventually reached Reggio. The entire town seemed to have been destroyed, and a terrifying silence prevailed. On landing we encountered a group of persons who were almost naked, and appeared to have become insane. To all our questions they answered not a word. “I came across Signorina Tina Marini (a well-known singer). Poor thing! she seemed distracted. She was carrying in her hand a cage containing. a number of live canaries, and though tho birds were chirping and hopping about, she said to me, * They are all dead.’ Wo were able to save two people, and returned without incident to Messina.” BURNED ALIVE. A correspondent has interviewed Dr Lalermo, of the University of Messina, who arrived at Rome the day after the catastrophe, with his wife. ' Ho said: “ I was sleeping in my bed, when I was thrown out, and the bed fell on top of me. The ceiling collapsed, the floor opened, and I was thrown into the first floor apartment of Mdmo Pcrnici. She was searching for her sister and her son, whom she found dead. Wo remained a day and a night without help, keening the rain off by means of planks of wood. Wo remained thus,

without food or drink, among theil screams of those who wore buried. The cries of tho latter ceased somewhat I during tho night, but no one came to our assistance. We were as if we were hi a tomb, lying alongside the dead nodies of our children. The injured lying around us, but invisible to us under the ruins, were weeping in despair or bursting into piercing cries at every sound they heard from without. When we finally escaped, conflagrations wero bursting out on all sides. We passed through streets that seemed to bo the bottom of valleys, and climbed over heights ivhich were all that remained of the finest palaces of Messma. I shall never forget it as long as / 1 live.” HORRIBLE SIGHTS. A correspondent of tho “ Telegraph,” cabling from Reggio do Calabria, tells a gruesome story of tho ruined towns and villages he passed through during a twenty-five mile walk through the devastated zone from Bag- • nara to Reggio. From the minor villages the living ; have fled, leaving the dead and injured to their fate. _ At Bagnara he states, ' surgical operations are being performed with pruning-knives, bands of thieves infest the country, and dogs aro greedily nosing among the debris in a manner too horrible for description. Hunger is supplying a motive for scenes of shocking violence, and scores of robbers are pillaging everything upon which they can lay their hands, defying the few surviving policemen and soldiers. '

At Reggio he found the few thousand survivors living in railway trucks and military tents. Not a single house in the place is safe enough for use, and even if it wore, the hapless survivors, some of whom are more to he pitied than the dead, would not use them. They are scared to the verge of insanity, and their one consuming desire is to bo taken from the horrible scene of devastation. The citizens who are left are suffering agonies from hunger and thirst. The ivater supply has completely disappeared, and there is no broad. Jn . the hopo of finding some food the survivors attacked the parcels post vans, and now the place is a prey to the plunderer. _ Even the bodies of the dead are being despoiled, aud anarchy prevails. There are no means of succour for the dying, who are exposed to. the open air, and the wounded drag themselves hither and thither among the ruins, and nobody heeds them. A logical but revolting egotism is theprevailing spirit. MOB LAW AT MESSINA. Dr Alrotti, who escaped from Messina to Palermo on an English ship, told the story of an assault he watched on the Customs House at the former city. “ While the steamer was leaving the shore,” the doctor said, “renewed shouts assailed our ears, and we witnessed a scene of savagery, ono of those demonstrations of criminal madness for which it is scarcely possible to find any justification. A crowd of persons of all description and every age, somo naked, others half-clothed, and nearly all of them injuredj rushed to the Customs office and looted it in the hope of finding something eatable. The Customs officers were quite unable to offer any resistance to the frenzied mob. Suddenly the reports of revol- ; vers rang out, and the people were! fighting among themselves for a hand- • ful of vegetables or a small piece of bread. From the deck, of the steamer: we watched this terrifying sight.” The doctor also gave a vivid descrip- : tion of his passing through the ruined town with its pile of shapeless masonry, its exposed dead, its buried living shouting for help, screaming in agony, blaspheming with maniacaL frenzy, or pitifully invoking tho aid of the Madonna and all the saints. He adds: “On reaching the railway station we found a multitude of people, i who had escaped from tho disaster. Some of them were seriously and others only slightly injured. _ A poor youth, who was quite naked, joined the throng; and begged piteously for something i with which to cover himself with. A monk took his mantle from his shoul-'; ders, and gave it to the young man. i Tho Central Station had been badly' damaged, and all around there reigned a deafening tumult. On entering the building we witnessed a terrible scene. A number of people were fighting to 1 get in to the goods depot, and the more j violent among them broke tho windows ! and pillaged the place, carrying. away ■ all sorts of articles. Accompanied by\ two monks we left the station, and \ soon found our way to the shore.” PANIC AND MADNESS.

Captain Pakomoroff, the commander of the Russian battleship which did; such splendid work at Messina imme- j diately after the earthquake, stated on arrival at Palermo, that all along the coast, which is covered in deep mud > thrown up by the sea, thousands of ■ men, women and children of all ages' are wandering, half-naked. Many little children have been frozen to j death, and there are numerous cases . of raving madness. The Russian cap- j tain declares that 25,000 men would be . required to recover tho bodies and ex- . tricate tbe still living victims from the j ruins in which they are entombed. In many cases it was necessary to j use force in order to make the injured j enter the hospitals at Palermo. Mad- ; dened by panic, they seemed to think that every house must collapse. Among other episodes narrated by Captain Pakomoroff, one was very quaint. Ho says that he found, under a bed, covered by debris and dead bodies, two small children, playing with , some buttons. Many babies were j found alive in the arms of their dead ; mothers, and some dead children were > taken away from the arms of women who had gone mad with terror. On board the Admiral Makaroff the blue jackets, not having any milk, moistened their fingers with sugar and water, and gave them to the children to suck. Many of the people who were taken on board the Russian battleship had completely lost their senses. They were found wandering about tho ruins, searching for relatives. When taken on board they continued tlieir search, and went all over the vessel. The en-gine-room doors had to be shut, to prevent the poor people from jumping into the machinery. “ BETTER DEAD.” From Naples come horrifying ac- j counts of the condition of some of tho refugees landed there from Messina by several steamers. Some of them had their faces crushed, others had bleeding wounds, haggard eyes, and horribly contracted mouths, preserving dreadful marks of tho moment of terror. Some maintained a stony silence, while others in a half insane condition raised mournful cries. Some engaged in torrifio and maniacal outbursts, _ and some on reaching the end of their journey committed suicide. One unfortunate engineer, who had lost his wife and children, went mad as he was being landed, and danced a wild "can-can’L on the pier, shrieking: “ Messina is not destroyed; only my wife and children.” Another lady, who was rescued in a pitiable condition, being stark naked and wholly insane, steadfastly clung throughout the voyage to a cage containing a few live birds,

which she .insisted were hei husband and children., Many of the rescued m r deed would have- been better dead. They had lost, everything worth living for—family, property and. sanity, and will probably be gibbering idiots tor the rest of their days. IN MESSINA RUINS. Scenes of . the weirdest nature are being enacted in Messina and the other ruined towns. A grim message tells Of crowds of crows and ravens having descended,in the stricken districts, having crossed the Mediterranean from Africa in response to some mysterious intuition of disaster. In MeSsina the rescuers frequently enoounter processions of naked persons bearing images of saints which have been broken and mutilated by the earthquake. , Dealing with these freneied survivors is very difficult. . , The condition of the survivors is described as heartbreaking. They are hungry and thirsty, for no bread and no water are to he found, the local wells having dried up, and they have been reduced to killing dogs for food. The shock had a strange and tragic ©Sect on the minds of the survivors, some of whom acted like brutes, pillaging among the ruins and even despoiling the dead. Complete anarchy reign 6 in the town, and the work of rescue and relief has hardly beguii. Everywhere are the dead and injured.' Several beads, arms and legs and bodies horribly crushed are found among the ruins, from \ which the gtench of decomposing remains is beginning to arise.