EARTHQUAKE HORRORS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11515, 22 February 1909, Page 2

EARTHQUAKE HORRORS.

A SCENE OF DESOLATION. E Y ID-WITNESSES' GRAPHIC STORIES* PERTH, February 12. From the English files to hand by the. R.M.S. Ortona the following report by: Signor D. FilipL of the position at Messina, after the great earthquake, telegraphed to The Times by its correspondent at Rome, is taken: — "The streets are mountains of ruined masonry np to the first and second floors. Fires were smouldering or blazing here and there. The rubbish . consists o£ crushed masonry, wooderl fraihe work/ casements, etc* furniture and broken, glass, household objects of every description, thousands of illustrated postcards, papers, and toys. It was Christmas tide. After three days' hard work among hideous sights and m the putrid stench, a curious indifference coni.es over all, but even to the end 4 certain small; things thrill your deadened sensibility, such as shocks experienced m finding oh my path three tiny corpses, two canary* birds, and a goldfinch. . From some houses, parti} 7 standing, come the barking of a dog or the mewing of a cat. I saw a dog standing -on the top of a wall, and £ot a soldier to shoot hini down. Again, high up m the partially demolished house m a cage a goldfinch is singing. Dogs and cats had to be shot at sight to protect .the dead. I. will avoid needless descriptions of horrors unspeakable. Some rescues were effected under appalling conditions ill the beginning, and till the fourth or fifth day. On the seventh day I extracted a family, of three, father and mother and boy, the mother pregnant. Ll a few hours later the boy was strolling about on the quay, while his father sat. peacefully smoking . a. long pipe. On tjie eighth day the discoveries were few, those s£ill surviving '.under the ruins being buried very deep, ~so that their cries ,were not audible at the surface. There was a tumble-down house we had carefully ex-, plore'd m the morning without result. Somebody had the idea of getting 1 down into a narrow corridor visible through the beams to rap the walls. At last, an answering rap . did come. They broke through the wall and entered a small chamber, partially filled with debris, j Here they heard voices through a further wall. This had to be pierced, and was the main Wall, so that it took time. Through the first small aperture water was passed. Invariably the. firet cry of the victims was ;'Aqua.' Next a man's voice begged that a pickaxe, might' be passed m, so that he, too, might work, and he did wpritj and vigorously too, from the inside. Soon they were able to pass out; a tiny infant, next came the exhausted mother, wlio had nursed it at her breast, during eight days of starvation ; then the father came, but two little corpses had to be left behind. A striking circumstance was % tho large number of aged people extracted alive at Messina.

Tlie immediate problem regards tho survivors. How are we to deal with thousands of homeless men and women and children, who Eire not paupers by habit or birth? How many of these little children can we ■ ultimately identify? Some of them are entitled to wealth and culture by birth. The' very loss of relatives, which has left them nameless and unprotected, must, m man;/ cases, have left them also hell's to abundant means, of which the lack of identification -will defraud them- The funds of the principal banks and the banking bodies are safe, but Sicilians have a habit of keeping nioney ahd securities m their own houses, so that the loss of property is greater than it "would otherwise havo been, and many have lost with their homes absolutely all their worldly goods.", A FIREMAN'S EXPERIENCE, 7 A fireman of the R.M.S. .Ophir, 'who was m Messina m the oil tank steamer Chesapeake, on the day of the disaster, thus describes ■ his experiences : -"We could not see the town, but there were cries of women, ' men, and children, shrieking ■ and meaning froni out of the darkness. As daylight broke, made our way towards rows upon rows of bricks and' -fallen masonry, which represented the town. As we clambered over the debris we coat Id see the dead lying around m hundreds, besides wounded people, who lay here and there pinned amongst Btoncs, bricks, and woodwork, crying . and moaning piteously. Those who had escaped, if not wounded, were terrified, and were rushing here nnd there crying for help. As wo had no tools the' rescue work was difficult. - Tlie first body I pulled out from a heap of brick and woodwork was a woman. She was dad m a nightdress, and wnts practically m two; her legs also being fearfull j smashed. t rescued at least --30 people .from the ruins. Each of my three companions did as much. , The day wore on till dusk. We reached tlie ruins of the Cufctom-hoiis-e, where we were surprised to see surviving soldiers, police, add Gustom-hdus£ officwlsj. in uniforms, searching about" and looting wholesale. The looting soldiers: and officials, however, were still busy at: .jiight,. : , They, were not contented mei'sly^With food ajnd clothing, but weye o, out for artiples. of value. On Tuei^y morning,' at daybreak, we went around again. The d-tfed' and injured', lay m all conceivable postures. Some had their faces emaslied. Others had -arms. or. legs tonn YWlier-; evei"; we went/ the survivors weTe crying and moaning. Some, were running about stark crazy ; others sat or Lay on piles of stones, groaning." ■ . ,