AN ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE AND ITS SEQUEL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4255, 10 December 1881, Page 4

AN ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE AND ITS SEQUEL.

{From the Pall Mall Gazette.) Of tbe two islands which help to make the glory of the Gulf of Napleß, Capri is the moro frequented by foreigners, Ischia by Italians. Capri has gained a name among artists whioh has made its fortune ; but Ischia has a broader kind of beauty, and to our own taste tbe Ischiau men and women are handsomer than thoso of the sister isle. Thero is a certain Greek character of face among them which is specially fine, and the red Phrygian cap of the men, with tbo peculiarly tied headkerchief of tho women, adds to that picturesqueness which is the main factor in all peasant beauty. But it is not for ica loveliness, oither of scenery or of people, that Ischia ia frequented by Italians. The love of nature puro and simple ia by no means developed among the inhabitants of one of the most beautiful countries in Europe ; and they rather despise, when they do not blankly wonder at, thoao who havo "it. " Yes, the forestieri find them a great resource," said an Italian lady with fine disdain, speaking of the cheßtuut wo o ds at Qtiisisaua at Oastel-. lammare di Stab a . For herself and her kind they preferred tho drive on the Marina, tho seats under the tree in the Piaizi del Municipio, and such amusements as were to be had at the " Stabia-Hall," to all tho lovely freshness of the fountains, the glorious views frjm Monte Coppola, and the grand and gorgeous butterflies which make these woods their home. The ideal of life to her and her | kind is la societa ; and nature is to them only a dull and drowsy bore. So that the beauty of Ischia comes very little into their calculations, as the magnet which draws them hither is the baths at Casamicciola. Hence the thirteen weeks — the outside limit of the time during which the rheumatic and neuralgic may plunge into tbe hot mineral baths at the Stabilmento — make the whole seaßonat Casamioeiola, and its whole harvest from the outside. Grapes and fruit, grain and goats, always remain as the standing sustenance of tho island, but the money brought in by forestieri cornea through the baths, and anything whioh hurts the season and the hotels reacts on the general population. Year by year things had been going well ; more visitors came in ; more hotels and lodgings were rnn up ; more people were employed ; but now everything is changed, and this year poor L'assamicciola ia a ruin and awreck. The earthquake of March 4 destroyed half the village and damaged the othor half ; killed about 130 people ; directly ruined the fortunes of ten times as many, and indirectly of some hundreds more, by frightening the public, bo tbat it waß helu to be little less than a tempting of Providence to|,venture on thiß dangerous ground, whether the baths wore good for rheumatism or no. They were not the only baths in Italy ; aro there not the waters of Pbarpar and Abana, as well as those of Jordan P By degrees, however, the first alarm somewhat abated, and a fow adventurous spirits braved the dangers of the soil, when a small shock on June 18, struck terrorjnto all who were at the baths, and by the next day the place was all but deserted. To add to the tale of misery, the vintage this year is poor, and tbe fruit crop below the average. Immediately on the news of the first catastrophe a subscription waß set on foot throughout Italy, and a large amount was raised. If properly applied, quite enough was raieed to have rebuilt all the houses, re-established all the poor homeless creatures left alive, restored their worldly goods, and replaced them in tb9 same circumstances as before. But the money has not been properly applied ; and at this moment Casamicciola is a disgrace to the administrators of the funds— a disgrace and an accusation. Not one-tenth of the houses of the poor are rebuilt, though the overthrow took pluce in the beginning of March, and this ia now towards tho end of September. Whole lines of what were once streots are mere inasseßof stone und rubbish, lying where thoy fell. Tho temporary barracks, run up at an astounding cost, are still crowded with the ruined wretches who can get noither money nor homes, and who now are told that they must pay rent for their accommodation, as also tbat thoy must pay, out of tho subscription, for the removal of the debris whioh once made their homes ; but the hotels and some of the churohes havo beon restored, and the better classes among tho sufferers have beeu lavishly helped. Who is responsible for all this wo cannot of course say. But it is stated in the place that no accounts have been kept, therefore none have been furnished, but large sums have been given to certain benevolent grand ladies ia Naples, who have amused themselves by making an orphanage and asylum, which, like so much of this kind of fine-lady philanthropy, is chiefly con--1 spicuous for the grandeur of its idea, the cost of its maintenance, and the insignificance of its practical results.

The winter is now coming on, and these poor peoplo, already bo miserable, will be still worse off than they are. Nothing iB being done, and nothing will be done. Some day a queer garbled sheet will be published which will pass for an account, and the public will lift its hat, while tho Xing will in all good faith decorate tbe depredators who pose as philanthropises. Tho more active of the ruined will emigrate ; the aged and the sickly will die of starvation ; the patient and strong will live through their wretchedness, and the few fortunate will niche themselves into bare rooms, for whioh tbey will pay a fabulous rent, where they will begin again the uphill task of gathering a few household goor^B about thom. But tho money subscribed for them will never reach them, ond only so much will bo given aB shall prevent a publio outcry and an undesirable scandal. This is how things aro sometimes managed in Italy, whero there is no controlling public opinion, and whero personal favour and private interest carry the day. Some of the stories of that terrible dies tree are very sad. Oco poor woman, who bad a decent home, was cooking, in the little kitchen outßide, the dinner for her husband and three sons within, when suddenly tho shock came which buried them and all her gear, leaving her with two little children alone and ruinod. Nothing ha? been done for her ; but her children have beon taken from her, and are now in tbo costly orphanage spoken of above. Her face has a strange scired look on it, which is only just this side of insanity. Perhaps, had she beon reinstated iu a houso and her little ones left with her, her misory would not have been so great as it is. Four pretty young girls, with two dissolute brothers, are left fatherless and motherless and literally destitute. All who know Italian life and morals know the extreme peril in which theao young creatures stand. One young wife, lying with her now born child, wad killed, but the child was saved alive. A husband and wife with four children, lost throe, and were themselves, with the remaining fourth, so hurt that thoy had to be carried to the Hospital at Naples forthwith. In their absence thoy wero robbed of everything which tho earthquake hud spared. Tho aged husband of a poor old wifo is still somowhoro under the ruins j he wus never dug out, and eho haunts tbe place of her loss and his burial like a spirit that cannot be laid. Tho most beautiful girl in tho island, juat seventeen, was destroyed. She was lovely as a young island Tonus; but the terrors of tho time knew no ruth for beauty or for age, for virtue or for hclpleßenoss. Half of tho wholo destroyed wore little children, who did not know that to run undor an arch or a doorway during an eartbquako was to give fortune the best chnnco of saving thoir lives ; and half of thoso saved acted on this knowledge and so escaped. Meanwhile tho quoation is, What haß become of all tho money that was so

liberally subscribed, and why has nothing in any way adequate been given to tho poor sufferers for whom if. was subscribed ? If only fome kind of healthy controlling public opinion cordd bo got up in Italy, and some kind of trust in her public men and administrators of funds bo established through that confidence in integrity which is born of experience