AN INCIDENT OF THE ISCHIA EARTHQUAKE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3846, 14 November 1883, Page 4

AN INCIDENT OF THE ISCHIA EARTHQUAKE.

Miss AVright, yvhose parents reside at Brighton Grove, Blackpool, has sent a letter iv yvhich she records an extraordinary escape yvhile staying yvith the Rev. Mr Barl! and family at Isehia. She says, after staling they had retired to rest all right, " AVhen the earthquake occurred avc had a most wonderful escape. Tho ceiling came right down on our heads, and it yvas so heavy that I put up my hands to support it. Miss Mabel yvas in bed. And 1 sat between belaud a table on yvhich there rested v large stone ; and on my bed there had fallen a great piece of 'lag Avhich had covered it. If I had been in bed I should certainly havo been crushed to death. Our dressing-table fell through the floor, and the next room to ours, and two others adjoining it fell through into the rooms below. I. suppose the eaithquake lasted liftccn seconds, hut to Miss Mabel and I yvho sat in tho room yvith the stones on our heads, it seemed much longer. It yvas a terrible sight, and the people's shrieks were dreadful. At first I thought Mabel was killed until she spoke ; and yvhen all yvas over avc crayvlcd out from under a ceiling and under a table. All was / darkness, for our lamp bad fallen olf tho tabic and gone out. Some way or other avc managed to get doAvn into the garden. AYe thought cA-eryone Avas killed but ourselves, as we did not sec anyone at first. A few minutes afterwards, hmvevcr, avc sayv that all were safe save Charlie. Ho had just gone to bed. If ho had been in the draw-ing-room ten minutes longer he yvould have been safe. lie yvas found dead -with his night-dress on, so he could only just have got into lied yvhen it happened. We stayed out in the vineyards all night. It yvas a very dark night, but all that yve could see was dense clouds of dust rising from the fallen houses. Oh, it yvas a terrible night, for the mountains yvere falling through tho night, and the people shrieking—it yvas something awful."