MODERN POMPEII

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 32, 8 October 1913, Page 5

MODERN POMPEII

THE iViESSSNA EARTHQUAKE

INTERESTING DISCOVERIES

[By Electric Telegbaph—Copybicht] [United Press Association.]

London, October 7

The Daily Chronicle's Messina cor respondent gives a description of tin

desolation. The Government a year ago voted .0100,000 to repair the ravages of the, great earthquake, but the contractors nave not started, and. the wharves were still 'sunken and and the qua, l , sides shattered. The parade was encumbered with rubbish due to a lot feet tidal wave. Nevertheless,, tin natural advantages were such thai. the trade of the port was already greater than, before the disaster.

The cathedral, of which the! Gem laden altar alone cost £160,000 is in ruins. Twenty-two pillars of the Temple of Neptune at Chrybidis ii smashed. Pavement night-watchmen armed with revolvers, guard the ruins but many mosaics and statue., havi been plundered. Twenty-seven million sterling o. treasure has already been recoverec from the ruins, including £BO,OOO i) cash from the premises of one smal firm, hew Sicilians invest in the bank They prefer to conceal their hoards Sackfuls of coins, Oriental bauds, ex quisite jewels and pearls have beei found. Thirty thousand' bodies have not yet been recovered. Many of thosdisintorred were shockingly carbenis 3d. Other cases showed unu.istakab! signs that the victims had survived or •chance food for days and weeks. 1301 bodies were buried in a tomb a nun dred feet by thirty d?ep.