THE ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 9, 4 February 1909, Page 3

THE ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. SHU'S THROWN ONE AGAINST THE OTHER. FUKTHER NEWS BY MAIL. A DRAMATIC ACCOUNT. Freemaiitle, February 3. Dr. Wilson, a survivor of the earth quake, gives a dramatic account of thi destruction of the beautiful acafroni o: Messina called l'alazzata owing to it: numerous palaces, lie said that iu tin early morning

A TERRIBLE DETOXATION suddenly occurred. There was a violent convulsion and both the sea and the laud shook. The sea seeuied to withdraw, ships were thrown one against the other, lines oscillated, lamps waved and trembled, all lights went out, and hi suddenly incumbent darkness, the sea, with an enormous roar, rose to a height of several metres and then fell again like a uionstious ikjiuu avalanche. It fell with A FRIGHTFUL SPLASH

on the shore, shattering buildings on the liarbour front, smashing the pier, mid breaking the embankment. Then, invading the beautiful promenade, it rushed against a row or monumental palaces on the sea front, knocking tliein down, disembowelling them, and sull'ocating under its rage thousands of people—who were surprised in their sleep —and at last retiring, dragging with it corpses, furniture goods, and all sorts. In lower Messina the quays were sunk, walls destroyed, and

PALACES WIPED OUT. /Clouds of dust like a thick log enveloped the scene. Those who were not victims of the tidal wave, and lived in tile inner part of the city or houses on the hills at the back, were thrown out of bed by a formidable shock and most of them buried under trembling walls, roofs; balconies, porches and -columns, which shook everywhere with a tremendous noise. SILENCE LIKE DEATH

■followed, then the silence was pierced with the shrieks of the wounded. Dawn was still distant, the lamps were all .extinguished, and the darkness was deepened by clouds of dust. Suddenly pillars of flame blazed out from the broken gas mains and spread through the ruins, burning beams and furniture, and putting a frightful end to the agony of many poor creatures imprisoned under the debris. CLOUDS OF SMOKE, thicker than the dust, and red with the sinister reflection from the fire, rose, turning slowly into tlie air as from an immense pyre. Naked people were covered with blood anil were aghast with terror. A few survivors tried to escape from the area of the ruins, but old familiar ways were -no more. There was not a trace of streets and corners known to people 'from boyhood; places where the Mcssinese could have walked blindfolded at one time. All was chaos, with bricks, beams, iron, wood, lime, and an entangled waste of broken furniture. A BRITISHER'S NARRATIVE.

« VIVID DESCRIPTION OP THE 1 SCENE. HEROIC BRITISH SAILORS. (FACE DEATH TO SAVE CHILDREN. • Received 3, 8.30 p.m. 1 Sydney, February 3. I The narrative of Constantine Doriss, « London sliarebroker, who was of the ten who survived out of eighty in the ■Hotel Trinacria at Messina, gives a vivid •description of the scene of horror after •the first crash. Doresa found his bed ■standing by an abyss, the whole side of "the hotel having fallen out. With the aid of sheets torn into strips, he lowered a Swede, his wife and baby, who were >in an adjoining room, to the street, and then followed himself.

' All round buildings were falling with ■terrible crashes, frightful screams rising ■on all sides. ' Captain Owens and his mate, Mr. SleaiC with thirteen sailors from the -Afwen, and some Russians, went ashore with ropes and ladders to see if they could save any 011 the. high buildings. ■They heard little children crying pit-c----ously on a building which was ready to collapse. Read reared a ladder against ■the lowest balcony, and- then turned to fchmth, one of his seamen, and said. ''Now, Smith!" It seemed like sending ithe man to- certain death, but Smith, ■without a word, was ui> tlie ladder 011 ■to the first balcony, where he caugl't tu. stone lowered by means of a string ,by -the children. To the, string he at--tacheil a light line. The children haul--t'll this up and made it fast. 'He then ■climbed up to the children, on the crazy Turn, where lie found so many that he could not ina7iagc all himself. Captain Owens turned to Head, who instantly ■went up to Smith's assistance. One bv one they- lowered the little creatures in safety. Read's next feat was to release fa woman burned to the waist in the iruins. While fire was blazing all round, -lie cut with a saw a. plank pinning tlie woman, and then dashed through the •Iflames with.her in his arms. An Italian wjlicer came up and said: "What is the ina.me of the ship to which these men belong? I shall send aji account of their splendid bravery to my fioverniment." . *Wh«n daylight came, looting was proending indiscriminately, wretches hacking off the fingers of the dead to get dugs. 1 On Tuesday morning, the British licet icanie tearing up the Straits, bringing tthe first help from the outside world.