The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-16 00:00:00

THE EARTHQUAKE AT CHIO.

A Correspondent of The Times, who has visited Chio
writing on the 7th, says :

I have just arrived from Constantinople at the scene
of the earthquake, and find a picture of desolation
such as I have rarely witnessed. The town looks as if
it had been subjected to a terrible bombardment;
hundreds of houses have been transformed into a
shapeless mass of ruins, under which lie buried an un-
known number of victims. A majority of the re-
maining houses, already cracked and roofless, may
fall at any moment. Nearly every building in the
town has suffered snore or less severely. The un-
happy inhabitants wander about, anacioue to search
for missing relatives and lost property, but afraid to
risk their lives in the perilous work of clearing away
the rubbish. Many who are willing to expose them-
selves to the danger are prevented by their friends or
the police. Fear, grief, and despair are depicted in
nearly every face, and all have some cad or tragic tale
to tell.

The first shock was felt on Sunday afternoon, about
half-past one o'clock, and immediately the houses
began to fall. Wild shrieks were heard on every side,
and then followed an awful silence of some minutes.
The terrified survivors gradually ventured out into
the narrow lanes and reached the open spaces.
Shortly afterwards another terrible shock occurred
and completed the devastation. The mysterious
subterranean forces then remained quiet till sunset,
when they again began to shake the island throughout
as severely as before. All night shocks succeeded
each other at short intervals, each one being pre-
ceded by dull sounds like subterranean explosions.
Since that time frequent shocks have been felt. A
few minutes ago, while writing the present despatch,
I distinctly heard the explosion-like sound and felt the
earth tremble, but as I am under canvas I have
nothing to fear. The old Genoese fortress, containing
about 400 houses inhabited by Mussulmans and Jews,
has suffered more than the rest of the town. The
ground there sank about half a m4tre, and nearly all
the houses were immediately destroyed. Scveral
hundred persons must have here perished. It is known
that about 30 Mussulman women were assembled in
one of the houses, and not one of them escaped. A
medical commis,ion is sitting at this moment to con-
sigi whether it would not be well to refrain from re-
moving the rubbish in the fortress and cover it over
with earth, for there is no hope of saving any lives,
and the disinterment of the dead at present might
produce epidemic.

At present it is believed that throughout the whole
island, which contains some 70,000 inhabitants,
about 6,000 or 7,000 have been killed and 25 per cent.
of the survivors wounded.

Writing again on the Bth the same Correspondent says :
I visited to-day the south-eastern part of the island
with a relief party from Her Majesty's gun-vessel
Bittern, under the direction of Captain Pusey. The
shock must have been there even more violent than
here. I found Menita, which has 12,000 inhabitants,
and the smaller villages of Monastir, Virinos, and Phila-
tia literally masses of ruins, not a single house having;
escaped. It is impossible to state accurately the num-
ber of victims, but it must be very great. The survivors
are all camping out in tents, sheds, and shanties.
They are tolerably well supplied with bread, but are
in great want of medical aggistance, which is being
given to them by the English and American doctors.
Though the shocks are now weak and occur at long
intervals, the people are still so frightened that they
have not yet begun to clear away the ruins. Great
efforts are being made both by the native authorities
and the tcrews of the foreign war ships to relieve the
sufferers.

APRIL 9.

The population are graivally recovering from the
panic which for some days paralyzed their energy and
made them incapable of helping themselves. The day
before yesterday I did not see anywhere a single door
open, and did not meet a single person in the narrow
streets. To-day, when wandering among the ruins, I
noticed several people carrying out furniture, and on
more than one occasion I narrowly escaped a shower of
pillows, bedding, and similar articles, thrown Trom
the upper stories of the houses not completely
wrecked. These exceptional houses are nearly all
built of solid masonry, and seem to date from the
period of the Genoese domination. . . . The more
energetic men are having booths of light boards con-
structe'd in the open spaces of the dwelling-houses
or shops; but the majority content themselves with
rude shanties or tents, and enjoy with their families
the dolce far niente in the bright genial sunshine of
the open fields or in the perfumed shade of dark green
orange groves, where the children merrily dance and
play as if they had never heard of earthquakes, and
regard the camping out as a delightful episode in the
ordinary course. Their fathers and mothers are, of
course, more sedate, but no longer wear the haggard
look of mingled terror and despair which I noticed so
often on the day of my arrival. The weeping and
wailing, which were at first general, are now confined
to the old women and the wounded, and of these latter
I must say many bear their sufferings with admirable
stoicism.

The excavations within the old fortress here, which
contained about 350 Mussulman and 50 Jewish fami-
lies, have been begun. One hundred and forty-five
bodies have already been recovered. Judging from
the pestilential odours which I encountered when
climbing over the mountains of rubbish this forenoon,
I should say that many ctill remain.

The ambulances and relief committees are actively
ab work.

In a telegram dated Monday night the Correspondent of
the Standard says :

Eight more shocks of earthquake occurred to-day.
One, at a few minutes after seven this evening, was of
great:severity and lasted five seconds. _

I was jusl. leaving the shore, when I saw people
rushing out of the cafés along the quay. I heard walls
falling, and then came piercing shrieks. This shock
was scarcely perceptible in the boat.
Thirty seconds later there was a loud report as of
distant thunder. Our boat trembled from stem to
stern. There was a crash of falling houses; then a
cloud of dust rose over the whole town and the sur-
rounding villages. This shock was followed by five or
six smaller shocks.

The number of casualties is yet unknown. Several
deaths are reported. The population have entirely
deserted the houses and are camping out ; accidents,
therefore, cannot be very numerous:
This severe shock defeats the hope of a subsidence
of the earthquake, and a fresh exodus has already
allowed the panic of to-night.
Reports from the interior are most diAressing.
The misery is intense, 'lathing being saved in the vil-
lages. Blankets, tents, and timber for huts are
urgently required.

Writing from Ohio on the 11th, the Correspondent
of the Standard gives the following particulars :
Viewing the island from the sea, one could only partly
realise the horrors of the scenes to be witnessed on landing.
Along the shore extended a line of warehouses and offices.
The buildings were solidly constructed, and the outer walls
facing the sea are still standing, but merely as skeletons,
concealing masses of debris whence a sickly odour reveals a
ghastly story of the catastrophe.
Climbing over the hills which surround the town, one
looks down upon a confused heap of ruins, where little
more than a week ago stood one of the most prosperous
cities of Asiatic Turkey. Out of three thousand houses
which were standing there, not a hundred are now habit.
able.

I descended along narrow street leading to Marina, through
the once most populous quarters of the city. In doing so I
had to climb over successive heaps of daris from ten to
fifteen feet high, lying between tottering walls, rent into
most fantastic shapes.

Some of the houses had been lifted bodily off their foun-
dations. Others were crushed into shapeless heaps, with
here and there a single wall or minaret left standing above
the chaos.

Right and left of the direction I took were narrow streets,
which are now so entirely blocked as to be uudistinguishable.
Here and there I caught sight of a row of houses, with
window panes, doors, and balconies comparatively unin-
jured ; whilst behind this deceptive framework the roof and
every storey had been torn from the front walls.

There was not a living soul to disturb the silence of the
ruins, except fatigue parties who were employed in digging
out the corpses where the odour had become so intense as to
be dangerous.

The whole surviving population of the city is camped out
in gardens and fields. Some are sheltered in tents and
sheds, but others have to lie in the ope ), with no kind of
shelter. A Relief Committee is distributing food to the
destitute, and field ovens have been erected for baking
bread.
The general terror is intensified by constantly recurring
shocks of earthquake. There was another shock again this
morning at one o'clock. The misery is extreme.
I have obtained some trustworthy particulars of the losses
in that part of the island which has suffered the most
severely. In the district of Kampos, which is south of
Kastro, there were ten villages. In Kalimasia, the largest
of the- villages, six hundred nd seventy persons were
killed and one hundred and fifty were injured. In
four other large villages three hundred and fifty-nine
were killed and one hundred and eleTen injured.
The fact of so large a proportion being killed
is explained by the structure of the houses in which
the people lived. The houses, which were built of stone and
without wood, were mostly very lofty, and in falling they
consequently did more destruction. Some idea of the
calamity can be formed by comparing these figures with the
ty-four villages which have been destroyed.
The number of persons buried in
.this city is unknown.
The total loss of life in the island is set down at four
tthhoouussaitnndd
lilkilledlproabnadbley die.
thousand injured, of whom two
• The celebrated Convent of Isieartiontit built on
.the slope
of the cliff, was swept bodily over a precipice, burying all the
inmates except one.