The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-02-18
Terrible State of Affairs in Naples.

The London journals draw fear ful pic
lures of the preseut condition of the king
dom of Naples. Amid all the horrors ot
the earthquakes. the work of prescription
and cruelty to prisoners goes on. y Ma
Piles letter says: The Mayor of the prov
ince of BasiIicata reported that during
the repeated shocks, eight hundred pris-
oners, most of whom were unconvicted, +,
were in state of terror, as their crazy
prison threatened to fall and bury them
in its ruins. A gallery which fell, killed
three, and wounded several Of these uu-
fortunates. A room afterwards fell In,
but did no mischief. ''It is impossible" +"
says the Mayor, fn an official report to
the Minister of the Interior, dated Dccem-
Der 18th, "to describe the confusion which
reigned--fear, ,cries of desperation, endea-
vors to escape, prayers, tears and BIAS
phemy; such was the scene | met. In
order to maintain order, the guard fred
on the prisoners. but with powder only.
To restore confidence and tranquility, l
assured the prisoners | would remove
them from those quarters of the building
which the shock had rendered dangerous
| gave this assurance in the name of the
king, our august master" In answer to
this distressing report, Bianchiori replied
in cruel fashion. But even worse re-
mains to be told. On the 29th of De.
cember, another earthquake occurred =,
and $4,000 men, women, and children,
perished in the province of Basilicata.-
The same Mayor asked for surgical aid
on behalf of the inhabitants; 1000 ampu-
tation cases awaited their arrival Sixty
Surgeons offered their services, but per-
haps being poor, asked that their expen-
ses might be paid, which his majesty de-
cllned, and the poor creatures were suffer-
red to die for want of aid that could be
SO chcaply rendered. The same terrible
report adds that 250,O00 persons were
rendered houseless by this earthquake,
and 100 died each day from want of food
Several gentle uen have returned from
the country which has recently been Ge-
vastated BY the earthquake. They had
passed nearly fortnight in wandering
from one place to another, and the infor-
nation which they bring back is of the
deepest and most painful interest. Ac-
cording to them, the shocks continue
throughout the entire district, to the num-
Der of five or six day, sometimes tolera-
bly, strong, ard generally occasioniDg the
fall of many of the ruined houses. The
hair breadth escapes which they had are
rather a matter for private narrative, but
they much heightcn the color of the ter
rible picture they draw. Their trip was
extended far beyond Polia, and into the
very centre of volcanic action, as Protein
"a, Briensa, Tito and many other places
of mournful celebrity. The scene of des-
olation was beyond the power of deserip-
ton. The actual labor was rot to re-
build, but to destroy, the few houses that
remained standing were insecure, and one
would have said uninhabitable but that
the people in their misery, still clung, like
rocks, to their falling habitations. This
country, IN many parts, still gaped with
wide fissures of the breadth of two arms,
and when they had closed, had done SO
unequally, one side being many feet high
er than the other. Some of the incidents
which they relate, seem more like fables
than facts. An infant had been dug out
alive, after having been under the ruins
eight days. Its mother fed it too bouDti-
fully, and it died. A girl, of eight years
of age had been disinterred after l days
burial and was still living. The monks
of S. Francisco, in Padula, related a sto-
ry of girl of II years Of age, who had
been recovered after 81 days burial--the
monks added that the girl spoke of hav-
ing been visited in her subterranean tomb
by lady dressed in black, who gave her
bread and water. She believed that it
was the Madonna. Mules had also been
dug out alive. after 81 days burial. One
of the monks told my informants that on
The night of the 10th ul', the shock was
SO violent as to throw him out of his bed
through the window into the garden of
the monastery. At Veggiano, poor wo-
man bad lost her husband and two chill
dren beneath the ruins, two yet survived,
but they quickly died of hunger, and the
wretched mother hanged herself Tales
Of wonderful and tragic interest abound
and if the reader doubts their possibility,
he has only to read Colletias graphic de-
scription of the earthquake of 1888. The
people had not settled down to anything
like regular occupation, but grubbing "a
mong the ruins for whatever they could
fiud and seeking for the bodies of their
friends, Of whom hundreds still remain as
disinterred. Supplies we're slowly com
ing in for the poor people. but roads were
scarcely any, and much had to be trans
ported on the backs of mules The prov
ince of Basilicata is the largest in the
kingdom, and yet has not more than one
carriage road through it of any impor-
tance.