Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1872-11-28
ACCOUNTS OF A FEAR.
Full HURRICANE.
SCENES THAT BEGGAR DESCRIPTION.
New York November 90.

New York, November 90.
The London Times of the Sth
inst. has the following account OF
the hurricane in Sicily; which de-
stroyed the town of Palazzalo.
There has been no instance of such
a calamity within the memory OF
living man. No earthquake ever
caused so much destruction. There
are houses ruined, houses fallen
to the very ground, walls cleft from
end to end, walls hanging outward,
as if to rest on adjoining houses.
There are roofs wholly swept away,
sunken vaults, balconies torn from
their places, windows and shutters
either entirely carried off or hanging
loose from the walls, lamp posts
forced from their sockets, uprooted
trees, and this is all one sees along
the northeast side of the town.
Not a single house remains in which
there is whole roof, and the win
dows does not require thorough re-
pair. The streets are a mass of
fragments and rubbish. The incl
dents of the disaster are SO strange
as to be almost incredible. There
was store with twenty-five hectoli-
tres of wheat, of which not a trace
is anywhere to be seen. The
books of the Excise and of the land
Registry offices have vanished, and
only their torn leaves have been
found here and there, at a great dis
tance. In one house all the copper
kitchen utensils were blown through
the roof. In another, benches
and heavy chests flew through the
windows. The iron bars of one
balcony are to be seen curled up
one way, those of another twisted
up another way. There is a pillar
of a palace which has been moved
forward one foot without breaking,
and it stands up isolated all in one
piece. There is wall of another
palace which has fallen back more
than three feet without a crack.
Here is a beam of one house which
has thrust itself into another house.
There is halt a bedstead, the other
half of which lies no one knows
where. All the ties of the building
are huddled together in one spot on
the roof, crushed and broken up
small, as if they had been pound
ed. The rafters of another building
are all bare. The tiles have all
flown no one can tell where. In a
stable, on the bare ground, men are
laying the bodies, one by one, as
they are dug out. Most of them
are in their night dresses, having
been crushed as they were quietly
sleeping. Their features and forms
are so disfigured that one cannot
look at them without shuddering.
Their nostrils, ears, and mouths are
stopped up with earth. The white
dust has everywhere pierced through
the skin. Here is the body of
man holding close to his heart
child, probably his own child. The
skulls of both are shattered. There
are two young men in each others
arms, probably brothers. The chests
Of both are crushed, Near them is
another youth covered with blood.
He was clerk in a Government Of
flee. He has eyeglasses still stuck
in his right eye. He was probably
reading or writing when he was
struck. There are some mauled
past recognition, others seem un-
hurt,and look as though they were
sleeping. Without exaggeration, ,
one third of the town is dismantled,
and more than thousand families
literally without home. About a
thousand more have only one little
corner of what was once their house
to shelter them. The dead number
about thirty-two, the seriously hurt
about half score besides"