Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-08
Hundreds Buried Alive.

Heartrending Scenes at the Recent Cas- amicciola Earthquake.
 The special correspondent of the London
 D0.ty Neaos at Casamicciola sends vivid de-
 scrlptlon Of the town after the recent earth
 quake. Down the steep road came old and young, laden with such of their household goods as they had saved, chiefly bedding
 Their woebegone faces showed traces of a
 night spent in tears. Then came little hand
 cart filled with dusty and tumbled clothes
 from under which protruded pair of booted
 feet, telling of the sad burden there hidden.
 Opposite ruined houses were encamped their
 occupants, or in the orchards and gardens
 you saw 1mprovised tents. On the roadside
 was bed on the ground, and tented over
 with shawls and other garments as warmly
 as possible, for beneath lay sick persons. 1 Groups of young girls wandered about.
 weeping but all the people were very quiet
 and as if stunned, and only when some sad | burden was carried past did their voices rise I in lamentable exclamations. Before we | reached the Piazza we came upon a group of l houses fallen in one heap of ruin across the | street, so that we had to climb over hill of rubbish. Here the soldiers were at work l digging. Alas they could hope to find no l hvlng person under those crushing masses of masonry. On every side of the piazza the | houses were ruined. Roofs had fallen I through, carrying first floor and ground floor into the cellar. Of enc house the front along which ran an iron balcony supported by iron bars, alone remained To stand l within the window is said to be the safest place in case of earthquake, and here I saw frequent evidence that it is so, though not always. The house of the parish priest Is level with the ground. His aged brother and sister, the latter of whom was in bed on the first story, found themselves deposited in the garden alive. they know not how. The doctor of Casamicciola has lost one of his children, who with a servant was buried with the falling staircase, while the rest of the oc- cupants remained unhurt and escaped out of the windows by means of rope all the oth- or ways of descent being cut of.
 In the Piazza two men sat on the doorstep of their house their arms folded on their knees, their heads bent down in a dumb de- spair, terrible to see. A woman, weeping told me that the wife and mother lay buried in the ruins of the house behind them. In the middle of the Piazza sat an officer, talk ing notes of the most destitute cases. A poor, ragged woman, flushed with crying, was telling her sed story, and group of silent and sympathetic listeners stood close around The silence in the usually voluble Italians was very impressive. Soldiers were being ordered off in parties to various parts to excavate. Then two boards were carried past. On them were the fiattened and dust covered forms of woman and a little girl, just dug out. Three or four men passed me carrying and supporting in a chair an elderly woman with crushed and bound up face. She was speaking and her bearers told her not to be afraid. This was about o'clock in the afternoon. The earthquake had hap pened at exactly 1:05 o'clock on the Casamicciola, which had stopped, proved. The poor woman had therefore lain buried alive PC hours, with what agony of body and mind through the long dark night and fol- lowing morning one can happily scarcely inn agine Oh, those heaps of ruined houses n them hunO n "a 6cpaS 0f ste valleys at each side of the Piazza. Many of them were very old and crowded together, and possibly many had bad foundations in the hilly and loosely composed ground, and here the greatest ruin had taken place. The evidences of the violent shaking of the soil extended for about two English miles, Where there were no houses landslips, fallen walls 3, and scattered stones along the roads and lanes were proof enough that the con- vulsion had been general within this area. The last houses that shattered lie beyond the hill of Casamicciola, on the de- scent towards Lacco, at place called Casa minella, where there are hot mud baths. When tell you that from 300 to 400 houses are totally destroyed and others will have to be pulled down, and that million francs will not cover the damage to buildings alone, without reckoning the loss of portable prop erty you will have some idea of the extent of the disaster and the misery that must still ensue. Quite two thirds of the town are de-
  utes nay, less, for the first shock that did the real damage lasted only seven seconds, followed within. the five minutes by second, causing the already shattered houses to fall. They were still falling. As passed along the edge of one of the valleys we heard chatter, and looking back saw cloud of dust which rose from house on the other side which had just fallen in. Excavation was dangerous, and had to be stopped during the preceding night, for there was no light, the lamps being all broken.
 All was being done that could be to ale viate the distress; but the misery to be re- lieved will last for months, and subscriptions already opened. It is to be hoped that the usual summer visitors will not be fright ened away for that indeed would take the bread out of the mouths of many who are dependent on the season for their livelihood.
 The last great shock at Casamicciola was in 1861, when about thirty people were killed In 1928 there had been a more violent shock. This time it is feared that more than 200 per sons are killed.
 It would be impossible to relate all the sad incidents have heard of. Two glimpses of happiness in the midst of so much woe are relief. One young man succeeded in digging out alive his mother and sister, though the latter had both legs broken, from the ruins of their house immediately after the shock. never saw such happy smile as that on the face of young woman who showed me her healthy babe safe in her arms It was the only face with a smile have seen. The peo- pie seemed stunned-too mortified to con- plain, too weary to utter word or to take comfort. Those who stand idle-for only few relieve their despair by helping in the work-look at us with haggard eyes and blanched or flushed features Casamicciola is of the sweetest as it is one of the healthiest, spots earth. It will be many months, however, before the district regains it's former smiling, prosperous appearance, and the remembrance of this most terrible catastrophe will never be lost by those who have been eye-witnesses of it's horrors.
 The Independent Voter.
 From the New York Herald