The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-07-03
THE CASAMICCIOLA EARTH
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
SCENES.

The special correspondent Of the
London Daily NeooS at Casamicciola
sends a vivid description of the
town after the recent earthquake
Down the steep road came old and
young, laden with such of their
household goods as they had saved,
chiefly bedding. Their Woe-begone
faces showed traces of a night spent
in tears. Then came handcart,
filed with dusty and tumbled
clothes, from under which pro-
truded pair Of booted feet, telling
of the sad burden there hidden.
Opposite ruined houses were en-
camped their occupants, or in the
orchards and gardens you saw i'm
proviSed tents. On the roadside
was bed made on the ground, and
tented over with shaWls and other
garments as warmly as possible, for
beneath lay sick persons. Groups
OF young girls wandered about,
weeping; but all the people were
very quiet, as if stunned, and only
when some sad burden was carried
past did their voices rise in lament
able EXPLANATIONS. Before we
reached the piazza we came upon a
group Of 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 digging. Alas! they could
hope to find no living person under
those crushing masses of masonry.
On every side of the piazza the
houses were ruined. Roofs had
fallen through, carrying first floor
and ground floor into the cellar. Of
one house the front, along which
ran an iron balcony supported bv
iron bars, alone remained. To stand
within the window is said to be the
safest placein case of an earthquake.
and here 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 them
selves deposited in the garden alive.
they know not how. The doctor of
CasamiccialO has lost one of his
children, who, with a servant was
buried with the falling staircase.
while the rest of the occupants re-
manned unhurt and escaped out of
the windows bymeans of a rope. all
other means Of descent being cut
of.
In the piazza two men sat on the
doorsteps Of their house, their arms
folded on their knees, their heads
bent down in dumb despair terrible
to see. A woman, weeping, told me
that the wife and mother Law buried
In the ruins of the house behind
them. In the middle Of the piazza
sat an officer taking notes of the
most destitute cases. A poor,
ragged woman, flushed with CRYING,
was telling her sad story, and a
group of silent and sympathizing
listeners stood close around. The |
silence In the usually voluble TIA
llans 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 fattened 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
The earthquake had
happened at exactly los o'clock on
The day before, as the great clock of
Casamicciola, which had stopped, |
proved. The poor woman had
therefore lain buried alive twenty
xix hours, with what agony of |
mind and body through the long
lark night and following morning
1ne can happily scarcely imagine |
Oh, those heaps of ruined houses!
Clusters Of them hang ON the edges
If steep valleys at each side of the
Diazzi. Many of them were very old
lnd crowded together, and possibly
many had bad foundations in the
lilly and loosely-composed ground.
md here the greatest ruin had taken
)lace. The evidence of the violent
shaking Of the soil extended for
Ibout TWO English miles. Where
here were no houses, Iandslips.
allen walls and scattered stones
llong the roads and lanes were
proof enough that the CONFUSION
had been general within this area.
The last houses that were shattered
lie beyond the hill of Casamicciola.
n the descent toward LaccO, at a
)l2ce called Casaminella, where
here are hot mud baths. When I
ell you that from 800 to 400 houses
re totally destroyed and others will
lave to be pulled down, and that
million francs will not cover the
lamage to buildings alone, with
,ut reckoning the loss Of port
'ble property, you will have some
dea of the extent of the dis
ster and the misery that must still
nSue. Quite twO-thirds of the town
) destroyed, and it all happened
within five; minutes nay, less, for
be first shock that did the real
amage lasted only seven seconds,
Ollowed within five minutes by
scond, causing the already shattered
ouses to fall. They were still fall
ng. AS we passed along the edge
one of the valleys we heard a
Ioffor ood 10OHip0 boolr cow tho