The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-04-29
EARTHQUAKE.
The Recent Disaster
at SciO.
A Vivid Description of the
Scenes and incidents.
Parents Looking for their
Children.
A Letter from scio in the London News

|
and oppressive, and the horizon was bro
ken by broad flashes of light that seem to
denote coming storm In all this atmos-
pheric disturbance, however the inhabit-
ants saw nothing extraordinary and were
lar from beng alarmed by what they fan
cled would result in a thunder storm. At
10 minutes to in the afternoon a terrific
shock was felt, bringing three-fourths of the
houses in the town to the ground like so
many packs of cards. and burrying / 900
persons under the falling ruins Then
commenced fearful scene of horror. The
ground rocked and danced, kneading the
ruin already formed into an unrecognizable
mass of stone.
THE SURVIVORS
ran hither and thither not knowing
where to flee to escape the horrible
fate that menaccd them, and
were tossed and flung about by
the heaving earth, like feathers in
breeze. On every side the sinister rumb
lings of the earth, the noise of the falling
buildings, the tearing asunder of the walls
of houses, and the shrieks of the wounded,
lent a fearful horror to the scene All
sought to leave the town and get into the
plains, in order to avoid being buried
under the falling buildings, but even those
who gained the open country were by no
means safe.
THE EARTHQUAKE
attacked not only the towns and villages,
but worked its ravages in the hills and
mountains of the Islands. Enormous
masses of rock and earth came
rushing down the hillsides, carrying all
before them, bounding far into the plains, |
and tearing roads in the solid mountain, |
such as might have been formed by torrents !
1000 years old.
Some time elapsed before any of the sur
viyOrs recovered from the terror caused by |
the shock sufficiently to be able to compre-
hend the extent of the catastrophe, or to |
think of looking for friends or relatives still
perhaps alive beneath the ruins. The town
presented a pitiable spectacle. Great fis-
sures and crevices yawned in the streets,
walls were falling with crashing report,
and entire buildings crumbled in fragments
to the ground. In many places whole
streets had disappeared, and it was hard to
say where the different wellknOwn build
ingS had stood. No one knew where to
look for family Or friends.
THE GROUND
still heaved and tossed, bringing fresh build
ings to the ground at every moment, and
hurrying innumerablc victims to destruc
ton. The people seeking to escape were
caught in the stairCases of their houses by
falling walls, or were crushed by the entire
house falling in on them as they crossed
the thrushold. 1t is impossible to say
what the number of victims would have
been if a second shock had not displaced
the ruins formed by the first and thus per
mitted thousands of sufferers to escape or
to be resuced by others from the horrible
to which they had been con-
In ba fho
been very numerous. The quarters
most damaged are the citadel, the Atzi-
lies quarter, and the industrial quarter.
Beneath the ruins of the citadel alone 500 6
victims at least must be buried. Among
others there are forty
TURKISH WOMEN
who were engaged in prayer in an oratory
situated in the court of the castle. The
Government palace and buildings, the tele
graph office, and the mosques are little
better than tottering ruins. Hardly min
aret in the town remains upright The
Frank quarter may be said to have suffer
ed the least of any, but even here there is
not a house the walls of which do not ex-
hibit one or more ominous looking crevices.
All the assures and crevices run from east ,
to west. In the industrial quarter hardly
a house remains standing, and whole fami-
HIS VI 1IOll1 tGu W lIlSGu DGISOIS nave
perished, or must perish, beneath the
ruins.
In the country the effects of the horrible
lpheaval have been even more terrible :
than in the town. Here the victims may
be counted by thousands instead of hun
dreds. The monastery of Meomoni is
razed to the grounds, and sixty
monks lie buried beneath its walls. The
site OF the village of Nenita prevents the ,
appearance of a disused stone-quarry.
Not trace of a building remains. The
inhabitants have disappeared. 1t is thought
that the number of victims in three villages :
(Calimassis, Thimiana and NeochorD is
over 1900. The total population of the
-hree districts is betwhen 5000 and 1000 :
souls. l have just visited Cardinals,
Pythios and Davenona, which are entirely
The number of victims is un-
Known, but is very considerable.