Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-08-20
EUROPEAN LETTER.
Naples. Auqust 2.

As report after report of the earth
quake in Ischia comes to hand the
horror grows to awful and historical
proportions. An early conjecture
might have placed it at the head of
the dreadful occurrences of the cen
fury; but no one at first could have
imagined the terrible magnitude
which the disaster was to attain I'M
til, the shock that had wrecked an
island passed, those who FASTENED to
view the spectacle of desolation could
witness in heaps of crumbled mason
~ and mutilated corpses, the scene
of the tremendous calamity. Fore
most among the spectators is King
Humbert himself, who has nobly
done his duty in visiting this field of
death to assist in mitigating, SO far
as may be possible, the distressing
effects of the catastrophe.
Only On the spot can the extent of
the disaster be fully realized. The
havoc wrought is the more appalling
from the suddenness of it. There
were none of the premonitions which
often herald earthquakes. The night
is described as cloudless and beauti-
full, the sun had sunk behind the sea
in summer splendor, and amid a
GREATNESS atmosphere under which
the blue water of the Bay of Naples
had stretched a surface as purely
smooth as glass. At the moment of
the earthquake the night scene pre-
sented by the doomed island and the
surrounding dark water, melting into
gloom toward the horizon where the
stars hung low, was one of
loneliness and repose. A roar of
thunder rolled up and deepened into
the furious singing peals of batteries
of artillery. Every light was extin-
guished; earth and rock heaved IN
pillows; huge cloud rose and over
hung the island, blotting out the
stars; the surface of the sea was
tossed and torn; and amid the crash
ing of houses falling in fragments
and the intonations of the splitting
soil, there were to be heard the cries
and groans Of hundreds of wounded
and dying.
A manifestation of volcanic power
so vast and destructive as this is not
likely to let pass without scientific
inquiries which will have no reference
to the horrors it has accumulated.
In the opinion of learned italian
authority it is due to the subsistence
of the land. There is no reason.
however, to doubt that it was al
earthquake of the true volcanic type
L q L
tn )ugh unheralded by symptoms tc
which the populations of the West
Indies and South America are accus
toned,
Ischia is distant about twenty-five
geographical miles from Mount Vesu
vius, and line drawn between then
might probably indicate the diamete
of the circle of the subterranean com
motion whose forces found vent a
Ischia and at Vesuvius. Be this a
it may, the comparative tranquillit,
of the sea during the time of the up
heaval is noteworthy. 1t is describ
ed as agitated, but its agitation mus
have been trifling, seeing that no dis
aster befell any of the small boat
, which were afoat with pleasure-seek
ers.
In a sense it is the stupendou
| tragedy of Pompeii repeated. ES
;. cavators among the ashes which hi
V for centuries that fair city have com
across skeletons in many positions c
J. ease and industry, marking the swift
ness of the fate that overlook thel
f in the bath, the boudoir, the SHOP
k and turned them into stone. At |:
CHA, mutilation attended death; bl
n there was time for the frenzied pra,
if er, the wild rush, and for terror
J. do its paralyzing work. Neverth
e less, the earth yawned under worl
= of life full of activity and pleasur
# seeking.