The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-16
AN EAR rHQUAKE SECRET.


db Ascuia
The following meiodramatic incident of
the Ischia earthquake has just come to
light:
Count Jeppi, who possesses an enormous
fortune and one of the oldest titles of the
palatinate. had made a love match. His
young wife was a daughter of Prince Cinella,
ethereal as a Raphael, and radiant and
blonde as a Titan. During eight months of
The year the happy couple were in the habit
of living at Florence. When the crosses
choleurS began they went to this coquette
little villa. draped with vine branches, on
the side of the mountain, and near the sea,
at Casamicciola. One evening last July the
Count left his wife after dinner to ramble,
according to custom, along the seashore. The
night was superb.
Suddenly the earth trembled as if shaken
by the march of an invisible army of giants.
The SKY became overcast with black clouds,
and the ground cracked open, emitting blasts
OF sulphurous smoke. The Count was thrown
upon his face senseless. When be became
conscious his first thought was of his young
wife. He retraced his steps through the vii
lage-now a mass of smouldering ruins,
mangled humanity and half-burnt men and
beasts. Cries arose on every side: ''Padrel
Madral Figliol Jesul Martial Santissima!'
Each stone seemed to wall and moan. With
cold sweat dropping from his temples, Count
Jeppi stepped over dead bodies and climed
up walls of lettering houses with the sole
thought, "Shall l arrive in timer AT the
corner of a street a hand, still trembling,
projected above a mass of ruins, and a
plaintiye voice was heard crying for help,
Count Jeppi dared not ston. He turned his
head aside and hurried past. After having
missed his way and having twenty times
crossed and recrossed his steps, Count Jeppi
at last arrived before what had once been his
villa. A narrow end of a wall was all that
remained standing, in a corner of which
fhara rnmoiDnd nUipflV hanninn from lie
nail, a gilded wicker cage containing a young
dove which had been the favorite pet of tie
Countess. The Count felt himself becoming
as feeble as a little child as he gazed upon
this terrible debris.
Suddenly be thought he heard a voice.
The voice seemed to come from a great dis
lance. He strained every nerve. The voice
was heard again. He recognized it as that of
his wife. 81 will save her" said the Count,
and at once set to work. He fell upon his
knees and began to dig into the smoking
ruins with his hands. The fine hot plaster
seemed to rup through his fingers like water,
He lifted up With his bleeding and burning
hands heavy stones and blocks that fell again.
iamming and b~Yuising him fearfully. The
distant, feeble voice guided him. Suddenly
IL ceased. He had been working for nearly
an hour. With the ~exertion of despair he
redoubled his labors. Just as he was about
to faint away from exhaustion, the debris
upon which he was standing caved in, and
revealed an empty space filled with smoke.
Count Jeppi jumped into it, and. stretching
out his arms, felt about in every direction.
His hand at last touched something soft and
clammy. 1t was the dead body of his young
wife. He passed his land softly over the
face. The mouth was open, the eyes were
closed, and the hair was tangled and matted
over the forehead. Caressing in the dark
ness the golden tresses. he exclaimed, "If
yon are stiti alive, speak or make some move
ment." Being convinced of his wife's death,
he tried to lift her out OF the terrible tomb
in which he had found her.
Selling her by the shoulders he tried to
raise her up. But she seemed to have be-
come terribly heavy, as if an enormous
weight were attached to her feet. At last,
with one supreme effort, he dragged her body
near the opening. He scarcely dared to gaze
at her. But scarcely had he lone so when
the bereaved husband uttered a cry like that
of a maniac. His wife pressed to her heart
the corpse of a man who had his right arm
thrown about her fragile waist, whiie bis
left held in its rigid grasp a white rose
that had not yet withered. The head
was crushed, and no feature was reeogniza-
BILE. The man wore no ring, and no clew of
any kind could be discovered. The next day
the bodies we're exposed TO the villagers. The
Count stated that he believed that he had
found the body of a long-lost friend, and
offered 20, 900 lire to any one who could
make known and prove the identity of the
strangers corpse. But all in vain. The
Count had the bodies buried separately in
the cemetery Of Cassamicciola, and is still
seeking to discover the name of the man who
had stolen from him his wife's heart.