The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-20
THE ISCHIAN HORROR.



dispatches have told you OF our great woe
here IN Italy. Of all the calamities that 1
have ever heard of, none have quite
come up in suddenness, terrible destruction
and loss of life to that which, by means of an
earthquake, took place last Saturday even
ing in the island of Ischia. Forty-eight
hours previously l had looked upon the very
towns of Casamicciola, Lacco and Forio,
cleaning in the sunshine of southern Italy,
surrounded by vineyards rich in clusters, olive,
peach apricot and nectarine orchards, orange
and lemon groves-in short, presenting the
most pleasing picture of peace and plenty;
and yet, two days after, in fifteen seconds of
time, 5000 of their inhabitants were hurled
into an untimely grave, and over 1000 more
who, though wounded, are still living, are
not good for much in this life. This is a
calamity, so far as the loss of life is con-
cerned, greatly beyond that destruction
which took place more than 1900 years ago,
when the eruption of pumice-stone and ashes
buried the city OF Pompeii. The city OF
Pompeii was indeed destroyed, but of the
25, 900 inhabitants, warned by the first show
er of pumice-stone, the greatest part escaped.
Only 1,S00 out of the whole population per-
ished there. But here on t!.G island of Ischia,
on the western extreme of the bay of Naples,
in the three towns of Casamiccioa Forio
and LaccO out of a population (by the census
OF 1882 of little more than Il, 900, 5000 are
dead, and between 1000 and 1000,
if they do live, are cripples
for life I have never seen such mourning
and heart-nlisery as to-day fill the twenty
nine millions of Italian people, for from
every part of Italy were some at the celebrat-
ed baths OF Ischia in order to secure the ad-
vantages OF the curative, thermal waters.
Amongst these bathers were some of the best
known representative men of the nation to
say nothing of their wives and children.
In 1876 four Indianapolitans went to the
island of Ischia and were at the hotel known
as the Piccola Sentinelle (the little sentl-
neD. I refer to Mrs. Ketchum and her
three children, Miss Sue, Miss Jeanie (now
Mrs. Hibbert( and the Rev. Henry Ketchum.
A little later in the season they were joined
| for day by Lin. Vinton, of your city. They
| will recall Casamicciola and the beauty, the
picturesqueness, the wonderful views and
| the delightful weather though still winter
| and cold spring to northern climes. In short,
| these five persons, with the addition of Mrs
| Curryer, now living with Ingram Fletcher,
will probably be the only Indanapolitans
| who will need no description of the island of
| Ischia and its thousand charms. And they
will only begin to comprehend the complete
| and terrible destruction when l say that of
the Hotel Piccola Sentinele-greatly
| enlarged since they were there
in 1S76-nothing remains except
| the arbor of grape-vines which they
| will remember was supported by slender
stone posts. In the large dining-room and
adjoining rooms one hundred persons were
assembled at an amateur concert, and not
one of these escaped, but were
crushed beneath the masonry the beams
and the tiles of the stories and roof above.
all of which fell in as the walls opened and
fatally buried all beneath. Mr. Dombie, the
| landlord, and his wife, an English woman,
escaped with wounds, but their daughter
married since 1876 was wounded and when
daylight came the rescuers found M. Dombie
kneeing beside his badly-wounded
daughter who had, on either side of her. her
! two beautiful little boys who were sleeping
the sleep that knows no awakening
| mention this incident first, because the
| Ketchums, Mr.. Vinton and Mrs. Currver,
will recall the place and perhaps some OF the
persons l have named. But what would
| they think when say that of all Casamic-
| cioa-which contained, according to the last
census, 4,305 permanent inhabitants, and
immense bathing establishments hospitals,
boarding houses etc, for 3, 600 more-of ali
standing, and they are insignificant buildings
on the waters edge.
THE ISLAND AND ITS CHARACTER.
But if these six persons can recall Ischia,
its history its situation and its pecularities.
to the greater part of your readers all my al
lusions will mean nothing without a brief
description of the island and its peculiar vol
canic character in which has always held,
sometimes concealed and sometimes hid
den, the seeds OF destruction The island of
Ischia is about as far west of Naples, proper,
as Danville is from indianapolis, and the
water way to it is across the famous bay
with glimpses of Puteoli, Baia Misenum and
Procida. From Naples, westward, the whole
nature of the land-broken, picturesque
pointed mountains and islands-tel You at
once that the earth is wholly volcanic and
was called by the fame fields Phlegrean
Indeed, beginning with Nesuvius and end
| ing with lschia, there are no less than nine
teen volcanoes, only one of which (Vesuvius)
is now fully alive, one half extinct, and
three of which have caused great damage so
late as 1893, 1902 and 1871; the remainder
have been extinct during the whole of the
historic times, and perhaps have not been
| living volcanoes for many centuries previous
! to the settlement of man in Europe.
| Ischia is an island of twenty-four square
miles, of which the center, or core or culmi
mating point is called EpOmeo, an old vol
/ cano more than $500 feet high-to the top
/ OF which the Ketchums and Lin, Ninton have
made excursions. This volcano is that which
| has always been the dangerous element In
! fact science and history show us twelve dis
| tinct mouths whence the internal fires at diff
| ferent epochs have furiously "dealt out de-
struction's devastating DOOM" Ii we should