The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-20
THE EARTH SWALLOWED BABY
AND FATHER PLUNGED AFTER
INTO TIE BLACK DANGER.
Hes Taken Out Dead From Hidden Well
Help Came in Tine to save tho Boy
Who Mourns Now for His wonderful
Kitten. Who Fell Too, but was Forgot.

Help Came In Time to save tho Boy
Who Nouns Now for His wonderful
Kitten. Who Fell. Too, but was Forgot.
Giovanni Cacciatore kept his family
behind his barber shop in Palisade avenue
In Yonkes. Under the kitchen windows
there was a bit OF back yard. with sweet
peas growing around the edges in summer,
and heap Of sand in the corner. beauti-
full playground this made for Nincenzo,
the baby. He Is years old, this Vincenzo,
just beginning to get active on his small
feet and very busy with sand piles and sweet
pea vines and all the other delights OF
back yard-espeolaly .Dado. his white
kitten.
Dado was a wonderful kitten. he had
one blue eye and one white eye, and he
hardly ever scratched. That white eye
was a marvel OF the world to Vincenzo.
On sunny days, the ashman and the milk
man and the baker. passing the back yard
on their rounds, used to look over the fence
and hail the little boy and the kitten as
they rolled over, happy and dirty. In the
beautiful sand pile
Hello, you, Jiml' they'd yell.
Ain no jim! 'Cerzo!" be used to call
back Then he'd hold up Dado.
See! 'Hlte!" he'd laugh. And they
would laugh back, admiring Dado' 1t was
regular morning ceremony.
Vincenzo was in the back yard yesterday
morning, waiting for the butcher. but Dado
was naughty. He didn't want to play
house, and he positively refused to be
buried In sand. Giovanni Cacciatori, his
father, stood at the back window laughing
to see how Vinoenzo sprinted round Oh his
little. fat legs, trying to keep up with the
wild rushes Of the kitten.
All of sudden there was q rumble, q
sound Of FLASHING water. and the kitten
had dropped through the earth. As he
watched puzzled Cacciatori saw his little
son throw up his arms and disappear
swallowed up in the ground.
Cacciaton rushed into the back yard.
There was hole in the ground hardly
wider than the body Of little yincenzo. and
beneath the hole a great blackness. A
handful of pebbles dropped from below his
feet. They spashed into water far down.
The treacherous surface Of his back yard
covered an old we'll.
The hole was all too small for his mans
body. Cacciatori grabbed the first instru-
ment at hand-a mop With all his might
he rammed the dirt once and again. There
was another roar Of the earth. and the
ground beneath his feet gave way. Man.
mop, dirt and timbers tuunbled together
into the well.
Salvador Rappolo nj, a neghbor, ran up
in time to see him iall. When he loo ked
into the hole, there was Cacciatori nine
feet below, treading water and holding
Vincenzo over his head. Rappo lon cann,t
swim. He rushed to the street. graf ed
Vincent, fireman. and hurried hack
When they looked this time Cacciatori
was gone. On the surface Of the water
foated a little bundle of white, and beside
1t wet we'd OF fur. Nothing more, but
out Of the hole poured fetid, choking gas.
round his waist and jumped; He had the
making frantic, signals. A half dozen
men hauled him to the surf; ce.
He was ne>rly gone from the foul air. The
some one Brought ladder, and as s' the gvs
began to thin they went down end Owed.
Seven feet down in the water they found
Cacciatori, quite beyond humen aid. BY
the time they had brought his body to tue
breath Of lie to Vincen is vincenz s
father never moved ag in.
The women. moro quickwitted than the
men had remembered Mrs. Cacciatori.
lhey found her upstairs, sewing on baby
shirt all too small for Vincenzo, and got her
away by lies. 1t was an hour later, when
they. were sure that her husband was dead
and her son safe, before they told her.
No one can say just now who it was that
saved money by covering that abandoned
we'll with dirt and timber instead Of filling
it in. The back yard has been the play
ground OF dozen families Of children who
never knew what lay below them. A half
dozen landlords have held the building;
they say that they never knew.
The body of Giovanni Cacciatori lay in
the back room of his barber shop vest err
day with dozen candles at the feet and
head. The wet fur that was Dado Law In
an ash can. Vincenzo was in the hospital.
Late In the afternoon Vincenzo felt much
better.
where's Dado'' he said. when he began
to take notice. Gimme Dado!"
And because they wouldn't bring him
Dado, the white kitten with the wonderful
blue and white eyes, he cried bitterly and
would not be comforted