Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-07
GREAT HORROR IN
VESUV|US' WAKE
PANIC STRICKEN ITALIANS
PRAY FOR RELIEF
Scenes at Eruption Mingled With
Grandeur and Terrific Devasta-
tion-CoIumn of Fire Thou-
sand Feet in Height
By Associa ted Press.

By Associated Press.
NAPLES, April 6.-The inhabitants
of the villages in the vicinity of
Mount Vesuvius are in a condition
bordering on panic. Many homes
have been abandoned for the open air,
although there has been a thick fog
all day and the atmosphere has been
dense with volcanic ashes and the
fumes of subterranean fires. The
churches are crowded day and night
with people praying for deliverance
from an impending peril, manifesta-
tions of which are felt In explosions
which resemble a heavy cannonading,
and the tremblings of the earth, which
are constantly recurring.
ImpIore Miracle
The main stream of lava proceed
ing from Vesuvius is 200 feet wide,
and it flows at times at the rate of
twenty-one feet a minute, destroying
vegetation. before the stream reaches
it. The peasants of Porti, at the west
end of Vesuvius cleared their grounds
of vineyards and trees in the effort
to lessen the danger from fire, and re-
sisted the progress of the lava to their
on the south declivity of the mountain
have sought safety in fight, and Bos-
coreale, to the eastward, is also threat
ened. Women of the village, weeping
with fright, CARED statue of Saint
Anne as near as they could go to the
flowing lava, imploring a miracle to
stay the advance of the consuming
stream.
The cemetery at Boscreale has been
invaded by lava. The scene at night
is one of mingled grandeur and horror,
as from the summit of Vesuvius there
leaps a column of fire fully thou
sand feet in height, the glare lighting
the sky and sea for many miles.
Immense Stones Elected
Occasionally great masses of molten
stone, some weighing as much as
ton, are elected from the crater. The
village of Tore del Graeco, which has
been eight times destroyed and as
often rebuilt, is again threatened, and
the inhabitants are in extreme terror.
Signor Matteucci, director of the OBJ
servatory, is working indefatigably.
He has had military engineers estab-
Fish telephone connection between the
observa tory and points within the vol
canic activity. The director said this
evening that although the eruption pre-
sented a grave menace, he did not be-
DeNe IL WOulQ Tedcn Ine villages. III
deed, he said the present volcanic ac-
tivity was not altogether unmixed with
good, for if it had not come to pass a
violent and sudden eruption, having a
far wider radius, might have occurred.
Lava Is Divided
On the Pompeii side the main stream
of lava has divided into two portions,
one threatening Ottajano, a commune
of 10000 inhabitants, and the other
threatening Tore del Graeco, with q
population of 10000.
The danger is becoming serious and
calls for the immediate evacuation of
Boscotreacas, the nearest village to
the crater, which has population of
5000 souls.
From the crater, which is twenty feet
in circumference, the lava has already
gone two miles and a half. Hot mud,
ashes and black sand are also elected
which. mixed with rain, produce the
so-called caustic rain which is most
damaging to vegetation.