The Colorado statesman., 1906-04-14
VOLCANIC ASHES
COVER STREETS AND BUILDINGS
OF NAPLES.
VAST DESOLATED REGION
Eruption of Vesuvius Has Somewhat
Subsided-king Victor Emmanuel
Dead


Naples. While the news from Mount
Vesuvius is reassuring, the conditions
here in Nables are such as make it
difficult to realize that the situation Is
actually better. The wind is blowing
from the volcano in the direction of
Naples, carrying the ashes in this di-
rection. Toward evening Friday the
fall of ashes and cinders here was
worse than at any time since the erup-
ton began.
The scenic effects vary from hour to
hour. Now in the north the sky is
chocolate colored, lowering and heavy,
under which men and women with
their hair and clothing covered with
ashes, move about like gray ghosts.
Fort San Martino, as it towers above
the town, can only just be seen, while
Castel Dell'ovo is marked in light,
seeming like silver against the brown
sky. To the south, beyond the smoke
zone, lies smiling, sunny Posilippo and
it's peninsula, while far away glistens
the sea, a deep blue, on which the is
lands seem to float in the glow of the
setting sun. Adding to the strange
picture, enc of the French men-of-war
which arrived in the Bay of Nables to-
day, is so placed as to be half in the
glow and hall obscured by the belt of
falling ashes.
From the observatory of Mount We
Suvius, where Director Matteucci is
continuing his work in behalf of sci
ence and humanity, the scene is one OF
great impressiveness. To reach the OBJ
servatory one must walk for miles over
hardened but hot lava, covered with
sand, until he comes to a point whence
nothing can be seen but vast gray
reaches, sometimes fiat and sometimes
gathered into huge mounds which take
on semblances of human faces.
Above the heavens are gray, like the
earth beneath, and seem just as hard
and immovable. In all this lonely
waste there is no sign of life or vege-
tation, and no sound is heard except
the low mutterings of the volcano. One
seems almost impelled to scream aloud
to break the horrible stiffness of a
land seemingly forgotten both by God
and man.
Every day that passes gives new evil
dence of the magnitude of the catas-
trophe. To-days visit of King Victor
Emmanuel to Ottojano revealed new
tragedies.
At a certain joint his majesty was
obliged to abandon his motor car and
Wen forward on horseback, amid con-
stant danger, his horse foundering
through four feet of ashes, stumbling
into holes, blinded by the fall of large
cinders and a target for falling ba-
| Saltic masses.
In the presence of the King 129
vtrih
ruins, and all the while ashes and red
sand falling as though determined not
to relinquish their victim.
The dead at Ottajano are said to
number $50.
The King was deathly pale. To a
priest who came to him, he said:
How did you escape?"
81 placed myself in safety" replied
the priest.
"Wnat do you mean?" asked the
King.
'Realizing the danger" was the
priests reply, 81 had left for Nola."
The King flushed with anger.
What" he cried You, minister
of God, were not here to share the
danger of your people and administer
the last sacraments! You did very
wrong"
Queen Helena was with the King
when he started for Ottajano, but she
was obliged to turn back, as the task
was one not suitable for woman.
She spent the most of the day in visit
ing the injured in Naples hospitals
and inspecting the housing for refu-
gees.
Provision is being made for the feed
ing and sheltering of people who have
remained in their own towns.
1t is estimated that 5000 houses
have been destroyed or rendered unin-
habitable.
From all quarters come reports that
the situation has ameliorated, but
ashes from Mount Vesuvius are falling
everywhere, houses are collapsing and
burying their occupants and roads near
the volcano are no sooner opened than
the are closed again by falling cinders.
The inhabitants of this city are en-
during the yellow gray atmosphere of
Yesterday which is even more oppres-
sive than before. The popular cos
tune of those who can afford it, con-
sists of automobile coat. cap and Cog
giles, which enables the wearer to
maintain semblance of cleanliness,
but the people generally have to be
contented with paper masks and raised
umbrellas. The drivers of trolley cars
are wearing masks of some transpar-
ent material under the visors of their
caps.