The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-04-17

Naples. April 12.-While the news
from Mount Vesuvius today is re-
assuring, the conditions here in Ma
pies are such as to make it difficult
to realize that conditions are actually
better. The wind is blowing from the
volcano toward Naples, carrying the
ashes in this direction. Towards
evening the fall of ashes and cinders
here was worse than at any time
since the eruption began.
The scenic effects vary from hour
to hour. Now in the north the sky
is chocolate color, lowering and heavy
under which men and women with
hair and clothing covered with ashes,
move about like ghosts. Fort San
MARITIME, as it towers above the town,
can only just be seen, while Castel
Dell'Ovo is boldly marked in light,
seeming like silver against the brown
sky.
To the south, beyond the smoke
zone, lies smiling sunny Posilipo and
it's peninsula, while far away glistens
the sea, a deep blue, on which the
the setting sun. Adding to the strange
picture one of the French men Of war
which arrived in the bay of Naples
today is so placed as to be half in
the glow and half obscured by this
belt of falling ashes.
At the observatory of Mount We
suvius, where Director Matteucci is
continuing his work in behalf of
science and humanity, the scene is
one Of great impressiveness. To reach
the. observatory 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 flag
and sometimes gathered into huge
mounds, which take On semblance of
human faces. Above, the heavens
are gray like earth beneath, and seem
just as hard and immovable. In all
this lonely waste there is no sign OF
life or vegetation and no sound is
heard except the low mutterings OF
the volcano. One seems almost i'm
| PEELED to scream aloud to break the
| horrible stiffness of a land seemingly
forgotten both by God and a
Every day that passes gives new
evidence of the magnitude Of the
| catastrophe. Today's visit of King
Victor Emanuel to. Ottajaneo reveal
ed new tragedies. Al a certain point
his majesty was obliged to abandon
his motor car and went forward on
horse back amid constant danger, his
| horse foundering through four feet of
| ashes, stumbling into holes, blinded
by the fall of large cinders and the
|! target for falling basaltic masses. In
| the presence Of the king 129 more
bodies were extricated from b ruins,
| the white ashes and red sand falling
as though they were determined not
to relinquish their victims. The dead
at Ottajano are said to number 500.
The king was very pale. To a
| priest who came to him he said:
How did you escape?"
II put myself on safety replied
the priest.
What do you mean?" asked the
king.
Realizing the danger" was the
I priests reply, Il had left for Noa."
The king flushed with anger
What" he cried, you a minister OF
! God. were not here to share the dan
ger of your people and administer the
last sacraments? You did very
wrong"
Queen Helena was with the king
when he started to Ottajano, but she
was Obliged to urn back, as th'
task was one not suitable for
woman. She spent most of the da.
visiting the injured in Naples hosrit