Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-31
CHRISTIAN WORLDS
GREATEST TRAGEDY
Southern Italy and Sicily Laid
Waste, Lands Topography
Changed and Hosts
Killed BY
Elements

Rome. Dec. 30-The earthquake
which has devasted the Italian depart
ments of Calabria and Sicily has
wroght the greatest tragedy which
ever has befallen the Christian world.
It's measure cannot yet be calculated.
1t is known in general terms that
out Of population of 1,750,000 in the
devastated area at least 125,000 per-
lsished.
This makes no account of dozen
towns near the center of the dis
turbance, whence no word comes and
where there is only too good rea-
son to fear that there are no survivors
to describe their fate.
Th,ts f.a;as suvsiie,n Or property cannot
be as great as at San Francisco. for
Messina and Reggie, the two princi-
pal cities destroyed, were not rich or
magnificent from the metropolitan
point of view,
Face Of Country Is Altered.
AS a great cataclysm Of nature, how
ever, this disaster Is on a far yaster
scale than the California phenomenon.
The whole face of the country and
the coast line have been altered. Even
Scilla and Charybdis have changed
the positions they have occupied since
Aeneas' legendary voyage.
The three provinces where the great
est damage was done were Messina
and Catania in Sicily, and Reggie di
Calabria, on the mainland. They COM
| prise about 1000 square miles.
Several hundred persons perished
and much damage was done outside
| of these provinces, but within them
the devastation was so complete that
scarcely human habitation remains.
/ 1t will be days before the story OF
their destruction can be known.
UpheavaI Over In 80 Seconds.
All accounts now agree that the time
occupied by natures gigantic spasms
was but thirty-two seconds.
Some minutes later great wave
completed the havoc In the Ill fatet
coast towns.
The violence of the shock seems tt
have been unprecedented except b!
/, volcanic eruptions within limited
Earea.
The buildings Of Messina were no
merely shaken down-their fonnda
tions literally were yanked from be
, meath them to one side or the othe
until they toppled from the perpendic
ular and fell in ruins alongside thei
! original sites.
5 That was the experience at MessinH
!. No One Lives in Reggie.
i. That of Reggie. on the opposite sid
J. or the strait, must have been more vic
/. lent, for scarcely one stone remain
J. on another in that flourishing city8o
. only few days ago
e No one yet has been found to intell
gently recount the fate of this tow
and its inhabitants.
The ominous absence of details col
: cerping Reggie proves TO be due I
L the fact that not only the city itsel
but it's whole population with the po!
sible exception of a mere handful ts,
. disappeared.
WarshiDs ordered to relieve the SUI
. yiyors have been unable to approac
g the coast, owing TO the changed col
:. figuration of the straits OF Messfna,
4 Chaotic Rocks Replace City.
III Ultimately torpedo boat ran clos
. TO the coast. but was unable to disco
er a trace of the city.
y Where two days ago stood th
q homes and works Of men and bus
g streets there is nothing but chaot
rocks and earth.
The city had vanished as completed
las Aladdin's palace under the mag
clans spell.
". 1t is impossible, of course. to spea
<, now with certainty as to what happe
4, ed. but such observation as is possib
e. Indicates that Reggie was complete
N swallowed by the earth's collapsif
sftt ---
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