Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-31

the latter belonging to the Italian Cen
trail Navigation company.
The injured are being carried aboard
the steamers and will be removed to
Naples.
General Marazzi commandant at
Catanzaro, has telegraphed to the gov
| eminent that he has tried Yainly for
two days to reach Reggie by land and
sea.
The roads are impossible and the
shore has been so torn and twisted as
far as he Travelled in Calabria that 1t
was impossible to approach by water.
At the ministry of marine word has
been received that frightful looting and
pillage occurred at Reggie.
This place will have few survivors,
as it has not been possible for the re-
lief expeditions to reach it,
Steamer Brings Refugees
The steamer Therapie is lying off
Naples. crowded with refugees from
Northumberland men, starving
women and weeping children, all with
the stamp of fear still upon their faces.
One of the refugees, man en-
ployed with a German cotton firm in
the lost city, said
"Messina is utterly destroyed. Moth
ing remained when l left but part of
the citadel.
"A few soldiers are the lone SURVIVE
ors of the whole garrison.
Il was asleep when the first shock
awol<e me. l lit my lamp. and all was
quiet and turned to sleep again.
Suddenly fresh shocks occurred,
violent and terrifying. I arose quickly,
but the house was swaying and my
door was damned.
Il tore the sheets from the bed and
made "A rope and lowered myself from
the window to the ground. An italian
family of five persons escaped from the
house by the aid of my rope.
mo sooner were we in the street
than the house collapsed.
| Il tried to assist in the work of res
! cue, but it was useless.
THE horror and confusion were in
!! describable.
Wandered All Day
"All day l wandered in the wrecked
streets. No food could be secured.
had only a few nuts to eat.
THE head of my firm was lost and
his brother had to go to the streets
begging for bread for his wife and
children. There was no organization
in the work of rescue.
The prison was destroyed and the
wardens killed, but most of the con-
victs escaped. They prowled about the
ruins, robbing and numbering.
''They cut off the fingers of the dead
and wounded to get the rings. Some
of them were singing songs of liberty
as they piled the knife.
Ship Thrown Into Street
"A Russian vessel lying in the har-
| Dor was thrown into the street by the
tidal wave. Other vessels foundered.
Railway lines were swallowed up.
1.-THE square known as the Campo
Santo collapsed and sank Only the
submits of a few ruined buildings still
emerged from the wreck.
What remained of the population
when left was camping near the har-
| bor.''
According to other refugees, not a
! single hotel remained standing. A fis-
| sure sixty feet deep opened near the
church of Santa Maria and houses fell
| bodily into il.
| The Therapie brought thirty German
and 900 other fugitives.
| During the voyage to Naples several
| injured women died and one child
was born.
A physician named Condo, native
of Messina, said he escaped by climb
| ing over the fallen roofs.
Houses Vanish Rapidly
Houses vanished with the sudden
| ness of a drama and daylight showed
nearly two miles of ruins.
| Steamers put out to cross the straits
| for help after the first shock of the
earthquake, but half way over they
met vessels from the opposite coast