The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-10
SEARCHING FOR
 BODIES IN RUINS Remains of Consul Cheney and Wife Not Yet Found MANY DISCOVERED ALIVE Persons Who Have Been Buried 12 Days Are Taken From Wreekaee.
 Many Die Daily on the
 Ships.
MANY DISCOVERED ALIVE

Messina, January 9-(Special With the arrival of the American men-of-w war, Chi cago and Yankton, today. the United States and British consulates opened joint headquarters on the tennis grounds in the north end of Messina. Hospital tents and supplies of all kinds were brought ashore by bluejackets from the newly arrived ships. The gunboat scor- pion. which had been the first to arrive, was relieved and sailed for Constanti- nople.
 Sailors from the Chicago and Yankton, assisted by hired laborers. attacked afresh the ruins of the American consulate. They uncovered and removed the bodies of a man and a woman who had been buried and crushed under piles of fallen ma terial. The man was identified as a Sicil- ian named Filippo, who occupied a room on the third floor of the consulate. The woman's body could not be identified, but undoubtedly was one of the several fe- male servants sleeping on the same floor
 Some clothing, hat and a coat identi- fled belonging to Mrs. Cheney were found in the ruins this afternoon. but the bodies of the consul and his wife have not yet been discovered The ruins of the consulate are piled high, and it is proving most difficult work digging into the mass of stone and beams. It is feared that the floor of MT. and Mrs. Cheneys room gave way first before the walls fell, sending them to the very bottom of the house.
 In various parts of the city few bodies are being removed from near the surface of the debris, but there is no system of Identification or enumeration. Numerous instances of extraordinary vitality are noted among the victims, who even today are being dug out of the ruins alive. Three women and one man were taken out, very much emaciated and suffering many bruises yet alSve after having been buried for F days.
 Another extraordinary case was that of a woman and her two infants rescued yesterday They had been buried under a collapsed house, but protected from be- ing crushed to death by the shelter of some protecting beams.s The woman had kept the children alive for Il days by nursing them, but one of the infants died today.
 Those surviving under ruins, but pinned down into almost immovable positions by huge beams and boulders, often show amazing vitality. One man dug out to- day after his long imprisonment under piles of debris, was put on stretcher and carried to the hospital ship Savoia. When the bearers reached the dock the man rose from the stretcher and walked to a cabin on board the ship.
 These are the exceptional cases, for the death rate among the injured is terribly high. Many are dying daily on the ships ities are now moving the injured to Naples, Palermo and Genoa, where rest camps have been established.
 Wooden shacks are being erected in the parks and plazas to accommodate 5000 homeless Messinians and to shelter the soldiers on duty.
 The north end of the town was not dam aged so much as the other sections, and many of the low buildings there are in tact.
 Another sharp shock of earthquake was felt at o'clock this morning and created the usual alarm among the campers in the heart of the city. A few overhang- ing walls fell, burying deeper the unfor- tunates that may lie beneath them, but no additional victims were reported.