Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-26

shock. I looked back at the station. 1t
had collapsed. and the train shed had
fallen on the forward part of the train
and crushed 1t almost fat.
"As soon as I realized that 1 was
still alive l thought Of my wife and
three little children. / rushed back
into Messina, although now fires had
started in all directions. Here would
tower the fame of a broken gas main,
roaring and leaping like a gigantic
torch. There the wood skeleton of a
house blazed like hundred bonfires in
one. The air was full of smoke and
dust, yet / could see close to the
shore a great rift, where the earth had
been torn apart. Into 1t many Of the
houses had. fallen, catching fire as
they fell, so that the smoke that rose
made the ditch look like an elongated
volcano.
II looked seward and was trans
fixed by the most terrifying sight Of
ALL A. wave was advancing toward
the city that grew as 1t approached
until 1t seemed as high as the light
house. 1t turnbled the ships about like
toys, turning them turtle or tossing
them on their beam ends. 1t came
with tremendous velocity, but to me it
seemed an age before it swept over
the lighthouse and engulfed the city.
tearing away the piers like paper and
swallowing the. shore front Far in
land it swept, eXtinguishing many of
the fires.
1.-The people running about in tae
streets acted like lunatics. Some were
clambering over the ruins in their
nightclothes searching for relatives.
Through cracks the people that still
lived cried to those they feared were
dead. Other survivors whom l met
had wound around them bits Of carpet
or bedclothes, while others had for
gotten all about apparel.
Il found only heap Of bricks,
twisted iron and wood splinters where
I used to live. The five stores had
tumbled into a heap about fifteen feet
high. My home was in four room
fiat on the first floor. 1t had been
buried at the bottom. Without think
ing how impossible was the task l be-
gan to dig in the ruins. Down below
work like Il mailman.
81 would sometimes think l heard
my wife's cry. and l would yell down
into some crevice, .Floria, Floria. here
is your .Giuseppe" and then l would
call to my chiidren-to Diego. my six
year-old little boy; to Tony. who was
four, and Natalina. the baby. l was
still digging when some Russian sol
diers came ard asked me If l did not
want something to eat. Eighty people
were in the house where i lived, and
only one or two besides myself escaped.
For two days and a night l wan
dered about Messina until l thought
the sights of crime and death would
drive me crazy. Ghouls began to prey
upon the dead, digging up corpses to
rob them. When the soldiers caught
these fiends at work they would riddle
them with bullets. N :,
Never will forget my run toward
my home. saw many persons. Sew
eral had been injured by falling walls.
One man, with his legs broken, worked
his way painfully along, leaving a
| trail of blood behind him. Again
saw woman crawling oyer mass of
ruins, clinging to child. God! II
live n thousand years can never for
get those sights! Here an old man
! was making his way along. searching
| wildly among the smoking ruins FOR
loved ones. saw another man scram-
bling over the ruins. calling his wife's
name as / was doing. A year was
| lived In that day.
ION the evening Of Dec. % about 200
Of the survivors, including myself,
went aboard the Regina Marguerite
| which the government had made use
of as transport. We were carried
TO Palermo. On reaching Palermo
went to hospital. On my way / met a
well dressed man, who on learning I
wanted to come to America gave me
S3S for my passage"