The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-04-10
NcapoIitans in the Great Earthquake


CRobert Kitchens in the April Century,
After the earthquake-to give an in
stance-when details began to be
known, I told Neapolitan of my &C
quaintance that Mossina had been de-
stroyed, and that at least 10000 people
had been killed. He threw up his hands.
shrugged his shoulders. raised his eye
brows, exclaimed. "Accidente"' and be
gan to talk Of something else. quite pos
sibly of macaroni. But on the evening
OF that Gay I met him again. He looked
as if he had lost Z near relative. His
eyes. wide open. were full Of horror and
pity. He came up to me and Grasped
my arm. What is the matter?' l said.
After a minute he told me that he had
been to the Arsenal Gate and had seen
the arrival of the wounded. ia i'm
pressioue" he concluded, with q Shud-
der He had seen and he had realized.
] had told him of 10000 dead He had
seen perhaps forty wounded. From that
moment he was full of sympathy, ready
to do and to give
It was when the first wounded ar,
rived in Naples. brought by the first
warship,- and were carried, as I saw
them carried on Wednesday. Dec So on
attlD0ldtftS cNioSS Tire lit4ill AiAASS>s anu
up the paved slope by the narrow gar
den which stretches in front of the Ho-
tel de LOndTes that Naples understood,
The very first to be borne through the
tall gateway was a large man. lying
fat. with his head only slightly raised,
and enveloped in loosely Tapping linen
stained with blood. His face was as
white as white linen, what could be
seen Of it. but much of ii was SplaShed
with mud which had dried. and was
coated with gray dust. And there was
blood upon it, too. His eyes were wide
open. but they never glanced at the
crowd. Upon his face was stamped an
expression of horror that seemed to me
frantic and yet dun. if such a thing
could be. The crowd made a rush,
closed round him, began to try to ac
company him Oh his journey toward one
of the hospitals. It seemed as if they
thought he was the only one! But, in
half a minute, through the Arsenal gate
came another ambulance, and on this
there was a woman with streaming
black hair And she was huddled up, |
and her face too, was as white as linen |
and stamped with look of horror.
che bella donna! che bella donna!
Madonna! Ma sta per mOrire!' and the |
crowd closed round her. but she never |
gave il look.
And another ambulance came out at |
the Arsenal gate.
Then Naples began to realize that |
there would be a long procession. And |
the crowd stood still, grave, pitiful, hor-
still for days to see just a
little of what the earthquake had done. .
Wednesday, Thursday. Friday = for
three days I was in Naples while the
wounded were being carried through the
crowds, and the dead were being put
into the hearses surn1ounted with wood
en- crosses And shall not forget the
warm pity, the hot generosity, of the
Neapolitans. They gave in feeling. they
gave in kind. It was good to see the
students collecting, and it was good to
see the young aristocrats ministering
10 the wounded in the motor cars which
made so many quick journeys between
he ships and the hospitals. The stu
tents formed themselves into bands
Zach band wearing caps of a different
.olor. and they swarmed through the
warming city They poured out from
al a given signal, ] suppose,
ike bees from a hive Under every nose
here was a money box, at every elbow
IN eager. polite young man, in every
,ar a voice mur1nuring: Per j ferfti,
signorat Per 'feriti, signore!'
And Naples gave with a ready hand.
Then came the moment for giving in
Kind That was a scene full Of south
I'm impulse and full of the strange in
ection that runs through hot-natured
lrowds. Thousands of wounded were
pouring into Naples with nothing, with
10 possessions at all. Not merely had
hey no money-"Ne nance un soldo:
hey had no stockings, no shoes. no
,oots no hats, no collars. no shirts. no
no coats. AS one Of them,
woman, said to the crowds, eve have !
lot even handkerchiefs to dry our I
earsw She wore a soldiers tunic to |
onceal her nudity, and she had lost her &
husband and children.
So again the students went round. 1
But this time no money boxes were put c
nder Naples nose. Instead, wagons [
-ere brought under Naples window, |
naples terrace, Naples balcony. And G