Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-01-01
REFUGEES CROWD CITIES.
Bring PitifuI Tales Of Immensity {
Disaster and Suffering.

up with refugees. Ine nerves OI lHeSe
unfortunates are I'M such q condition
that at the least noise they are prone
to rush screaming from their rooms,
seeking the open streets.
Sig Birot, the mayor OF Brescia, In
Lombardy, was stopping at the Hotel
Trinacria, in Messina, and was buried
under the ruins of the building for Ave
hours. Finally several persons ap-
preached the place where he lay. but
at that moment fresh shock put them
to fight
Eventually a body Of sailors extri-
Gated him unconscious and took him
aboard a ship. Sunday night Sig. Birot
dined with a party of English, French,
perished.
Boy Rescues His Parents.
The l2-year-old son Of Professor
Gabi saved his father and mother, who
were buried under Q mass Of wreck
age.
A man who left Messina for Taor-
nina shortly before the catastrophe
turned back as soon as ne learned what
had happened, and approached Mes
sina on foot.
He was stopped in the outskirts by
heaps OF ruins. He then met people
running wildly and crying for help.
The nearer he got to the city the more
awful we're the sights. The railroad
station was in flames.
Everywhere he encountered half clad
unfortunates fleeing thru the night un-
der the pelting rain. Arrlving at his
own house, he found it completely de-
stroyed, and his young wife dead un-,
der the ruins.
Held in Wreck Twenty -four Hours.
Another survivor OF Messina says:
"The first thing Lkne,alI / WAS thrown
ont esbedss hsls the doof - snixsr9om
collapsed and IsfelI into the apart
ment under me, Here I found a dis
tracted woman searching for her sis
ter and son, whom she found dead.
I'VE remained in the ruins for twcn-
ty-four hours, entirely alone, without
food or drink. We made a rough shell
ter of boards to keep Oft the rain. Our
ears were assailed with the cries and
means OF the wounded. These sounds
abated during Monday night. Still no
one came to our assistance. We were
as in tomb. with the dead bodies Of
our children beside US.
We could see no one, but every
time soundsgwere heard from the street
there would come an outburst of pierc-
ing cries forshelp from the injured hid
den and pinned down in the wreck
age.
Vast Crevasses in Streets.
Tuesday morning we finally VEN
Etured forth and were taken aboard q
vessel:in in the harbor, on which we came
to Naples. Messina is entirely de-
|stroyed.
eve passed over streets that were
vast crevasses and climbed over great
mounds of ruins and wreckage that
were all that remained of the finest
palaces of Messina"
This refugee lost his two children.
He arrived in Naples half clad and
covered with dust and burns. His wife
was clothed in little else than an old
counterpart.
Think only 5000 Escaped. t
Other refugees estimate that not
more than 5000 persons Of the entire
population of Messina, 16O 900, escaped
with their lives.
The suffering was intensified by the
lack of drinking water, the water sys-
tenn having been entirely demolished.
The wounds of the injured had to be
washed with sea water Grocers' shops
were ransackeC for mineral water or
anything else to drink.
A naval observer of the destruction
Of Messina says there We're four tidal
waves, ranging in height from twelve
to thirty feet Thirty minutes elapsed
between the rolling in of the first and
the destructive onslaught Of the last
uava