Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-01-13

HARBOR OF 1IEssIDA AND Map SEo7Fst
REGION AFFECTED BY RECENT s1-ISA-..
DISTURBANCE.
reality it has proved itself to be
most treacherous of earth's beau s.
spots, as little to be trusted as are tic
historic Scylla and Charybdis ii th,
entrance to tho strait Of Alessir9 j
has always been an active center -
seismic disturbance of almost everE
variety. Even before the recent Aerr.a
it might have claimed the record, fal
the great Calabrian earthquake which
began in 1873 continued for four years
Great Earthquake Region
No native Of Sicily or the Ca,abrtar
mainland ever reaches mans estate ia
ignorance of the earthquake. Wien
some form of the dreaded upheavai hn
must become familiar long before -
reaches the Scriptural age limit The
manifestations vary in intensity Ir
trem0rs so slight as to- be observed ht
the most delicate instruments to via-
lent destructive shocks. While the
more serious and death dealing blows
are felt at intervals so remote as u IL
spire q sense Of security, the sigLter
manifestations are so constant that j.
requires years Of habit to make them
other than premonitory signals OF trcu-
bic to follow.
It matters not at all to the surviving
Calabrian peasant, whose entire inter-
est in the business of living has been
cut of suddenly by this abnormal
trick of nature which has swept his
every living link into Oblivion. that
science is at hand with its theories Of
the cause of his misfortunes. It viii
not revive his hopeless spirit to be told
that the blow which has felled him is
but another evidence that the foot q
the Italian boot is sinking into tae
sea. 1t IS a scientific fact that has
been going on for centuries. Like the
California earthquake Of 1906, the re-
cent Italian disaster was due not to
volcanic disturbance, but to the SUE
sidence Of the earth's crust, and it is
believed by experts that should this
settling continue it viii be followed
by volcanic activity and that the gran
ton Of the mountainous region Of the
mainland viii be submerged.
AS for AIessina, it has always been a
CITY of tremendous disaster. Long be-
fore the Apostle Paul preached his
novel evangel in the crowded streets
of Syracuse it had known affection of
the deepest. IN the fifth century be
fore Christ it was captured by the
Greeks. and its inhabitants were sub
iected to great indignities. In 800 B. c.
it was destroyed by the all cOnquerinS
Carthaginians and was rebuilt by Do
nysius. the tyrant of Syracuse. In the
following century Hannibal and his
Carthaginian hosts again sacked the
town. After the fall of paganism it
Jared not a whit better for It was
taken by the Saracens in S31 and prac-
tically destroyed. Two hundred years
later it was pillaged by the Normans.
In 1749 the plague carried off over
10000 victims. ard forty-three years
later an earthquake practically buried
the city and its remaining inhabitants.
AS late as 1913 it was nearly wiped off
the map by 4 bOmbardment. but seems
to have been restored sufficiently TO
lose 10000 4habitants by cholera in
1854.
All Sicily Devastated.
The seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turfes seem to have been the most pro-
life earthquake periods in modern
Ill