The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-02


the survivors have received no divine
assurance Of even temporary safety.
and have no means of knowing wheth-
er the next shock will occur in year
or in a century-yet they are already
beginning to rebuild their fallen dwell
lingS. The terror has just passed ov-
er their heads; "It will not soon re-
turn: they cry, and set cheerfully
to work
In the face of thees constant men,
aces for the future and these multi
piled relics of former disasters, [ can
scarce believe my own ears when |
hear survivors of this latest and worst
catastrophe talking about new Mes
sina. I am told that for two or three
days Immediately after the shock,
while the inhabitants who had not
been buried beneath the ruins were
huddled together on the waterfront,
half-naked and half-crazed with fear,
they declared,
"Messina is no more! Never will
we return to these accursed shores!'
But now, since they have been
clothed and fed and rendered COM
Portable, they begin straightway to
long for Sicily.
I am commencing to wonder wheth-
er the peculiar religious beliefs, or,
more properly speaking, the supersti-
tutions Of the Calabrians and Sicil-
ians do not partially explain their
presumptuous confidence. These peo-
pie have never come to realize that
the terrible forces, which from time to
time overwhelm them, are blind, in
animate phenomena Of nature, which
prayers and incense are powerless to
affect. Forces guided by reason can
be reasoned with; calamities specifi-
cally willed by a rational divinity can
be averted by supplications and burnt
offerings; in this category the Sicil-
ians have always placed earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions; in ancient
times, they prayed to Jove, while to-
day they pray to Jehovah, but the un-
derlying principle is still the same.
Indeed it is not surprising that feeble
humanity is filled with holy super
stitious terror in the presence Of such
forces, and attributes them to super
natural origin. In classic ages It was
believed that the Titans, vanqulshed
by Jupiter, were buried beneath the
volcanoes of the island; when the IT,
tans breathed, smoke and flames Is
sued from the crevices among the
rocks, and when they struggled to
throw off the immense weights which
had been piled upon them, the earth
trembled The simple, primitive i'll
habitants Of the region builded tenn
piles to- the Olympian conqueror and
sometimes consecrated offerings Of
sheep or goats to the fallen giants,
hoping thereby to render the former
propitious and to moderate the fury
Of the latter, then prayed to them
and fearfully adored them, as if sup
plications could soften the brutal
power of the elements or change the
inflexible laws Of nature, or placate
forces which leave humanity only two
alternatives-flieht or destruction.
Such was the attitude Of the ancient
Sicilians. and is the attitude of their
descendants today. The popular mag
ination has not ceased to attribute
these natural phenomena to divine
will. The revelations Of science have
here left untouched the mentality Of
the masses. The modern Sicilian is
just as superstititious as the antique
he las changed the names Of his gods,
and villa tout: For him, it is still
the sky that causes the earth to trem-
bic, still the sky that crushes man or
permits him to go his way unharmed.
Images of the Madonna and the saints
have replaced the ancient statutes,
and in time of danger are adored or
paraded through the streets by the
childish, frightened people. who rush
to shrines with candles and offerings
as did their classic forebears. They
have always believed and always will
believe that pious devotion is sort
Of lightning-rod capable Of protecting
them against thunder-bolts from OH
high, and it is surely possible that
this blind faith, by no means confined