The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-03-03

HARBoR OF MEssINA N MAP SHOWING
REGION AFFECTED BY RECENT seismic
DISTURBANCE.
reality it has proved itself to be the
most ~treacherous of earth's beauty
spots, as little to be trusted as are the
historic Scylla and C%harybdis at the
entrance to the strait of Messina. It
has always been ar active center Of
seismic disturbance Of almost every
variety. Even before the recent horror
1t might have claimed the record, for
the great Calabrian earthquake which
began in 1878 continued for four years.
Great Earthquake Region.
No native of Sicily or the Calabrian
mainland ever reaches mans estate in
ignorance Of the earthquake. With
some form of the dreaded upheaval he
must become familiar long before he
reaches the Scriptural age limit. These
manifestations vary in intensity from
tremors so slight as to be observed by
the most delicate instruments to vio-
lent destructive shocks. While the
more serious and death dealing blows
are felt at intervals so remote as to in
spire a n of security, the slighter
manifestations are so constant that it
requires years Of habit to make them
other than p~remonitory signals of trou-
bic to follow.
1t matters not at all to the surviving
Calabrian peasant, whose entire inter-
est In the business Of living has been
cut off suddenly by this abnormal
trick Of nature which has swept his
every living link into oblivion, that
science is at hand with it's theories Of
the cause of his misfortunes. 1t will
not revive his hopeless spirit to be told
that the blow which has felled him is
but another evidence that the foot Of
the italian "boot" Is sinking into the
sea. It 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 sub
sidence Of the earth's crust, and it is
believed by experts that should this
settling continue it will be followed
by volcanic activity and that the gran
lite hills Of Scylla and the greater por-
ton of the mountainous region of the
mainland will be submerged.
As for Messina, 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
jected to great indignities. In 800 B. G.
It was destroyed by the all conquering
Carthaginians and was rebuilt by Do
nysius. the tyrant Of Syracuse. In the
following century Hannibal and his
C~arthaginian 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 of over
10000 victims, and forty-three years
later an earthquake practically buried
the city and its remaining Inhabitants.
As late as 1848 it was nearly wiped off
the map by a bombardment, but seems
to have been restored sufficiently to
lose 10000 Inhabitants by cholera in
1854.
All Sicily Devastated.
The seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turtles seem to have been the most pro-
life earthquake periods in modern