Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-28

knife right under his large. double Ded.
which thus had two legs hanging in the
void. the other two being on the portion
of the floor left. The bed was danger
ously inclined, and from it had rolled his
@ife into the gulf, he saving himself from
like fate by throwing himself violently
on to the Moor on the other side lie was
rescued by the firemen after stopping in
his dangerous position for forty-eight
hours, without food. and listening to the
means and cries of his little daughter,
who had shared her mothers fate. She
afterward taken out of the debris,
With scarcely IA whole bone i'll her body,
dead
y poor woman who was found in the
streets of MeSsna attracted attention
through lier strange behavior. At first
it was thought that her terrible eXpe-
riences had turned her brain, but it was
afterward' discovered that she was per-
fecty sane. 1t seemed that she had lost
six children five of whom slept in a
room together. while she and baby
occupied small room near by. They
were all buried among the debris of the
house; the bigger children were probably
killed in the fall. as she heard no sound.
The baby fell with her under a beam,
but on her chest and would have been
alive now had not one of the ghouls, who
added fresh terrorS to the city. angry
at not finding anything to steal and irri-
tated Ny the crying of the child which
attracted attention to the spot, brutally
kicked it, killing it immedia tely. The
mother was afterward released, and, find
ing friend on the street. poured out her
terrible trouble The friend had evil
IDENTIFY been the 'goody of her district
and told the poor. credulouS creature that
il she said two beads of her rosary at
every street corner. never repeating a
street. and crossed herself five times, her
children. if not yet dead, would revive.
So the poor thing had pursued her pitt
able perambulation for twenty-four hours
without food. never stopping for fear of
thus indirectly killing her poor children,
long since dead She absolutely refused
to even sit down until assured by the
Archbishop of MesSina, before whom she
was taken, that her sacrifice was in
vain.
Conditions in Reggie are worse than at
MeSsina. 1t would take the vivid pen
of Dante to give an adequate idea of
the conditions in the sister cities At
Reggie two thirds of the population
lie under the debris of fallen buildings:
the other third are in the streets. without
roof, without food, without water. with
out clothes. Those fatal thirty seconds
cast down all the conventional barriers
set up by society and reduced rich and
poor alike to primitive man. who must
have shelter from cold ard clothing and
food for his body. and when he is de-
'Iittu Vi them Il SuI1Clc1J TIME lie VIII
fight for them. To this must be added
total darkness al night. only broken by
the fendish thieves who. having looted
a shop, had become possessed of q bit of
candle. and with it made the rounds of
the lugubrious rubbish, to see what they
could steal from the bodies of the dead.
These jackals, composed of the scum Of
the town, were SO bold that their re-
searches were I'm many cases conducted
in broad daylight and they resist with
firearms and knives any one who tries
to interfere with them. In one case a
man. after putting his wife I'm safety re-
turned to try and secure some of his
valuables. Arrived at what was once his
house he forcibly prevented from en-
tering by couple of men who. when he
insisted, shot him dead. The few police
and soldiers that are there are totally
inadequate to keep this dangerous and
INSCRIPTIONS element within bounds so
they have orders to shoot on sight the
result being regular pitched battles in
full sight in the principal Streets in
which law and order do not always get
the best of 1t. Thus several soldiers have
lost their lives and several more will UNI
dOubtedly do before long
One particularly touching case of this
soldier who had. through his exceptional
strength, succeeded in lifting a beam
which had pinned him down, from over
his legs, worked for almost two days in
rescuing others with scarcely any resi-.
Late at night he was returning to a shed
which he had found to sleep in when he
heard the sobbinG cry of little girl He
stopped and a group of three men. with
whom a girl of eight was struggling vio-
lently. came into view. He stopped them
whereupon the child fled with what was
afterward proved to be consdera BILE
sum of money which she had gathered to-
gether in her fathers house. The thieves
furious at the escape of their victim set
upon the soldier and killed him by kick
ing him to death.
These are but a few of the daily trag-
edies of this modern inferno. the victim
of water, fire and earthquake and rem
dered hell by man: cone moment the
most beautiful spot on EARTH the next a
sink of terror and niquity