Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24
STORIES OF QUAKE VICTIMS
Survivors Tell Frightful Stories of
Experiences in Trsgic Events.
GHoU1s WAGE OPEN WARFARE
Though Period of shocks il Blank to
Most Sufferers, some of Them
Tell Remarkable stories of
Catastrophe.

NAPLES. Jan. 8.ISpecial)-It is doubt
full II the full horrible story of the earth
quake will ever be told. The survivors have
only a confused idea OF what took place.
They we're awakened by the falling Of their
houses and how they escaped they cannot
guess. The awful minutes, in most cases
when they were struggling for life. are a
nightmare or a blank, which perhaps even
time will not clear.
However, some few have been able to
| put their sensations and experiences into
words. I have heard Of a man who in
| habfted the fourth floor OF an apartment
house ana who was awakened by what he
took to be an explosion. When he gained
his senses he found himself in an alarming
position. The floor, probably through some
defect in building, had given way clearly
as though cut by a knife. right under his
large double bed, which thus had two legs
hanging in the void. the other two being
on the portion of the floor left The bed
was dangerously inclined and from 1t had
rolled his wife into the gulf he saving him
self from a like fate by throwing himself
violently on to the floor on the other side.
He was rescued by the firemen after stop
ping 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. he was
a~fterward taken out of the debris with
scarcely a whole bone in her body. dead.
Babe Killed by GhOuI.
A poor woman who was found in the
streets of Messina attracted attention
through her strange behavior. At first it
was thought that her terrible experiences
had turned her brain, but it was afterward
! Jigcpyarad that she WAS ppTfpCtlV sane. 1t
seems that she had lost six children, five
Of whom slept in a room together, while
she and a baby occupied a small room near
by. They were all buried among the debris
of the house, the bigger children 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 find
ing anything to steal and irritated by the
crying Of the child, which attracted atten-
ton to the spot, b~rutally kicked 1t. killing
it Immediately. The mother was afterward
released and finding a friend on the street
poured out her terrible trouble. The friend
had evidently been the "goody'' Of her dis
trict and told the poor, credulous creature
that II 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 pitiable
perambulations for twenty-four hours, with
out 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.
ReggiO Worse Than Messina.
Conditions in Reggie are worse than at
Messina. 1t would take the vivid pen of a
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, without clothes.
Those fatal thirty seconds cast down all
the conventional barriers set up by society
and reduced rich and poor alike to print
tive men who must have shelter from cold
and clothing and food for his body, and
when he is deprived of them a sufficient
time he will fight for them. To this must
be added total darkness at night, only
broken by the fiendish thieves who, having
looted a shop had become possessed of a
bit Of candle and with 1t made the round
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, are so bold that their researches
are in many cases conducted in broad day.
light and they resist with firearms and
knives any one who tries to interfere with
them. In one case a man, after putting
4 his wife in safety, returned to try and
secure some Of his valuables. Arrived at
what was once his house he was forcibly
prayantaH from, aptariDU nv "a ppnpla Of
men who, when he insisted, shot him dead.
The few police and soldiers that there are,
are totally inadequate to keep this danger
Gus and INSCRIPTIONS element within
bounds so they have orders to shoot on
sight, the result being regular pitched bat
ties in full sight of the principal streets,
in which law and order do not always get
the best of It, Thus several soldiers have
lost their lives and several more will I'M
doubtedly do so before long.
Killed for Rescuing Girl.
One particularly touching case OF this
kind has just occurred at Messina. A
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 rest. Late at
night he was returning to a shed which he
had found to sleep in when he heard the
sobbing cry of a little girl. He stopped
and a group of three men. with whom a
girl Of s years was struggling violently,
came into view. He stopped them, where
upon the child fled with what was after
wards proved to be a considerable sum of
money which she had gathered together in
her fathers house. The thieves, furious at
the escape Of their victim, set upon the
soldier and killed him by kicking him 10
death.
These are but a few of the daily trag-
edies Of this modern inferno, the victim OF
water, fire and earthquake. and rendered
a hell by man; one moment the most
beautiful spot on earth, the next a sink