The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-01-25
MORE QUAkES; ]
HORRORS MESSINA
Continued from Page oneJ

OF an Italian WaTSh1p played on Slu-
gle spot, and to it the boatmen took
me. 1t was where the troops had or
ganized some sort of headuarters, and
little band of soldiers we're sitting
around a campfire. They talked soft
ly, as men do in the presence of death,
and in the brilliant lights from the
ship it seemed that this was the only
place alive in what had been town
of 100000 inhabitants. This was my
second impression. .
CITY SMASHED LIKE GLASS DISH.
81 walked the length of the Corso,
and then I realized the full horror of
what had befallen Messina The lar
gest city in Sicily had been smashed
as a glass dish would be smashed If
it were thrown upon a stone floor. That
any of the inhabitants survived seems
a miracle. That the most appalling
estimates of the loss of life have not
been exaggerations appears evident. To
go into details is useless. 1t is ruin
everywhere. The only thing | found
! intact was Montorsolis's beautiful
fountain of Neptune mot the original
of 1867, but a COPY.
No real comparison between Mes
sina and San Francisco is possible.
was in San Francisco r1ve days after
the earthquake, and already wooden
structures were being put up, work had
begun on the tranIWay lines and the
man streets were crowded with cneer-
Iul, hopeful people. The residential
portion Oh the CITY had been spared,
and just across me bay was Oakland,
10 serve as a tempo, AIRY place OF bust
ness. L he case Oh MesSlna is aItogetn-
err different. Soon there Will be nobody
le1t DuC troops. small settlement
may be established, but Messina has
disappeared
HELD IN RUINS SEVEN DAYS.
A woman was rescued at Reggie Be-
months old. She had tried to protect
the infant with her body, but the baby
had been dead seven days, during all
of which the mother lay unable to
move beneath the wreckage. The wo-
man will probably recover. An exact
~ similar occurrence was reported
during the great earthquake Of the 18th
century.
Another dispatch tells Of the res
cue of two survivors of Messina One
was a woman so exhausted that she
will probably die. The other was a
ltwo-year-oId baby so bright and lively
that it seemed to have come from the
comfortable warmth of a cradle.
81 have just come from the city, "
telegraphs another correspondent from
Messina. "The horror is greater than
any one who has not seen it can imag-
= ine To walk along the quays and
avenues, in the squares and gardens
is to walk among massive ruins and
through one great charnel house Of
large palaces, public buildings, the
cathedral and churches. There is no
thing but rubbish heaps, piles of dust
bricks and splinters three stories high
from which one could pick up here &
silver tray, there a lady's lace scarf
= again a box of mems collars, books
diaries, photographs, picture postcards
" or statues and curios.
a ONLY THE WALLS LEFT.
Many of the walls stand as mere
y shells, and inside are mountains o
e debris. From some windows still hang
C curtains. Here the floor has collapsed
S with the bed. There the pictures ar,
e still on the wall and all the rest il
n splinters and dust.
D. But all that is mere material des
" truction. The real horror is indescrib
e ably worse. The mere physical fact o
the odor that enters the nostrils OF
e landing is terrible. Then the process
e sions of troopers bearing shapeles
t, bundles on stretchers-endless process
sions. From some of these burden
a charred hand or foot energies. i
others one still discerns under tn
cloths the profile of face or the out
line of a form. Stretcher after stretch
er goes by.
l. "A few steps further on one find
bodies laid at street corners and lei
h unmatched. Then more of such opeI
air charnel houses at every turn. Her
II are dozens of corpses in a row
there 50 further on perhaps a huI
1t dred, and close by are the survivors
hundreds around a fire.
=. CAMPS ARE EVERYWHERE.
Camps are rugged up everywher
k and scores of children are playing
few steps from those terrible wrapped
s. up bundles, and wooden huts hay
been put up in avenues and square
for the survivors. Some are in dii
abled cabs, some under mere stretcl
ers of rags.
Il went up a number of alley
streets and arcades where the way wa
passable. Others were blocked up stC
. ries high, with debris all around. I'll
% arcades, from the CONSERVATORY EN-;