The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1909-01-30

Wave Terrifying sight.
Giuseppe Cutroneo, a butcher of
Messina, who lost his wife and three
children in the recent earthquake
which devastated Sicily. is the first
witness of the great disaster to reach
New York. In telling of his escape
from death he said In part:
II was in the cattle business in Mes
sina, and to this fact / owe my life.
On the morning of Dec. 2S got up at
Ais o'clock to take a trip into the
country to buy steers. All was quiet
as left my home, 1SS Corso Victor
Emmanuel, and walked to the station,
about a mile distant. As 1t happened,
the car in which took my seat was
the last coach, which stood outside the
train shed. Had l taken forward car
I doubtless would have been killed.
"Of sudden the car shot up In the
air, falling with crash on one side.
A deafening roar filled my head. The
air became suffocating. My body SEEM
ed to grow numb all at once. l don't
know how long 1 lay in a sort of stu
por before realized that there was a
hole over me, through which climbed.
"The spectacle again stupefed me. /
thought the world has come to an end
and that l was in purgatory. l could
not at first recognize what i saw as
Messina. Still the earth trembled, and
quakes came Internationally, each one
toppling over walls that had been
cracked or left standing by the first
shock l looked back at the station. 1t
had collapsed, and the train shed had
fallen on the forward part Of the train
and crushed it almost fat.
"As soon as / realized that / was
still alive / thought of my wife and
three little children. / rushed back
into Messina, although now fires had
started in all directions. Here would
tower the fame of broken gas main,
roaring and leaping like gigantic
torch. There the wood skeleton of a
house blazed like hundred bonfires in
one The air was full of smoke and
dust, yet / could see close to the
shore great rift, where the earth had
been torn apart. Into it many of the
houses had fallen, catching fire as
they fell, so that the smoke that rose
made the ditch look like an elongated
volcano.
II looked seaward and was trans
fixed by the most terrifying sight Of
ALL A wave was advancing toward
the city that grew as 1t approached
until It seemed as high as the light
house. 1t tumbled the ships about like
toys, turning them turtle or tossing
them on their beam ends. 1t came
seemed an age before it swept over
the lighthouse and engulfed the city,
tearing away the piers like paper and
swallowing the shore front. Far In
land it swept. extinguishing many OF
the fires.
"The people running about in the
streets acted like lunatics. Some were
clambering over the ruins in their
nightclothes searching for relatives
Through cracks the people that still
lived cried to those they feared were
dead. Other survivors whom / met
had wound around them bits Of carpet
or bedclothes, while others had for
gotten all about apparel.
II found only heap Of bricks
twisted iron and wood splinters where
used to live. The five stores had
tumbled into heap about fifteen feet
high. My home was in a four room
fat on the first floor. 1t had been
buried at the bottom. Without think
| ing how impossible was the task l be-
gan to dig In the ruins. Down below
could hear means, and they made me
work like madman.
II would sometimes think I heard
my wife's cry. and I would yell down
into some crevice, 'Floria, Floria, here
is your Giusepper and then would
call to my children-to Diego, my six.
year-old little boy; to Tony, who was
four, and Natalina, the, baby. ! was
still digging when some Russian sol
diers came and asked me If did not
| want something to eat. Eighty people
were in the house where / lived, and
only one or two besides myself escaped
For two days and night I wan
dered about Messina until l thought
the sights Of crime and death would
drive me crazy Ghouls began to prey
upon the dead, digging up corpses te
rob them When the soldiers caught
these fiends at work they would riddle
them with bullets.
"Never will forget my run toward
my home. saw many persons. Sew
erai had been injured by falling walls
One man, with his legs broken, worked
his way painfully along, leaving q
trail Of blood behind him. Again
| saw woman crawling over mass OF
ruins. clinging to child. God! II
live thousand years l can never for
get those sights. Here an old man
was making his way along. searching
wildly among The smoking ruins fol
loved ones. saw another man scram
bling over the rulas. calling his wife's