The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1909-01-17

New York. Jan lG-- Bringing the
first refugees from the earthquake de-
yastated districts of Sicily and Gala.
bria. the steamer Re d'Italid arrived
today from Sicilian and Southern
Italian ports. About seventy of its
1900 passengers were from Sicilian
villages in the earthquake zone.
one was Giuseppe Cutroneo, who
told Of his almost miraculous escaue
from death, his search for his family
amid the ruins. his futile efforts to
find their bodies the slaughter OF
ghouls by soldiers and his final flight
to this country. Another spectator OF
these scenes was a peasant girl. Mari
eta Dcnigro. who became too hyster-
cal to say more than these few words.
"My father and mother were buried
beneath The burning ruins. | am com
ing here to begin life anew I cannot
think of Messna, or | will go crazy
Among the throng which packed
the steerage to ovcrflowing were a
half hundred peasants. who embark.
ed before the earthquake and sailed
for America without learning the
fates of their families.
i Cutroneo's father and brother. who
live In Brooklyn, wept as they en-.
braced him on the pier. Cutroneo did
not weep. He seemed too stunned to
show any such emotion.
Partly in English. which he
spoke brokenly and partly through
interpreters. Cutroneo told his story.
Il was in the cattle business in
Messina. On the morning of Decem-
her 2S got mp at AIS o'clock to take
a trip into the country to buy steers.
All wa quiet as left my home and
walked To the station and boarded the
last car a train for Milazzo.
"Of a sudden the car shot up In
the air falling with n crash on one
side. A deafening roar filled my
head. The air became suffocating. My
body seemed to grow numb. ! thought
the world he'd come to an end and
that ! was in purgatory.
Il could not at first recognize what
! saw, as M"sslna. StlA the earth
trembled and quakes coming intermlt.
tently each one topping over walls
that had been cracked or left stand.
ing by the first shock I looked back
at the station. II had collapsed, the
train shed had fallen on the forward
part of the train ard crushed it.
AS soon as ! realized that : was
still alive ! thought OF my wife and
three little children. rushed back
into Messina. Here would tower the
flame of a broken gas main. roaring
and leaping like a gigantic torch.
There the wooden skeleton OF a house
blazed like hundred bonfires in one.
The air was full of smoke and dust.
II was like a fog that | groped
through
"Yet could see near the shore a
great rift where the earth had benn
torn apart. Into it many of the
houses had fallen.
II looked seaward, There was the
most terrifying sight of all \ wave
was advancing to gard the city that
grew as II approached until 1t seemed
as high as the light house. II tumbled
the ships about like toys. turniag
them turtle, or tossing them on their
beam ends. II came with tremendous
velocity, but it seemed an age b.,
fore it swept over the lighthouse and
engulfed the city,
The people running about in the
streets acted like lunatics. Some were
clamberlng over the ruins in their
night clothes, looking for relatives.
IL found only heap of sticks
twisted iron and wood splinters where
| used to live. For two dayS and a