The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-01-05
R { P 0 R 7 { R
y | s | I s
RUINS
Scenes Along Waterfront
Make StOutest Heart Quail,
Debris Piled High.

Messina, Jan. 4-Approaching the
sunlit straits Of Messina Friday morn
ing on board the steamer Lombardia,
the first signs of desolation were the
ruins of several picturesquely situat.
ed villages on each side OF the head
lands of Scylla and Charybdas. which
flank the entrance to the narbor Of
Messina. The first sights minImlzed
the magnitude OF the catastrophe.
But the nearer the steamer ap-
preached. the greater appeared the
devastation The shattered walls still
standing in Messina were mere empty
shells through which roofs and floors
had crashed to the foundations, bury
ing the inmates under masses OF de-
bris twenty or thirty feet deep. AS
most Of the walls fell outward. the
streets are mountains OF ruins Eight
thousand soldiers and sailors were in
this charnel house still searching for
those who had been trapped alive be-
meath the wreckage.
The scenes for a distance along the
waterfront made the stoutest neart
quail. Little groups of men, women
and children half clothed. slept hud
died together. crazed and numbed with
grief and terror They were awaiting
the boats TO take them away 1t
was astonishing how many people
still we're being dug out alive Friday
morning, four days after the catastro-
pne.
While the correspondent fingered
for an hour near one OF the stations,
eleven wounded were brought in.
They were almost naked Ttheir bod
les covered with blood and dirt and
they could hardly be recognized as
human beings.
The last was an Italian soldier who
had distinguished himself In the work
Of rescue He had fallen three stories,
wnile trying TO extricate a woman i'm
| prisoned in an attic and he was NOR
| tally hurt. His mind wandered and
| he talked Of his sweetheart and tried
to sing a song before he lost unon-
| sciousness.
The king and queen on board the
battleship Elena Regina have set
noble example of devotion. The king.
with some Of his ministers at nis side
has been directing the relief work,
! yet he has found time TO visit the
| field hospitals and encourage his
| stricken subjects.
The queen has been passing fifteen
hours a day beside the sickbeds on
! the Regina Elena, aiding, consoling
| and encouraging The brunt of the
work OF rescue has failed upon the
sailors, foreigners as we'll as Italian,
and all have done their duty nobly.
= Praises of the Russians is on every
n.
ger. digging under tottering walls or
entering the most unsafe shells when
asked to do so by some frantic woman
who mad not lost all hope that husband
or child was still alive.
The correspondent made two
hours tour through the city today
through streets piled twenty OF thirty
! feet high with debris II is wilder
ness of ruins a mile wide and two
miles long The beautiful churches,
splendid villas in the foothills, hospi-
tails, barracks, and the university, all
shared the common lot Two-thlrds Of
the Roman cathedral, the pride of
Messina. is in ruins and little or moth
Ing remains of the Phoenician. Greek.
Roman and Saracen architecture that
marked the stages OF the twenty-siX
centuries OF Messina's tumultous his
tory. The loss to the world will be
irreparable.
Here and there the correspondent
encountered salvage parties at work.
They were digging at the instance of
some distracted wife or mother who
imagined she heard a voice, but usu-
ally there was no echo to the pathetic
calling One party was trying TO dig
out a girl whose crying could be
heard plainly, but as the correspond
ent watched there was sudden cave
in and thereafter silence. In many
places decomposing arms and legs
protruded from heaps OF masonry and
plaster.
Curious freaks of the earthquake
were everywhere to be observed.
Standing walls had fallen out, expos
ing one tier of rooms above and i'll
which nothing seemed To have been
disturbed Pictures hung straight on
the walls. lamps were on tables. and
vases and flowers on mantel pieces.
In one place two buZZards. their beakS
full OF carrion, were summing then-
selves on window ledge over che