The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-07-26

Send his strong aid, his aid ne sends
in vain,
All, shun the horrid gulf! by Scylla
fly,
'Tis better six to lose, than all to die"
It was evening as we returned to
Messina by the beautiful road that
skirts along the hills overhanging the
sea. AS the shades OF night fell on
the town it gave to the ruin of the
earthquake sad, somber and pathetic
appearance. When / sat down in my
room, the guide book / had in hand
was Baedeker for Southern Italy,
written before the dreadful earthquake
that Mortified the world five years ago.
1t was sad indeed to read the descrip-
ton of the Messina that was and is
no more. 1t was a fourishing city of
ninety thousand inhabitants. It's har-
Dor was one of the best in the world,
and in the year before the catastrophe
was cleared by 5000 vessels, carrying
over half a million tons of merchan-
disc. 1t was next to Palermo, the chief
commercial town of Sicily, and had
history extending back to the eighth
century before Christ THE town.
says Baedeker, is on the whole we'll
built and has several handsome
streets" That sentence is perhaps
the saddest in Baedeker's description.
That handsome city is no more. AS
one walks the streets in the evening
ghosts seem to peer at him from the
crevices, and when he comes into the
new quarter he is struck by the ap-
/ pearance of the newly erected frame
houses of wood and steel Across the
straits, at San Giovanni, these build
ings set in regularly shaped streets,
crossing one another at right angle,
with little Gothic-shaped church of
steel structure in the midst, give the
town the appearance of hurriedly
erected mining camp in Arizona or
Nevada. Such is what is left of the
ancient city of Messina, for the pos
session of which rival nations waged
war to the death long centuries before
America was discovered. The popula-
ton of ninety thousand has been re-
duced to less than half that number
Some persisted on that early morning
at Christmas time in 1908; others have
fed from the ruins that buried their
dear ones to more secure parts of their
beloved Italy. But the majority have
crossed the Atlantic to seek new
home on terra firma beneath the Stars
and Stripes. was told that for some
time after the earthquake as many as
six hundred of them sailed from
Naples for New York in a single day.
AS one sits among the ruins of Mes
sina he cannot refrain from asking if
it would not be better to desert the
old city altogether and build a new
one somewhere on more secure site.
OF course, it is easy to propose such
thing, but very hard to accomplish.
, The earthquake of 1908 was not the
first, nor the second. One in 1888
overthrow almost the whole town
} Messina lies on the line of contact be-
tween what biologists call the primary
J and secondary formations of the
J earth's surface, and on this boundary
; vius have been frequent and always
violent. The smoke that rises from
| the craters of these two volcanoes is
: but faint indication of what is going
on beneath the earth's surface along
i this belt. At Agnana, village out
3 side of Naples, there are hot minera
e baths supplied by seventy-two differ
AMI of ;aI1
K water comes piping up at a tempera
e ture of 222 degrees Fahrenheit, that il
r ten degrees above the boiling point
o pure water. On the Island of Jochi:
i in the Bay of Naples similar springs
l. are found where the town of CasamiC
e cola was destroyed by earthquake il
]. 1883. 1t is remarkable coincidenc,
J. that this earthquake occurred exactl.
e one hundred years after the previous
l. destruction of Messina There are M
S hot springs at Messina. But it il
), certainly sitting on the danger zone
J. and the fires are raging beneath. /
d is not case similar to that of Gal
n weston. Galveston built wall agains
n future tidal waves and now sits securt
!. on her old site. You cannot proven
r earthquakes, nor extinguish the sub
e terrean fires that cause them in thi
r region. Reasoning from natura
d causes alone it is only question o
S time when there will be another OF
l. this belt. The reason is plain. Thu
:. site of Messina is crust of earth
a surface sitting over a fire. Beneath
S the boiling process goes on, consum
Y ing the limestone and mineral rocks
t and gradually eating into the founda
a lions that hold up the terra firma.
l. is only a question of time, therefore
S when, the foundations giving way
s there will be another slip, and another
l. rent in the surface above. How Ions
G that fissure will be, how long it viii
d be delayed, and what particular poin
O it will occur depends upon the condi
e lions underneath which no man knows
|, and no man can find out. 1t is only
J. probable that the ledge along the
n shore is in the most dangerous posi-
v ton. When the foundations COLLAPSE
d there is certain to be a rent some
t place on the surface. But, perhaps
e before that day arrives this old world
l. of ours will have filed up the cup O
s it's iniquity and the destruction O
t Messina will be but small part o.
+ the general confederation that is tt