The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-27
MESSINA, , YEARS
 AFTER QUAKE, BEGINS
 WORK OF RESTORATION

Five years ago on Dec. 27, 1908, the inhabitants of Messina, Reggie, and half hundred smaller cities and towns, went to sleep in fancied secur- ity. In the dark hour that precedes the dawn few who were awake heard a singing sound, as of some giant chanting a worthless dirge. The sing ing grew louder, until it rose to shriek, and ended in a rumble and roar as the earthquake reached the doomed cities of the strait, lending apart the solid earth and tossing it up into waves and pillows, which the houses and their inhabitants were but as wreckage tossed about on an an gry sea. Messina became a heta- comb, Reggie a ruin, and the other towns mere heaps of brick and wood and stone. Then a tidal wave rear ed itself over the Calabrian and Si cilian shores, and completed the work of desolation and destruction. In Messina alone a hundred thousand died that awful night, and in all the earthquake and tidal wave claimed nearly a quarter of a million victims. The whole world stood aghast at the most appalling catastrophe of modern times.
 Five years after the earthquake Messina is still in ruins, and the work of restoration has barely commenced Labor troubles have hindered the Ital- ian government in it's project for the restoration of the harbor works. In all the churches of Calabria and Sicily special memorial services for those who died in the disaster will be held, and it is hoped that the anniversary will mark the inauguration of real, earnest work on the rebuilding of MeSSino.
 The principal observance of the an niversary will center in the old church of San Niccolo, in Messina. This ancient edifice, built in the four a9 Inv he a thorities as unsafe shortly before the earthquake, and yet, strangely enough, it was the only church in the city that escaped destruction The famous Messina statue of Neptune also escaped unScathed.
 Messina was one of the wea1thiest cities in Italy and millions of dollars have been recovered from the ruins, while other millions still lie buried in the debris. The people of Messina, en to hoarding their money, and nearly every house contained secret ed hoards that represented the say ings of years. In a small safe in 2 small store there was found $4O0,000 in cash. The old Norman cathedral held art treasures worth $10,O00,O0O, the jeweled altar alone being worth nearly a million. The last report showed that 100000 had been recovered from the ruins. Soldiers constantly guard those sections of the city which have not yet been search ed It has been alleged that the money recovered by the government from the ruins of MeSsina was used to finance the war for the conquest of TripoIi, but this has been officially denied
 About 70, 1000 of those killed in Mes sfna have been buried, but the re- rnainder, more than 30,0O0, will be forever denied that last tribute. T TJ the charred remnants of their bodies mingle with the ruins of their homes which are now covered with vines
 The old Messina is very much as it was on the day following the earth quake, but a new Messina, a city of wooden huts built with money sup piled by all the peoples of the world, has sprung up. About 175, 1000 peo-