New Britain herald., 1915-01-16
FAMINE AND INTENSE GOLD
 INCREASING ALREADY HUGE EARTHQUAKE DEATH ROLL
PresentReports of Catastrophe Indicate 2O,OOO Dead and 10000 Injured---Rescue Work Being Pushed Strenuously

s Rome, Jan. 16.-Famine and in- ' tense cold are adding to the sufferings s of the earthquake victims and increas- Wing the already huge death roll. Food ae is in plenty, but it's transp ortation to many of the towns affected is all but impossible because Of oostructcd roads
 Rescue work, prosecuted at the be- ginning with all possible celerity, is now being pushed strenuously, for < each hour of delay means death by starvation or exl.>uytion for buried < victims.
 Attention gradually is turning from Ayezzano, the center of the distur- bance, ard the greatest sufferer, to other and smaller towns, where an al :. most equally large percentages of the ,f population was destroyed. ,A Additional Details Reported. g While train loads of wounded and -~injured continue to arrive in Rome, additional details of the horror come in, all tending to confirm earlier es- tinaates of the tremendous loss of life.
 Though ii seems Q be definitely es- tablished that the present earthquake will not rival that of Messina in 1908 :. in the mum ber of dead the percentage of casualties to population appears to be much higher, due, 1t seems, to the dry constructions of buildings that was almost universal throughout qNthe stricken district. Messina had f&76,463 dead and 95.45O injured; pres j ent reports indicate 2O,000 deaths and twice as many injuries in this catas- 'trcphe.
 Transformed Into Cemetery
 Just how severely the Marsica dis tricts suffered, in which Avezzano is located, is best told in a terse tele- gram which Monsignor Bagnoli; bisn- op of the Marsca region, sent to a Pope Benedict The telegram reads: 'The Marsica diocese has been transformed into a great cemetery. Avezzano, Capelle and PaternO are razed and almost all inha dead. , Ecclesastics, some dead, some wound- ed,
 "A few villages in the diocese are immune, but generally desolation reigns. It is an immense and dis dressing catastrophe"
 Pope Grief Stricken ~ The pope, in reply to this informa- ton, telegraphed the following:
 Being the father of all the faith full, but first of the unfortunate, i am pierced with grief by this i'm mense misfortune.
 T extend my arms to my unhappy 2 children and am praying for peace , for the dead and comfort for the sur vivors."
 More wounded having been brought {; to the Santa Marta hospital, which is close to the Vatican, the pope again visited the patients there to comfort : them. To each he gave a medal. Visit Injured in Hospitals.
 King Victor Emmanuel and the .. Queen Mother Margarta made the rounds of the hospitals in Rome yes terday, visiting the injured.
 The American ambassador, Thomas Nelson Page, will visit the earth quake district today or tomorrow. |. The ambassador has agreed With the mayor, Prince Colonna, that the best \ way for Americans to participate in the relief of the victims is to do so T as private individuals, thus avoiding infringing on Italy's declination of : foreign official assistance.
 The staff from the American em bassy visited the earthquake district
 
 rescue. They also visited the camps x- where refugees are centered and gave such help as they could, which was gratefully received They learned that there were no Americans among the victims, although some are said to have claimed American citizen ship. having lived in the United States for a, time.
 Americans Greeted Cordially.
 The Americans from the embassy were greeted everywhere most cor : dially.
 Colonel George M. Dunn, the American military attache, motored to Avezzano and returned from that place last night. Tn speaking of what he had seen, he said: 1 never dreamed of such a horrible situation. The whole town is ruined, as every house is down and only three stables remain intact. Churches, palaces and dwellings have orumbled. What once were streets are now full of debris to the height of six or seven feet.
 Within short time the work of rescue will be useless, as all those buried uner the ruins will be dead. The entire population is eStinguisheG, the people either being dead or wounded in hospitals.
 Worse Than MeSsina.
 The dead in the ruins compose the greater percentage of the inhabi tants. Over 1000 were killed at AveZZanO alone while almost all of the remainder of the population, about 1000 persons, are injured. The buildings collapsed so suddenly that nobody had any chance to escape In \ this respect the disaste Is worse than that of Messina, as it occurred within