Evening star., 1915-01-18
1000 SO[D|ERSD|G
|NRU|NS Of QUAKE
Thousands of Bodies Still Re-
main Under Debris at
AVeZZanO.
ITALY VOTES 100000
TO AID THE SUFFERERS
Many Former Residents of America
Are Victims of Disaster-King
and Abruzzi Active.

| ANEZZANO, via Rome, January s.
| More than 1000 soldiers. under COM
mand of Lieut.. Gen. Marini, are at work
| on the ruins of Avezzano, which may
| be described a wilderness extending
| for several square miles. Senior Ciu-
| fellf. minister of public work, estimates
| the number of dead in the Avezzano
district at 10000, and 10000 injured.
Twelve thousand bodies, it Is semi
officially estimated, are buried under
the fallen walls. Rescuers believe there
still are many living beneath the tons
of debris. and desperate efforts are
being made to rescue them.
THE disaster seems to be increasing
with every report I receive, said
Signor Ciufelli, minister of public
| works. today.
Probably half the population OF
either dead or injured. L do not like TO
put the number of dead higher than
1000 for this region. This. of course,
does not include Sora-
Difficult to Recognize Streets.
So altogether ruined Is the city that
it is difficult for the inhabitants 10
recognize streets, much less lndlvlouai
houses. Prince Giovanni Torlonia,
while clambering with the Associated
Press correspondent over piles or prok-
en- masonry in the Via Della Stazione,
one of the principal resldential stree's
of the city, remarked:
"Almost every house in that long
street was occupied by my 1rlenoS.
They were people of Importance. FORM
ing the intellectual life and enterprise
of the city.
Deputy Francesca Ciccarone. in con-
yersation with the correspondent today
said:
MANY of the good farmhouses that
collapsed in the Abruzzi country were
built and owned by Italians who made
their money in the United States or IN
England, Australia and Argentine. A
majority of them. however. belonged
to men who had been in the Onlted
States.
The Americas as they are called
throughout this part of Italy. usually
spent fifteen or twenty years IN the
United States and returned home to buy
a farm or to build good house on
bit of land they already owned.
Avezzano was important as manu-
featuring and trade center. The sugar
works cost s1.250.00o. Some of the
machinery may still be of value. Other
mills. less important. represented sen a
property value of some 100000.
Prince Torlonia Greatest Loser.
Prince Torlonia, one of the greatest
landed proprietors in Italy. is the
heaviest loser financially. but he de-
clined to consider that at this time.
When seen by the correspondent he
had been up all night, working in the
wreckage The great Roman prince
looked rather like a coal HEAVIER. as he
had actually been laboring physically
in the work of rescue.
Among the titled women who have
come here to aid the injured Is the
Marchesa Di Sostegno Of Florence. She
| is working as a nurse in one OF the
seven military hospitals erected in the
| park near the new railroad station.
Incidents in which remarkable res
cues were made are gradually becom-
| ing known. One Is told of Lieut.. of
Engineers Cerri Erille, who came here
He worked for some time alone, pull
ing away stones. but presently he was
assisted by soldiers. After seven hours
of the hardest kind of labor he found
his mother alive, and not very badly
injured. She had been protected by
a corner of the room in which she was
sleeping.
Women Rescue Another.
Another rescue of the kind. made by
women, Is also reported. The mother,
it seems, had escaped and believed that
her daughter must be alive under the
| fragments of their house. She organ
lied a party of women and herself
stimulated them to continue what
seemed a hopeless excavation in moth
ing but a heap of irregular pieces of
limestone The mother Sunday heard a