The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-02-09
QUAKE VICTIMS
DRIVEN INSANE
Soldiers Worked Day and Night
to Rescue Those Alive.
BRAVE CHILDREN ARE SAVED

Survivors Menaced by Madmer Wan
dering AimIessIy Around the Ruins.
Young Woman's Fiance Wor..ed All
Day to Rescue Her, but Cries Grad
ually Became Inaudibe.
Rome.-Maniacs roaming aimlessly
about, menacing the sane survivors;
half wild dogs and bands Of wolves
prowling amid piles of bodies, men
tearing fraptically but in vain at heaps
of wreckage from which came the
faint and gradually weakening cries of
their loved ones, women and children
dying of starvation and exposure,
scores Of old and young perishing be-
meath great heaps of ruins from which
the utmost efforts of the rescuers were
unable to drag theM3 in time-these
were some of the terrible stories from
the government officials in charge of
the relief work in the area devastated
by the recent earthquake
One of the men made mad by the ca
tastrophe killed an injured survivor
who reproached him for looting ru-
ined wine shop. Scores of men and
women, crazed by grief and hardship,
wandered about the country, a danger
to the living, for whose adequate pro-
lection even the thousands of soldiers
on the scene were insufficient
One of the most pitiful cases report
ed here is that of a young man, whose
fiancee, buried in the ruins, called out
to him to save her if he loved her. Ali
day he had been digging desperately at
the wreckage, aided by the soldiers,
who were moved to tears by his grief
Despite their great efforts there was
no hope Of saving the girl, and her
voice gradually became inaudible The
same young man had previously saved
himself, his mother and his sisters
from underneath the walls of his fall
en- home, but could not find his aged
father.
Strangers were not allowed to ap-
proach the towns and villages IN the
stricken area, where the WORK OF res
cue went on without cessation. The
task of digging out those alive In the
ruins and of taking care of the injured
survivors and feeding those who are
unhurt was so great that attempts to
bury the thousands of bodies were
abandoned, and they were piled up in
great heaps awaiting the moment when
there were no more to save.
A royal commissioner assumed charge
of the earthquake area and ordered
unless they heard the means or cries
Of victims. Officers were specifically
detailed to find out the most likely
spots for excavation. In Avezzano as
a result of systematic exploration ff-
teen survivors were rescued. They
were all thoroughly exhausted and
badly injured, and several had to be
operated upon, crushed arms and legs
being amputated.
The ruins are now terribly silent.
The burial of the dead was hastened
for sanitary reasons.
Various reports from the soldiers
show that scores of persons had the
most marvellous escapes from death N
the catastrophe Under wrecked houses
little children have been found alive.
although nearly dead from exposure
and cold. but absolutely unhurt by the
crash of timber and masonry. The en-
durance of women and babies was re-
markable, for many of them were in
need only Of food when saved after
long ordeals, imprisoned in wreckage
and with the dead bodies of their fam
lilies buried in debris near them.
The inhabitants of Balsorano and
Raecaviva fed in a panic because of
the immense crevasses splitting length
wise the crest of Mount Pizzodetta.
6,100 feet high. due to the earthquake.
The estimate of the number of dead
remains in the neighborhood of 36.00O
Fifty towns and villages have been de-
stroyed The following list of dead in
damaged but not destroyed villages in
the Sulmona district is now available:
Scanno, 200; Villalago, %; Raiano. a;
Popoli. 5; Pentina. 4; Barrea, II.
The mortality in the country. where
many farmhouses and buildings col
lapsed. has not been ascertained.
In AvezZano three babies only slight
ly injured were taken from the ruins.
Four other children. the eldest eleven.
also were found. Although exhausted.
they kept shouting until they were
saved. They promised the soldiers
who dug them out that their father
would pay them. but he was found
dead in the ruins near by. A girl who
was saved uninjured from a neighbor-
ing building asked the soldiers wheth-
er it was dawn. She said she felt that
she had slept a long time. but could
not see the light Eight rescues were
the result of an entire days work by
10000 soldiers. which shows the enor-
nifty of the task which confronted the
government
At Isoladelliris the main church col
laDsed. but the statue of st. Restituta.
the towns patron saint. was untouch-
ed and Is intact. even to the finger on
O hand which iS raised in blessing