The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-10-16
ITALIAN CITIES
BEING REBUILT

HN'SS VI
di Calabria which were wrecked by
earthquake in 1908, are after seven
years of hesitation, just now begin
ming to rebuild themselves along
permanent lines. Notwithstanding
all the time that has elapsed since
the disaster, the havoc still to be
seen here is even greater than that
in wartorn Ypres or Quilted Lou
vain. With few exceptions, every
single house will have to be rebuilt
from the very foundations. A very
few have been built already. the
station, two hotels. the buildings in
which is lodged the royal earth
quake relief commission. a bank OF
two, a temporary hospital and the
local building of a worldwide
American concern. But the great
mass of the people still live in the
wooden barracks furnished them by
the Americans who sprang to the
rescue of the stricken cities, though
already almost all have forgotten
that these buildings came from
America.
The barracks were splendid Tor
their temporary purpose, easily
transported, quickly put up. com
Portable, sufficient shelter and clean.
But they were not intended for per-
manent habitations, and having been
used as such. Their. is reason for the
q%uerulOus complaints of them so
common among the natives. The
corrugated iron roofs catch all the
heat possible and the wooden walls
guard it and add to it. instead of
spreading a GOODNESS of their wv
as do stone walls. Vermin lodge
readily in the joints of the boards
and it is impossible to clean the
wooden dwellings by simply slosh-
ing a bucket of water over the in
terror which is the customary ltal-
ian way of cleaning their stone
houses.
Worst of all, the crowdihg neces-
STATED after the earthquake by the
limited number of Accommodations
available has not ben improved in
seven years. Indeed, in many hOus-
es seven years have added several
more human beings to the lodging.
1t is probably the general spread
of this condition hat has finally
forced the inhabitants of Reggie and
Messina to set about constructing
themselves permanent houses.
With this enforced decision, a
remarkable advance in ages in the
building trades has appeared. The
fact that work has been seriously
begun coincident with the war has
only aggravated the situation, there
are few men available to do the
work, just when there is more WORK
to do. 1t is an advance taste Of
what conditions will be all over Eu-
rope when the war is over and all
the hundreds Of cities of northern
France. Belgium, Poland, Galicia.
Serbia and Turkey have to be built
again after the ravages of war.
In Sicily, every man Tho can lay
a brick straight or put a few stones
together with the aid of cement has
a job ten hours a day. The average
wage in the 'Illding trades, which
before the earthquake was no more
than $1.25 to $50 a day, now
ranges from $1.75 to so, or ever
higher. Even unskilled labor, CT
which there has Away been an ex-
cess in Sicily at $50 to SIS per day
now commands 81 to $1.25 merely
to tear down the walls.
In spite of paying these higher
wages, the building contractors arc
making what. for Sicily, are for
tunes. The contract to build a ev-
en- room house runs to 10000 lircs,
roughly $4,000, and the stone is
the volcanic stone found in everv
Sicilian field and the cement which
it is put together with, is delivered
by boat within easy hauling distance
of the work. at a minimum freight
charge
Among the few things left by the
earthquake in Messina, among bits
of carved stone walls of churches
and graceful arches flung off into
space, is a tablet of the face of a
building below a picture of the Vlr-
gin before which a candle still burns.
The inscription reads: "Messina re-
members with grief the terrible
earthquake of December, 1894" aid
the guarding Virgin looks out up
on the whole hillside, covered still
with meaningless ~wreckage, the
shapeless debris of hundreds of
what were once homes, destroyed,
annihilated, left without form o.
identity. the result of the earth
quake Ia years later than that of the
inscription. And again Messina re-
builds.
Will BE Tested