The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-10-10

Tin Cities IN Italy lin Worse
Shape after Seven Years
Than IS City Of Ypres.

Shape after Seven Years
Than IS City Y Of Ypres.
MEssINA, Italy, Oct. q - The twin
Scittss OF Messina and, Reggie di Gala
nEla. Rich were wrecked by earth
s quake I'M COS, are, after seven years
Of Hesitation, Just now berinnine "a
sreDnaid themselves along permanent
INES. Notw outstanding ali the time
tnat. mas elapsed since the disaster.
tne havoc sttll to be seen here is even
greater than that In war.torn Ypres
or gutted Louyain With few excep-
tons Ayery few have been buff al
ready the station, two hotels. tha
building dn which Is lodged the royal
earthquake relief commission. 4 bank
OF twos temporary hospital and the
local bun ding of a worldwide Amer
lean concern. But the great mass Of
the people still live in the wooden
barracks furnished them by the
Americans who sprang. to the rescue
ofsthe stricken cities though. ALREADY
almost all have forgotten that these
buildings came from America.
The barracks were splendid for
their temporary purposes .aasiiv
transported quickly put up. comfort.
able. sufficient shelter and clean. Bnt
I they were not intended for permanl
eptgiaa bitations:s ana having been Us.
ed as such, there is reason for the
querulous complai Of them, so COM
mon among the natives. The CORFU
gated iron roofs catch all the heat
possible and the wooden walls guard.
~, and add to 1t. instead Of Spread
lng q coolness OF their own as do
stone walls. yermin lodge readily in
the joints OF the boards and It is
impossible to clean the wooden
dwellings, by slmply oshing bucket!
OF water over the interior which Is
the customary Italian way OF cleanigs
their stone houses.
No Permanent Homes.
Worst % all !, the crowdins neces-
STATED just after the earthquake by
the limited numb of accommoda-
tons available has not been improy!l
ed in seven years. Indeed, in many
houses seven years have added sew
eral more human beings to the lodg-
ing. Itisprob abiy the general spread
Of this condition that has finally fore
ed the inhabitants Of Reggie and
Messina to set about constructing
themselves permanent houses.
With this enforced decision. a re-
4 markable advance in wages in the
building trades has appeared. The.
: fact that work has been seriously be-
gun coincident with the war has only
aggravated the situatio there are
few men available to do the work.
jlst when there II more work to do.
1t is an advance taste Of what condi-
tions will be all over Europe when
/ the war is over and all the hundreds
of ieitiessof northern France, Belgian:
Poland. Galicia, Serbia and Turkey
have to be built again after the raw
ages of war.
In Sicily, every man who can lay q
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 building trades, which
before the earthquake was no more
than 1925 to $3.50 day, now.
RANGES from Sits to 50 or even
higher. Even unskilled labor. of
which thcre has always been an ex-
cess 10 Sicily at seventy-fve cents pei
day. now commands 100 to $1.25'
merely to tear down the walls.
Builders Make Fortunes.
In spite OF paying these higher.
. wages, the building contractors are
! making what, for Silicy are fortunes.
The contract to build seven room
horse runs to 10000 lires-roughly
O0--and the stone is the voncanic
stone found in every Sicilian field
and the cement with which 1t Is put
together is delivered by boat within
easy hauling distance of the work at
/ at nlinimum freight charge.
Among the few things left by the
I earthquake in Messina, among bits
Of carved stone walls Of churches and
graceful arches flung OF into space, is
4 q tablet on tlie face Of building
below a picture of the Virgin before
which q candle still burns. The in
scrlpsion reads: s"Messina remembers
with grief the terrible earthquake Of
Decembcr IS94'-and the guarding
I Virgin looks out upon the whole hill
side, covered still with meaningless
wreckage, the shapeless debris OF
hundfeds OF what were once homes.
DESTROYED, annihilated, left without
/ form of identity -the result Of the
earthquake fourteen years later than
that Of the inscription a:
And again Messina rehuilds.
atiit = r.
W. rl.:lI,.a,, M.l,o