The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-11-15
Mount Etna, Mother of Sicily;
Exercises Right to Take Toll
in Sunny Isle That She Built
Most Deadly Volcano in
World Is Guilty Of
Many Deaths.
BIZ NEA Service

By NEA Service
ID ONE, Nov. 15.- Mt. Etna,
~ creator and destroyer of the
island of Sicily, is Subsiding after
another of it's periodical rampageS.
The old, familiar story Of destruc-
ton and death, rolling forth from
it's fire. stained mouth, is getting an
other retelling.
For nearly twenty-five centuries
Etna has taken a more or less regu-
lar toll of the lives and property of
the people who live near it.
The poet Pindar, writing nearly
500 years before the Christian era,
spoke of the violence and destruc-
tiveneSS of its eruptionS; and since
then the story has been repeated
more times than anyone can count.
Owns Right to Destroy
Yet if Etna turns parts of Sicily,
now and then, into scorched, lava
buried desolations, Etna perhaps
has the right; for it was Etna that
built Sicily in the first place.
Long, long ago, probably before
men appeared on the earth at all,
there was no land where Sicily now
is. The sea rolled there unbroken.
Far beneath the bottom of this
sea, subterranean fires were gen.
Grating a long series of explosions.
They forced the sea floor up, and
little by little thrust a cone-Shaped,
rocky islet above the surface-the
summit of Mt. Etna.
This new islet was as active a
volcano as the world had seen. It's
eruptions were violet and frequent.
Builds New Island
Each one poured forth new
stream of molten lava, building the
cone higher and higher, and each
time, adding little to the black
beach that began to take form at
its base.
In the course of thousands of
years, the entire island was built UP
in this way. The lava cooled, dis
integrated in sun and wind and
rain, became rich black soil.
But the people who live on Sicily
never have been free from che men
ace of the towering mountain.
In the year 122 A. D., for instance,
the Roman empire RENTED Sicily's
taxes for decade because of dam
age caused by an eruption.
Hundreds Are Killed
Again, in 1859 a flood of lava
destroyed the cathedral at Catania,
chief city of Sicily, killing hundreds
of worshipers.
Five hundreds years later a ire
mendous wall of lava came down on
the city like a moving mountain.
Twenty thousand people lost their
lives.
A score of years after that there
came a terrific earthquake that
killed many more. In 1869 another
eruption nearly destroyed the entire
city, taking $1,000 lives.
Then followed a number of rela-
lively quiet years, with no disturb
ance of real size until 1879, when
another violent eruption took place.
20 Villages Engulfed
In 1910 Etna renewed its ac-
tivitity with series of earthquakes
and minor eruptions that culmin-
ated in an earth-shaking catas-
trophe in 1914, when score of viii
lagos were destroyed and 200 people
were killed. The loss of life would
have been many times greater in the
1914 disaster had not a group of
minor earthquakes given advance
warning.
Then, in 1923, came another catas-
trophe, destroying the homes of
10000 people and taking many more
lives. Since then Etna has Slum-
bered, until now.
Vesuvius is probably the best
advertised volcano in the world, but
for destructiveneSs it never has COM
pared with Mt. Etna-nor, for that
matter, has any other volcano.
IE-II H~NK VEMHHU~ nA~A--N