The complete story of the Italian earthquake horror (1909)

Author: Miller, James Martin, 1859- [from old catalog]
Subject: Earthquakes; Earthquakes
Publisher: [Chicago?]
Language: English

COMPLETE STORY OF THE
Italian EarthquaKe Horror
CHAPTER I.
THE DESTRUCTION OF MESSINA, SICILY.
More Than a Hundred Thousand People Hurled into Eternity in an Instant
—
Destruction, Devastation and Death—The Earth Opens Tip in Crevices
Creating Chasms into Which Buildings Tumble to Complete Destruction,
Killing the Inmates—Falling Buildings Engulfed Fleeing Men,
Women and Children—One Hundred Thousand Killed, Ten Thousand
Wounded and Pinioned Between Timbers and Heaps of Tumbling Masonry
Forming a Veritable Inferno and a Carnival of Death—The Destruction
of Shipping in the Harbor Was Complete.
Sicily, a beautiful island, sleeping peacefully in tlie soft, warm
air of a semi-tropical dawn, the blue waters of tlie Mediterranean
lapping its shores. Rising from the waterfront to the hillsides
that stretch back to the verdure-covered mountains is Messina, a
city of 150,000 souls. Smaller cities and towns dot the landscape
at intervals while the intervening sections are filled with agricultural
lands, vineyards and orange groves. Happy and care-free are
the people of this island, as the comforts of climate and the natural
products make severe labor unnecessary, and all forms of life are
cheerful and light-hearted.
Suddenly there is a tremendous uplieaval—^the earth rocks and
shakes as if in the grasp of some giant monster, and half of the
beautiful island becomes one great tomb. The Angel of Death
has spread his pall over it, slaying one hundred and fifty thousand
and injuring and maiming thousands upon thousands more.....Read more