The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 3)
VOL. IV. JULY, 1909. No. 3.
AMERICAN
RED CROSS
BULLETIN
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THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
Officers
_President_,
HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.
_Vice-President_,
ROBERT W. de FOREST.
_Treasurer_,
HON. CHAS. D. NORTON.
_Counselor_,
HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS.
_Secretary_,
CHARLES L. MAGEE.
_Chairman of Central Committee_,
MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (Ret.)
_National Director_,
ERNEST P. BICKNELL.
Board of Consultation
BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE H. TORNEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.
REAR ADMIRAL PRESLEY M. RIXEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy.
SURGEON-GENERAL WALTER WYMAN,
U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.
Central Committee 1908-1909
Major-General GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (ret.), _Chairman_.
Brigadier-General GEORGE H. TORNEY, Surgeon-General, U. S.
Army, War Department, Washington, D. C.
Hon. HUNTINGTON WILSON, Assistant Secretary of State,
Department of State, Washington, D. C.
Hon. CHARLES D. NORTON, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, U.
S. Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C.
Medical Director JOHN C. WISE, U. S. N., Navy Department,
Washington, D. C.
Hon. LLOYD W. BOWERS, Solicitor-General, Department of Justice,
Washington, D. C.
President BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, University of California.
Mr. JOHN M. GLENN, 105 East 22d street, New York, N. Y.
Miss MABEL T. BOARDMAN, Washington, D. C.
Hon. JAMES R. GARFIELD, Secretary of the Interior, Washington,
D. C.
Hon. A. C. KAUFMAN, Charleston, S. C.
Hon. H. KIRKE PORTER, 1600 I street, Washington, D. C.
Mr. JOHN C. PEGRAM, Providence, R. I.
General CHARLES BIRD, U. S. A., Wilmington, Del.
Col. WILLIAM CARY SANGER, Sangerfield, N. Y.
Judge LAMBERT TREE, 70 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill.
Hon. JAMES TANNER, Washington, D. C.
Mr. W. W. FARNAM, New Haven, Conn.
NOTE—Attention is invited to the recent changes in the Officers and
Central Committee members.
The President of the United States has appointed Hon. Huntington Wilson,
Hon. Charles D. Norton, Brigadier General George H. Torney and Hon. Lloyd
W. Bowers members of the Central Committee to represent the Departments
of State, Treasury, War and Justice, respectively. The Executive
Committee has elected Hon. Charles D. Norton Treasurer and Hon. Lloyd W.
Bowers Counselor to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of the
former Treasurer and Counselor.
[Illustration: CONTENTS]
PAGE
Officers 1
Preface 3
Relief in Eastern Turkey (illustrated) 5
Italy two months after the Earthquake (illustrated) 11
By Ernest P. Bicknell.
Earthquake Relief in Portugal 26
A Testimonial to the American Red Cross from Italy (illustrated) 28
Financial Report of American Committee at Rome 30
The Red Cross and President Taft’s Inauguration (illustrated) 33
The Appropriate Insignia of the American Medical Association 40
By Samuel P. Gerhard, A. M., M. D.
Story of the Red Cross (illustrated) 45
First-Aid and Relief Columns Department—California, Illinois,
New York and New Jersey 47
Tuberculosis Department (illustrated)—Christmas Stamps,
Cleveland, New Hampshire 53
Notes 57
Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter.
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. TAFT
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.]
PREFACE
Hardly had our Red Cross work for the Sicilian and Calabrian earthquake
sufferers come to an end when a new field for help opened before our
American Society. This time it was not some great catastrophe of nature’s
doings, but man’s inhumanity to man that brought about the need of aid
and as from Macedonia of old again arose the cry, “Come over and help
us.” In Eastern Turkey lay this field of suffering, and of the Red Cross
help the July BULLETIN gives a brief statement, hoping later to receive a
fuller report from the field itself.
So great was the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Italy that
later the less serious one in Portugal almost escaped our attention, but
among a number of villages there has been much suffering and distress so
that our Society was glad to send some small but tangible expression of
our sympathy in its relief work to the Portuguese Red Cross. We have not
forgotten the contributions it sent to the American Red Cross in 1898 for
our sick and wounded during the war with Spain.
[Illustration: HON. CHARLES D. NORTON]
The article on Italy by Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, National Director of the
Red Cross, with illustrations furnished by Lieutenant Commander Belknap,
U. S. N., of the houses erected under his supervision will, we are sure,
deeply interest our readers.
Two special departments will be noted in the Bulletin, one of the Relief
Column and First Aid and the other on Tuberculosis, lines of work along
which our Red Cross has plans for large and earnest development.
The Red Cross is needed. It is a blessing in many ways to the peoples
of the world. It brings them closer together in the days of trouble and
teaches them that nations, like men, are brothers. In America our Red
Cross should aim to make itself one of the strongest and most helpful in
this brotherhood of nations.
[Illustration: HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS]
MASSACRES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
The spirit of unrest was seething in Turkey and the old antagonism
that from the time of the crusades has existed between the cross and
the crescent was ready to break out into action. On the 10th of April,
at Adana, a town in Eastern Turkey, not far west of Alexandretta, an
Armenian and a Turk were killed. This kindled into life the flames of
hatred and on the 14th they burst forth in ferocious massacres. The
Moslems being in the majority the Armenians suffered terribly. Throughout
that part of the country it is estimated that some twenty-five thousand
persons have been massacred during this reign of terror. Their houses
and shops were pillaged and burned, and those who escaped fled in terror
for their lives. The Government, in the person of the Vali, was either
unable or unwilling to put a stop to this appalling destruction of human
life and property. Once started the scenes of horror were repeated in
town after town in the eastern provinces. At Tarsus several hundred
Armenian houses were burned and in the yard of the American College were
sheltered and protected 4,000 refugees. At Antioch, forty miles south of
Alexandretta, the Armenian population of 7,000 was nearly annihilated.
Kurds, Arabs and Circassians besieged the small Armenian villages,
pillaging and burning the houses, killing the men and carrying the women
into captivity. At Adana and Tarsus 15,000 and at Mersina 5,000 refugees
were in dire distress and need while many more women and children escaped
from the villages and were hiding in the mountains. The atrocities
perpetrated reduced the people to a state of terror and despair. If some
small village of Armenians succeeded in resisting the besiegers its
inhabitants were soon reduced to the verge of starvation. Mr. Kennedy, an
American missionary, secured some 450 Turkish soldiers and went to the
relief of Deurtyul, an Armenian village of 10,000 inhabitants, on the
coast, which was being besieged by hordes of Kurds and Circassians. The
water supply having been cut off, the people were dependent upon the rain
that fell, the children drinking from the water that collected in the
footprints of animals. Frantic appeals for help and protection came down
from scores of villages and the foreign consuls at Aleppo cabled to their
Governments word of the great distress of thousands of refugees.
[Illustration: GEN. G. H. TORNEY, U. S. A.
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.]
[Illustration: TURKISH WOMAN, EMERGENCY SURGICAL CASE. AMERICAN CHRISTIAN
HOSPITAL.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)]
[Illustration: ARMENIAN CHILDREN IN AMERICAN SCHOOL AT ADABAZAR.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)]
Thanks to the efforts of our Consul General, Mr. Ravndal, at Beirut,
assisted by the French Cruiser “Jules Ferry,” Latakia in Syria was
relieved. Thousands of women and children, most of the men having been
killed, were being besieged there. Appeals to the Vali of Adana continued
useless. Conflagrations were continually breaking out and often the
entire city was threatened. Thousands of the refugees were homeless and
without any means of earning their livelihood. Bodies of the dead were
scattered through the streets and the pedestrian who ventured forth had
to pick his way so as not to step upon them. One writer says in half an
hour he counted twelve wagon loads of Armenian dead being carried to the
river and in the Turkish Cemetery graves were being dug by the wholesale.
At Adana four hospitals were established; doctors and nurses were sent
from Beirut and Tarsus. Women, children and even babies suffered from
severe wounds. Among the hundreds in one hospital the average of wounds
to each person was four. Thousands of refugees were without food,
clothing and bedding. Those sheltered at the American Missions were
completely disarmed before being received so that, to obtain as far as
possible immunity from attack for the missions. There was not enough
water to drink nor to dress the wounds. Garbage and filth collected in
the streets and diseases of all kinds began to reap their harvest.
On April 28th, in response to an inquiry if financial assistance was
advisable addressed to the American Ambassador at Constantinople by the
State Department, at the suggestion of the Red Cross, the following
dispatch was received:
“Secretary of State, Washington:
“As distress among population is very great, I am convinced
that American Red Cross could not better fulfill the noble
purpose for which it was founded than by such a contribution.
If desired, money could be sent to the Embassy for transmission
to Mr. Peet, treasurer of the American Missions in Turkey, and
it would be a most humane act if our charitable organizations
could be induced to follow suggestion, as thousands of the poor
people are without food and shelter. If American Red Cross
will wire amount of draft they are donating, I will hand over
immediately such sum, as funds are urgently needed.
“LEISHMAN (Ambassador).”
Immediately upon receipt of the above cablegram the Red Cross
appropriated one thousand dollars from its General Emergency Fund which
was cabled by the Secretary of State to Mr. Leishman; and the Branch
Societies were requested to announce through the press that the Red
Cross would receive and forward to the Ambassador at Constantinople any
contributions for relief work in Turkey.
On May 6th a further remittance of $5,000 was sent by the Red Cross to
the Ambassador.
The Relief Committee at Beirut, of which the American Consul General, Mr.
Ravndal, is chairman, cabled to the Red Cross on May 10th, requesting
that it be permitted to act regardless of source of funds as Red Cross
agents, rendering full accounts. This Committee had already raised about
ten thousand dollars and had dispatched to Adana for doctors and trained
nurses. With the full approval of the American Ambassador this Committee
was recognized as its agent with full power to use the Red Cross flag to
protect its hospitals and field force.
On May 13th $5,000 more was cabled to the Ambassador by the Red Cross as
a contribution from the _Christian Herald_, with the request that $2,000
be sent to Mr. Nesbit Chambers, of Adana, $2,000 to Thomas D. Christie,
Tarsus, and $1,000 to Mr. Ravndal, Chairman of the Relief Committee at
Beirut.
On May 6th the Armenian Relief Committee organized in New York sent a
special Committee, Dr. A. Ayvazian, Chairman, and Col. Mesup Newton
Kahn, to the New York Red Cross Branch to ask if the American Red Cross
would receive and dispense the funds raised by their Committee. In
reply to this inquiry forwarded from New York the National Headquarters
telegraphed its consent to receive and administer such funds, stating its
desire to be as efficient in Armenia as it had been in other theatres
of relief and that in this work it had the co-operation of the State
Department and the American Ambassador at Constantinople.
[Illustration: WOMEN IN WAITING AT AINTAB DISPENSARY. MOSLEMS ON LEFT,
ARMENIANS ON RIGHT.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)]
On May 19th, $2,500 received from this Armenian Committee was cabled
to the Ambassador with the request that it be distributed to Armenian
sufferers of all denominations with the co-operation of the Armenian
Patriarch in Adana, the Reverend Kevrok Arslandan.
On May 28th a further remittance of $1,500 was sent with a like request.
This included a second remittance of $1,000 from the Armenian Committee,
making a total of $20,000 sent for the relief in Turkey.
On June 16 an additional $5,000 was received from the _Christian Herald_,
and was cabled to Turkey on the same day with instructions to distribute
it in the same manner as the remittance of the 13th of May.
The last dispatch received by the State Department on June 3rd, and
transmitted by the First Assistant Secretary of State to the Red Cross,
reads as follows:
“Mr. Peet makes the following statement:
“‘Relief work prosecuted in nine centers where thirty thousand
people are now supported. Present endeavor to rehabilitate
refugees thus making possible to earn livelihood and reduce
list. Permanent provision for orphans also required. Generous
help now will (word indecipherable) thousands dollars relief
and put thousands of people on feet again.’
“I have great confidence in Mr. Peet’s judgment, as he
is eminently qualified by his long experience to speak
authoritatively of such matters and the Relief Committee at
Adana, although international in character, is largely composed
of American missionaries headed by the British and United
States Consuls, which furnishes an unquestionable guarantee
that the relief funds will be fairly and judiciously expended.
So far, the subscriptions from England and America have been
comparatively small considering the enormous number of widows
and orphans who, for the moment, are entirely dependent upon
public charity, and I am sure that if the generous American
public more fully realized the great distress prevailing in the
Adana and Aleppo districts it would respond more liberally to
the appeals which are being made.
“LEISHMAN.”
[Illustration: ARMENIAN ORPHANS FROM MASSACRES OF 1894-5, IN SCHOOL
SUPPORTED BY SECOND EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF AINTAB.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)]
CALABRIA AND SICILY TWO MONTHS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE
BY ERNEST P. BICKNELL, National Director, American Red Cross.
The Italian earthquake occurred on December twenty-eighth and exactly
two months later, on February twenty-eighth, 1909, I arrived in Rome.
My first duty was to familiarize myself with the working plans of the
American Relief Committee. Although Rome is about three hundred and fifty
miles from Messina, it was the headquarters of the chief agencies engaged
in relief operations. Through the kindness of the American Ambassador,
Honorable Lloyd C. Griscom, I was quickly brought into close relations
with the American Relief Committee and with the officers at the head of
the Italian Relief Organizations. Count Taverna, President of the Italian
Red Cross, and Count Somaglia, the Vice-President, showed me every
courtesy and gave me all the information possible. The hurried emergency
work of the early days had been largely closed at this time. Most of
the injured had been discharged from hospitals, the field hospitals had
been closed, and the relief operations had settled down to a long, slow
struggle to help people of the ruined communities to make a fresh start
in life.
Many thousands of sufferers from the calamity had been removed to Naples,
Rome, Palermo, Catania and other cities immediately after the earthquake.
This made necessary the organization of extensive relief measures in
numerous cities which were not themselves sufferers. After two months,
this work outside the earthquake zone had been greatly reduced, though
still requiring considerable attention. Many public spirited men and
women gave important services through these outside organizations without
actually going to the scene of the disaster.
At Rome I also met Miss Katherine B. Davis, who had just ended her
brilliant relief administration in Syracuse, to which city more than a
thousand injured persons had been taken from Messina. Miss Davis had gone
to Sicily worn out with hard work as Superintendent of the Reformatory
for Women at Bedford, New York, and was looking forward to a long restful
vacation. She arrived the day after the earthquake and probably performed
the most strenuous and trying work of her life during the following two
months. The people everywhere were speaking in terms of highest praise of
what she had done, which was not only valuable in itself but which set an
example, copied in Palermo. Naples and elsewhere.
Mr. Edmund Billings, of Boston, who, as the representative of the
Massachusetts Relief Committee, spent six weeks in Sicily, also reached
Rome at this time. Mr. Billings had cultivated close relations with the
local relief administrators and in this way had been enabled to apply his
relief funds with a personal knowledge of the extent of the need and the
method of their distribution in each instance.
_Policy of the American Committee._
The American Committee had occupied a delicate position in the midst of a
group of active Italian relief agencies. It was necessary to avoid giving
offense to any, as well as to keep out of the special fields of work
in which the Italian agencies were occupied. So well did the Committee
conduct its operations that I heard of no instance of dissatisfaction
or criticism of its efforts. The Committee took no step until it had
consulted the men in charge of the Italian relief work. It either
appropriated specific sums of money for the use of other of the most
efficient Italian organizations or it carefully selected relief tasks
which had not been undertaken by others. In fact the American Committee
had gained the enviable reputation of having ready cash instantly
available for any important piece of work for which cash from other
sources was not immediately to be had.
[Illustration: U. S. SUPPLY SHIP “CELTIC.” ANCHORED IN MESSINA HARBOR.]
After a few days in Rome I went to Messina, where I arrived in the early
morning. As we drew into the land-locked harbor heavy clouds obscured
the surrounding mountains and a driving rain swept the desolate ruins
which were spread out before us. White as snow at her anchorage swung the
United States supply ship _Celtic_ with her flag floating high above the
shattered quay and the heaps of debris which clogged the crescent-shaped
water front. On board the _Celtic_ Captain Harry P. Huse, in command,
gave me a cordial welcome and immediately solved for me the problem of
a place to sleep and eat. Captain Huse had distributed his cargo and
surrendered most of his subordinate officers and crew for shore duty. Big
and energetic, he himself paced the long decks of the _Celtic_ somewhat
restively because of his own enforced idleness.
With headquarters also upon the _Celtic_ was Lieutenant Commander R.
R. Belknap, Naval Attachè of the American Embassy at Rome, but now in
full charge of the work of constructing the American cottages in the
earthquake district. Captain Belknap is clear headed, tireless, executive
to his finger tips, and a most courteous and considerate gentleman to
meet. He had his hands full with clearing and laying off the land upon
which American houses were to be built in Messina and Reggio and the
organization of his working force consisting of half a dozen young
American naval officers, about thirty American jackies and several
hundred native mechanics and laborers. The first of the ships bearing
lumber from America was expected in a day or two and arrangements for
unloading the lumber upon lighters, transferring it thence to the dock,
then loading it upon ox-carts and hauling it by circuitous ways through
the ruins to the sites where it was to be used, demanded much attention.
The revising of plans for the houses to adapt them to the Italian needs,
the making of itemized estimates of cost and the letting of certain
contracts also required time and much knowledge of local conditions.
Captain Belknap usually worked a couple of hours before breakfast and the
light in his cabin was the last to be extinguished at night.
A few days later when the first American ship anchored in the harbor,
with lumber for five hundred American houses on board, a new activity
began. Teams of great red oxen with horns of tremendous reach, each team
attached to a massive two-wheeled cart, blocked the water front while a
crowd of noisy, hustling Italian laborers, like ants about an ant hill,
carried the lumber piece by piece and stacked it high upon the creaking
vehicles. Processions of loaded carts moved sinuously among the ruins,
each driver guiding his oxen by ropes attached to their horns and by
means of mournful cries which the animals seemed to understand.
_Impressions of Messina._
[Illustration: RUINS OF MESSINA, SHOWING METHOD OF OPENING STREET.]
At this time Messina presented a strange and sorrowful picture. In the
midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world the city lay
a center of horror and desolation. All the world is familiar, through
descriptions and photographs, with the appearance of the ruins of the
city. These ruins had not been cleared away at the time of which I
write. Certain winding paths had been cleared through a few important
streets. San Martino, a street extending straight back from the harbor
through the city, was so wide that the heaps of debris on either side
left a considerable clear area in the center. Along San Martino all
the life and business of the city had gathered. Tiny, shapeless huts
of fragments of lumber, sheet iron, blankets, tin and scraps of cloth
were crowded into this open space and swarmed with huddling people.
Microscopic stocks of food and clothing were on sale in some of these
huts. A temporary postoffice occupied a wooden shack in the center of
the street and more cabs than one would have supposed could have been
saved from the disaster drove madly back and forth through the clutter
of huts and throngs of people. The most conspicuous business was the
sale of postcards, picturing the results of the earthquake. At midday
San Martino was crowded with probably ten thousand persons; at dark the
unlighted street was empty. The disappearance of the people at night was
a mystery which aroused much comment. The available shelter seemed to
be absurdly inadequate to the need. The people in fact slept under the
broken arches and in doorways and behind or beneath any projections or
rude contrivances which gave protection from the almost incessant rains.
[Illustration: DISCOVERING A BODY IN THE RUINS OF MESSINA.]
Oppressed by the sense of the tragedy of the city a visitor was at first
shocked to see the crowds in San Martino engaged in business, haggling
and bargaining, quarrelling and jesting in quite a natural manner.
In all directions through the miles of ruins were to be seen knots
of people gathered upon the sites of their former homes. Each group
consisted of certain members of the family, three or four workmen with
shovels and a soldier. The workmen were digging into the ruins to uncover
the bodies of victims of the disaster and to recover any property of
value which might be buried there. The soldier was assigned to the duty
of guarding and directing the work and preventing curious or dishonest
persons from interfering or carrying away property. At the side of each
group would be observed one or more rough wooden boxes waiting to receive
the bodies for which the workmen were searching. At this time it was
officially estimated by the military authorities in control of Messina
that twenty thousand bodies had been removed and that forty thousand
bodies still remained undiscovered. About two hundred bodies a day were
being taken out in the month of March. As the larger houses of the city
had suffered the most complete destruction, it followed that the loss of
life among the resourceful and well-to-do had been greater than among the
poor who lived in the smaller structures. It was estimated roughly by
Italian officials that ninety per cent. of the dead in Messina belonged
to the resourceful class.
_Burying the Dead._
[Illustration: BODIES AWAITING BURIAL IN PUBLIC SQUARE, MESSINA.]
Sad and terrible as was the task of disinterring the bodies of the dead
and burying them in the cemeteries, it was inevitable that the work
carried on day after day should become a commonplace occupation and that
the men engaged in it should eventually regard it with something of the
same indifference with which any other daily task is regarded. This may
be illustrated by an incident which was observed one hot afternoon. Four
workmen, carrying upon their shoulders a box containing a body, were
hurrying to the burial place in one of the cemeteries. The men were
laughing and jesting as they moved rapidly along a rough road. Behind
the men followed an old woman in rusty black, struggling painfully to
keep up with the box. Under her arm she carried a small cross such as is
placed at the head of each grave as the dead are buried. When the burial
place was reached the men carelessly placed the box upon the ground and
hastened away without a word. No grave was ready to receive the body and
the old woman sat down on the ground beside the box, still clinging to
the little cross. It would probably be some hours before the over-worked
force of grave diggers had prepared a place for this particular body, and
the old woman in the meantime sat in the broiling sun beside the rough
coffin. She feared that if the body was buried in her absence she would
not be able to identify the grave thereafter. So she sat there during the
long afternoon, occasionally caressing the rough boards with tender hands.
Carts or groups of carriers bearing other coffins were continually
arriving. It was impossible for the grave diggers to keep up with their
task and the grass for a long distance about was covered with the waiting
boxes.
A special cemetery was set apart for the burial of the unidentified
dead. In this cemetery pits about thirty feet long, twelve feet wide
and six feet deep were prepared and the boxes were stacked in them in
tiers, about one hundred boxes to each pit. By the middle of March about
twenty-five hundred unidentified bodies had been buried in this cemetery.
The condition of the bodies taken from the ruins at this late date and
the oncoming of hot weather made it imperative that all possible haste
should be insisted upon. No ceremony whatever accompanied the burial or
the preparation for it. Bodies were placed in the boxes the moment they
were exhumed from the ruins, a little later were placed on carts and
driven directly to the cemetery.
_Extent of the Disaster._
It is unnecessary here to speak at length upon the extent of the
disaster. The earthquake affected a strip of land on each side of the
Straits of Messina. The extreme dimensions of the affected area were
about fifty miles from North to South and perhaps forty miles from East
to West. Within this area no town or village escaped entire or partial
destruction. In all more than fifty cities, towns, villages and communes
were destroyed. The lowest estimate which I heard of the number of
persons made homeless was five hundred thousand. Estimates of the dead
range from one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand. In the
course of my travels about the region I visited about twenty-five cities,
towns and villages, among them all the larger ones. Wherever I went I
inquired of the local authorities, who seemed best informed, concerning
the loss of life. Based upon the answers to these inquiries and my own
observations, I have reached the conclusion that the estimates of the
number of dead have been uniformly too large. When the final estimates
are made, after all bodies have been accounted for, I doubt whether the
total will exceed seventy-five thousand.
I have seen no estimate of the property loss and it is doubtful whether
any approximately accurate estimate can be made. Neither have I seen any
figures of the amount of insurance carried on property but the result of
inquiries indicates that the total insurance was comparatively small.
The Italian people do not seem to have very fully adopted the policy
of insuring their property. Unless such insurance as was held covered
loss by earthquake, the owners of property can, in any event, collect
little, if anything, from the insurance companies. The poverty of this
part of Italy, coupled with the overwhelming magnitude of the loss,
both of property and life, must make recovery exceedingly slow. The
Italian Government is preparing to introduce measures of great liberality
intended to help the people re-establish themselves.
Most of the descriptions and photographs of the results of the earthquake
have applied chiefly to the City of Messina, because it was the largest
city in the earthquake zone and was the point to which relief measures
were first of all directed and at which lines of transportation from the
outside world centered. Tourists invariably get their first view of
the earthquake at Messina and many of them go no further. Descriptions
of conditions in Messina, however, convey a fair idea of conditions in
all the other ruined cities and towns. Messina had over one hundred
thousand population, Reggio about forty thousand, Palmi about twenty
thousand, Villa San Giovanni about seven thousand. These were the largest
communities in the region affected by the disaster. The ruin everywhere
was as complete in proportion to population as was that in Messina. In
Reggio about fifteen thousand lives were lost, in Palmi five or six
thousand, in Villa San Giovanni about fifteen hundred.
Relief measures were slow to reach the smaller towns lying among the
mountains back from the coast. Many of these towns are upon mountain tops
and are inaccessible except by donkey trails. The difficulty of access
made the work of relief particularly difficult and it is probable that
the suffering for food and shelter was greater in the mountain towns than
in the larger cities on the coast.
_Tidal Wave._
[Illustration: TOWN OF PELLARO, LEVELED BY TIDAL WAVE.]
Much was said in early reports about the tidal wave which followed
the earthquake. Had the tidal wave occurred alone, it would have
been regarded as a great disaster. But overshadowed as it was by the
earthquake, it forms but a small item in the sum total of ruin. The
wave did not cause much damage on the shores of Sicily, its chief force
being expended upon the Calabrian coast. As the wave rushed into the
small bays, the funnel shape of the shores piled the water up higher and
higher until at the apex of the bays it had reached a height of many
feet and rushed across the low lands adjacent with irresistible force.
If a village happened to be situated at the innermost point of a bay,
it suffered great damage from the wave. Some injury was done in the
harbor of Reggio in this way and some at Villa San Giovanni. The chief
sufferer from the tidal wave, however, was the little town of Pellaro.
Pellaro was, like other Italian towns, constructed entirely of stone
and mortar. It was built up solidly along one or two streets which were
parallel to the shore. Immediately in the rear of the village were large
lemon orchards. The earthquake shook the buildings down and about ten
minutes afterward the tidal wave came in and leveled the heaps of ruins
in a manner which amazed all who went over the ground later. It was
almost impossible to discover the street lines or to identify the sites
of the houses. The stones of which the buildings were constructed were
carried hundreds of yards inland and scattered among the lemon trees.
The entire site of the village was reduced to a dead level and one found
it difficult to believe that a town of fifteen hundred population had
ever occupied the place. About nine hundred of the people of Pellaro
were killed by the earthquake or tidal wave and hundreds of bodies were
carried out to sea by the receding waters.
[Illustration: STONES FROM PELLARO HOUSES, SWEPT BY TIDAL WAVE INTO LEMON
ORCHARD.]
_How Catania Helped._
As before mentioned, many Italian cities outside the earthquake zone
received and cared for large numbers of earthquake victims. Catania in
Sicily with about one hundred and fifty thousand population was closest
of these outside cities to the scene of the disaster and was the most
accessible of all. The result was that at least twenty-five thousand
people from Messina and other destroyed towns were carried into Catania
for care. Several thousand of these victims required hospital attention,
and all the regular and many improvised hospitals were quickly crowded.
The municipal authorities of Catania, with boundless generosity,
undertook to provide shelter and support for this tremendous influx of
helpless people. Numerous large institutions and vacant private buildings
were converted into refuges. There had been no time to make proper
preparation for the comfort of these people and it should not be held the
fault of Catania that the conditions in the refuges quickly took on a
deplorable character.
The best of the refuges was that provided in the new municipal prison.
This is a vast, massive stone building, with stone cells and the iron
bars and grim, echoing corridors which characterize modern prisons. The
building was barely completed and had never been occupied. Everything was
clean and wholesome and sanitary provisions were ample. When I visited
Catania in March twelve hundred men, women and children from Messina and
other earthquake towns were living in this prison in comfort. It was
strange to hear baby voices and the lullabys of women in the cells and
about the long passages. The great number of cells made it possible to
segregate the people by families or by sex and to give to each family a
certain amount of privacy. Probably no other great prison ever received a
dedication so strange as this.
[Illustration: LADIES OF THE FRENCH RED CROSS SOCIETY NURSING IN
NEAPOLITAN HOSPITAL.]
_Bowdoin and Wood._
Between Messina and the mountain town of Taormina, thirty miles to the
South, lies a chain of towns and villages which were destroyed by the
earthquake. At Taormina, when the earthquake occurred, were two young
Americans—Harry Bowdoin and Charles King Wood. Mr. Bowdoin was spending
the winter in Taormina with his invalid mother and Mr. Wood is an artist
who has lived in Taormina for several years. These men entered with the
utmost zeal upon the work of relief. Taormina was not injured, but it
lay close to the edge of the zone of destruction and many hundreds of
fleeing victims sought refuge there. Others in Taormina also participated
actively in relief work, but gradually Messrs. Bowdoin and Wood came
to be recognized as the leaders. Afterwards, by common consent, these
two young men became representatives of the American Committee in the
small towns between Messina and Taormina. Day and night they went up and
down the coast and back among the mountain communes, carrying comfort
and good cheer. They organized local Committees in every community,
gathering relief from the points of distribution at Messina and Catania
and conveyed it to these local Committees. Without compensation and with
a modesty which shrank from any words of commendation, these Americans
performed a laborious and delicate task in a manner to stir the pride of
their fellow countrymen.
_Difficulties of Obtaining Information._
In attempting to secure reliable information of the methods and
extent of relief measures in the earthquake zone, I found an obliging
readiness on the part of those in charge at any given point to give me
all the facts desired concerning their own respective agencies and a
somewhat surprising ignorance of the operations in the same field of
any other relief agencies. This in part arose from a deplorable lack of
co-operation among the different agencies engaged in relief work and
perhaps in part from a spirit of competition and pride which led each
representative to desire to have it appear that the agency which he
served was the chief factor in the situation. This may be illustrated by
an incident which occurred one day when I was visiting the town of Villa
San Giovanni.
[Illustration: PRINCE CHIGI OF REHABILITATION COMMITTEE DISTRIBUTING
SEWING MACHINES.]
I took lunch with the Mayor of the town and in the course of conversation
inquired of him whether the Italian National Red Cross had participated
in the relief work of his town. He replied, with a shrug of his shoulders
and in emphatic language, that the Red Cross had given no assistance in
Villa San Giovanni; that it might as well have no existence so far as
the people of his community had had occasion to know of it. After our
luncheon was completed, the Mayor was called away to attend to official
matters and I walked up the street toward the municipal headquarters,
which were in a small, temporary wooden building. Presently I saw coming
down the street in a cloud of dust, a large red automobile. Fluttering
from a short staff on the front was a Red Cross flag. The motor drew up
with a flourish in front of the Municipal building and two men with Red
Cross brassards on their arms dismounted and began unloading several
hundred articles of clothing from the tonneau. These they were carrying
into the building and stacking up on the floor in one corner of the
Mayor’s office. I entered into conversation with the man in charge of the
Red Cross car. He told me that the Red Cross was sending out a number
of automobiles every day from Reggio and Messina to deliver supplies of
clothing to the people in the surrounding small towns. I asked him how
it happened that he had not before visited Villa San Giovanni. He looked
surprised and replied that he had brought several loads of clothing to
this place before. Turning to his companion, they compared notes, and
he then informed me that this was the seventh visit which they had paid
to Villa San Giovanni, each time bringing a large quantity of clothing.
Replying to further inquiries he assured me that he and his companion in
no instance distributed clothing direct to the people, but had always
brought their goods to the municipal headquarters and turned them over to
the Mayor for distribution.
_Work of Italian Red Cross._
It is unnecessary here to speak at length of the relief work of the
Italian Red Cross, since the public is already familiar with it. Two
months after the earthquake the largest part of the work of the Red Cross
had been completed and the greater part of its relief funds expended.
Immediately after the earthquake the Red Cross had a hospital ship which
carried the sick and wounded from Messina to Naples, and ran a hospital
train which conveyed many of the victims from Naples to Rome. The Red
Cross also established and maintained ten field hospitals in different
parts of the earthquake zone, and carried on a work of great magnitude.
When the task of dealing with the sick and wounded was about ended the
Red Cross turned its activities in the direction of supplying relief,
one of its methods being that of sending consignments of clothing to the
small towns by means of motor cars.
_The Common Soldier._
The Italian soldier was found everywhere throughout the earthquake
district. He was called upon to perform the hardest work and the most
trying tasks. Heat, cold and rain were alike to him. Living in the rudest
shelters and subsisting upon the most meager fare, he was uniformly
cheerful, good natured and obliging. His brave uniform and military
trappings were in sharp contrast to his hard life and to his simplicity
about which there was something winning and childlike. He received no
sympathy nor expected any. I had many occasions to ask information or
other assistance from the soldiers and found them always ready to go
far beyond any mere demand of duty in meeting my wishes. When far from
headquarters, I sometimes went to the shelter of the nearest group of
soldiers for food. With a hospitality which was almost pathetic, the men
would bring forth the best they had from their cupboards and chests and
set it before me with apologies for its meagerness. The usual supply of
food I found consisted of dry bread and the native mild wine of the
country. Occasionally a small can of meat or fish was found in their
stock, but this was evidently regarded as a luxury only to be brought
forth on special occasions.
_Many Small Earthquakes._
The people of the country bordering on the Straits of Messina have always
been accustomed to earthquakes. Slight tremors of the earth are likely
to occur at any moment, as the record of any year would show. Since
the disaster of December 28th last these small incidents are fraught
with a new importance and frequently carry terror to the hearts of the
population. Since the great earthquake many small ones have occurred.
There may be two or three in a day and then a period of several days
with no perceptible tremor. Occasionally one of these little earthquakes
comes with a sharp bang and a swift rattle which distinguishes it from
its milder and less noticeable fellows. In such instances the people rush
wildly from their huts and shelters calling out anxiously to each other
and exhibiting signs of the keenest alarm. Especially in the night is the
terror pronounced. After a few minutes, finding that no harm has been
done, the excited people become calm, retire once more to their shelters,
and the clamor gradually quiets down.
Some odd effects of these earthquakes at night are observed. The
commonest beasts of burden are the small donkeys. There are literally
thousands of these animals in and about Southern Italian towns. Whenever
a rather sharp earthquake occurs at night every donkey immediately sets
up an excited braying and for a few moments the air for miles resounds
with their unearthly noise.
This country is the home of a small tree frog which inhabits the lemon
orchards and clumps of trees and shrubbery. During all the night these
frogs keep up an incessant trilling which sets the atmosphere a-quiver.
The slightest earthquake brings them to instant silence. After five
minutes or so of quiet, following the earthquake, one will hear a few of
the boldest frogs tuning up again in a timid and hesitating manner. In
another moment the other frogs also become emboldened and a little later
the concert is again in full swing.
_Temporary Houses._
Everybody is familiar with the fact that much money contributed by
America to the relief of Italy has been expended in the erection of small
wooden houses for the temporary shelter of the people who lost their
homes by the earthquake. About four hundred fifty thousand dollars of
the money appropriated by Congress and about one hundred seventy-five
thousand dollars of money contributed through the Red Cross have been
applied to the purchase of materials for some thirty-three hundred houses
and the actual expense of erecting about twenty-four hundred of this
number. The lumber, hardware, glass and all other necessary materials
for the building of about nine hundred houses were turned over to the
Italian authorities, who undertook to scatter this number of houses in
small groups among many different towns where they would be erected by
the people themselves.
Each one of these houses is sixteen by twenty feet in outside dimensions.
It is enclosed with a good quality of weather boarding, has a good floor
and a composition roof which is expected to endure for not less than five
years. Some of these houses are partitioned into three small rooms,
while others are left in the form of a single large apartment. Upon the
rear of each cottage is built a kitchen about eight feet square with a
brick floor and with two walls of brick. In the angle formed by the two
brick walls is a brick arch with a flat top. This forms the cooking stove
with which the Italian is familiar. In the flat top of the arch are two
openings containing wrought iron baskets to hold the charcoal which is
the universal fuel of the country.
[Illustration: AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA. PARKS AND STREETS SHADED BY
LEMON TREES.]
The common people of Italy are accustomed to living in stone houses
with stone or earth floors and have no idea of the importance of care
in handling fire. The houses they have always known have been fireproof
and it has not been uncommon for them to build fires on the floor of
their living rooms. It is hoped that the provision of these small
semi-fireproof kitchens will prove a sufficient safeguard against fire,
but there is considerable apprehension that the inhabitants of the
wooden houses may ignorantly or carelessly build fires in such a way
as to destroy some of the buildings. As these stand close together, it
is conceivable that a fire might start on a windy day and destroy a
large number of the houses before it could be checked. The houses are
built in blocks of twelve, each block fronting in all directions upon
streets thirty feet wide, but within the block the houses are only about
six feet apart. In the open quadrangle in the center of each block are
the sanitary arrangements and the water supply for the twelve houses
composing the block.
On a beautiful plateau, sloping gradually toward the Strait and
commanding a magnificent view of the water and mountains of Calabria
beyond, one thousand of the American houses have been built in the
outskirts of Messina. This great group of houses is commonly referred
to as the American Village or, as it is officially known to the Italian
authorities, the _Zona Case Americana_. The Italian government issued a
special order making this tract of land, for the time being, American
soil and authorizing the Americans in charge of the work to float the
United States flag over their headquarters. A pole was set up and with
considerable ceremony the flag was hoisted while all the workmen, both
American and Italian, and many Italian spectators from Messina listened
to several short addresses and cheered lustily.
[Illustration: AMERICAN VILLAGE, REGGIO.]
In the outskirts of Reggio, ten miles away across the Strait, upon
another beautiful plateau, at the same time, was rising another American
village of one thousand cottages. On the Northern boundary of Messina,
sheltered by a towering hill, and commanding a lovely view of sea and
mountain, is a pretty village of small wooden houses named after the
Queen of Italy, _Villagio Regina Elena_. In this village the Americans
have erected about one hundred houses. At the expressed wish of the Queen
they have also built a small but model hospital of six pavilions. To this
institution the Queen has given the name of “Elizabeth Griscom Hospital,”
in honor of the wife of the American Ambassador to Italy.