SCENES IN FRIGHTENED NAPLES.
=Blistering Showers of Hot Ashes--The People Frantic--Cry
Everywhere "When Will It End?"--Atmosphere Charged with
Electricity and Poisonous Fumes.=
From the first outburst and glare of the eruption all Naples became
aroused and trembled with anticipations of horror, and when the hot
ashes from the crater of Vesuvius began to fall in blistering showers
upon it the entire populace was seized with a fear, which for days was
constant, that at any moment they might be crushed into eternity by
the awful outpourings from the cauldron of the mountain which was in
truth as veritable an inferno as that pictured by Dante. The streets
for days, even up to the subsidence of the eruption, were packed with
surging crowds, all of whom were fatigued from fear and loss of rest,
yet there was hardly one in all the thousands who had not strength
enough to pray to the Almighty for deliverance.
At times the fall of sand and ashes appeared to be diminishing, but in
the next instant it came again, apparently in greater force than
before. The city became frantic from fear and everywhere was heard:
"When will it all end?"
The people deserted their shops, the manufactories were nearly all
shut down, while the theaters, cafes and places of amusements
throughout the city were all closed. The crowds were in a temper for
any excess and it would only require a spark to start a conflagration
that would have almost equalled that of Vesuvius itself.
When the coating of ashes and cinders covered the ground and roofs of
buildings the people believed that their loved and beautiful Naples
was doomed, and would be known thereafter only to archaeologists like
other cities which Vesuvius in its wrath had overwhelmed.
All railroad service out of the city was interrupted, the engineers
refusing to take out their trains because of the darkness caused by
the heavy fall of ashes.
Troops were kept constantly clearing the roofs of buildings of the
accumulation of sand and ashes which endangered the structures. The
large glass-covered galleries throughout the city, were ordered closed
lest the weight upon the roofs should cause them to collapse.
Warships and soldiers which had been ordered to the city did effective
service in succoring the most distressed and in the removal of
refugees. Their presence was also potent in keeping up public
confidence and maintaining order. No danger was too great for the
troops to encounter and no fatigue too severe for them. They earned
the gratitude and admiration of the people by their devotion to duty
and bravery. Not only were they credited with many acts of heroism but
they displayed untiring perseverance in searching for the living and
the dead among tottering walls, assisting fugitives to reach places of
safety, giving aid to the wounded and in burying the dead, and all
this while partly suffocated by the ash and cinder laden wind blowing
from the volcano.
The employes of a tobacco factory at Naples, thinking the roof was
about to fall in fled in panic from the building and communicated
their fears to so many people outside that the police were compelled
to interfere and restore order. Many persons were injured during the
panic.
The prisoners in the city jail mutinied owing to fright and succeeded
in breaking open some of the doors inside the building, but were
finally subdued by the guards.
King Victor Emmanuel and his Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Aosta and
others of the royal household were active in rendering aid. The king
placed the royal palace of Cappodimonti, situated above this city, at
the disposal of the wounded refugees. Firemen and ambulance corps were
sent from Rome to aid the sufferers.
The work of succor was hampered owing to delays to the railway
service, which was interrupted by red-hot stones thrown to a height of
3,000 feet falling on the tracks.
Not for a century had Naples been so threatened nor its people thrown
into such a state of panic. Men, women and children tramped about the
streets, raving that their deity had forgotten them and that the end
of the world was in sight.
Thousands of people flocked from the towns and farms on the slopes of
the mountain and the problem of feeding and caring for the horde had
grown serious. These people were left homeless by the streams of lava,
which lapped up all their property in some cases within a half hour
after the owners had fled.
Earthquake shocks which shattered windows and cracked the walls of
buildings added to the terror and when a shock occurred the entire
population rushed to the streets in terror, many persons crying, "The
Madonna has forsaken us; the end of the world has come."
Vessels lying in the harbor rapidly put to sea with hundreds of the
wealthy families, who chartered them outright, while many other ships
left because of fear of tidal waves similar to those accompanying the
terrific eruption of a century ago, which wrecked scores of vessels
and drowned thousands of people here.
The atmosphere of the city became heavily charged with electricity,
while breathing at times became almost impossible because of the
poisonous fumes and smoke. The detonations from the volcano resembled
those of terrible explosions and the falling of the hot ashes made
life indeed a burden for the Neapolitans.
The churches of the city were open during the days and nights and were
crowded with panic-stricken people. Members of the clergy did their
utmost to calm their fears, but the effects of their arguments went
almost for naught when renewed earthquake shocks were experienced.
While Mount Vesuvius continued active volumes of cinders and ashes
emitted from the volcano fell upon the buildings and streets driving
the inhabitants of the city into a condition bordering on frenzy. All
night people roamed the streets praying and crying that they might be
spared.
The collapse of the Mount Oliveto market, in which 200 or more persons
were caught, many being crushed beyond recognition and the continuous
rain of sand and ashes throughout the city sent terror to the heart of
every Neapolitan.
This market covered a plot of ground 600 feet square. The scenes in
the vicinity of the ruins were agonizing, relatives of the victims
clamoring to be allowed to go to their dead or dying.
The people seemed demented. They surrounded the market, in many cases
tearing their hair, cursing and screaming, "Oh, my husband is there!"
or, "Bring out my child!" and endeavoring with their own hands to move
heavy beams, from beneath which the groans of the injured were
issuing.
The cries for help were so heart-rending that even rescuers were heard
to sob aloud as they worked with feverish eagerness to save life or
extract the bodies of the dead from the ruins.
Some of the people about the market were heard to exclaim that a curse
rested upon the people of Naples for repudiating their saints Monday,
when Mount Vesuvius was in its most violent mood.
Even with the sun shining high in the heavens the light was a dim
yellow, in the midst of which the few people who remained in the
stricken towns, their clothing, hair and beards covered with ashes,
moved about in the awful stillness of desolation like gray ghosts.
Railway and tramway travel to and from Naples was much hampered by
cinders and ash deposits, and telegraphic communication with the
towns farthest in the danger zone was also for a time interrupted.
The scenic effects varied from hour to hour during the eruptions. At
times in the north the sky was chocolate colored, lowering and heavy,
under which men and women with their hair and clothing covered with
ashes moved above like gray ghosts. Fort San Martino, as it towered
above the town, could only just be seen, while Castel Dell'ovo was
boldly marked in light, seeming like silver against the brown sky.
To the south beyond the smoke zone lay smiling, sunny Posilipo and its
peninsula, while far away glistened the sea a deep blue, on which the
islands seemed to float in the glow of the setting sun. Adding to the
strange picture, one of the French men of war, which arrived in the
bay of Naples was so placed as to be half in the glow and half
obscured by the belt of falling ashes.
From the observatory of Mount Vesuvius, where Director Matteucci
continued his work in behalf of science and humanity, the scene was
one of great impressiveness. To reach the observatory one had to walk
for miles over hardened but hot lava covered with sand until he came
to a point whence nothing could be seen but vast, gray reaches,
sometimes flat and sometimes gathered into huge mounds which took on
semblance of human faces.
Above, the heavens were gray like the earth beneath and seemed just as
hard and immovable. In all this lonely waste there was no sign of life
or vegetation and no sound was heard except the low mutterings of the
volcano. One seemed almost impelled to scream aloud to break the
horrible stillness of a land seemingly forgotten both by God and man.
In many of the towns some of the inhabitants went about hungry and
with throats parched with smoke and dust, seemingly unable to tear
themselves away from the ruins of what so recently were their homes.
The Italian minister of finance suspended the collection of taxes in
the disturbed provinces and military authorities distributed rations
and placed huts and tents at the disposition of the homeless.
The property loss from the volcanic outbreak has been placed at more
than $25,000,000, while some have estimated that the number of persons
rendered homeless amounted to nearly 150,000. Probably less than
one-half of that number would come near the exact figures.
As an evidence of the widespread and far-reaching influences set in
motion by the eruptions of Vesuvius it should be noted that Father
Odenbach of St. Ignatius' college in Cleveland, O., the noted
authority on seismic disturbances, reported that his microseismograph,
the most delicate instrument known for detecting the presence of
earthquakes in any part of the globe, had plainly recorded the
disturbances caused by the eruption of Vesuvius. The lines made by the
recorder, he said, had shown a wavy motion for several days,
indicating a severe agitation in the earth's surface at a remote
point.