It is not certainly through cold blooded and cruel newspaper work,
that I, with some strong and faithful collaborators of the "Giorno"
have gone in the places which have been more severely stricken by the
furies of Vesuvius; nor have I gone there through any stupid and vain
curiosity. We had all gone before, when the tremendous eruption was
at its worst and we went trembling with anxiety and we saw and felt
all the horror of that storm in its terrific aspect. We returned home
every evening, every night in a real convulsion of anguish. Every day
has its morrow, and to a period of great emotion, when all your soul
rebels and rises against a misfortune which nothing can fight, another
long and slow period follows, full of mortal sadness. The period of the
morrow of a catastrophe when your spirit calmed down, and clear in its
sadness, measures silently all the damage that people and things have
suffered.
For the journalistic sportsman, Ottaiano, S. Giuseppe, Boscotrecase,
Torre Annunziata, Somma Vesuviana don't hold now any more the necessary
interest to suggest terrorising news, nor does the frivolous curiosity
of the frivolous reader find any interest in these exausted subjects.
But for me every day has its morrow, and so it is for all those who
have a heart, who feel to be citizens of a great country rather than
newspaper men; who feel the voice of their conscience before that of
their fancy. Every day has its morrow and it is this morrow that we
sadly and simply have gone to seek there where the ruins of country and
villages have been left. Another sentiment has urged me and the other
pilgrims of this humble duty, the thought that now, little by little,
the violent crisis being calmed down and passed, people may forget all
this great trouble! We are so willingly careless here when deep sorrow
has passed, and the sun shines on human misfortunes. We forget so
easily the pains and troubles of others, when the pang of their sorrow
is ended. But we should not forget; we must not stop having pity, we
must not stop giving our cares and help, we must continue! So we have
gone every where it seemed necessary, stopping first at Ottaiano, and
we have seen and inquired of the people, and things have told us their
secret.
April 22, 1906.