We saw what the traveler to Messina has seen through the cen_The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 2, April 1909)

The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 2)

VOL. IV. APRIL, 1909. No. 2.

AMERICAN

RED CROSS

BULLETIN

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON D C

Yearly Subscription, 50 cents. Single Copy, 15 cents.

(Issued Quarterly.)

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[Illustration: PAPER CUP

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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

Preface 5

The Sicilian and Calabrian Earthquake 7

Contributions to the Italian Red Cross 9

The American Red Cross Orphanage 11

Houses for Italy 16

Early Days of Relief (illustrated) 19

By W. Bayard Cutting, Jr.

Red Cross Relief Ship _Bayern_ (illustrated) 43

By Lieut.-Commander Reginald R. Belknap, U. S. A.

Other Measures of American Red Cross Relief 58

Italian Relief Notes (illustrated) 59

American Red Cross Receipts by States 64

How New York Raised Funds for Italy 66

Origin of the Christmas Stamp (illustrated) 69

Funds Raised through Sale of Red Cross Christmas Stamps,

1908 (illustrated) 75

Competition for 1909 Christmas Stamp Design 82

South China Flood Relief (illustrated) 83

An Inspiration (illustrated) 89

By Nellie Olmsted Lincoln.

The Story of the Red Cross (with Portrait) 92

Rules for the Prevention of Railroad Accidents 95

Notes 96

Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter.

[Illustration: MESSINA—VIEW SHOWING DESTRUCTION ALONG WATER FRONT.

(By courtesy of the New York World.)]

[Illustration: HIS EXCELLENCY, LLOYD C. GRISCOM, AMERICAN AMBASSADOR AT

ROME.]

[Illustration: WILLIAM H. TAFT

PREFACE

The April BULLETIN appears with a new cover, on the front page of which

is a symbolical figure representing the Red Cross—a strong, womanly form,

with arms outstretched over the victims of battle and disaster. What it

means to any community devastated by some terrible calamity, and what

it means to the sick and wounded in time of war to know that a great,

strong, sympathetic organization stands ready and prepared to bring them

instant help, only those who have taken part in active relief work can

fully understand, but everyone can have some realization of the uplift

and encouragements the Red Cross can bring in the terrible days of

suffering and depression that follow disaster.

Something of what our American Red Cross has been able to do in Italy

for the victims of the most terrible catastrophe of modern times is told

in this BULLETIN. We are glad to have been able to give our sympathy

practical form, and let the deeds of our Red Cross prove the solidarity

of international brotherhood.

The report of the Red Cross Christmas Stamp is given in this number,

showing how this little stamp of good cheer has accomplished a very good

and widespread mission.

[Illustration: MISS MABEL T. BOARDMAN

From China has come a report of the relief work, after the flood,

near Canton, last year, with illustrations forwarded by the American

Vice-Consul there.

A report of the Red Cross work at the time of the Inauguration will be

given in the July BULLETIN.

Our people give so liberally when disaster arouses their sympathy,

but may we not hope that the time will soon come when, by gifts and

legacies to its Endowment Fund, our American Red Cross may be possessed

of such a certain income that it can “continue and carry on a system of

national and international relief in time of peace, and apply the same in

mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and

other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for

preventing the same.” according to its charter, and have always funds on

hand with which to render first aid when disasters occur, without having

to wait until contributions are received.

The patriotic men and women of other countries have given millions of

dollars in small and large donations and legacies to the permanent funds

of their Red Cross societies. Will not our men and women show an equally

patriotic and humane spirit by doing the same for the American Red Cross?

[Illustration: HON. BEEKMAN WINTHROP

THE SICILIAN AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKE

“Messina and Reggio destroyed by an earthquake” flashed over the wires

and appeared in our press the last days of the year. The terrible

news, with its story of the fearful loss of life and property, seemed

too appalling to be true. The world, though stunned by its magnitude,

was yet to learn that no pen could describe the horrors of a disaster

unparalleled in modern history, and that only those who saw the scene

of devastation soon after the catastrophe have any realization of its

terrible results. As for those who lived through the earthquake and

escaped, the mental fear and physical agony they had undergone left their

minds dazed and blank. When some realization of the truth dawned upon

the world a wave of sympathy was awakened everywhere. It is especially

for such times of disaster that the Red Cross has its being, and the

call for help was immediately issued from headquarters at Washington.

The President and Governors of States were notified that our National

Society was ready to receive and transmit the contributions our people

were glad to make for suffering Italy. President Roosevelt, in his cables

to the King of Italy, expressing his own and his countrymen’s sympathy,

stated that the “American Red Cross has issued an appeal for the

sufferers.” Many Governors of States issued proclamations, asking that

all contributions be sent through the American Red Cross. How promptly

and how generously, our people expressed their sympathy in tangible shape

is known everywhere. Glad were we in America to do what we could to help

our suffering fellow-men in beautiful and well-loved Italy. Something

of what the American Red Cross, our national member of that greatest

of all institutions of international brotherhood, has been able to do

with the contributions it has received is told in this BULLETIN by those

who in Italy have helped to administer the funds. In all of this work

the Society has had the most valuable and untiring assistance of Mr.

Lloyd Griscom, the American Ambassador at Rome. It cannot too strongly

express its appreciation of all that he has accomplished in the line of

careful and prompt use of the money it has sent. What our Red Cross has

accomplished has been done with a sincere desire to be of help, with a

deep appreciation of the complex and difficult problem Italy has had and

still has to face, and with the hope that the wounds of this beautiful

country, so recently devastated by this terrible calamity, may soon be

healed and the people re-established in a happy and prosperous life.

[Illustration: MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS

[Illustration: ERNEST P. BICKNELL

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ITALIAN RED CROSS

Knowing that the Italian Red Cross was especially well organized for

carrying on hospital relief work, because of its field hospitals,

fourteen hospital trains and equipment for two ships’ hospitals, besides

an active personnel, the American Red Cross transmitted to it through

our Ambassador at Rome $320,000 to be applied to its relief work in the

earthquake district. The Italian Red Cross, in two previous Calabrian

earthquakes and at the time of the Vesuvian eruption, maintained a number

of hospitals and relief stations. At the time of the latter disaster

the American Red Cross received about $12,000, which was transmitted to

the Italian Red Cross. Later a special report was made by this Society

of the relief work it performed at that time. A report of the relief

operations in Southern Italy will doubtless be issued sometime in the

future, but this must not be expected too soon, as experience has taught

how long drawn out is relief work after serious disasters. Baron Mayor

des Planches, the Italian Ambassador at Washington, in speaking of the

Italian Red Cross, said:

[Illustration: CHARLES L. MAGEE.

“As the representative of the Italian Government, I desire to

give the strongest indorsement of the Italian Red Cross, with

which the American Red Cross is in the most intimate relation,

and to say that my Government places absolute confidence in

this great national organization.”

On January 4, the following cablegram was received from Count Taverna:

“The Italian Red Cross tenders sincerest thanks to American Red

Cross for conspicuous contribution of 1,538,500 Italian lire,

received through American Ambassador in Rome, toward the relief

of the distressed districts of Reggio, Calabria and Messina,

and begs to express its keen appreciation of the feelings of

solidarity and warm sympathy with the stricken populations,

which have prompted their generous act.

“COUNT TAVERNA, President Italian Red Cross.”

Since this despatch was received further remittances have been made,

bringing the total of the American Red Cross contributions to the Italian

Red Cross up to $320,000.

[Illustration: ROBERT W. DE FOREST]

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS ORPHANAGE

[Illustration: Queen Helena.]

Hundreds of little children were left fatherless and motherless amidst

the ruins of Messina and Calabria. Scores of them were even too young

to be able to give any information in regard to themselves or their

families. For years these must be cared for, and having been left without

property or relatives, must be so educated that, after reaching mature

years, they will be able to support themselves. Helpless childhood

appeals strongly to everyone, and the Red Cross, which after great

calamities aims when the first temporary aid is over, to rehabilitate

and place again upon their feet the victims of the disasters, was ready

to accept the suggestion of the Italian Government that some of the funds

entrusted to its administration by the American people should be devoted

to the maintenance of an agricultural colony in Sicily or Calabria for

the care of a hundred or more of the orphaned children. In national

relief the American Red Cross does not permit the use of its emergency

funds for the purpose of any permanent endowments, but in international

relief it believes it wisest to act under the suggestion of the American

diplomatic representative, the Government and relief committees in the

country where the disaster occurs. Therefore, when Mr. Griscom, the

Ambassador at Rome, after consulting with the Italian Government, asked

that such an agricultural orphanage colony be maintained by a donation

from the American Red Cross, the suggestion was promptly complied with.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars are to be devoted to this purpose.

[Illustration: REAR-AD. PRESLEY M. RIXEY

The colony will be situated in Sicily or Calabria, and will consist of

model farms, where scientific agricultural instructions will be given by

agents of the Royal University of Agriculture. The Italian Government

will furnish the land, and the Italian National Relief, under the

patronage of Queen Helena will provide the buildings. It will be called

“The American Red Cross Orphanage,” and the American Ambassador is to

be an ex-officio member of its governing committee. It is to be a lay

institution, and not ecclesiastical. A yearly budget of its expenses

will be published, which must meet the approval of the Minister of the

Interior, who at present is also the Prime Minister. A number of the

poor women left widows and dependent by the earthquake, and who in many

cases also lost their little children, will be given employment at this

orphanage, and the care of other little children will help to lift this

sorrow from their hearts. From these women the children will receive

again much of that mother-love and care of which this terrible disaster

has robbed them.

[Illustration: SURG.-GEN. WALTER WYMAN

Speaking of this orphanage, Mr. Griscom writes on February 19 to the

chairman of the Central Committee of the American Red Cross:

“I can assure you that this generous gift of the American Red

Cross has made a profound impression in Italy. I made the

formal presentation to Her Majesty, the Queen, on the 16th

instant, and Her Majesty was overcome with emotion and for a

moment at loss to express herself. Finally she made a beautiful

speech and poured forth her admiration for the organization of

the American Red Cross.”

Ambassador Griscom, under date of February 18, forwarded to the State

Department for transmission to the American Red Cross two letters from

the Countess Spaletti Rasponi, the President of the Patronato Regina

Elena, and from the Honorable Bruno Chimirri, President of the “Comitato

di Vigilanza,” respectively, expressing the gratitude of the Committee

and Council of the Patronato Regina Elena for the gift of $250,000, for

the establishment of the Orphanage. The letters referred to follow:

[Illustration: MAJ.-GEN. R. M. O’REILLY

“EXCELLENCY:

“The Council of the ‘Opera Nazionale di Patronato Regina

Elena,’ having known of the conspicuous offer of 1,300,000

lire made by the American National Red Cross in favor of

the children whom the recent earthquake has thrown into the

condition of orphans, has passed a vote of thanks to the

officers and to Your Excellency, to whose influential interest

it is due if so important a part of the funds collected in

America has been devoted to our institution.

“And I, interpreting the desire of the Council, warmly and

specially beg Your Excellency to kindly transmit to the

meritorious American Red Cross the expression of our profound

and heartfelt gratitude toward all the noble and great American

nation, not inferior to any other in all the manifestations of

human genius and solidarity.

“With the assurances of my highest consideration,

“The President,

(Signed) “COUNTESS SPALETTI RASPONI.”

[Illustration: HON. ROBERT BACON

“MR. AMBASSADOR:

“I have the honor to offer you the warmest thanks of the

Committee and Council of the ‘Opera Nazionale di Patronato

Regina Elena’ for the generous offer which you have made on

behalf of the Calabrian and Sicilian orphans.

“I beg you to be good enough to be interpreter of our very

grateful sentiments to the American Red Cross, which has

completed, with its splendid gift, its relief work in Calabria

and Sicily.

“The Agricultural Colony, which will be named American Red

Cross Orphanage,’ will perpetuate the remembrance of this

charity, and will contribute to render continually more close

the ancient ties of sympathy and friendship which unite Italy

with your mighty Republic, ties which you called attention to

in your brilliant speech on the occasion of the centenary of

the great President Lincoln.

“Accept, Mr. Ambassador, the assurances of my high

consideration.

(Signed) “B. CHIMIRRI.

“To His Excellency,

“Hon. Lloyd C. Griscom,

“Ambassador of the United States of America, Rome.”

[Illustration: MED. DIRECTOR J. C. WIRE

HOUSES FOR ITALY

[Illustration]

Our own experiences after serious disasters in the United States

have taught us that in nearly all of such cases one of the most

serious problems to be met is the providing of shelter for the

thousands—sometimes hundreds of thousands of victims. Italy has had this

same serious problem to meet after the late unparalleled disaster in

Sicily and Calabria. The American Ambassador at Rome was requested by the

State Department to consult with the Italian Government as to the best

use to be made of the $500,000 left by the Congressional appropriation of

$800,000, after the supplies on the Navy ships, _Celtic_ and _Culgoa_,

which were sent to the scene of the disaster, had been paid for. The

reply came in the nature of a request that this fund be expended in the

purchase and providing of materials for houses. This suggestion has been

admirably carried out by the Navy Department, which has purchased and

shipped, fully prepared, materials for the immediate erection of 2,500

houses, including window sashes, doors, etc., and the charter of four

ships for their transportation. Some eight expert carpenters and a large

number of tools have been sent on these vessels, that the erection of

these houses may go on promptly.

[Illustration: HON. JAMES R. GARFIELD

But the need of shelter will continue, for Mr. Griscom writes that the

homes of 1,100,000 persons have been completely or partially destroyed

and their mode of life interrupted, so on his advice and that of the

Italian Government, the American Red Cross, with the kind aid of

Pay-Inspector J. A. Mudd, of the United States Navy, who took entire

charge of this matter, purchased in New Orleans, at a cost of $100,000,

the materials for 550 complete houses, chartering for the purpose of

their transportation the S. S. _Newlands_, which sailed for Messina on

February 11. Besides the materials for these houses, there was shipped

a large quantity of lumber. No carpenters nor tools were sent on this

vessel, as those already sent on the Government ships would be available

for the work of erecting these Red Cross houses, each of which will have

before it a little metal enameled placard in red, white and blue, of

which a reproduction is given at the head of this article.

[Illustration: HON. HENRY M. HOYT

Ex-Governor Guild on January 26 informed the Red Cross that forty-nine

portable houses could be obtained in Massachusetts from the Springfield

Portable Construction Company. These were purchased for $6,978, and

shipped on one of the vessels carrying the government lumber directly to

Messina, without expense. The Springfield Portable Construction Company

kindly returned to the Red Cross $500 of the payment made on these houses

as their contribution for the relief work.

As the Congressional appropriation has been entirely expended for house

materials and the chartering of ships, the American Red Cross, besides

expending $10,000 for the erection of the houses it has sent over, has

transmitted $38,000 to pay for the erection of the houses to be made from

the materials purchased and shipped by the United States Government.

[Illustration: HON. ELIHU ROOT

EARLY DAYS OF RELIEF

BY W. BAYARD CUTTING, JR.

Special Representative of the American National Red Cross.

_Mr. W. Bayard Cutting, the American Vice-Consul at Milan, who was

promptly sent to the scene of the disaster by the Ambassador at Rome to

look after American and consular interests, was requested by the American

Red Cross to act there as its Special Representative, and $15,000 was

placed at his disposition to meet any immediate needs, especially those

of any Americans he might discover among the victims. Mr. Cutting most

kindly consented to act in this capacity. He was on the scene within a

few days of the catastrophe, and his interesting article written for the_

BULLETIN _gives a graphic description of the early days of the relief

work. The Red Cross is not only indebted to Mr. Cutting for this article,

but for the valuable aid he rendered to the Society._—EDITOR.

When the steamer _Nord Amerika_ entered the harbor of Messina on

the morning of January 2, 1909, there was no excited rush among the

passengers to get a first view of the town. We knew that we were about

to have one of the greatest impressions of our life, to see a panorama

of desolation and destruction such as the world has rarely presented in

the history of man. Amid that desolation we were to live for days and

weeks, and to perform trying duties; new sensations would soon crowd

upon us; curiosity would be satisfied all too soon. Meanwhile there was

no reason for hurrying to a scene of horror. Thus we sat uneasily in

the saloon, where we had spent a night of seasick misery, and tried to

munch dry bread and ship’s biscuit, inventing pretexts for not going on

deck. We all dreaded the flames and the ruins, and the corpses floating

through the straits, up and down with the tide. Then the engines stopped;

we had arrived, and must go ashore. Each of us stuffed a loaf or a

biscuit into his pocket, and had a look at his revolver. Those few who

had water-bottles filled them. With nerves braced to face any horrors, we

ascended the companion way.

[Illustration: HON. JAMES TANNER

We saw what the traveler to Messina has seen through the centuries—one of

the beautiful places of the earth bathed in the light of the rising sun.

We were close to the shore, it is true, and could make out the ruins. The

palaces fronting along the stately Marina were roofless. There were gaps

between the palaces—white heaps of debris. Toppling buildings, and houses

without outer walls, like children’s doll houses, could be made out.

Here and there out of a roof came flames and curling smoke. But to see

all this one had to look for it. What attracted the eye, and compelled

attention through the magical appeal of its beauty, was a broad expanse

of still water, protected from the sea by a projecting point of land;

then a flat water front, two or three miles long; and behind, circle

after circle of hills, bewildering in their rich variety of form and

color. This was the real Messina, you felt, what an ancient phraseology

would call its formal and final causes. With those fertile hills, with

this spacious harbor, situated on a principal trade route, Messina would

always be a city. Houses and inhabitants there would always be to embody

the Messina idea, to fulfill the Messina purpose.

[Illustration: HON. W. BAYARD CUTTING, JR. U. S. VICE-CONSUL AT MILAN.

SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.]

The port was filled with ships, flying the flags of many nations. Boatmen

in rowboats surrounded the _Nord Amerika_ and offered to take us ashore.

There was nothing catastrophic or even dramatic in their appearance

and manner. I was almost disappointed to see them so well dressed, and

pleased, on the other hand, to observe that they did not attempt to

bargain. From the boatmen, as a matter of fact, when I talked to them,

I first derived that strong impression of the oriental affinity of the

Sicilians which deepened with every day of my stay in Messina. Their mood

was one of submission, unsurprised and unassertive, to the hard hand of

fate. They did not rebel nor complain, and on the other hand they would

not strive. Life had ceased to have any value; why trouble about its

prolongation? It was folly to think of building a comfortable house, when

there was no one left to occupy it; or to earn money which could bring

no sweetness. So most of them sat idly in the streets, or under the roof

of the market, and took what food was put before them; or stood watching

the soldiers dig in their own homes, where their families were buried,

without raising a hand to help. The few who worked, like our boatmen, did

not care what pay they received. A piece of bread they were glad to get;

but when it was a matter of money, one lira or five was all the same.

This apathy of the native population, amounting to a kind of stupor,

since it abolished even begging, stood out sharply before us, when we

went ashore, in contrast to the activity of the military forces. As we

turned to the left down the long Marina—we had landed near the northern

extremity of the town and it was clear that the center of things was far

to the south—the way was so crowded that we could not walk more than two

abreast, and were often obliged to fall into single file. The Marina is a

broad promenade along the water’s edge; but at least half its width was

blocked with debris from the palaces at the back; and on the water side

the way was stopped by impediments of all kinds; piles of lumber, blanket

heaps and rude huts put up for temporary shelter—tarpaulins spread over

poles, for the most part. As we walked down the middle, picking our

way among the cracks and fissures in the ground, we were constantly

making way for troops of soldiers with spades and pick-axes over their

shoulders. Almost equally numerous were the parties bearing long lines of

litters. They were marching in our direction or else out of side streets

to our right; and as they passed we looked nervously at each burden,

to see whether the face was uncovered. Sometimes it was; occasionally

even the occupant of the litter was raised on his elbow, staring with

uncomprehending curiosity at the crowd on either side. More often no

face was exposed; then we knew that the man was one of those dead who

encumbered the path to the living. No bodies were touched, we knew,

unless they actually impeded the work of rescue. Otherwise they must be

left alone; the living had the first claim. Yet the line of litters was

unending.

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING THE CAPRICIOUSNESS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.]

[Illustration: SOLDIERS BEARING A WOUNDED MAN RESCUED ON THE SEVENTH DAY

AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.]

On our right the view of the town was screened by a line of fairly intact

house fronts. The principal palaces of Messina had flanked the Marina;

their outer walls had resisted bravely, on the whole. Such glimpses as

we got of the interiors made it clear that those walls were mere shells;

still they gave to the Marina a deceptive appearance of solidity. Between

the palaces, however, came long heaps of mere debris, thirty or forty

feet high. One of them we knew must be our consulate; but which? No one

could tell us. No one could even direct us to the military headquarters,

or to the office of the Prefect. The Italian officers knew less than the

native inhabitants; they were strangers and newcomers like ourselves.

We walked ahead at random towards the curve at the southern end of the

harbor where masts and funnels were most numerous. Occasionally, as we

passed a side street less completely blocked than the rest, we got a

view of the interior of the town—an incoherent extravagance of ruin such

as no pen can describe. The street always ended in a mountainous mass

of wreckage; but the houses at the sides had assumed every variety of

fantastic attitude. Beams and pillars crossing at absurd angles; windows

twisted to impossible shapes, floors like “montagnes russes;” roofs half

detached and protruding, preserved in place quite inexplicably. And

then front walls torn away, laying bare the interior of apartments. In

the same house one room would be a heap of wreckage, and its neighbor

absolutely intact, with the music open at the piano, a marked book on

the table, and the Italian Royal Family looking down from the walls. A

third room perhaps held nothing but a chandelier, but that chandelier

in perfect condition, without a broken globe. No two houses were alike;

the earthquake had picked its victims here and there, following no

predictable rule. Sometimes the victims could be seen lying in their own

houses. Here and there a rope of knotted sheets hanging from a window

showed where someone had escaped. And everywhere solitude and silence,

save for the sound of the pick and the shovel. Only the soldiers and

officials were allowed in the town: all others must remain on the Marina.

RED CROSS STATION.

A little this side of the Municipio, or city hall, which we identified

through the flames and smoke in which it was enveloped, we came upon a

Red Cross station—a square building belonging to the Custom House. Here,

stretched out in the sun, lay the rescued of the day—five or six only,

for it was not yet nine o’clock. Opposite the Municipio was the covered

market, now the home of hundreds of survivors, and a place where bread

was distributed. Between the market and the Municipio a marble Neptune of

the eighteenth century still posed in nude absurdity. The most trivial

of figures in the most trivial of poses had been spared, to the tips of

his silly fingers, to stand between the flaming wreckage of the palace

and the human wreckage of the market. Still further along, where the

Marina widened again, we came upon the landing where the dead were laid

out—men, women and children, all deposited in haste under some inadequate

covering; a ghastly sight. From time to time a row boat would come up to

the landing. The bodies were piled into it, and rowed out to sea.

The Commander-in-Chief, we ascertained at last, could be found on the

Duca di Genova, a steamer of the merchant marine anchored at the southern

end of the harbor. Our struggle through the crowds to the landing stage;

our fruitless efforts to get a boat; our final success, through the help

of a friendly Italian officer; our visits to one ship and another, to

authorities military and civil; our vain attempts to extract even the

simplest information, such as the situation of our consulate and the

fate of our consul; all this would be as dreary to tell as it was to

experience. After three or four hours of ceaseless effort we returned

to the shore with the following net acquisitions: an order for a tent,

which we might pitch at a place to be appointed by the General in command

of the third sector; permission to send one short official telegram; and

a friend.

The friend was Mr. Baylis Heynes, a British merchant of Messina, who

represented the firm of Peirce Brothers. His house had been spared by

the earthquake. After taking his wife and children to a villa outside

of the town, he had hurried back without a thought for personal safety

or comfort and had thrown himself into the work of saving lives and

property. In the villa his wife was caring for more than fifty destitute

Messinesi, with such little food and clothing as she could procure.

Mr. Heynes meanwhile was indefatigable in the work of rescue; and his

coolness and intelligence at a time when everyone else was excited and

flustered had already proved of inestimable value. He now offered us

his house for a consulate, and the large garden behind for a Red Cross

hospital. They were situated at the extreme northern end of the town,

more than two miles from the headquarter’s ships. But the house was solid

and uninjured and the garden spacious; it was in fact the “Lawn Tennis

Club” of Messina. We accepted gladly Mr. Heynes’ kind offer, and started

back with him to inspect the premises.

[Illustration: TEN WOUNDED. LYING BY THE RED CROSS STATION. RESCUED ON

THE MORNING OF THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.]

It was no longer morning. The sun had been shining brightly for

many hours. The smell of the dead rose from the earth, unendurably

penetrating. It floated across the Marina on a light shore breeze; then

at places it became suddenly pungent, so pungent that you expected to

tread upon the cause. The ruined masses beside us took on a new horror.

Beneath them, close to the dead of whose presence we were unconscious,

were thousands of living, whose only air was the air we smelt. How few

the soldiers seemed, in comparison to the gigantic task of excavation!

And why were they all away? Poor men, they needed their mid-day rest,

perhaps the full three hours they were given; but could there not be

twice as many, working in relays?

AMERICAN CONSULATE.

Mr. Heynes pointed out the Consulate—perhaps the largest, solidest, most

hopeless mass of rubbish in the whole of Messina. Nothing deserving

the name of an object was discernable in the whole pile, except the

long flag-staff which protruded from the heap towards the street. The

Consulate had been a corner house on a side street; surely we ought to be

able to identify at least the remains of the stone arch which had marked

the entrance to the street. But the mass was absolutely compact and

uniform, obliterating every trace of an opening. It was not astonishing

that the soldiers had left that particular pile unexcavated. Hundreds of

men would be needed, for many days, to get to the bottom of the mound;

and what chance was there, at the end, of finding a survivor? The fate of

Dr. and Mrs. Cheney was already a tragic certainty; the best that could

be hoped was that their death had been instantaneous.

[Illustration: THE RUINS OF THE AMERICAN CONSULATE.]

Not far beyond the Consulate, on a side street near the Piazza Vittoria

(now a large camp, filled with tarpaulin shacks), we saw the ruined house

of Mr. Joseph Peirce, who had been our vice-consul until six days before

the earthquake. A few soldiers were working in the heap; and several

of the former occupants of the building were standing by, each waiting

for some relative to be disinterred. One of the bystanders had been

two days buried under the house, but had worked himself near enough to

the surface to make himself heard, and had thus been rescued. All had

known Mr. Peirce; two said they had seen him on the second day after

the earthquake, his body buried and terribly crushed, his head alone

appearing out of the wreckage. They told us that his brother had come to

save him, but had not been able to remove the heavy pile of masonry and

beams. When all efforts proved unavailing the brother had said goodbye to

Mr. Peirce and stood there till he died. The body was gone now, evidently

the brother had removed it later.

When we had returned to the Marina, near the point where we had first

landed, we found our baggage heaped in the middle of the road. To

my servant, Antonio Alegiani, who sat upon the pile, an old man was

talking voluble English without noticing that he was not understood. The

stranger introduced himself as John B. Agresta, a naturalized American, a

pensioner of the Civil War and a very important person at the consulate.

He had been guide and interpreter. He had done much work for Dr. Cheney.

He would show us everything, the part of the house where the Cheneys

slept, the office, the safe; especially the safe. In it we should find

two thousand lire belonging to him (Agresta). Why did we not come at once

instead of wasting time talking to people who knew nothing? Dr. Cheney

was dead, of course, and Mrs. Cheney. And Mr. Lupton? Yes, he was dead,

too, and there was no doubt of it. Agresta had seen him the night before

the earthquake, and had since seen his hotel, not a stone of it in place.

Poor Mr. Lupton was certainly dead.

Just at this moment a young man with a pipe in his mouth came round the

corner. “Why, hello, Agresta,” he said, “glad to see you alive.” It was

Lupton himself, our vice-consul. We thought he must have stepped out of

a ruin, or been dug out; in our greeting, no doubt, was something of the

awe with which one would salute a visitor from the other world. Lupton

soon explained that he had never left the earth, nor even its surface.

Half of his hotel had been spared; he had walked down the stairs into

the black street, and waded about in water up to his knees till morning

dawned. The story has been published in his own words; I wish I could

insert the anecdotes and reproduce the turns of the phrases with which

he made us see, as in a flash, that prodigious morning of December 28th.

We told him we had come to help him, and put ourselves under his orders;

he seemed glad to see us; we were soon friends. Together we set out to

inspect Mr. Heynes’ house and garden.

It was a solid two-story building, one of an uninjured block; the very

house, as a tablet reminded us, in which Garibaldi had lived at the time

of his triumphant entrance into Messina at the head of the Thousand. Over

the door we set up the American shield, and hung out the flag from a

corner window. A week later the British flag flew beside it. Mr. Heynes

had been appointed acting vice-consul of his nation. Meanwhile we turned

the entrance hall below into a consular office, and set up our beds

in the large garden behind, under a tent, so soon as we were able to

obtain that coveted article. Sleeping upstairs was unsafe, so long as we

continued to have four or five shocks a day, some of them severe enough

to bring down a number of buildings.

Once settled, three problems confronted us; to excavate the old

consulate, to ascertain the fate of such Americans as had been in Sicily

at the time of the earthquake, and to bring relief to the suffering

population of Messina.

The first task fell almost entirely to Major Landis, our Military Attachè

at the Embassy in Rome. On the night of our arrival a squad of thirty

Italian soldiers, under a lieutenant, was put at his disposition for

the excavation of the consulate, and there he spent the work hours of

the next fortnight. Towards the end the Italian soldiers were replaced

by sailors from our own warships; it was the crew of the _Illinois_ who

finally discovered the remains of Dr. and Mrs. Cheney. They were found

at the very bottom of the pile, only four feet above the street level,

though their bedroom had been on the second floor. They had been killed

at once and apparently without suffering; it was reasonable to hope that

no return of consciousness had broken the slumber from which they passed

into eternal rest.

[Illustration: RUINS OF THE HOUSE OF MR. JOSEPH PEIRCE, FORMER AMERICAN

VICE-CONSUL.]

[Illustration: EXCAVATING THE RUINS OF MR. PEIRCE’S HOUSE.]

Our second duty was to find and succor Americans. Among the survivors

at Messina, besides Dr. Lupton and Agresta, we found only one family, a

naturalized American with the six small children of one of his brothers

who lived in Brooklyn. These we sent back to the United States. But, what

Americans had been killed? This question we had no means of solving. We

had brought with us long lists of Americans known to be in Sicily, whose

relatives were inquiring anxiously about their fate. Something must be

attempted in order to put an end to the agonized suspense of so many

families. Most of the persons whom we wished to find were doubtless safe

at one of the Sicilian resorts. As for telegrams, none had yet arrived

from any source, and letters were not delivered until the eleventh day;

there were no postal clerks, we were informed, to distribute them. It was

plain that the only way to get information was to go and get it. Two of

us were accordingly detailed to take the train to Taormina.

After obtaining with some difficulty the military pass allowing us to

return, we walked to the railroad station and boarded a train. No one

knew whether it would start that day or the next. As a matter of fact it

began to move less than two hours after our arrival, and with surprising

speed considering its portentous length and its over-crowded condition.

In spite of long stops at every station, to take out wounded or to let

them aboard, the journey of thirty miles was completed in two hours and

a quarter. We were surprised to find that after eight or ten miles all

signs of destruction ceased. The first villages were in ruins, like

Messina; and in the fields soldiers were digging great rows of trenches,

in which they deposited lime: obviously the sea was no longer to receive

all the dead. But soon we came upon towns with only a few fallen houses;

before long a mutilated roof was a curiosity; and fifteen miles from

Messina the country presented a completely normal appearance. We did not

realize then that those villages between Messina and Taormina were in

greater distress than any district, probably, in the whole of Sicily or

Calabria. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of refugees from the city

fled on foot to these little towns, imploring charity. The inhabitants

received them with true hospitality and gave them of their best. But as

the days and weeks passed the supply of food ran short. Nothing arrived

by rail; the trains were filled with cargoes for Messina or else for

Taormina or Catania; charity passed the little places by. It was a month

after the earthquake that two American gentlemen from Taormina, Messrs.

Wood and Bowdoin, discovered and reported the incredible distress of

this starving rural population. And now another American, Mr. Billings,

of Boston, is devoting himself to the relief of this district and

is spending there the principal part of the generous offerings of

Massachusetts.

TAORMINA.

Taormina was full of rumors. For a week the only news had been supplied

by wounded refugees, distraught with fear and misery; in their

description the earthquake had become almost a supernatural event.

Strange lights had blazed in the sky; a comet had struck the earth

and raised the waters of the deep. Luckily the wires to Catania and

Syracuse, and from Catania to Palermo, were open. By telegraphing to

all of these cities and by searching the hotel registers of Taormina,

we were able to find nearly all the names on our lists. There were many

Americans still in Taormina and many English. All of them were working

together, distributing relief and caring for the sick. A hundred and

fifty refugees were in the hospital of Taormina and three hundred and

eighty in the little fishing village of Giardini at the foot of the

cliff. Our countrymen were working night and day to help them, giving

them food and clothing; and instead of complaining of the heavy burden

of so many patients, they begged us to send more. One or two of them met

every train from Messina, to distribute bread to the hungry passengers.

The ladies devoted themselves chiefly to the hospitals, where they worked

with unremitting energy.

BACK TO MESSINA.

Our brief glance at the efficient relief of Taormina made the conditions

at Messina, upon our return, seem even more desperate than before. Here

the problem was vastly complicated by the dispersion of the population

and the lack of any registers of inhabitants. The scarcity of houses had

driven the population to take refuge, so far as possible, in the hill

villages surrounding the town. Here most of the families were installed,

not only the able-bodied, but the sick and wounded as well. One of each

family would spend the days in Messina, trying to procure enough food to

keep his relatives alive. The complete lack of transport animals and the

absorption of the soldiers in the work of rescue, made relief expeditions

to the villages impossible. For food distributions in Messina the rule

had been adopted; one man, one loaf. The absence of registers made it

possible for a strong man to push repeatedly to the head of the line, and

to get bread at all the distributing places in succession. The result was

a more or less disorderly rush for bread at all the distributing points,

and the exclusion of all but the strongest, while many worthy families

suffered from hunger in the midst of comparative plenty.

On the evening of our first arrival at Messina, I had a chance to talk

to Senator Duranti, the chief of a hospital expedition sent by the order

of the Cross of Malta. I asked him what articles of food, clothing

and medical supplies were most needed, and how the American money

accumulating in Rome could be spent with most profit to Messina. He told

me that medical stores of all kinds were sadly wanted, and that there was

still a lack of food, bread, macaroni, olive oil, butter, and especially

milk—for the women and children—and also underclothes and shirts. The

milk should be sterilized, not condensed, because the ignorant peasant

women could not be induced to give their children an unaccustomed food,

especially if it had to be prepared or mixed. Acting upon Senator

Duranti’s advice, we telegraphed that night to the Ambassador in Rome for

the enumerated supplies. The U. S. despatch boat _Scorpion_, which had

just arrived from Constantinople, was starting for Naples to coal. Her

commander, Captain Logan, kindly took our dispatches to the Ambassador,

and brought back the supplies, which we received on the 6th. At the same

time we learned that an American relief ship was being stocked in Rome,

and would soon arrive with huge stores of food and clothing, and that the

U. S. S. _Culgoa_ was due on the 8th from Port Said with immense supplies

of all kinds.

The arrival of our first stores—which luckily far exceeded our

requests—brought us face to face with the problem of direct distribution.

Messina was already more orderly. On the 6th or 7th the Marina was first

lighted by electricity—a fortunate occurrence, since most of the foreign

warships on whose search lights we had been dependent, had now departed.

To these ships Messina and Italy had good reason to be grateful.

BRITISH AND RUSSIAN SAILORS’ AID.