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Show ie Provinces of Southwestern Italy, :omprisiog " Toe of the Boot," Are Laid Waste In Space of Few flours. B OF HORROR AND DESOLATION BEYOND POWER OF PEN TO DESCRIBE ig Off of Telephonic and Telegraphic Communication Com-munication Renders It Impossible to Ascertain Full Extent of Disaster. ta ir, Dec. 2S- Tho tliree provinces i. Catanzaro and Reggio di jwj Comprising tho Department of iU i which forms tho southwestern iClr of Italy, of "the too of the o? 7?eie devastated today by an (jaic, ihe far-reaching offecis of (-j i felt slmost throughout the 1i ira of Mussina, in Sicily, was ft destroyed and Catania was s-jl fcd. In Messina hundreds ol! jhre fallen and many persons aata? tea killed. Owing, however, to cttlat telegraphic and telephonic ciitiotfs wore almost completely LiiBj , it i3 impossible to obtain vjjj c approximate idea of the vast XvBj ..-.Not Tenible Destruction. adOi' !!e of entire region within 'X& of the earthquake is unknown, M.Ge fsrls received here up to a late !ai;ot indicate that the havoc i6). a pest and the destruction to rjfS d property more terrible than jjj La esperienccd in many years. - -'r -Ktainty of the situation, for j.'YW -wsands has tilled all Italians Jdi fewest distress for the' still have VmS 'a-v mav come '"'hen that ifecountrv, which seems to have Kit blesse'a by nature, will be SocS s-i oj" the blind forces of that hie.i:hiph nearly nineteen con- . . Bra io overwhelmed Pompeii and ' -?ts '' s110"' tliat the present 0IU fr?i? embraces a larger area than V as'e'in J90o, Tho tidal wave '. :M!owfld the earth shocks on the 11 Vt i twst or! Sicily sunk vessels 'jpistcd the lower nart of Catania. .I-ii&mj that a number of persons 'torn m at lh:it tfaco but the rush-u rush-u V'I5 carried everything before Mcau-ed sch an indoscribablo "God; ?3 that it will be impossible for ? maDn to estimate the damago and ins W fat. 3ajed-1 u,tt Details Unobtainable. 5Tb" birth 1 P0( e toTni o1' estia tiirW urovinco of Tfeggio were i atV r isolated through interrup-i interrup-i hla f telegraph, and telephone and M m -jjiu that obstructed the rail- ' in i550,utv nothing was heard no tiroghont tho day whilo '.wS ;:4-from Messina came in tho 'uS-fi 'i?15,?311 n"flich a torpedo-boat. 8W 1"t spee(1 a,onc: the coasit of ala. carriod from point to .Baj,; hys finding the wires down, .SEosr; t'?cbd Xicotora, where tho t. c.s were Sounil to-lo intact. atlWj u point the dispatch was sent. ' SrlS ".t "at the situation was .;iEW 'J ater summarizing the .Klfiff'! J; of t"o catastrophe, ended .Bcffl f announcement that Captain' IK! .,.:?,naJnaer of tho local station tvts: was Juried under the King: h?v,n? fift other officers TiEi -'5eroic work in trj-ing to save Chor Prompt EeUof Work. -hureh Srtlnt 2T.ernracnt proceeded ?Z to. relieve the widespread chtd J atrating at the points of did'0? C V.P3 an3 engineers. wero ms- vT-Jous places and camps iVSrtl fi-i ere immediately pre-''thaS pre-''thaS &a,hHo, ilwav lines and StV used for their transport. io i,. Slna has suffered prob- W W? coming directly from ttg Hal,n2 ibafc two-thirdfi of S6? Wa.slington and Monto-Simptf? Monto-Simptf? irf 7.r? "J that harbor, lator d-2S ft-S 50 jPelicd bv terror 'fa un;,bls t0 realize what nirffS" k n?h t.he end the world "faflrii u SltamerB left Catauia ifw-asxs,3t 1,1 removing the-. the-. VsSLvt"a1 r-lace who are re-, i fc?fer uf anas. SpW- -v i ir''stricken noplo TAI.CI tS- u'' absoIutelv refused lifi, ;!' "ousps ajid aro camp- ti'ia wrc& that 3ro frco from dlffi e 8ur-ronding country. erVr irei';:iIc F'uak 500 boats there 'W,.t,ama-,e to several large ?f 4:larS inPldinr tho Aust- fteVi ad,ti,iC.?''ini:l' Ji,,fffr frorn tho ifl.1 l'tsr? Vvt'- b"t similar "un,lat2fl the handsome di Jfctte whjch Hank the har- 169 r ftf'?2af-rod mro difficult; n ;UJ2 'WJ fcr e woi!n,1od, many of Ssc. y-Iti5? under the Vjft iGa0r.tea at the village " hSlW rrLQd: Messina The effects of the orI - tfwtcil through an J c. u,a,1llj:EterTorupon TT ?"esl ,i1ttt-ce- The village SK 5r; fhi nnhnbitants of which PtB 'iiiv V na Practical 1 v qo- I w persons wore 'killed.. i but many were injured. Consignor Jorabito. the bishop of Miloto, who dis-tinguished dis-tinguished hunself m tho earthquake of 1905, did go$d work again today. He rushed into places whero tho ruin was greatest and brought aid aud encouragement encour-agement to all. Multitude Panic-StricUon. Thousands of persons abandoned their homes, although a terrific rainstorm rain-storm prevailed, and filled tho air with lamentations and ' pravors. In some places, such as Prizzo, 'Cotrouc, Santa Severina and Piscopio, tho people entered en-tered tho churches almost while the latter lat-ter were falling and carried out tho images of the saints. They bore thoso in procession through tho open country, ' invoking tho mercy of God. In the mountainous regions inland the population popula-tion has taken refugo' in grottoes and caves whero peasants and priests, soldiers sol-diers aud persons of gentle birth aro living in common. They sleep on the ground, and lircs burn to keep off wild animals. In Aloi alono 2000 persons arc homeless. Extraordinary scenos aro reported at Catania. Following a violent earth shock at 5:20 o'clock, tho sea roso .in a tremendous wave, which wrecked many small boats. It then suddenly retired and returned as quickly, causing further great damage and wreckage. Awakened Awak-ened by tho shock, tho inhabitants fled panic-stricken from their homes into the streets and fquarcs. Processions wore organized and soon all tho churches wore filled with weeping crowds imploring divino mercy. Cardinal Cardi-nal fava,. bishop, of Catania, exhorted the people to bo calm. He promised that tho .body of Saint Agatha should be carried in procession. Saint Agatha is regarded as tho special deliverer for all scourges and, according to history, the pious inhabitants of Catania diverted di-verted the course of the lava stream in 1669. when a fearful eruption of Mount Aetna took place, by extending the veil of Saint Agatha towards it, thus saving the city, as the lava was turned aside near tho Benedictine monastery aud descended into the sea, Many Tragic Scenes. While tho number of deaths at that place is not believed to be largo, there wero several tragic occurrences. Among tho children swept away by tho wave was a boy fifteen months old, who was torn from the arms of his mother. Tho mother, too, was overcome by the forco of the water and lost consciousness, but her body was caught by a railing and she remained thero until she was rescued. res-cued. Midnight reports state that 3?eg-gio, 3?eg-gio, tho capital of the province of licg-gio licg-gio di Calabria, eight miles from Messina Mes-sina on the opposite side of tho strait, has met tho samo fato as Messina, but these reports have not been confirmed owing to the lack of tolcgraphic facilities. facili-ties. A very severe shock was felt at Cal-tanissetta, Cal-tanissetta, a city of Sicily, aud although al-though much damage was done, no one was killed. The shock created great alarm and. notwithstanding tho downpour down-pour of rain, tho whole population remained re-mained in the streets throughout tho day and marched in religious procession. proces-sion. The pope was greatly distressed at hearing of the catastrophe that had befallen be-fallen tho loyal population in the south. Ho could hardly credit tho truth of the dispatches describing the devastation de-vastation and fatalities as ten times greater than in 1905. j After kneeling in fervent prayer, tho I pope arose and said as ho said three years ago. that ho felt his placo was amidst his suffering childrou. Tt was his firm intention to order or-der that instructions bo given for beginniug tho journey, but his ph'8icians and thoso in attendance, upon liim insisted that it would be impossible im-possible for him to undertake such a fatiguing expedition in his present stato of health. . At midnight a regiment or soldiers left here for Calabria. j |