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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All of these building operations are under the direction of Lieutenant Commander Belknap. In this he has had the efficient assistance of Lieutenant Allan Buchanan and Ensign J. W. Wilcox, two capable young American naval officers assigned to this duty from the naval yacht Scorpion, which spent the spring in the harbor at Naples. John Elliott, the well-known American artist of Rome, laid aside his brush and willingly became the architect and draftsman for this extensive American project. With headquarters in Reggio, Mr. Winthrop Chanler, of New York, took charge of the building of over two hundred American houses in some of the smaller towns near Reggio. Several young noblemen of Rome, fired with zeal to help in the work of relief, joined Mr. Chanler and, under his guidance, spent some weeks in individually going among the people in the ruined villages of Calabria, studying their particular needs and supplying them with tools, sewing machines, and other equipment necessary to enable them to become self-supporting.
At the end of March the lumber from America had been all unloaded from the five ships that carried it to Italy, the working forces engaged in putting up the cottages had been completely organized and Captain Belknap had the great satisfaction of reporting that twenty-four complete houses were erected every working day of ten hours. The American houses are turned over to the municipal authorities of Messina and Reggio and the assignment of the houses to individual families is in the hands of the municipal officers.
It should not be supposed that America is the only agency engaged in building temporary homes. Some have been built by other countries and a very large number by the provinces of Italy. I was informed at the office of the Minister of Public Works in Rome that sites had been assigned at the end of March for the erection of fifteen thousand eight hundred temporary houses. Considering the size of the average Calabrian or Sicilian family, it is probable that these temporary buildings will provide shelter for most of the survivors of the earthquake who are unable to obtain homes through other means.
Attitude of Italian Authorities.
This informal account of the situation in the earthquake zone, two months after the disaster, cannot with justice be closed without a word of appreciation, of the extremely friendly and helpful attitude of the Italian authorities. They gave every possible facility to Captain Belknap and his assistants, and the engineer who represented the Federal Department of Public Works in Messina co-operated with the American builders constantly and cordially. The Italian Navy assigned one of its brilliant young officers, Commandante Brofferio, to constant duty at the American encampment. He lived on board the supply ship Celtic until it sailed away for America and then with Captain Belknap and the other Americans moved into a group of the new cottages in the American Village. Practical, obliging, tireless and of few words, Commandante Brofferio soon became indispensable and was respected by every one. The Italian Navy also placed at the command of the American officers a torpedo boat for the purpose of conveying Captain Belknap and others back and forth across the Straits of Messina as their duties required. In every way the representatives of America, engaged in the work of Italian relief, have reason to regard the Italian federal and municipal officers, the officers of the army and navy and the heads of the Italian Red Cross and the Central National Committee with feelings of the highest esteem.