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.