Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1909 — NEARLY 2,000 IN ONE BIG GRAVE [ARTICLE]

NEARLY 2,000 IN ONE BIG GRAVE

Impressive Ceremony In Messina Burying Place. RUINS BLESSED AS TOMBS - . t Records Kept In Messina City Hail Are Burned—Men Under Direction of Major Landis Are Searching for the Bodies of Consul Cheney and WifeSearch for Survivors Is Still Going On—Bodies of the Dead Burled In Quicklime. Messina, Jan. B.—Earthquake shocks still continue here at the rate of about ten per hour. Fire also has again broken out, completing the destruction of the city hall and all the records stored there. A most impressive funeral ceremony was witnessed at Messina when Archbishop Barrigo made his'Way through the ruins of the city to the cemetery at Mare Grosso and blessed a grave 100 feet wide and thirty feet deep, containing 1,800 bodies. The dead were piled one on top of the other and covered with quicklime. The prelate was followed to the cemetery by a large gathering of survivors whose lamentations mingled with the Latin words of the service and benediction.

Subsequently the archbishop walked through the ruins and blessed the milh tary hospital, the. military college, the barracks and the archibshop’s house, considering these wrecked edifices as so many cemeteries. Under them were the corpses of soldiers, students, policemen and monks. All the valuables found among the ruins are being taken on board the steamer Duca di Genoa in the bay. Currency to the amount of $3,600,000, including the contents of the safe of the Sicilian-American bank, was transferred to this vessel. A banker named Mauromati. who was one of the richest residents, lost everything. v He went to the authorities barefooted and half clothed, and asked for a pair of shoes and an overcoat. One House Quake Proof.

Writing from Messina, Signor Bertollnl, minister of public works, says only one house in Messina is habitable. It was constructed by a reputed eccentric, who for years past has been strengthening his residence with iron bars and other ingenious devices in order to make it strong enough to resist an earthquake. "The rescuers during the first week.” says the minister, “accompanied prodigies of endurance. They saved 12,000 people, some wounded and others uninjured, from the .ruins. At the same time all the survivors, the total running up into the tens of thousands, have been' moved away, nourished, clothed and housed all at the expense of the government. “There are no survivors at Messina now excepting a small number being embarked on a steamer for Taormina or on board emigrant vessels placed at their disposal to convey them to a point near Syracuse. These last refugees can live for one month with the provisions on board the vessels transporting them. “America Stands First.” "The prompt co-operation of foreign aid added much to the rapidity and thoroughness of the relief work, and in this respect American stands first. Our gratitude to the United States will endure forever.’’ Men under the direction of Major Landis, the American military attache at Rome, have been working for four days to recover the bodies of A. S. Cheney and his wife from the ruins of the American consulate. The apartment of the Cheneys has not yet been uncovered, and many feet of wreckage remain to he removed.