Jasper Weekly Courier, Volume 57, Number 16, Jasper, Dubois County, 22 January 1915 — Page 3

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ITALIAN CITIES RßEDW QUAKE Over Thirty-Eight Thousand Persons Believed to Have Perished,

AVEZZANO WIPED OFF MAP Once Beautiful Town Now Little More Than a Cemetery Hundred Other Towns In Kingdom Wholly or Partly Destroyed by Shock Rescuers Rush to the Scenes. By CHAPMAN COLEMAN. (U. S. Consul General at Rome.) Rome, Jan. 19. Pompeii is no longer the world's city of the dead. Somewhere in the ruins of Avezzano, where three days ago there were 12,000 person", the majority of them workers in the six big sugar refineries which made the district prosperous, lie the bodies of more than 11,000 persops. It is difficult to convey an idea of the absolute destruction of Avezzano. Not more than half a dozen structures are standing, and of these only the walls remain. Only a Few Escape. Debris, tossed in all directions, has obliterated streets, plazas, and alleys, so that the few inhabitants who escaped death, even though many of them were born and brought up in the town, are unable to pick out more than the approximate sites of their own homes. Stretching away on all sides from the acres upon acres of ruin, the country is as bare of human inhabitants as a wilderness. The landscape is -whitened in places by patches of shattered stone and brick, but these are

ST. PETER'S SQUARE IN ROME

St. Peter's square i.-i Rome was hard hit by the earthquake. The obelisk seen in the foreground in the photograph was shaken and badly damaged; the famous colonnade, seen at the right, was lowered four feet, an dthe adjacent house, once occupied by the sisters of Pope Pius X, 'was seriously cracked.

all that remains of splendid country estates and farms. Six Villages Wiped Out. Six distinct villages in the environs were wiped out by the same stroke which leveled Avezzano, and the toll of life ;n these towns was proportionately severe. Probably not less than 25,000 persons were killed and injured in this one district. The disaster, reports here indicate, extended from Rome as far north as Ancona, Florence. The Gulf of Salerno felt the shock. At least five hundred towns and villages are on the nation's death roll. The destruction of life and property in the Abruzzi is heavy, but no one knows the extent of the ruin. Sora .Flattened Out. Sora is laid flat, the barracks only withstanding the earthquake shock. A mountain near Montagnamoliterally split in two, half of it rolling in a vast landslide into a valley, burying a half dozen hamlets under thousands of tons of earth and rock. Undoubtedly the earthquake shock was more severe than that of Messina. PUT DEATH TOTAL AT 38,000. London, Jan. 19. A careful estimate of deaths in the earthquake region of Italy as received here is as follows: Avezzano 11,000 Alba 6,000 Sora 5,000 Pescina 4,000 San Benedetto 4,000 Magliano 1,300 Capelle 1,200 Scucrola 870 Lese , , 450 Castelliri . . . 70 Cappadocio 50 Isola 37 Capolacroce , -jg Deaths In sixty other "towns estimated at 6,0O0. Total, 38,937. Home, Jan. 19. The death toll of tfie earthquake which rocked Italy

Wednesday morning is estimated at 'between 35,000 and 40,000, although no oillcial count can be made at this time. From thirteen towns of possibly 100 that were completely demolished or partly wrecked come reports of more than 3S,000 dead. The number of injured is placed conservatively at 50,000, and the list is growing hourly as the government dispatches announce the names of towns which have been cut off from all communication since the shock. These districts report heavy casualties, and it will be many days before complete reports of the catastrophe can be compiled and the world advised of the fatal loss of lives and property. Fire and Disease Menace. The aftermath of the disaster, however, is beginning to reveal its appalling proportions. Cold, hunger, fire and disease have followed so swiftly in the wake of the original catastrophe that hundreds of victims may be added to the original number unless the government authorities are able to work a miracleof relief. Despite the winter weather in the devastated country, disease has begun to work in the rude camps of the sur

vivors. In a score of towns , and villages reached within the last twelve hours by squads of militia and volunteers the wastes of brick and stone have been found ablaze. In these great kilns in the last tvo days human beings buried, but with life still, in their bodies, have been roasting slowly. May Blow Up Buildings. The fire menace, at first considered negligible, has become so serious that all militia companies sent out from this city are being provided with chemicals and other fire-fighting apparatus. They also bear explosives, which they have instructions to use as a last resort in saving life, even though many victims, imprisoned in the ruins, must die as a result. The amount of damage done cannot yet be determined from the meager descriptions of the catastrophe that have reached Rome over the hampered lines of communication. Avezzano Worst Sufferer. Avezzano suffered most from the disaster. Ten thousand persons in that district are said to have perished. In Alba 6,000 were killed, while the toll in Sora was 5,000 lives. San Benedetto gave up 3,000 lives, 4,000 were lost at Pescina, 1,300 at Magliano and 1,200 at Capelle. Smaller losses were reported from other towns. Thousands of persons now have lain for days beneath crumbled buildings . throughout the earthquake zone. Some are dead, while others still are living. Many have been removed from the wreckage and brought to Rome hospitals for treatment, or are being cared for in their home towns in temporary structures presided over by physicians and nurses rushed from the capital and other cities in Italy. Camp in the Snow. In the stricken districts the people are camping in the open. Troops are guarding the demolished or partly demolished town to prevent looting. Caste distinctions everywhere have been laid aside, and members of the nobility, senators, deputies and high officials are working shoulder to shoulder with private soldiers and laborers in their efforts to rescue the living to remove the bodies of the dead. Nobility to the Rescue. Automobiles containing members of the Roman aristocracy left Rome at intervals throughout the day, carrying relief stores to the earthquake victims. The family of the duke of Torlomina has gone to Avezzano, the district which is closely connected with the traditions of the ducal house. Prince Gaetani, who lately has collected large sums of money for Belgian relief, and the countess of Spaileti, president of the woman's movement in Italy, were among those who went to the stricken districts. Prince Colonna, mayor of' Rome,

has arranged to supply all the stricken villages with oil for illuminating purposes at the expense of the city of Rome. This will enable the rescuers to work throughout the night Name Governor of Zone. A royal decree was issued today appointing Commendator Dezza civil commissioner to govern the district visited by the earthquake. Sig. Dezza has gone to the stricken region to assume his new duties. The call for conscripts has been suspended in the earthquake district by the military authorities. Many guesses have been made regarding the cause of the earthquake, but the one generally accepted is that of an eminent meteorologist, who says: "The most likely hypothesis is that continuous heavy rains resulted in nitrations which formed great bodies of steam by contact with incandescent matter. This hypothesis seems con

firmed by the fact that the spring at San Giulano has almost doubled the volume of its flow since yesterday." A phase of the political situation in the kingdom resulting from the earthquake is that the call for conscripts in the damaged zone has been rescinded by the military authorities. Rescue Many Victims. Naples, Jan. 19. Rescuing gangs today brought out numerous victims of the earthquake who had been buried in the Church of Santa Restitua, the patron saint of the town of Sora, where hundreds of persons rushed to pray when the first shock occurred. The roof of the edifice fell in with the second shock. Among those brought out were 20 nuns and the priest, who had been celebrating mass. Twenty-seven persons, seriously injured, also were rescued. Three peasants who were found loot ing wrecked buildings in Sora were arrested today. Estimate of U. S. Envoy. Washington, Jan. 19. Rome dispatches from Ambassador Thomac Nelson Page place the dead between thirty-five and forty thousand, and the seriously injured at about the same number. The ambassador said h had inquired of the Italian governmen' if aid were needed, but was told that Italy was not accepting assistance from any foreign country. No Americans have been reported among the killed or injured. Dispatch From Page. The dispatch from Mr. Page says: "Latest reports of the earthquake from semi-official sources place the dead at between thirty-five and forty thousand, and seriously injured at about as many more; press reports both considerably larger. "I have expressed our profound sympathy. To formal inquiry whether more substantial aid is needed, am told by government that while deeply gratified for inquiry. Italy is not accepting proffers of aid from any foreign country. "No Americans so far reported among injured. Owing to interruption of single railway penetrating devastated zone, information difficult. Have sent members of staff to region to report." 120 Shocks Recorded. Since Wednesday the seismograph here has recorded 120 shocks. Except for the first of the disturbances, which was responsible for the major portion of the damage, the shocks were slight. The property loss will amount to several hundred million dollars. A new peril now confronts the population of the stricken valley below Avezzano. Debris from the earthquake has dammed Lake Fucino, and unless the engineers now grappling with the herculean task are able to provide an outflow for the fast rising waters it is feared a break will come and the valley will be deluged. Pneumonia has struck down hundreds of refugees forced to camp in the snow in the open places without proper shelter. Panic and fear still hold the inhabitants of the smaller' villages in their grip, and terror reigns ven among the larger towns, where the troops have been able to cope with the extraordinary situation to better advantage. RUIN OF CENTURY BY EARTHQUAKES Year and Place. Lives Lost.' 1812 Caracas Thousands 1822 Aleppo, Asiatic .Turkey. . .20,000 1851 -Melfi, Italy 14,000 1857 Kingdom of Naples 10,000 1859 Quito, Ecuador 5,000 1861- Mendoza, South Africa 12,000 1863 Manila 1,000 1869 Peru and Ecuador 25,000 1875 Towns of Colombia 14,000 1880 Manila 3300 1881 Scio and villages 4,000 1883 Island of Ischia 2,000 1883 Krakatoa, Java Thousands 1881 Andalusia 1,170 1885 Granada, Spain 690 1887 Southern Europe 2,000 1891 Japan 4,000 1893 Persia 12,000 1894 Japan 10,000 1899 Tiflis 1,000 1902 St. Pierre, Martinique 40,000 1902 Andijan, India 2,500 1904 Abruzzi, Italy; Lima, Perw '.Thousands 1905 North India 35,000 1905 Calabria, Italy 500 1906 Region about Vesuvius 3,000 1906 San Francisco 700 igC6 Valparaiso 1,500 1907 Kingston, Jamaica 1,110 1908 Sicily and Calabria 76,483 1910 Cartago, Costa Ricn 1,500 1912 Turkey 3,000 1914 Japan ..Thousands 1914 Sicily 200 1915 Italy 40,00

PÄPERü WORTH

$76,000 STOLEN Steel Safe Cabinet Pried Open in Insurance Office. Obtain Loot on 15th Floor of Fletcher Trust Building Believed to Have Got $3,000 at Another Place. Indianapolis, Jan. 19 Bonds, notes, first mortgages, certified checks of deposit and other securities valued at $76,000 were stolen from the ofiices of the Crescent Life Insurance Company, fifteenth floor of the Fletcher Savings and Trust building, Saturday night or Sunday night. The thieves pried open a steel cabinet in which the papers had been placed and also broke open all of the . desks in the suite in search of other valuables. The same thieves, it is believed, obtained mortgages and notes valued at approximately $3,000 when they broke open a steel safe cabinet in the offices of the Pension Mutual Life Insurance Company on the seventh floor of the Board of Trade building. They also obtained $44 and some postage stamps. It is believed, however, that the thieves can derive little benefit from their plunder, as only a small per cent of it is negotiable and all of the banks and trust companies have been notified to be on the lookout should any of the securities be offered for sale. The officers of the companies said they at once notified the police department, and detectives are investigating. The fact that the thieves practically confined their efforts to notes, mortgages and other securities, coupled with the fact that papers which might be used to substantiate the validity of the stolen securities also are missing, indicates that the burglars have in mind a plan to dispose of their loot. Kokomo, Ind., Jan. 18 Bert Thatcher who forged two checks for $325 each here and eloped to Canada with Miss Blanche Lamoreaux, a local telephone operator, today pleaded guilty in circuit court to a charge of forgery , and was sentenced to two to fourteen ; years in the State prison. Thatcher's nerve broke as he was arraigned and it was thought he was going to faint. He was taken to the judge's private room and revived. His wife, whom he deserted, with their two smalL children, clung to him in court. Thatcher was handcuffed, as he had escaped once by jumping from a moving train while being returned from Winnipeg, Canada. He will be taken to prison tomorrow. STATE NEWS IN BRIEF. Greencastle, Ind., Jan. 18. Dr. William Fletcher Swahlen, 77 years old, professor of Greek language and literature at DePauw University and the fourth oldest man in point of service on the faculty of the local institution, died at his home here at 10 o'clock tonight. Death was due to a complication of Bright's disease and heart disease. Dr. Swahlen is survived by the widow and three -children. Dr. Percy Swahlen and Benjamin Swahlen of St. Louis, Mo., and Mrs. J. P. Allen, Jr., of Greencastle. Dr. Swahlen had been a member of the DePauw faculty since 1886. Only three other men, vice-president H. A. Gobin, Dean Edwin Post and Col. James Riley Weaver of the present faculty were here at that time. For years Dr. Swahlen was secretary of the faculty and executive committee and during half of his residence here he was the leader of a Sunday morning Bible class that came to be one of the established institutions of the school. During his term of service here both the attendance and wealth of the school were more than doubled. Evansville, Ind., Jan. 18. Coroner Neal Kerney today announced that he would seek the aid of the city detective force in solving the mystery of the death of Henry Bauer, an aged recluse, whose body was found yesterday at the bottom of a twenty-five foot cistern on his farm in German township, near this city. Bauer had not been seen for a week and a search by Henry Fischer, a neighboring farmer, resulted in the finding of the body. Bauer's face and neck were covered with scratches, which, the coroner says, might have been caused in a struggle or in the fall to the bottom of the cistern. Fischer, who is said to be the last person who saw Bauer alive, asserts he heard a noise outside his home Saturday, Jan. 10, and found Bauer intoxicated. He declares he took the hermit home and would have put him to bed had he not resisted. Fischer says he believes the aged man stumbled into the yard when left alone, and fell into the cistern. Near the well was found a basket of vegetables which Bauer was carrying when last seen. Goshen, Ind., Jan. 18. Arlie Chiddister, 20 years old, a young farmer residing near Millersburg, Elkhart county, was instantly killed early this morning when a Lake Shore passenger train struck the buggy in which he wTas riding at Cunningham Crossing. When he met death Chiddister was returning home from a visit with his sweetheart, Miss Josephine Loy. The horse escaped unscratched, but the buggy was reduced to kindling wood. Though he was killed within eight rods of hia home, Chiddister's body was taken to Litfonier before it was identified.

HOOSIER NEWS

fl briefly told 1 Marion. Rev. Arthur B. Strickland, pastor of the First Baptist church, has accepted a call to Providence, R. I. ) Evansville. Nick Winterheimer ' tried to commit suicide in a cell in the county jail by swallowing heads of matches, but his life was saved. Evansville. The trial of Paul B. Griffith of Indianapolis, a dentist, charged with shooting with intent to kill Kid Lemmel, a prize fighter, in a saloon here, has been set for March 15. The jury disagreed in Griffith's first trial. Indianapolis. Dr. John W. Sluss, for 20 years a physician and surgeon in Indianapolis, will leave for France in February or March to join the French army's surgical corps. He will be, accompanied by Dr. Gustave N. Bergener of San Francisco. Winamac. The Vorpilatt Opera house here was damaged by fire, and it is believed to have been started by an overheated stove. The loss is several thousand dollars. The Shill store in the building also was damaged. Lafayette. More than twentyfive cases of smallpox have been found at Clarks Hill, in this county, and Dr. R. H. Campbell, county health officer, is busy there, trying to stamp out the disease. The schools have been close and there will be no public meetings until the epidemic is under control. Physicians were busy quarantining houses. Gary. W. P. Ray, sixty-three years old, truant officer of Gary and county agent for poor children, dropped dead here. He was the friend of every school child in Gary. Mr. Ray is survived by a widow and five children. Worry over the death of his grandson, who was burned while playing around a Christmas tree, is believed to have hastened Mr. Ray's death. Jamestown. Fire starting in the Bale shoe store destroyed three buildings here, with a loss of $20,000 An overheated stove is blamed. The loss to the Bale store and stock is $4,000. The hardware building of Clark & Shaw suffered a loss of $10,000 and the ofiice building of Houk & Winter, insurance agents, $3,000. Hose attached to the chemical wagon broke and the company was of little use. The chemical wagon from New Ross was called, but arrived too late to do more than save surrounding property. Indianapolis. The coming fourth annual poultry show given by the Mulberry Poultry association, Mulberry, is to be held January 25-30. Almost every person in that vicinity will attend the show. The association is offering many more cash prizes than in previous years, and most of the business men are interested and have offered special premiums as a welcome to the exhibitors. J. Frank Smith, secretary of the show, is busy mailing premium lists, and he predicts that this will be the largest show given by the association. The entries close Monday, January 25. Frankfort. When the county council met here and was asked to make a number of apropriations, including $500 reward for the slayer of Walter Thomas, who was found murdered on the morning of January 2, each request for an appropriation was lost for want of a two-thirds vote. An anonymous letter received by Sheriff Millem from Peru said that a woman there held valuable information regarding the Thomas murder. The officer went there and met the woman, but, although acquainted with Thomas, she cotild give no information of value. Bloomlngton. Babe Medina, a Cu: ban barber, who killed his colored wife, several months ago, in the basement of the home of Alex Hirsch, a 'merchant, was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Medina made a plea of self-defense, asserting that his wife shot at him and that he took the revolver away from her and shot her four times. He had no money to paj for lawyers and was defended by three Indiana university law students Fred Smith. Benjamin Drolleuger and Norman Schlemmer. Groencastle. A letter has been received here by relatives from Mrs. Ruth Baker Day, who, with her husband and mother. Mrs. Lou Allen Baker, is in Kiev, Russia. The letter had been opened, showing that the mail censor had looked at its contents. Mrs. Day says they are safe, well and happy. Mr. Day Is doing Y M. C. A. work there, and the last report from him said he had been assisting in one of the hospitals, where hundreds of wounded Russian soldiers have been sent from the front. Mrs. Baker went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Day. and arrived in Kiev only a few days after the war broke out. She was marooned in St. Petersburg for several days before being permittee to go to Kiev. Laporte. Robbed and gagged and bound with telegraph wire and left to die was the experience of Fred Washer of Union Mills, found lying in the snow and unconscious. Physicians fear that the man's experience will result fatally. Washer was on his way home when two men seized him after a pistol duel in the darkness and 'after robbing and gagging him, escaped on a Grand Trunk Western train. Mitchell. John Todd, thirty-eight years old, ended his life here by swallowing poison. A widow and two children survive. The reaion for the suiide is not known.

CAUSE A SMILE NOW

rV.t ! t f I AI 1 f W u C m m, a a. a m a a a mM a ma m a a a mm m m m Instruments. Modern Scientists Amusad at Fc-wU of Ancient Learning and SuperstitionSome Rare Medical Volumes Also Shown. Like a museum of geology of tbo medical profession was the exhibit of rare old tomes and crude surgical instruments which was held by the Missouri Historical society, assisted by the St. Louis Medical society. Digging down into forgotten strata of medical evolution, the exhibitors exhumed a throng of fossils .of ancient Ancient Surgical Instruments. learning and superstition as quaint to the eye of modern science, with its germ theory of disease, aseptic surgery and X-ray, as is a flint arrowhead to the crew of a 42-centimeter howitzer. The exhibits came from the libraries of the medical schools of St. Louis and Washington universities; from the library of the surgeon general of the United States army in Washington, and from the private collections of physicians in St. Louis and other cities. Dr. George Dock, dean of the medical faculty of Washington university, supplied a facsimile of the diploma conferring a doctor's degree upon William Harvey, who discovered the cir''culation of the blood. Dr. James Moores Ball of St. Louis, among scores of other old volumes, loaned "Surgical Works" of Ambrose Pare, tyie Frenchman who haunted the wars of his time (1509-1590) and became 'the father of military surgery. A copy of "the first work on pathology," published at Venice in 1761 by Johannes Baptista Morgagni and entitled "Concerning the Seats and Causes of Disease," was loaned by Dr. Robert E. Schlueter of St. Louis. Among the hundreds of other "quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore" which were on display were a "Regimen Sanitatis," published in Venice in 1495, three years after the discovery of America, and loaned by Dr. E. C. Streeter of Boston; the "Labyrinth of Medical Errors," published in 1553 by the renowned Theophrastus Paracelsus; the complete "Thesaurus Botan-ico-Medico-Anatomicus" of Marcellus Maepighius, published in 16S7, and Thomas Guidott's "On ye Bathe," a treatise concerning the medical qualities of the waters at that resort, which was issued in 1676. The War's Historian. "When the history of this war comes to be written" is a constantly recurring journalistic phrase, as if the story of this great conflict could ever be written. You may be fairly certain that no one under the rank of an archangel, in close touch with omniscience, will ever write the full history of the world war. Down below there isn't, the knowledge, and there isn't the time. There will be some sectional accounts. But if in the fullness of time a world syndicate succeeds in getting some million tons of print within covers, the public will (one hopes) bei thinking of something else. London1 Chronicle. Escorts for Hire in Kansas City. The young man of engaging man-, ners who is willing to hire himself out as an escort to women is said to have a field for his activities these days. Even in Kansas City the new profession has made its appearance, but it is said to have originated in New York. Parents who wish to send their 'daughters to a concert have only to tele-, phone the beaux's bureau, indicate the, mental complexion they expect of the young man and say whether or not they want him to wear evening dress. The bureau fills the order, the girl hears the concert andxthe youn man is well paid for his trouble. A Disguise. "What are you going to wear at th fancy dress ball, Mabel?" "I'm going to wear two skirts amd a petticoat and go m an old-fajkkKMMl matron."