Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1883 — The Ischia Calamity. [ARTICLE]

The Ischia Calamity.

The mail aooounts of the Ischia calamity bring It before the reader In still more vivid colors than those of the telegrams. At Casamicciola there was a resident population of 4,000, and the town was crowded with visitors After a premonitory roaring the earth began to roil and surge “like a pot of thick mush.” and in an Instant buildings begad to crackle and crumble into heaps of rubbish. Great cracks opened in the earth, into which many houses disappeared bodily. It was about 10 o'clock at night when the end came. A moment bet ore, and a large town was full of people, many already in bed. A moment later, and not a single house was left standing, saving only a small church by the sea, ana the root was partly shaken off that A few of tbe inhabitants esoaped to the streets only to be crushed later by falling walla Dense masses of sulphurous smoke and dust were emitted, in which many were suffocated. There was not a light left It Was total darkness Not until faioming could the survivors begin to rescue the wounded In the ruins of tint single town 4,000 people lie entombed For a day or two many lingered in suffering. One by one' their orles ceased In two or three days the progress of decomposition has made the work of seeking for remains an impossible task. This is the history of one town. There were a half-dozen others in which similar scenes were witnessed upon a smaller scale. It was one of the most appalling disasters of modern times