Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1876 — The. Warnings from Vesuvius—Preparing for a Possible Calamity. [ARTICLE]

The. Warnings from Vesuvius—Preparing for a Possible Calamity.

After the slight earthquake shocks felt at Naples lust mouth the correspondent at that city of the London 1 imet wrote as follows to that journal: We have had no other alarm from earthquakes since Monday* and public feeling is subsiding into its usual tranquil' state of security. For one or two. days everyone, I believe, was anxious and apprehensive, for it is no trifle to be rocked in your lied, U/ see your walls rocking backward and forward,, and to hear the timbers creaking. Such sights would be alarming anywhere, more especially in Naples, which has suffered from a series of disasters, and which lias not yet forgotten the awful carthquakd of 1857. On Monday night and Tuesday morning few persons went to bed; or if they did they threw themselves on it in military style, completely dressed and ready for a start. Many formed parties, as if seeking security in society: but more were in the streets, in the cases, or in carriages of any kind they could lay hands on. Those who were less fortunate had to pass the night on the pave exposed to rain, and what for this country was bitter cold. 'lnhere was a full expectation that the earthquake would repeat its visit at the end of twenty-four hours after the first shock-Hfr not unfrequehtly does —so that from midnight until 3:24 on Tuesday morning apprehension became increasingly aud painfully strong. Conversation was on the wane, snatches of the Litany were chanted befe and there almost sotto toce. As three o’clock approached there was,a dead, silence, as it the enemy were upo'u therp; and thus it was at 3:15, when apprehension \y - as intense; but the minute-hand marked 3:24, anil the sense ot relief was great, for nothing happened to create alarm, though this did not suliice to satisfy those who fancied that the dreaded visitor might have delayed his coming, or that clocks might be wrong. A few minutes more restored tranquillity to the most timid, and by dawn of day all went home chilled to the marrow, many, it is probable, having found the death from which they lied. During the day preceding this anxious night preparations were made by persons which remind us of the hurried flight from Pomeii, indications of which have often been brought to light during the excavations. Boxes were purchased and jewels packed, and in some cases, it is said, even articles ot dress. All that was most precious was in readiness to be carried off, and, says a journalist, one lady sent off her “ adorato papagallj" (adored parrot), to be restored if demanded, or bequeathed to the friend if she herself was buried under the ruins of Naples. It ijs unnecessary to, say that this general apprehension was of a most exaggerated and unnecessary character. “Still no one can answer for nis house when its foundations are heaving up and down, and we cannot forget the horrors of 1857, when 30,000 persons were destroyed, by earthquake in the neighboring provinces, and our bells rang, as it were, funeral peals over them. Later reports now tell us that the siiock was felt as far as Bari, and in every place it excited great alarm. In Salerno the people were in a state of fanatical madness. All rushed to the cathedral, insisting on bringing out the statue of the patron saint, St. Matthew, and on the bells being rung—a not uncommon practice in a tempest. The clerg}', however, m obedience to th 6 civil authorities, would not permit it; but public feeling was too strong to be resisted, so that the statue was carried off' on the shoulders of men. Wax tapers were seized and, followed by many thousand persons, St. Matthew; was borne in procession through the streets. There was considerable fear that a dangerous collision might have occurred, for, by order of the Prefect, a detachment of soldiers was sent out and placed at the disposal of the Q ares tor. After a long time, however, the people were persuaded that the saint had little connection with the earthquake, and, as it did not repeat its visit, St. Matthew was taken back to the cathedral, and all returned to their homes. No serious disaster has occurred anywhere except in St. Marco, in Lamis, in the Capitanata, a commune of about 15,000 persons. There several houses were thrown down, and three persons buried. Many foreign visitors left Naples on Monday, and it is feared that for the moment the trade of the s/eason will be injured; but, with the almost certainty of an eruption, crowds will probably come in. As in 1857 the earthquake of December was followed very soon after by au eruption, for if Vesuvius was not the center of the recent movement it is more or less remotely connected with it. The activity of the mountain increases daily, and Cozzolino, the well-known guide, of Vesuvius, writes to me that the shocks have been frequent at Resina, though slight. The panic which was created there on Monday, he says, was indescribable; for, in addition to there was a general apprehension that the mountain was, or would be, pouring down its streams of lava upon them. Let me hazard the conjecture that the actual subterranean may have been produced or precipitated by the deluges of rain which have fallen this season. Prof. Phillips, in his interesting work on Vesuvius, says: “It we follow out the idea arrived at in the preceding passages—internal fissures arising from some kind of accumulated pressure —the necessity of earthquakes following upon such a process in a volcanic region will be apparent. For thus the heated interior becomes opened to the admission of water; the generation of steam, the sudden shock, tire far-extended vibratory motion, are consequences of a slow change of dimensions, in presence Of internal heat aud admitted air.”