Read Ebook: The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV No. 3 July 1909) by American National Red Cross

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I have seen no estimate of the property loss and it is doubtful whether any approximately accurate estimate can be made. Neither have I seen any figures of the amount of insurance carried on property but the result of inquiries indicates that the total insurance was comparatively small. The Italian people do not seem to have very fully adopted the policy of insuring their property. Unless such insurance as was held covered loss by earthquake, the owners of property can, in any event, collect little, if anything, from the insurance companies. The poverty of this part of Italy, coupled with the overwhelming magnitude of the loss, both of property and life, must make recovery exceedingly slow. The Italian Government is preparing to introduce measures of great liberality intended to help the people re-establish themselves.

Most of the descriptions and photographs of the results of the earthquake have applied chiefly to the City of Messina, because it was the largest city in the earthquake zone and was the point to which relief measures were first of all directed and at which lines of transportation from the outside world centered. Tourists invariably get their first view of the earthquake at Messina and many of them go no further. Descriptions of conditions in Messina, however, convey a fair idea of conditions in all the other ruined cities and towns. Messina had over one hundred thousand population, Reggio about forty thousand, Palmi about twenty thousand, Villa San Giovanni about seven thousand. These were the largest communities in the region affected by the disaster. The ruin everywhere was as complete in proportion to population as was that in Messina. In Reggio about fifteen thousand lives were lost, in Palmi five or six thousand, in Villa San Giovanni about fifteen hundred.

Relief measures were slow to reach the smaller towns lying among the mountains back from the coast. Many of these towns are upon mountain tops and are inaccessible except by donkey trails. The difficulty of access made the work of relief particularly difficult and it is probable that the suffering for food and shelter was greater in the mountain towns than in the larger cities on the coast.

Much was said in early reports about the tidal wave which followed the earthquake. Had the tidal wave occurred alone, it would have been regarded as a great disaster. But overshadowed as it was by the earthquake, it forms but a small item in the sum total of ruin. The wave did not cause much damage on the shores of Sicily, its chief force being expended upon the Calabrian coast. As the wave rushed into the small bays, the funnel shape of the shores piled the water up higher and higher until at the apex of the bays it had reached a height of many feet and rushed across the low lands adjacent with irresistible force. If a village happened to be situated at the innermost point of a bay, it suffered great damage from the wave. Some injury was done in the harbor of Reggio in this way and some at Villa San Giovanni. The chief sufferer from the tidal wave, however, was the little town of Pellaro. Pellaro was, like other Italian towns, constructed entirely of stone and mortar. It was built up solidly along one or two streets which were parallel to the shore. Immediately in the rear of the village were large lemon orchards. The earthquake shook the buildings down and about ten minutes afterward the tidal wave came in and leveled the heaps of ruins in a manner which amazed all who went over the ground later. It was almost impossible to discover the street lines or to identify the sites of the houses. The stones of which the buildings were constructed were carried hundreds of yards inland and scattered among the lemon trees. The entire site of the village was reduced to a dead level and one found it difficult to believe that a town of fifteen hundred population had ever occupied the place. About nine hundred of the people of Pellaro were killed by the earthquake or tidal wave and hundreds of bodies were carried out to sea by the receding waters.

As before mentioned, many Italian cities outside the earthquake zone received and cared for large numbers of earthquake victims. Catania in Sicily with about one hundred and fifty thousand population was closest of these outside cities to the scene of the disaster and was the most accessible of all. The result was that at least twenty-five thousand people from Messina and other destroyed towns were carried into Catania for care. Several thousand of these victims required hospital attention, and all the regular and many improvised hospitals were quickly crowded. The municipal authorities of Catania, with boundless generosity, undertook to provide shelter and support for this tremendous influx of helpless people. Numerous large institutions and vacant private buildings were converted into refuges. There had been no time to make proper preparation for the comfort of these people and it should not be held the fault of Catania that the conditions in the refuges quickly took on a deplorable character.

The best of the refuges was that provided in the new municipal prison. This is a vast, massive stone building, with stone cells and the iron bars and grim, echoing corridors which characterize modern prisons. The building was barely completed and had never been occupied. Everything was clean and wholesome and sanitary provisions were ample. When I visited Catania in March twelve hundred men, women and children from Messina and other earthquake towns were living in this prison in comfort. It was strange to hear baby voices and the lullabys of women in the cells and about the long passages. The great number of cells made it possible to segregate the people by families or by sex and to give to each family a certain amount of privacy. Probably no other great prison ever received a dedication so strange as this.

Between Messina and the mountain town of Taormina, thirty miles to the South, lies a chain of towns and villages which were destroyed by the earthquake. At Taormina, when the earthquake occurred, were two young Americans--Harry Bowdoin and Charles King Wood. Mr. Bowdoin was spending the winter in Taormina with his invalid mother and Mr. Wood is an artist who has lived in Taormina for several years. These men entered with the utmost zeal upon the work of relief. Taormina was not injured, but it lay close to the edge of the zone of destruction and many hundreds of fleeing victims sought refuge there. Others in Taormina also participated actively in relief work, but gradually Messrs. Bowdoin and Wood came to be recognized as the leaders. Afterwards, by common consent, these two young men became representatives of the American Committee in the small towns between Messina and Taormina. Day and night they went up and down the coast and back among the mountain communes, carrying comfort and good cheer. They organized local Committees in every community, gathering relief from the points of distribution at Messina and Catania and conveyed it to these local Committees. Without compensation and with a modesty which shrank from any words of commendation, these Americans performed a laborious and delicate task in a manner to stir the pride of their fellow countrymen.

In attempting to secure reliable information of the methods and extent of relief measures in the earthquake zone, I found an obliging readiness on the part of those in charge at any given point to give me all the facts desired concerning their own respective agencies and a somewhat surprising ignorance of the operations in the same field of any other relief agencies. This in part arose from a deplorable lack of co-operation among the different agencies engaged in relief work and perhaps in part from a spirit of competition and pride which led each representative to desire to have it appear that the agency which he served was the chief factor in the situation. This may be illustrated by an incident which occurred one day when I was visiting the town of Villa San Giovanni.

I took lunch with the Mayor of the town and in the course of conversation inquired of him whether the Italian National Red Cross had participated in the relief work of his town. He replied, with a shrug of his shoulders and in emphatic language, that the Red Cross had given no assistance in Villa San Giovanni; that it might as well have no existence so far as the people of his community had had occasion to know of it. After our luncheon was completed, the Mayor was called away to attend to official matters and I walked up the street toward the municipal headquarters, which were in a small, temporary wooden building. Presently I saw coming down the street in a cloud of dust, a large red automobile. Fluttering from a short staff on the front was a Red Cross flag. The motor drew up with a flourish in front of the Municipal building and two men with Red Cross brassards on their arms dismounted and began unloading several hundred articles of clothing from the tonneau. These they were carrying into the building and stacking up on the floor in one corner of the Mayor's office. I entered into conversation with the man in charge of the Red Cross car. He told me that the Red Cross was sending out a number of automobiles every day from Reggio and Messina to deliver supplies of clothing to the people in the surrounding small towns. I asked him how it happened that he had not before visited Villa San Giovanni. He looked surprised and replied that he had brought several loads of clothing to this place before. Turning to his companion, they compared notes, and he then informed me that this was the seventh visit which they had paid to Villa San Giovanni, each time bringing a large quantity of clothing. Replying to further inquiries he assured me that he and his companion in no instance distributed clothing direct to the people, but had always brought their goods to the municipal headquarters and turned them over to the Mayor for distribution.

It is unnecessary here to speak at length of the relief work of the Italian Red Cross, since the public is already familiar with it. Two months after the earthquake the largest part of the work of the Red Cross had been completed and the greater part of its relief funds expended. Immediately after the earthquake the Red Cross had a hospital ship which carried the sick and wounded from Messina to Naples, and ran a hospital train which conveyed many of the victims from Naples to Rome. The Red Cross also established and maintained ten field hospitals in different parts of the earthquake zone, and carried on a work of great magnitude. When the task of dealing with the sick and wounded was about ended the Red Cross turned its activities in the direction of supplying relief, one of its methods being that of sending consignments of clothing to the small towns by means of motor cars.

The Italian soldier was found everywhere throughout the earthquake district. He was called upon to perform the hardest work and the most trying tasks. Heat, cold and rain were alike to him. Living in the rudest shelters and subsisting upon the most meager fare, he was uniformly cheerful, good natured and obliging. His brave uniform and military trappings were in sharp contrast to his hard life and to his simplicity about which there was something winning and childlike. He received no sympathy nor expected any. I had many occasions to ask information or other assistance from the soldiers and found them always ready to go far beyond any mere demand of duty in meeting my wishes. When far from headquarters, I sometimes went to the shelter of the nearest group of soldiers for food. With a hospitality which was almost pathetic, the men would bring forth the best they had from their cupboards and chests and set it before me with apologies for its meagerness. The usual supply of food I found consisted of dry bread and the native mild wine of the country. Occasionally a small can of meat or fish was found in their stock, but this was evidently regarded as a luxury only to be brought forth on special occasions.

The people of the country bordering on the Straits of Messina have always been accustomed to earthquakes. Slight tremors of the earth are likely to occur at any moment, as the record of any year would show. Since the disaster of December 28th last these small incidents are fraught with a new importance and frequently carry terror to the hearts of the population. Since the great earthquake many small ones have occurred. There may be two or three in a day and then a period of several days with no perceptible tremor. Occasionally one of these little earthquakes comes with a sharp bang and a swift rattle which distinguishes it from its milder and less noticeable fellows. In such instances the people rush wildly from their huts and shelters calling out anxiously to each other and exhibiting signs of the keenest alarm. Especially in the night is the terror pronounced. After a few minutes, finding that no harm has been done, the excited people become calm, retire once more to their shelters, and the clamor gradually quiets down.

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.

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.

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.

At the end of March the lumber from America had been all unloaded from the five ships that carried it to Italy, the working forces engaged in putting up the cottages had been completely organized and Captain Belknap had the great satisfaction of reporting that twenty-four complete houses were erected every working day of ten hours. The American houses are turned over to the municipal authorities of Messina and Reggio and the assignment of the houses to individual families is in the hands of the municipal officers.

It should not be supposed that America is the only agency engaged in building temporary homes. Some have been built by other countries and a very large number by the provinces of Italy. I was informed at the office of the Minister of Public Works in Rome that sites had been assigned at the end of March for the erection of fifteen thousand eight hundred temporary houses. Considering the size of the average Calabrian or Sicilian family, it is probable that these temporary buildings will provide shelter for most of the survivors of the earthquake who are unable to obtain homes through other means.

This informal account of the situation in the earthquake zone, two months after the disaster, cannot with justice be closed without a word of appreciation, of the extremely friendly and helpful attitude of the Italian authorities. They gave every possible facility to Captain Belknap and his assistants, and the engineer who represented the Federal Department of Public Works in Messina co-operated with the American builders constantly and cordially. The Italian Navy assigned one of its brilliant young officers, Commandante Brofferio, to constant duty at the American encampment. He lived on board the supply ship Celtic until it sailed away for America and then with Captain Belknap and the other Americans moved into a group of the new cottages in the American Village. Practical, obliging, tireless and of few words, Commandante Brofferio soon became indispensable and was respected by every one. The Italian Navy also placed at the command of the American officers a torpedo boat for the purpose of conveying Captain Belknap and others back and forth across the Straits of Messina as their duties required. In every way the representatives of America, engaged in the work of Italian relief, have reason to regard the Italian federal and municipal officers, the officers of the army and navy and the heads of the Italian Red Cross and the Central National Committee with feelings of the highest esteem.

REPORT OF EARTHQUAKE IN PORTUGAL

BY LOUIS H. AYM?, American Consul-General at Lisbon.

I have the honor to furnish additional details of the earthquake shock experienced here April 23 and already briefly reported by me in my No. 75 of that date.

It is now learned that while some slight damage in the way of fallen chimneys, cracked walls and ceilings was caused in Lisbon, very serious damage was done on the other side of the Tagus to the northeast. Four villages were completely destroyed, 37 persons were killed, a very large number wounded and some thousands made homeless. The greatest damage occurred at Benavente, about 23 miles from Lisbon.

Twenty persons lost their lives at Benavente and some idea of the severity of the earth movement there may be gathered from the fact that the great church, the walls of which were more than 13 feet thick, was entirely wrecked.

At Samora de Correia there were seven killed. At St. Estevao three were killed and two deaths occurred at Salvaterra de Magos. Nine hundred buildings were destroyed in this last place and some 3,000 persons made homeless. The other three villages are also heaps of ruins.

Telegraphic communication was destroyed and the news came by messengers. Instantly energetic measures were taken for the relief of the sufferers. A dozen doctors, full ambulance corps, a huge quantity of medical, surgical and other hospital supplies were rushed to the scene; police, engineers, fire brigades and soldiers were also sent and the King, accompanied by his uncle, Dom Affonso, were on the spot as quickly as special trains and automobiles could carry them after they received the news. The parliament voted unanimously 0,000 to be at once available for the relief of those needing it, and great quantities of provisions were sent to the afflicted district.

The shock here in Lisbon upset a small lamp in a shrine in a private house, setting it on fire. The King and Dom Affonso were there almost with the arrival of the firemen. Too much praise cannot be given to the cool, clear-headed, swift and effective aid extended, especially in view of the fact that Lisbon was utterly panic-stricken. The usual idiots had issued predictions that another and greater shock would occur in twenty-four hours. Two light shocks, at 2 o'clock and 6 o'clock the morning of April 24, and the fearful news from the Trans Tagus made terror yet greater. Thousands had passed the night in the streets. In the Avenida, in front of this Consulate, many hundred richly dressed women slept out under shelters made from the park benches and chairs with shawls and rugs stretched over them to make a sort of roof. Amid this universal terror and fear everyone in authority gave evidence of coolness and energy. The newspapers used their heaviest type and great headlines for rational arguments to reassure the people; all parties in parliament praised the generous and energetic action of the King and the government, and the longest speech made in that body yesterday was devoted to counteracting the panic. There is no seismographical observatory or instruments in Portugal, but the scientists have come out with quieting explanations of what has happened and advised that all should think only how to relieve those who had actually suffered. I repeat that too much praise cannot be given for the able manner in which Portugal is handling the whole matter.

The last earthquake shock felt in Lisbon occurred in August, 1903, but was much less severe than this. Prior to that there was a shock in 1859. I have spoken with two gentlemen who were then here and they tell me it was not anything as severe as this. The whole lower city is built on made ground, filled in after the great earthquake of 1755, and in case of a severe shock great damage might be done there, but the new city is built on rock and all houses are built with a special view to withstanding earthquake shocks, having a skeleton of peculiarly and skillfully interlaced timbers that gives great elasticity and at the same time resistance.

While writing this I learn that the Portuguese Red Cross is already sending in stretchers and ambulances with the wounded from the villages to be taken care of in the Lisbon hospitals, and that doctors and nurses are now busily at work in the field. Thousands are still thronging the parks and wider avenues, but confidence is being gradually restored.

Examination of this Consulate yesterday revealed that the heavy moulded ceiling in the main business office is very badly cracked and a portion several feet square is liable to fall at any moment. The whole ceiling will probably have to be taken down. One of the large windows is also somewhat sprung. These damages are examples of the results of the shock in this city.

I do not believe that any foreign relief will be required and, should it be, our legation here would of course be the proper and natural channel by which such information would be forwarded. I have wished only to give a brief notice of the most salient features of the catastrophe, but could not refrain from saying an appreciative word regarding the splendid manner in which the calamity has been met, and I have had some experience in such things.

As later information the press told of much distress in spite of all the work done by the Portuguese Government and the Red Cross. The American Red Cross, through its representative in the State Department, Mr. Huntington Wilson, requested information as to whether any assistance would be accepted by the Portuguese Red Cross.

On May 17th the following reply was received from the American Minister at Lisbon: "Portuguese Red Cross accepts proffered assistance." On receipt of this information the following message was sent to the Secretary of State:

"Will the Secretary of State please telegraph to the American Minister in Lisbon for, the Red Cross, as follows: 'Draw for one thousand dollars and pay to Portuguese Red Cross for earthquake relief, contribution of American Red Cross.'"

Our American Red Cross has not forgotten the fact, not generally known, that during the Spanish-American war the Portuguese Red Cross sent to the then president of the American Red Cross ,465.00 for the care of our sick and wounded.

LISBON, May 25, 1909.

THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS, Washington, D. C.

Gentlemen--I am directed by the Central Committee of the Portuguese Red Cross Society, Lisbon, to present to the American National Red Cross, Washington, our most earnest thanks for your kind and valuable contribution of ,000.00 for our Earthquake Relief Fund, this sum having been forwarded in a draft signed by His Excellency Col. Charles Page Bryan, American Minister, Lisbon.

The receipt of said sum has been acknowledged by means of our local press and duly appreciated by our citizens as an eloquent proof of your sympathy towards the poor victims of the disaster, and was, at same time, of invaluable benefit to sufferers.

I avail myself of this opportunity to assure you of my high consideration.

PELA SOCIEDADE PORTUGUEZA DA CRUZ VERMELHA, G. L. Santon Terreira, Secretary.

A TESTIMONIAL TO THE AMERICAN RED CROSS FROM ITALY

Under the advice of the American Ambassador at Rome and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, T. Tittoni, ,000 of the relief funds sent by the American Red Cross were placed in the hands of a special Italian Committee on rehabilitation. This Committee was called the Committee of American Offerings. The Chairman was Donna Tittoni and among its members were Countess Taverna, the Duke of Terranuova, the Marquis of San Ferdinaveto, Signor Tenerami and Signor Mario Ferdiani.

As a token of the appreciation of these offerings the Committee presented to the American Red Cross, through our National Director, Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, a silver tablet upon which is inscribed the following Latin sentence:

"Fortuita non civium tantum modo, sed urbium damna, munificentia vindicat."

"Your bounty repaired the catastrophe not merely of individual citizens but of entire cities ."

REPORT OF PARTIAL EXPENDITURE OF AMERICAN COMMITTEE IN ROME

The following table contains a preliminary statement of the Italian relief operations of the American Committee in Rome. A complete statement will be prepared later which will show a substantially larger expenditure. The table here given, however, conveys a very fair idea of the extent and variety of the extremely important work carried on by the American Committee.

Thousands of vouchers covering every item of expense have been preserved by the Committee and will eventually be filed in the office of the American Red Cross in connection with the report of the Committee. It will be recalled that the members of the American Committee in Rome were Honorable Lloyd C. Griscom, American Ambassador to Italy, Chairman, and Messrs. George B. Page, H. Nelson Gay, Winthrop Chanler, William Hooper and Samuel L. Parrish.

The Ladies Auxiliary Committee for direct relief work in Rome and Naples 85.423,80

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