The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 2)

VOL. IV. APRIL, 1909. No. 2.

AMERICAN
RED CROSS
BULLETIN

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D C

Yearly Subscription, 50 cents. Single Copy, 15 cents.
(Issued Quarterly.)

ADVANCED SPECIALTIES FOR
SICKROOM AND HOSPITAL.

“MEINECKE”
TRADE MARK

SIMPLEX
SANITARY

PAPER SPUTUM CUP

With Hinged Cardboard Cover which Closes Automatically

A NEW CUP AND COVER TO BE USED DAILY AND
TO BE BURNED WITH CONTENTS

PATENTED OCT. 29, ’07

PAPER CUP CUP IN HOLDER WITH COVER RAISED WIRE HOLDER

The “SIMPLEX” Is the Most Practical and
Best Paper Sputum Cup on the Market

SIX REASONS WHY

1.—It is already folded into shape for immediate use.

2.—Each Cup has a cardboard cover, attached with a paper hinge, and both Cup and cover are burned after being in use a day.

3.—The cover is easily and quickly raised, and closes automatically.

4.—The Cup having no flanges, allows free entrance of sputum.

5.—It is made of heavy manila, waterproof paper, which, being light in color, facilitates ready examination of the sputum.

6.—It has a neat wire holder, which is easily kept clean.

RETAIL PRICES

NO. 1 PACKAGE 10 paper Cups, with covers and one Wire Holder, 25c PER PACKAGE
NO. 2 PACKAGE 10 paper Cups, with covers, but without the Holder, 20c PER PACKAGE

Some prefer to use a new Holder with every ten Cups, but one Holder will do for a hundred or more.

PRICE OF HOLDER, IF SOLD SEPARATELY, 10c. EACH

Special Prices Made to Hospitals and Sanatoriums

Sent by Mail, Prepaid, upon Receipt of Price.

MEINECKE & COMPANY
48-50 Park Place New York

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS

Officers

President,
HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.

Vice-President,
ROBERT W. de FOREST.

Treasurer,
HON. CHAS. D. NORTON.

Counselor,
HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS.

Secretary,
CHARLES L. MAGEE.

Chairman of Central Committee,
MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (Ret.)

National Director,
ERNEST P. BICKNELL.

Board of Consultation

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE H. TORNEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.

REAR ADMIRAL PRESLEY M. RIXEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy.

SURGEON-GENERAL WALTER WYMAN,
U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.

Central Committee 1908-1909

Major-General George W. Davis, U. S. A. (ret.), Chairman.

Brigadier-General George H. Torney, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army, War Department, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Huntington Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State, Department of State, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Charles D. Norton, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, U. S. Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C.

Medical Director John C. Wise, U. S. N., Navy Department, Washington, D. C.

Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers, Solicitor-General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.

President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, University of California.

Mr. John M. Glenn, 105 East 22d street, New York, N. Y.

Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Washington, D. C.

Hon. James R. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

Hon. A. C. Kaufman, Charleston, S. C.

Hon. H. Kirke Porter, 1600 I street, Washington, D. C.

Mr. John C. Pegram, Providence, R. I.

General Charles Bird, U. S. A., Wilmington, Del.

Col. William Cary Sanger, Sangerfield, N. Y.

Judge Lambert Tree, 70 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill.

Hon. James Tanner, Washington, D. C.

Mr. W. W. Farnam, New Haven, Conn.

Note—Attention is invited to the recent changes in the Officers and Central Committee members.

The President of the United States has appointed Hon. Huntington Wilson, Hon. Charles D. Norton, Brigadier General George H. Torney and Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers members of the Central Committee to represent the Departments of State, Treasury, War and Justice, respectively. The Executive Committee has elected Hon. Charles D. Norton Treasurer and Hon. Lloyd W. Bowers Counselor to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of the former Treasurer and Counselor.

CONTENTS

Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter.

Messina—View Showing Destruction Along Water Front.

(By courtesy of the New York World.)

His Excellency, Lloyd C. Griscom, American Ambassador at Rome.

WILLIAM H. TAFT
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

PREFACE

The April Bulletin appears with a new cover, on the front page of which is a symbolical figure representing the Red Cross—a strong, womanly form, with arms outstretched over the victims of battle and disaster. What it means to any community devastated by some terrible calamity, and what it means to the sick and wounded in time of war to know that a great, strong, sympathetic organization stands ready and prepared to bring them instant help, only those who have taken part in active relief work can fully understand, but everyone can have some realization of the uplift and encouragements the Red Cross can bring in the terrible days of suffering and depression that follow disaster.

Something of what our American Red Cross has been able to do in Italy for the victims of the most terrible catastrophe of modern times is told in this Bulletin. We are glad to have been able to give our sympathy practical form, and let the deeds of our Red Cross prove the solidarity of international brotherhood.

The report of the Red Cross Christmas Stamp is given in this number, showing how this little stamp of good cheer has accomplished a very good and widespread mission.

MISS MABEL T. BOARDMAN
Copyright, Clinedinst, ’08.

From China has come a report of the relief work, after the flood, near Canton, last year, with illustrations forwarded by the American Vice-Consul there.

A report of the Red Cross work at the time of the Inauguration will be given in the July Bulletin.

Our people give so liberally when disaster arouses their sympathy, but may we not hope that the time will soon come when, by gifts and legacies to its Endowment Fund, our American Red Cross may be possessed of such a certain income that it can “continue and carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace, and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same.” according to its charter, and have always funds on hand with which to render first aid when disasters occur, without having to wait until contributions are received.

The patriotic men and women of other countries have given millions of dollars in small and large donations and legacies to the permanent funds of their Red Cross societies. Will not our men and women show an equally patriotic and humane spirit by doing the same for the American Red Cross?

HON. BEEKMAN WINTHROP
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

THE SICILIAN AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKE

“Messina and Reggio destroyed by an earthquake” flashed over the wires and appeared in our press the last days of the year. The terrible news, with its story of the fearful loss of life and property, seemed too appalling to be true. The world, though stunned by its magnitude, was yet to learn that no pen could describe the horrors of a disaster unparalleled in modern history, and that only those who saw the scene of devastation soon after the catastrophe have any realization of its terrible results. As for those who lived through the earthquake and escaped, the mental fear and physical agony they had undergone left their minds dazed and blank. When some realization of the truth dawned upon the world a wave of sympathy was awakened everywhere. It is especially for such times of disaster that the Red Cross has its being, and the call for help was immediately issued from headquarters at Washington. The President and Governors of States were notified that our National Society was ready to receive and transmit the contributions our people were glad to make for suffering Italy. President Roosevelt, in his cables to the King of Italy, expressing his own and his countrymen’s sympathy, stated that the “American Red Cross has issued an appeal for the sufferers.” Many Governors of States issued proclamations, asking that all contributions be sent through the American Red Cross. How promptly and how generously, our people expressed their sympathy in tangible shape is known everywhere. Glad were we in America to do what we could to help our suffering fellow-men in beautiful and well-loved Italy. Something of what the American Red Cross, our national member of that greatest of all institutions of international brotherhood, has been able to do with the contributions it has received is told in this Bulletin by those who in Italy have helped to administer the funds. In all of this work the Society has had the most valuable and untiring assistance of Mr. Lloyd Griscom, the American Ambassador at Rome. It cannot too strongly express its appreciation of all that he has accomplished in the line of careful and prompt use of the money it has sent. What our Red Cross has accomplished has been done with a sincere desire to be of help, with a deep appreciation of the complex and difficult problem Italy has had and still has to face, and with the hope that the wounds of this beautiful country, so recently devastated by this terrible calamity, may soon be healed and the people re-established in a happy and prosperous life.

MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

ERNEST P. BICKNELL
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ITALIAN RED CROSS

Knowing that the Italian Red Cross was especially well organized for carrying on hospital relief work, because of its field hospitals, fourteen hospital trains and equipment for two ships’ hospitals, besides an active personnel, the American Red Cross transmitted to it through our Ambassador at Rome $320,000 to be applied to its relief work in the earthquake district. The Italian Red Cross, in two previous Calabrian earthquakes and at the time of the Vesuvian eruption, maintained a number of hospitals and relief stations. At the time of the latter disaster the American Red Cross received about $12,000, which was transmitted to the Italian Red Cross. Later a special report was made by this Society of the relief work it performed at that time. A report of the relief operations in Southern Italy will doubtless be issued sometime in the future, but this must not be expected too soon, as experience has taught how long drawn out is relief work after serious disasters. Baron Mayor des Planches, the Italian Ambassador at Washington, in speaking of the Italian Red Cross, said:

CHARLES L. MAGEE.
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

“As the representative of the Italian Government, I desire to give the strongest indorsement of the Italian Red Cross, with which the American Red Cross is in the most intimate relation, and to say that my Government places absolute confidence in this great national organization.”

On January 4, the following cablegram was received from Count Taverna:

“The Italian Red Cross tenders sincerest thanks to American Red Cross for conspicuous contribution of 1,538,500 Italian lire, received through American Ambassador in Rome, toward the relief of the distressed districts of Reggio, Calabria and Messina, and begs to express its keen appreciation of the feelings of solidarity and warm sympathy with the stricken populations, which have prompted their generous act.

“COUNT TAVERNA, President Italian Red Cross.”

Since this despatch was received further remittances have been made, bringing the total of the American Red Cross contributions to the Italian Red Cross up to $320,000.

ROBERT W. DE FOREST

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS ORPHANAGE

Queen Helena.

Hundreds of little children were left fatherless and motherless amidst the ruins of Messina and Calabria. Scores of them were even too young to be able to give any information in regard to themselves or their families. For years these must be cared for, and having been left without property or relatives, must be so educated that, after reaching mature years, they will be able to support themselves. Helpless childhood appeals strongly to everyone, and the Red Cross, which after great calamities aims when the first temporary aid is over, to rehabilitate and place again upon their feet the victims of the disasters, was ready to accept the suggestion of the Italian Government that some of the funds entrusted to its administration by the American people should be devoted to the maintenance of an agricultural colony in Sicily or Calabria for the care of a hundred or more of the orphaned children. In national relief the American Red Cross does not permit the use of its emergency funds for the purpose of any permanent endowments, but in international relief it believes it wisest to act under the suggestion of the American diplomatic representative, the Government and relief committees in the country where the disaster occurs. Therefore, when Mr. Griscom, the Ambassador at Rome, after consulting with the Italian Government, asked that such an agricultural orphanage colony be maintained by a donation from the American Red Cross, the suggestion was promptly complied with. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars are to be devoted to this purpose.

REAR-AD. PRESLEY M. RIXEY
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

The colony will be situated in Sicily or Calabria, and will consist of model farms, where scientific agricultural instructions will be given by agents of the Royal University of Agriculture. The Italian Government will furnish the land, and the Italian National Relief, under the patronage of Queen Helena will provide the buildings. It will be called “The American Red Cross Orphanage,” and the American Ambassador is to be an ex-officio member of its governing committee. It is to be a lay institution, and not ecclesiastical. A yearly budget of its expenses will be published, which must meet the approval of the Minister of the Interior, who at present is also the Prime Minister. A number of the poor women left widows and dependent by the earthquake, and who in many cases also lost their little children, will be given employment at this orphanage, and the care of other little children will help to lift this sorrow from their hearts. From these women the children will receive again much of that mother-love and care of which this terrible disaster has robbed them.

SURG.-GEN. WALTER WYMAN
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

Speaking of this orphanage, Mr. Griscom writes on February 19 to the chairman of the Central Committee of the American Red Cross:

“I can assure you that this generous gift of the American Red Cross has made a profound impression in Italy. I made the formal presentation to Her Majesty, the Queen, on the 16th instant, and Her Majesty was overcome with emotion and for a moment at loss to express herself. Finally she made a beautiful speech and poured forth her admiration for the organization of the American Red Cross.”

Ambassador Griscom, under date of February 18, forwarded to the State Department for transmission to the American Red Cross two letters from the Countess Spaletti Rasponi, the President of the Patronato Regina Elena, and from the Honorable Bruno Chimirri, President of the “Comitato di Vigilanza,” respectively, expressing the gratitude of the Committee and Council of the Patronato Regina Elena for the gift of $250,000, for the establishment of the Orphanage. The letters referred to follow:

MAJ.-GEN. R. M. O’REILLY
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08

“Excellency:

“The Council of the ‘Opera Nazionale di Patronato Regina Elena,’ having known of the conspicuous offer of 1,300,000 lire made by the American National Red Cross in favor of the children whom the recent earthquake has thrown into the condition of orphans, has passed a vote of thanks to the officers and to Your Excellency, to whose influential interest it is due if so important a part of the funds collected in America has been devoted to our institution.

“And I, interpreting the desire of the Council, warmly and specially beg Your Excellency to kindly transmit to the meritorious American Red Cross the expression of our profound and heartfelt gratitude toward all the noble and great American nation, not inferior to any other in all the manifestations of human genius and solidarity.

“With the assurances of my highest consideration,

“The President,
(Signed) “COUNTESS SPALETTI RASPONI.”

HON. ROBERT BACON
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08

“Mr. Ambassador:

“I have the honor to offer you the warmest thanks of the Committee and Council of the ‘Opera Nazionale di Patronato Regina Elena’ for the generous offer which you have made on behalf of the Calabrian and Sicilian orphans.

“I beg you to be good enough to be interpreter of our very grateful sentiments to the American Red Cross, which has completed, with its splendid gift, its relief work in Calabria and Sicily.

“The Agricultural Colony, which will be named American Red Cross Orphanage,’ will perpetuate the remembrance of this charity, and will contribute to render continually more close the ancient ties of sympathy and friendship which unite Italy with your mighty Republic, ties which you called attention to in your brilliant speech on the occasion of the centenary of the great President Lincoln.

“Accept, Mr. Ambassador, the assurances of my high consideration.

(Signed) “B. CHIMIRRI.

“To His Excellency,
“Hon. Lloyd C. Griscom,
“Ambassador of the United States of America, Rome.”

MED. DIRECTOR J. C. WIRE
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08

HOUSES FOR ITALY

Our own experiences after serious disasters in the United States have taught us that in nearly all of such cases one of the most serious problems to be met is the providing of shelter for the thousands—sometimes hundreds of thousands of victims. Italy has had this same serious problem to meet after the late unparalleled disaster in Sicily and Calabria. The American Ambassador at Rome was requested by the State Department to consult with the Italian Government as to the best use to be made of the $500,000 left by the Congressional appropriation of $800,000, after the supplies on the Navy ships, Celtic and Culgoa, which were sent to the scene of the disaster, had been paid for. The reply came in the nature of a request that this fund be expended in the purchase and providing of materials for houses. This suggestion has been admirably carried out by the Navy Department, which has purchased and shipped, fully prepared, materials for the immediate erection of 2,500 houses, including window sashes, doors, etc., and the charter of four ships for their transportation. Some eight expert carpenters and a large number of tools have been sent on these vessels, that the erection of these houses may go on promptly.

HON. JAMES R. GARFIELD
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

But the need of shelter will continue, for Mr. Griscom writes that the homes of 1,100,000 persons have been completely or partially destroyed and their mode of life interrupted, so on his advice and that of the Italian Government, the American Red Cross, with the kind aid of Pay-Inspector J. A. Mudd, of the United States Navy, who took entire charge of this matter, purchased in New Orleans, at a cost of $100,000, the materials for 550 complete houses, chartering for the purpose of their transportation the S. S. Newlands, which sailed for Messina on February 11. Besides the materials for these houses, there was shipped a large quantity of lumber. No carpenters nor tools were sent on this vessel, as those already sent on the Government ships would be available for the work of erecting these Red Cross houses, each of which will have before it a little metal enameled placard in red, white and blue, of which a reproduction is given at the head of this article.

HON. HENRY M. HOYT
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

Ex-Governor Guild on January 26 informed the Red Cross that forty-nine portable houses could be obtained in Massachusetts from the Springfield Portable Construction Company. These were purchased for $6,978, and shipped on one of the vessels carrying the government lumber directly to Messina, without expense. The Springfield Portable Construction Company kindly returned to the Red Cross $500 of the payment made on these houses as their contribution for the relief work.

As the Congressional appropriation has been entirely expended for house materials and the chartering of ships, the American Red Cross, besides expending $10,000 for the erection of the houses it has sent over, has transmitted $38,000 to pay for the erection of the houses to be made from the materials purchased and shipped by the United States Government.

HON. ELIHU ROOT
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

EARLY DAYS OF RELIEF

BY W. BAYARD CUTTING, JR.
Special Representative of the American National Red Cross.

Mr. W. Bayard Cutting, the American Vice-Consul at Milan, who was promptly sent to the scene of the disaster by the Ambassador at Rome to look after American and consular interests, was requested by the American Red Cross to act there as its Special Representative, and $15,000 was placed at his disposition to meet any immediate needs, especially those of any Americans he might discover among the victims. Mr. Cutting most kindly consented to act in this capacity. He was on the scene within a few days of the catastrophe, and his interesting article written for the Bulletin gives a graphic description of the early days of the relief work. The Red Cross is not only indebted to Mr. Cutting for this article, but for the valuable aid he rendered to the Society.—Editor.

When the steamer Nord Amerika entered the harbor of Messina on the morning of January 2, 1909, there was no excited rush among the passengers to get a first view of the town. We knew that we were about to have one of the greatest impressions of our life, to see a panorama of desolation and destruction such as the world has rarely presented in the history of man. Amid that desolation we were to live for days and weeks, and to perform trying duties; new sensations would soon crowd upon us; curiosity would be satisfied all too soon. Meanwhile there was no reason for hurrying to a scene of horror. Thus we sat uneasily in the saloon, where we had spent a night of seasick misery, and tried to munch dry bread and ship’s biscuit, inventing pretexts for not going on deck. We all dreaded the flames and the ruins, and the corpses floating through the straits, up and down with the tide. Then the engines stopped; we had arrived, and must go ashore. Each of us stuffed a loaf or a biscuit into his pocket, and had a look at his revolver. Those few who had water-bottles filled them. With nerves braced to face any horrors, we ascended the companion way.

HON. JAMES TANNER
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.

We saw what the traveler to Messina has seen through the centuries—one of the beautiful places of the earth bathed in the light of the rising sun. We were close to the shore, it is true, and could make out the ruins. The palaces fronting along the stately Marina were roofless. There were gaps between the palaces—white heaps of debris. Toppling buildings, and houses without outer walls, like children’s doll houses, could be made out. Here and there out of a roof came flames and curling smoke. But to see all this one had to look for it. What attracted the eye, and compelled attention through the magical appeal of its beauty, was a broad expanse of still water, protected from the sea by a projecting point of land; then a flat water front, two or three miles long; and behind, circle after circle of hills, bewildering in their rich variety of form and color. This was the real Messina, you felt, what an ancient phraseology would call its formal and final causes. With those fertile hills, with this spacious harbor, situated on a principal trade route, Messina would always be a city. Houses and inhabitants there would always be to embody the Messina idea, to fulfill the Messina purpose.

Hon. W. Bayard Cutting, Jr. U. S. Vice-Consul at Milan. Special Representative of the American Red Cross.

The port was filled with ships, flying the flags of many nations. Boatmen in rowboats surrounded the Nord Amerika and offered to take us ashore. There was nothing catastrophic or even dramatic in their appearance and manner. I was almost disappointed to see them so well dressed, and pleased, on the other hand, to observe that they did not attempt to bargain. From the boatmen, as a matter of fact, when I talked to them, I first derived that strong impression of the oriental affinity of the Sicilians which deepened with every day of my stay in Messina. Their mood was one of submission, unsurprised and unassertive, to the hard hand of fate. They did not rebel nor complain, and on the other hand they would not strive. Life had ceased to have any value; why trouble about its prolongation? It was folly to think of building a comfortable house, when there was no one left to occupy it; or to earn money which could bring no sweetness. So most of them sat idly in the streets, or under the roof of the market, and took what food was put before them; or stood watching the soldiers dig in their own homes, where their families were buried, without raising a hand to help. The few who worked, like our boatmen, did not care what pay they received. A piece of bread they were glad to get; but when it was a matter of money, one lira or five was all the same.

This apathy of the native population, amounting to a kind of stupor, since it abolished even begging, stood out sharply before us, when we went ashore, in contrast to the activity of the military forces. As we turned to the left down the long Marina—we had landed near the northern extremity of the town and it was clear that the center of things was far to the south—the way was so crowded that we could not walk more than two abreast, and were often obliged to fall into single file. The Marina is a broad promenade along the water’s edge; but at least half its width was blocked with debris from the palaces at the back; and on the water side the way was stopped by impediments of all kinds; piles of lumber, blanket heaps and rude huts put up for temporary shelter—tarpaulins spread over poles, for the most part. As we walked down the middle, picking our way among the cracks and fissures in the ground, we were constantly making way for troops of soldiers with spades and pick-axes over their shoulders. Almost equally numerous were the parties bearing long lines of litters. They were marching in our direction or else out of side streets to our right; and as they passed we looked nervously at each burden, to see whether the face was uncovered. Sometimes it was; occasionally even the occupant of the litter was raised on his elbow, staring with uncomprehending curiosity at the crowd on either side. More often no face was exposed; then we knew that the man was one of those dead who encumbered the path to the living. No bodies were touched, we knew, unless they actually impeded the work of rescue. Otherwise they must be left alone; the living had the first claim. Yet the line of litters was unending.

Illustrating the Capriciousness of the Earthquake.

Soldiers Bearing a Wounded Man Rescued on the Seventh Day After the Earthquake.

On our right the view of the town was screened by a line of fairly intact house fronts. The principal palaces of Messina had flanked the Marina; their outer walls had resisted bravely, on the whole. Such glimpses as we got of the interiors made it clear that those walls were mere shells; still they gave to the Marina a deceptive appearance of solidity. Between the palaces, however, came long heaps of mere debris, thirty or forty feet high. One of them we knew must be our consulate; but which? No one could tell us. No one could even direct us to the military headquarters, or to the office of the Prefect. The Italian officers knew less than the native inhabitants; they were strangers and newcomers like ourselves. We walked ahead at random towards the curve at the southern end of the harbor where masts and funnels were most numerous. Occasionally, as we passed a side street less completely blocked than the rest, we got a view of the interior of the town—an incoherent extravagance of ruin such as no pen can describe. The street always ended in a mountainous mass of wreckage; but the houses at the sides had assumed every variety of fantastic attitude. Beams and pillars crossing at absurd angles; windows twisted to impossible shapes, floors like “montagnes russes;” roofs half detached and protruding, preserved in place quite inexplicably. And then front walls torn away, laying bare the interior of apartments. In the same house one room would be a heap of wreckage, and its neighbor absolutely intact, with the music open at the piano, a marked book on the table, and the Italian Royal Family looking down from the walls. A third room perhaps held nothing but a chandelier, but that chandelier in perfect condition, without a broken globe. No two houses were alike; the earthquake had picked its victims here and there, following no predictable rule. Sometimes the victims could be seen lying in their own houses. Here and there a rope of knotted sheets hanging from a window showed where someone had escaped. And everywhere solitude and silence, save for the sound of the pick and the shovel. Only the soldiers and officials were allowed in the town: all others must remain on the Marina.

RED CROSS STATION.

A little this side of the Municipio, or city hall, which we identified through the flames and smoke in which it was enveloped, we came upon a Red Cross station—a square building belonging to the Custom House. Here, stretched out in the sun, lay the rescued of the day—five or six only, for it was not yet nine o’clock. Opposite the Municipio was the covered market, now the home of hundreds of survivors, and a place where bread was distributed. Between the market and the Municipio a marble Neptune of the eighteenth century still posed in nude absurdity. The most trivial of figures in the most trivial of poses had been spared, to the tips of his silly fingers, to stand between the flaming wreckage of the palace and the human wreckage of the market. Still further along, where the Marina widened again, we came upon the landing where the dead were laid out—men, women and children, all deposited in haste under some inadequate covering; a ghastly sight. From time to time a row boat would come up to the landing. The bodies were piled into it, and rowed out to sea.

The Commander-in-Chief, we ascertained at last, could be found on the Duca di Genova, a steamer of the merchant marine anchored at the southern end of the harbor. Our struggle through the crowds to the landing stage; our fruitless efforts to get a boat; our final success, through the help of a friendly Italian officer; our visits to one ship and another, to authorities military and civil; our vain attempts to extract even the simplest information, such as the situation of our consulate and the fate of our consul; all this would be as dreary to tell as it was to experience. After three or four hours of ceaseless effort we returned to the shore with the following net acquisitions: an order for a tent, which we might pitch at a place to be appointed by the General in command of the third sector; permission to send one short official telegram; and a friend.

The friend was Mr. Baylis Heynes, a British merchant of Messina, who represented the firm of Peirce Brothers. His house had been spared by the earthquake. After taking his wife and children to a villa outside of the town, he had hurried back without a thought for personal safety or comfort and had thrown himself into the work of saving lives and property. In the villa his wife was caring for more than fifty destitute Messinesi, with such little food and clothing as she could procure. Mr. Heynes meanwhile was indefatigable in the work of rescue; and his coolness and intelligence at a time when everyone else was excited and flustered had already proved of inestimable value. He now offered us his house for a consulate, and the large garden behind for a Red Cross hospital. They were situated at the extreme northern end of the town, more than two miles from the headquarter’s ships. But the house was solid and uninjured and the garden spacious; it was in fact the “Lawn Tennis Club” of Messina. We accepted gladly Mr. Heynes’ kind offer, and started back with him to inspect the premises.

Ten Wounded. Lying by the Red Cross Station. Rescued on the Morning of the Eighth Day After the Earthquake.

It was no longer morning. The sun had been shining brightly for many hours. The smell of the dead rose from the earth, unendurably penetrating. It floated across the Marina on a light shore breeze; then at places it became suddenly pungent, so pungent that you expected to tread upon the cause. The ruined masses beside us took on a new horror. Beneath them, close to the dead of whose presence we were unconscious, were thousands of living, whose only air was the air we smelt. How few the soldiers seemed, in comparison to the gigantic task of excavation! And why were they all away? Poor men, they needed their mid-day rest, perhaps the full three hours they were given; but could there not be twice as many, working in relays?

AMERICAN CONSULATE.

Mr. Heynes pointed out the Consulate—perhaps the largest, solidest, most hopeless mass of rubbish in the whole of Messina. Nothing deserving the name of an object was discernable in the whole pile, except the long flag-staff which protruded from the heap towards the street. The Consulate had been a corner house on a side street; surely we ought to be able to identify at least the remains of the stone arch which had marked the entrance to the street. But the mass was absolutely compact and uniform, obliterating every trace of an opening. It was not astonishing that the soldiers had left that particular pile unexcavated. Hundreds of men would be needed, for many days, to get to the bottom of the mound; and what chance was there, at the end, of finding a survivor? The fate of Dr. and Mrs. Cheney was already a tragic certainty; the best that could be hoped was that their death had been instantaneous.

The Ruins of the American Consulate.

Not far beyond the Consulate, on a side street near the Piazza Vittoria (now a large camp, filled with tarpaulin shacks), we saw the ruined house of Mr. Joseph Peirce, who had been our vice-consul until six days before the earthquake. A few soldiers were working in the heap; and several of the former occupants of the building were standing by, each waiting for some relative to be disinterred. One of the bystanders had been two days buried under the house, but had worked himself near enough to the surface to make himself heard, and had thus been rescued. All had known Mr. Peirce; two said they had seen him on the second day after the earthquake, his body buried and terribly crushed, his head alone appearing out of the wreckage. They told us that his brother had come to save him, but had not been able to remove the heavy pile of masonry and beams. When all efforts proved unavailing the brother had said goodbye to Mr. Peirce and stood there till he died. The body was gone now, evidently the brother had removed it later.

When we had returned to the Marina, near the point where we had first landed, we found our baggage heaped in the middle of the road. To my servant, Antonio Alegiani, who sat upon the pile, an old man was talking voluble English without noticing that he was not understood. The stranger introduced himself as John B. Agresta, a naturalized American, a pensioner of the Civil War and a very important person at the consulate. He had been guide and interpreter. He had done much work for Dr. Cheney. He would show us everything, the part of the house where the Cheneys slept, the office, the safe; especially the safe. In it we should find two thousand lire belonging to him (Agresta). Why did we not come at once instead of wasting time talking to people who knew nothing? Dr. Cheney was dead, of course, and Mrs. Cheney. And Mr. Lupton? Yes, he was dead, too, and there was no doubt of it. Agresta had seen him the night before the earthquake, and had since seen his hotel, not a stone of it in place. Poor Mr. Lupton was certainly dead.

Just at this moment a young man with a pipe in his mouth came round the corner. “Why, hello, Agresta,” he said, “glad to see you alive.” It was Lupton himself, our vice-consul. We thought he must have stepped out of a ruin, or been dug out; in our greeting, no doubt, was something of the awe with which one would salute a visitor from the other world. Lupton soon explained that he had never left the earth, nor even its surface. Half of his hotel had been spared; he had walked down the stairs into the black street, and waded about in water up to his knees till morning dawned. The story has been published in his own words; I wish I could insert the anecdotes and reproduce the turns of the phrases with which he made us see, as in a flash, that prodigious morning of December 28th. We told him we had come to help him, and put ourselves under his orders; he seemed glad to see us; we were soon friends. Together we set out to inspect Mr. Heynes’ house and garden.

It was a solid two-story building, one of an uninjured block; the very house, as a tablet reminded us, in which Garibaldi had lived at the time of his triumphant entrance into Messina at the head of the Thousand. Over the door we set up the American shield, and hung out the flag from a corner window. A week later the British flag flew beside it. Mr. Heynes had been appointed acting vice-consul of his nation. Meanwhile we turned the entrance hall below into a consular office, and set up our beds in the large garden behind, under a tent, so soon as we were able to obtain that coveted article. Sleeping upstairs was unsafe, so long as we continued to have four or five shocks a day, some of them severe enough to bring down a number of buildings.

Once settled, three problems confronted us; to excavate the old consulate, to ascertain the fate of such Americans as had been in Sicily at the time of the earthquake, and to bring relief to the suffering population of Messina.

The first task fell almost entirely to Major Landis, our Military Attachè at the Embassy in Rome. On the night of our arrival a squad of thirty Italian soldiers, under a lieutenant, was put at his disposition for the excavation of the consulate, and there he spent the work hours of the next fortnight. Towards the end the Italian soldiers were replaced by sailors from our own warships; it was the crew of the Illinois who finally discovered the remains of Dr. and Mrs. Cheney. They were found at the very bottom of the pile, only four feet above the street level, though their bedroom had been on the second floor. They had been killed at once and apparently without suffering; it was reasonable to hope that no return of consciousness had broken the slumber from which they passed into eternal rest.

Ruins of the House of Mr. Joseph Peirce, Former American Vice-Consul.

Excavating the Ruins of Mr. Peirce’s House.

Our second duty was to find and succor Americans. Among the survivors at Messina, besides Dr. Lupton and Agresta, we found only one family, a naturalized American with the six small children of one of his brothers who lived in Brooklyn. These we sent back to the United States. But, what Americans had been killed? This question we had no means of solving. We had brought with us long lists of Americans known to be in Sicily, whose relatives were inquiring anxiously about their fate. Something must be attempted in order to put an end to the agonized suspense of so many families. Most of the persons whom we wished to find were doubtless safe at one of the Sicilian resorts. As for telegrams, none had yet arrived from any source, and letters were not delivered until the eleventh day; there were no postal clerks, we were informed, to distribute them. It was plain that the only way to get information was to go and get it. Two of us were accordingly detailed to take the train to Taormina.

After obtaining with some difficulty the military pass allowing us to return, we walked to the railroad station and boarded a train. No one knew whether it would start that day or the next. As a matter of fact it began to move less than two hours after our arrival, and with surprising speed considering its portentous length and its over-crowded condition. In spite of long stops at every station, to take out wounded or to let them aboard, the journey of thirty miles was completed in two hours and a quarter. We were surprised to find that after eight or ten miles all signs of destruction ceased. The first villages were in ruins, like Messina; and in the fields soldiers were digging great rows of trenches, in which they deposited lime: obviously the sea was no longer to receive all the dead. But soon we came upon towns with only a few fallen houses; before long a mutilated roof was a curiosity; and fifteen miles from Messina the country presented a completely normal appearance. We did not realize then that those villages between Messina and Taormina were in greater distress than any district, probably, in the whole of Sicily or Calabria. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of refugees from the city fled on foot to these little towns, imploring charity. The inhabitants received them with true hospitality and gave them of their best. But as the days and weeks passed the supply of food ran short. Nothing arrived by rail; the trains were filled with cargoes for Messina or else for Taormina or Catania; charity passed the little places by. It was a month after the earthquake that two American gentlemen from Taormina, Messrs. Wood and Bowdoin, discovered and reported the incredible distress of this starving rural population. And now another American, Mr. Billings, of Boston, is devoting himself to the relief of this district and is spending there the principal part of the generous offerings of Massachusetts.

TAORMINA.

Taormina was full of rumors. For a week the only news had been supplied by wounded refugees, distraught with fear and misery; in their description the earthquake had become almost a supernatural event. Strange lights had blazed in the sky; a comet had struck the earth and raised the waters of the deep. Luckily the wires to Catania and Syracuse, and from Catania to Palermo, were open. By telegraphing to all of these cities and by searching the hotel registers of Taormina, we were able to find nearly all the names on our lists. There were many Americans still in Taormina and many English. All of them were working together, distributing relief and caring for the sick. A hundred and fifty refugees were in the hospital of Taormina and three hundred and eighty in the little fishing village of Giardini at the foot of the cliff. Our countrymen were working night and day to help them, giving them food and clothing; and instead of complaining of the heavy burden of so many patients, they begged us to send more. One or two of them met every train from Messina, to distribute bread to the hungry passengers. The ladies devoted themselves chiefly to the hospitals, where they worked with unremitting energy.

BACK TO MESSINA.

Our brief glance at the efficient relief of Taormina made the conditions at Messina, upon our return, seem even more desperate than before. Here the problem was vastly complicated by the dispersion of the population and the lack of any registers of inhabitants. The scarcity of houses had driven the population to take refuge, so far as possible, in the hill villages surrounding the town. Here most of the families were installed, not only the able-bodied, but the sick and wounded as well. One of each family would spend the days in Messina, trying to procure enough food to keep his relatives alive. The complete lack of transport animals and the absorption of the soldiers in the work of rescue, made relief expeditions to the villages impossible. For food distributions in Messina the rule had been adopted; one man, one loaf. The absence of registers made it possible for a strong man to push repeatedly to the head of the line, and to get bread at all the distributing places in succession. The result was a more or less disorderly rush for bread at all the distributing points, and the exclusion of all but the strongest, while many worthy families suffered from hunger in the midst of comparative plenty.

On the evening of our first arrival at Messina, I had a chance to talk to Senator Duranti, the chief of a hospital expedition sent by the order of the Cross of Malta. I asked him what articles of food, clothing and medical supplies were most needed, and how the American money accumulating in Rome could be spent with most profit to Messina. He told me that medical stores of all kinds were sadly wanted, and that there was still a lack of food, bread, macaroni, olive oil, butter, and especially milk—for the women and children—and also underclothes and shirts. The milk should be sterilized, not condensed, because the ignorant peasant women could not be induced to give their children an unaccustomed food, especially if it had to be prepared or mixed. Acting upon Senator Duranti’s advice, we telegraphed that night to the Ambassador in Rome for the enumerated supplies. The U. S. despatch boat Scorpion, which had just arrived from Constantinople, was starting for Naples to coal. Her commander, Captain Logan, kindly took our dispatches to the Ambassador, and brought back the supplies, which we received on the 6th. At the same time we learned that an American relief ship was being stocked in Rome, and would soon arrive with huge stores of food and clothing, and that the U. S. S. Culgoa was due on the 8th from Port Said with immense supplies of all kinds.

The arrival of our first stores—which luckily far exceeded our requests—brought us face to face with the problem of direct distribution. Messina was already more orderly. On the 6th or 7th the Marina was first lighted by electricity—a fortunate occurrence, since most of the foreign warships on whose search lights we had been dependent, had now departed. To these ships Messina and Italy had good reason to be grateful.

BRITISH AND RUSSIAN SAILORS’ AID.

I do not know what words could adequately convey the extent of service rendered by all the fleets, but especially the British and Russian. As transports, store ships, refugees’ hospitals, telegraph stations they had been invaluable: but it was as rescuers of the living that they were pre-eminent. The Russian sailor was a revelation to those who did not know the quiet common sense, the tactful sympathy and the unassuming heroism of the moujik. The Russians were the only people who always had everything on the spot. The saying got about that they had ordered the earthquake and fitted out a fleet beforehand for the purpose of relief. As to the British bluejackets, they had not a reputation to make. They did exactly what was expected of them; and in the expected way; that is with energy and courage, with easy practical mastery of every kind of work, and with complete unconsciousness of anything unusual or particularly meritorious in their performance. And the English nation and press, instinctively realizing that silence may be a higher tribute than praise, has accepted the fleet’s work at its own valuation; as a task performed in the ordinary way of duty, and performed well, as became British sailors.

About the same time or a little later, the water supply was connected with a portion of the town. Lack of water had been one of our chief discomforts. It could be procured at one place only, two miles from the consulate; with great difficulty we had obtained a pailful each day for our party. The streets had become filthy beyond description: now it was possible to flood them. A train to Palermo crawled out of Messina from time to time. The dead were being removed from the streets, and many of them were buried instead of being taken out to sea. On the fires in front of the tarpaulin houses stood pots of macaroni cooking. The hospital ships which departed for Naples, Genoa or Catania were no longer crowded to over-flowing. The people actually living in Messina were comparatively comfortable. But every improvement in organization brought out more clearly the needs which confusion had obscured. Inside the city and out, no one had any clothes except what he had been able to snatch from his house on the morning of the 28th; and not two miles from the Municipio, in all directions, ran the hunger line—beyond which lay the region of actual famine.

It must be remembered that Messina was in a state of siege. That means that it was controlled in every department by a single central military authority. The state of siege was necessary in order to maintain order and health; but it entailed inevitable disadvantages in connection with relief work. Effective relief should be decentralized; it should operate through innumerable agents invested with responsibility and discretionary power, who seek out the individual and have the means to assist him. Government by martial law means that nothing can be done or given except by permission of the military chief, and an order for stores cannot be obtained in a minute. This was why the hospitals, the Red Cross stations and relief agencies of all kinds were so frequently short of supplies. Requisitions of particular articles which had run out, such as brandy or antiseptics or milk, required too great an expense of time; the workers were everywhere fewer than the needs: they could not be spared. From our own experience in sending telegrams or procuring permits we learned to appreciate the inevitable disabilities of a system of complete centralization in dealing with a situation of such chaotic complexity.

What part we could take as independent distributors was not evident. Under the circumstances we decided to divide our supplies into three parts. The first, consisting of medical stores, milk, butter, oil, chocolate and underclothes, was given to the central medical officials, for use in the hospitals. The second, of a similar nature, we took to Reggio and San Giovanni, for distribution to the hospitals there. The medical authorities of each place selected from our lists the articles of which they were in need. The remainder of the stores we took to the consulate and distributed ourselves.

The Quay Where Corpses Were Laid Out, Awaiting Burial at Sea.

In picking out individuals to assist, we paid special attention to residents of our own district, with whom we were beginning to become acquainted, to persons known to Mr. Heynes, and to such inhabitants of Messina as had some connection with America. We were constantly asked by Messinesi to send telegrams to their relatives in the United States, and if possible to help them rejoin those relatives. But as our immigration laws forbid the importation of the destitute, we had to tell the applicants that we could send their telegrams, but that we could not provide passage to America.

The consulate soon became a busy place. Two soldiers stood at the door to keep the line of applicants in order; inside, one of us investigated the applicants, and registered the facts of each case in a book, another took the written orders and brought back the stores, which were handed out by a third. It is perhaps superfluous to add that in cases of actual hunger no investigation was attempted. The help of Mr. and Mrs. Heynes was invaluable throughout. It enabled us to send stores to families at a distance, who had not heard of our consulate or were unable to come. Other pitiable cases were brought to our attention by the American and English newspaper correspondents, and by Mr. Frank A. Perret, the seismic expert well known for his heroism at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906.

Meanwhile the United States Warships Yankton and Culgoa, the latter loaded with stores, had joined the Scorpion in the harbor. The sailors were detailed to help us clean the house and garden and put up a number of tents for a hospital. Colonel Radcliffe, the British Military Attachè, to whose clear-headed determination is due the chief credit for the admirable organization of British relief work, aided us in countless ways. He was occupied at that time in searching for the body of Mrs. Ogston, wife, of the British Consul. When the remains were found, it was a party of American sailers from the Connecticut that formed the funeral escort.

ARRIVAL OF THE “BAYERN.”

Then, on the evening of the 8th, arrived the American Red Cross Relief Ship Bayern, with the American Ambassador aboard and the American Naval Attachè, Captain Belknap, in command. I am still amazed at the intuitive grasp of the situation displayed by the organizers of the expedition. From inception to completion, in every detail of planning and execution, the cruise of the Bayern was emphatically a success.

Messina was not the place, however, where the Bayern was needed. A day ashore convinced the Ambassador and the committee that large distributions of food and clothing were not advisable at the present time. Supplies and a sum of money were given to the Archbishop of Messina, for his hospital; the stock at the consulate was replenished; a trip was made to the Calabrian coast, where the military authorities were given what stores they requested; then, early on the morning of the 11th, the Bayern sailed for Catania.

CATANIA.

We went ashore, wondering whether we were needed. An hour later we wondered whether it was worth our while to think of going anywhere else. The situation at that time was simply appalling: it is appalling today, five weeks after our visit. Catania and every house in Catania had been swamped with refugees. Three thousand of them lay in the five hospitals; two thousand in the three main refuges—converted barracks or convents; and twenty thousand were scattered over the city. One lady whom we met had sixty in her own house; another, thirty: another, seventeen. The Prefect was spending 20,000 lire daily, a sum barely sufficient to supply bread rations and to keep the hospitals running, but quite insufficient to provide sheets or clothing for the patients. Even the hospitals were short of mattresses; in the refuges the inmates slept on heaps of straw. The little towns in the country districts were as full of refugees as Catania and in still greater distress; at Catania there was at least bread. Red Cross branches, municipal committees of men and women, were working valiantly, but they were struggling with absolute penury—a complete lack of funds. The money received by the Prefect from the Government appeared to be the only cash from the outside which had yet arrived at Catania. It was still only a fortnight since the earthquake. Apparently no one in Italy had yet realized that money was needed immediately in places like Catania. Food and clothing were sent, for instance, but at Catania the food and clothing shops were well stocked. The Bayern after giving away nearly its whole supply of clothes renewed the supply by purchases at Catania for distribution at Reggio. Obviously it would have been more economical to have given the Catanians money to buy the clothes of which they were in want than to send the clothes from Italy. The work of making up the clothes could have been given to the refugees themselves, had there been money to pay them. It is true that at Catania, as elsewhere, we found a general conviction that nothing would make the refugees work. The women, it was said, had their children to look after; the men could think of nothing but returning to Messina to recover their property and the remains of their relatives. All were plunged in a state of morbid apathy which made work out of the question. This view, however plausible under the circumstances, has been completely disproved; wherever the refugees have been given work to do under proper supervision, they have worked. But at Catania the point was not worth arguing. There was no money to buy stuffs and sewing machines, or to pay wages; no rooms which could be used as workshops. A movement might have been organized to employ fifty or a hundred women, perhaps; but with 25,000 refugees to keep from starvation and crime the city could not spare any of its workers to organize an employment agency which, at the best, would benefit only a few persons. Nothing but large sums of ready money could have helped the situation; and ready money was not yet forthcoming. The Bayern had brought a certain amount of money to distribute; and I had funds of the American Red Cross. With what we had we were able to give sums of cash to the committees, the hospitals, the refuges and other charities.

The hospitals of Catania alone took almost all the clothes, blankets and medical stores we had to give. Yet the hospitals were in an enviable situation compared to the refuges. Here the inmates were in a worse plight than when they had escaped, half-naked from the ruins of Messina. A blanket, a heap of straw, and a daily bread ration, was about all the average inmate had received since his arrival. Few of them had changed their clothes or brushed their hair once: all were living in a state of filth, which extended to their persons and their habitations and which was a menace to the health of the town. Let no one think that their plight was the result of neglect. The Catanians showed no neglect or inefficiency. They worked hard and they worked with intelligence, but they had no money.

A curious and by no means reassuring feature of the refuges was the willingness of their inmates to stay where they were, or rather their unwillingness to move. I noticed the same fact at Palermo, where the condition of the refugees was similar, though perhaps less distressing. The inertia induced originally by the complex action of physical and moral shocks on an oriental fatalistic temperament increased rapidly, alarmingly, under the influence of a life without interest, occupation, pleasure or duty. Dependent squalor soon became pleasant, and any return to independence uninviting. The hope of getting a cigar from some visitor was enough to fill the day satisfactorily. Dirt, we know, soon became endurable; as a philosopher once said, “Every man is clean enough for himself.” What had happened already at the time of our visit was that the inmates of the refuges had begun to regard their present life as permanent, and had abandoned even the desire to change it; they had been turned into paupers. Three-quarters of them spent the days in aimless loafing and chatter; the other quarter lay gloomily on the straw, thinking of the dead. Unless these people could be awakened, unless someone should compel them soon to work and to be clean, there were signs that they would become a permanent burden; and, what is more, a permanent menace to the population. Criminals are easily made in Sicily and when they are made they have no difficulty in finding occupation.

Italian Soldiers Disinterring a Corpse in the Ruins of the Old Consulate.

Bearing Corpses Down the Corso Principe Amedeo.

The problem of the refuges, then, was less to make them more comfortable than to abolish them as soon as possible and in the meantime to compel cleanliness and induce work among the inmates. But there was a scarcely less difficult and more elusive problem connected with the thousands of refugees scattered about the town in private houses, living in the garrets and stables. Many of them were skilled laborers of various kinds; not a few belonged to families of merchants or professional men and to the well-to-do classes. Their destitution was as complete, of course, as that of the rest, and the relief awarded to them was the same—a daily loaf of bread. Some of them were rich, if they could only find their evidences of wealth. To enable them to do this, and to support them meanwhile, the Catania business men had formed an association to which we were glad to be able to make a small contribution.

The general impression created by our visit to Catania was that of a problem too vast, too complicated, too closely connected with the habits and temperament of the people for any outsider to solve. To “rehabilitate” these thousands of peasants, artisans, professional men, merchants, landed proprietors, would require a carefully matured plan, which must proceed from the central authorities. But meanwhile, until the plan should be matured, there was ample scope for beneficent foreign intervention, and the most useful way to intervene was also the simplest—by direct money gifts, not indeed to individual refugees, but to the local relief bodies already organized by Italians. It was not necessary or even advisable to make large donations to the central authorities of each place. The system was already rather too much centralized than too little, as the authorities were the first to recognize. Far from being jealous of direct donations to the subordinate or independent institutions, they welcomed anyone who would investigate the various needs, and give help when help was most wanted. It appeared to us that the best way to dispose of American money was to entrust it to an agent on the spot, who should travel up and down the coasts of Sicily and encourage every well-directed movement by immediate money gifts. In time such movements would no doubt receive help from Rome; but in the meantime ready cash from unofficial sources might make the difference between success and failure.

SYRACUSE.

The Bayern spent three days at Catania. During that time I made a trip of investigation to Syracuse. Here the refugees numbered only 3,000—one-eighth of the number at Catania; but 900 of these were hospital patients. Syracuse, too, has only one-seventh of Catania’s population. Its hospital accommodations at the time of the earthquake were for one hundred patients. If Syracuse had succeeded better than any other place in mastering the difficulties of the situation it was not because the difficulties were insignificant. Syracuse was fortunate in a Prefect and a Mayor of resource and capacity; in an unusually efficient body of volunteer workers, with one woman of great ability at their head; and in the fact that the importance of the work, as a moral and mental tonic for the refugees, was realized from the very beginning. Syracuse was the first place where refugees were set to work. The credit for this is due to an American, Miss Katherine Bennett Davis, head of the New York State Reformatory for Women.

When Miss Davis first thought of employing refugee women to make clothes for the hospitals, relief work at Syracuse was just emerging from a state of chaos. Four hospitals had been equipped after a fashion for the reception of patients. The Municipal hospital was already in good running order, through the efforts of Signor Broggi-Reale, head of the local Red Cross; the Archbishop’s palace was being rapidly transformed into a second hospital by a number of ladies; at the big barracks conditions were more primitive until the arrival of a splendidly equipped expedition of the German Red Cross. Most of the hospitals were short of blankets; all needed sheets, and all were entirely unsupplied with clothes for the patients. Of the two thousand able-bodied refugees, eight hundred were maintained aboard the steamship Nord Amerika; the rest were scattered about the town. A woman’s branch of the Red Cross was being organized by the Marchesa di Rudini, whose activity covered every branch of the work of relief and extended beyond the confines of Syracuse, to all the towns of the province. Her position as wife of one of the largest landowners of the province and daughter-in-law of Italy’s lamented premier; her independence of any particular organization; her skill and tact in uniting individuals and parties made her the most influential person in Syracuse. To her is due more than to anyone else the excellent organization of the Syracuse relief work.

Miss Davis was in Sicily in order to rest. The funds at her disposal amounted to six hundred lire only. But she saw an opportunity to help in the moral regeneration of the refugees and at the same time to supply one of the most pressing needs of the city. She went to the mayor and offered to employ refugee women in making clothes for the hospitals. Like everyone else, the Mayor had been told that the refugees would not work; but unlike everyone else, he decided to make the experiment. He gave Miss Davis two of his own rooms in the Municipio, supplied her with sewing machines, and promised to furnish all the necessary materials. She opened her shop on January 8th and soon had fifty women at work.

Miss Davis was not alone in her labors. Besides the support of the officials and of Madame di Rudini, she had the direct assistance, from the first, of Mrs. Musson, wife of the British clergyman, and later of Mrs. Sisco, of Florida. When gifts of money from the American Red Cross and from the Committee of the Bayern enabled Miss Davis to found a second workshop at Santa Lucia, the quarter of Syracuse situated on the mainland, Mrs. Musson became its manager. To supplement her own scanty knowledge of Italian, Miss Davis employed as interpreter and paymaster an English resident of Messina, Miss Smith, who had escaped from the earthquake without any of her belongings beyond what she could carry. The Syracusan ladies took an active interest in the workshops; two of them, the Baronesses del Bosco, whose principal work was in the hospitals, found time nevertheless to give much of their attention to Miss Davis’ work, and assisted her particularly in the cutting-out department.

The workshops were a success from the beginning. Under Miss Davis’ unceasing supervision the women showed no tendency to idleness. A piece wage which would have put the unskillful and the beginners at a disadvantage was not found necessary; the women were paid by the day, one lira and a lunch of bread, cheese and wine. The question naturally suggested itself, could not the men also be induced to work? And could not their work be made to contribute, like that of the women, to supply their own wants?

Refugee Camp in the Piazza Vittoria.

Miss Davis had now the money to carry out her plans. But she had to face a new difficulty—the jealousy of the local artisans, who resented any influx of labor. Miss Davis began with the shoemakers because shoes, next to underwear, were the articles of clothing most needed by the refugees. She found a number of shoemakers among the refugees. These she induced the local shoemakers to employ by offering the following advantageous terms: The local man was to supply the materials and tools and to receive the price of the product, which Miss Davis promised to buy. She was also to pay wages to the refugee worker. Thus the refugee was employed, the local shoemaker profited and the stock of shoes was increased. At a later date Miss Davis found employment for all the carpenters, masons and painters among the refugees by paying them to complete a large two-story building, of which only one story had been built. When finished the building became an orphan asylum for seventy-five refugee children. The money for this work was furnished by Mr. Billings out of the Massachusetts funds.

So far only skilled laborers had been employed. But the persons who most needed work, those who deteriorated most rapidly when idle, were the common unskilled laborers belonging to the lowest classes. Even in their normal condition nothing but hunger would induce these people to work; now they were fed and were in a state of moral inertia. Miss Davis’ proposal to the Mayor to employ a squad of sixty day laborers in improving the roads seemed almost certain to fail. The Mayor, however, decided to make the attempt; he was to supply tools, materials and supervision; Miss Davis was to pay the wages. Once more the unexpected happened; the men worked moderately well at first, then better every day. In a short time all traces of idleness and discontent had disappeared.

From the point of view of actual achievement and also of example Miss Davis’ feat at Syracuse seems to me the most important single contribution to the problem of rehabilitating the sufferers from the Messina earthquake. Her efforts were not limited, however, to giving employment. With funds allotted by the Bayern Committee she opened a pension or home for forty-two refugees of the better class, giving preference to convalescents from the hospitals. Here for the first time the refugees found soap, brushes, combs, clean clothes, all the articles of first necessity of which they had been deprived since the earthquake. The home was so successful that the Marchesa di Rudini devoted most of the American money which had been given her, to spend at her discretion, to founding two similar institutions at Nolo and Avola, small towns of the province of Syracuse. These homes the Prefect of Syracuse promised to support out of Government funds when the original donations should be spent. In Miss Davis’ home at Syracuse the moral health of the inmates was never forgotten. Before the home had been opened a fortnight the women among the inmates were busy making clothes, voluntarily and without pay, for less fortunate refugees. Every scheme of Miss Davis served a double end—practical utility and moral rehabilitation.

Upon my return to Catania I found the Bayern ready to start for Reggio. During her stay she had not only dispensed relief to Catania and the environs, but had also supplied the wants of the Taormina and Giardini hospitals.

REGGIO.

Of our second visit to Reggio I need say little. It was the saddest place of any, perhaps; nowhere else were the inhabitants plunged in such a state of complete dejection. There were no adventurers or imposters at Reggio: only the remains of families, sitting or standing mournfully among the ruins of their own homes. There was no danger in giving money to these people; their need was too obvious, their distress too genuine. We distributed our cargo, gave what help we could, paid a second visit to Messina and after two days proceeded to Palermo.

PALERMO.

Conditions at Palermo were only less desperate than at Catania. The refugees numbered about 11,000, of whom about 900 were in the hospitals. Nearly all of the remainder were in refuges, very few having been taken into private houses. All the barracks, the prison, half the schools, several convents, several theaters, and even a number of churches had been turned into refuges, of which the largest held as many as a thousand inmates. The city is larger than Catania, with more wealthy residents; it was therefore better off in many respects. But it suffered, like Catania, from the want of money from the outside, from the scarcity of intelligent workers, and from the particular dangers connected with the refuges.

I have already described the refuge system. If work is necessary for all the refugees, it is particularly necessary for those who live in these large communities. At Palermo their idleness had already turned to dangerous discontent. They complained constantly of their treatment, but refused to leave the refuges. No work for them had been organized when we arrived at Palermo. Enlightened by Miss Davis’ example, we immediately offered money for the institution of workshops on the same model as hers. The idea met with general approval. A beginning was made at once in one of the barracks and in the prison. Mr. Bishop, the American Consul, to whom we handed over the money for the enterprise, labored energetically to broaden the basis and extend the scope of the work. In a few days a ladies’ committee, of which the president was Mrs. Bishop and the vice-president Countess Mazza, wife of the General in Command at Messina, had founded workshops in five of the principal refuges, and another refuge, the Caserna Garibaldi, was organized on the same system by a parish priest, Father Trupiano, with the approval of the Archbishop of Palermo. According to the latest reports the Palermo workshops have been a success, like those of Syracuse. Some concessions had to be made to the inferior moral condition of the workers at the time when they were first employed. For instance, they had to be paid by the piece instead of by the day. But they have not proved idle on the whole, and such work as they have done has contributed directly to a most important object—the increase of the supply of clothing. Even if the Bayern committee had not been able to distribute 1,200 mattresses and 15 tons of food at Palermo, or to assist the municipal charities, their short visit of eight hours to the city would have been amply justified by the foundation of these workshops. With the cruise of the Bayern ended my direct participation in the work of relief. I have only a second-hand knowledge of the many other undertakings of the American Red Cross in Italy. But I have seen enough to have formed a few general opinions which may have a certain interest for Americans who have contributed to the various relief funds.

PROBLEMS OF RELIEF.

The Italian government and the Italian Red Cross found themselves, within a few days of the earthquake, in possession of enormous sums of money. As the government had the sole access to the afflicted districts and the sole authentic information about their needs, it was to the government that all contributions, Italian and foreign, were naturally sent. But there were several reasons why the government could not immediately turn that money over to the persons who most needed it or who could use it best.

In the first place, every consideration had to give place during the early days before the imperative necessity of transporting troops to the scene of disaster and of supplying them with the necessary food and equipment. In the second place, government funds are always particularly hard to protect from the suspicion of maladministration. The Italian government may have remembered criticisms of the way in which former funds had been distributed: at any rate, it determined on this occasion to exercise all possible vigilance to prevent the waste or misappropriation of a penny. The distrust of the Sicilians, traditional in upper Italy, may have increased the tendency to send supplies rather than money, and to give all orders from a single central source. In the third place, the temporary feeding and clothing of the destitute was a very small part of the total relief problem. The end which the contributions must ultimately subserve was to restore the refugee population to some kind of normal life, not merely to keep them alive for a few months. But how to effect their rehabilitation was a question which could not be answered until many things were known; their numbers, for instance, the possibility of rebuilding the ruined towns, the amount of property recoverable, the condition of the harbors, channels, docks—a hundred facts which only time could reveal. Whenever a general scheme should be devised, vast sums would be required for its effectuation: till then it was important not to disperse the accumulating contributions.

This policy of prudence and circumspection, admirable as regards an ultimate settlement, was defective as a means of relieving immediately the wants of scattered localities spread over two large and more or less inaccessible regions. What was wanted in order to supply so many needs in so many places was a system of extreme decentralization, with large funds at the unfettered discretion of individual agents. Such a system was incompatible with the rigid supervision of expenditure which the government felt to be necessary. It could not be adopted by the government. But precisely for that reason it could be adopted with advantage by independent and especially by foreign relief societies. By giving all their contributions to the Italian central committee they would indeed be helping in the general plan of rehabilitation which the central committee was evolving, but they would not be doing the task for which they were especially fitted and from which the central committee was to a large extent excluded. If, on the other hand, they entrusted their funds to agents in Sicily or Calabria, whose duty it should be to investigate every town and every institution and to help quickly the most useful and the most needy organizations, they would be doing what no one else could do so well, and what no one else had done at all.

The objection to such a policy was the risk of giving just offense to the Italian government and people by interfering in what was essentially an Italian concern—a problem of internal administration. Such an objection appears to me to rest as a misconception. The Italians might well resent, and would very likely have resented, any interference which took the form of independent relief organizations, with direct pecuniary assistance of individuals. As a matter of fact, the German Red Cross hospital at Syracuse was an organization of this kind and it aroused nothing but enthusiasm. A hospital, however, is not like a distributing agency. What the Italians would have objected to, and rightly, would have been any attempt on the part of foreigners to decide Italian questions; how a given body of men should be employed, where certain orphans should be sent, what families should first be assisted; or to set up independent relief bureaus to which individuals might apply, thus duplicating or confusing the work of the Italians and opening an easy way to imposters. But there could be no objection, and there was none, to selective gifts by foreigners to Italian institutions. Such distributions could not possibly conflict with the official scheme of relief, for all the charitable institutions of every city were under the control of the prefect or of the mayor. Certainly during my experience in Sicily no hint was ever given that gifts to the hospitals, refuges or volunteer committees were less acceptable than gifts to the prefect or the mayor. I think it is safe to assert that neither the Bayern nor any other American relief expedition in Sicily or Calabria has at any time given umbrage to any local authority. The central authorities at Rome, meanwhile, have done everything to assist and encourage the independent American expeditions. The Bayern was organized according to the advice of the government and with its approbation. Mr. Billings, before starting for Sicily to distribute the Massachusetts funds, consulted with several of the Italian ministers, with the head of the Central Committee, and with the President of the Red Cross. Mr. Gay and Mr. Dodge were accompanied on their trip to Calabria by an officer of the General Staff, and were recommended directly by the Ministers of War and of the Navy to the commanding officers of the different stations. The aim of the Americans has never been to act independently of the Italians, but simply to put at the service of the Italians their eyes and brains as well as their money.

AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS.

Americans who have contributed to the relief funds of the American Red Cross or directly to Italian funds can be satisfied that such part of their donations as went to the Italian central authorities will be spent with scrupulous probity in furtherance of a carefully considered and well matured plan of permanent rehabilitation, and that such part as was given by American agents has gone quickly and efficiently to the places where it was most needed, without any interference with the management by Italians of their own internal affairs. The problem is still in its early stages. The populations of the destroyed cities are not yet housed; the refugees are still living idly in the great towns. But that is an Italian, not an American question. We can be satisfied, it appears to me, with the system by which our money has been distributed hitherto, and be content to apply it to the future contingencies. That system has been for the American Red Cross to find out, through the American Ambassador at Rome, the exact needs of the Italians, as expressed by the government, and then to assign its needs for the enumerated purposes, giving a part to the central Italian authorities and a part to the Ambassador. What the Ambassador has received he has divided between central institutions and the relief of local needs. He has kept in touch directly with all the afflicted regions, through the consular corps, through special agents and through the reports of workers, and he has at the same time been in daily communication with the heads of all the official distributing committees. In this way he has been able to gauge accurately the needs of the situation. Certain American gifts, like the shipment of the three thousand houses, and the foundation of an agricultural school for one hundred children as a part of the Queen Elena Patronato, have produced a profound impression throughout the length and breadth of Italy because they have corresponded exactly to the necessities of the moment.

Americans, then, need have no misgivings about the administration of their donations. Italy cannot repair in a day the effects of so vast, so overwhelming a calamity as the Messina earthquake; the wound is too deep to heal quickly. Those only who have seen the misery which bows down the inhabitants of Sicily and Calabria can realize the tragic helplessness of all human succor. We must have patience till a way is found. Our nation can rest satisfied meanwhile that their generous offerings have directly and sensibly alleviated sufferings and kept hope alive, and they can rejoice in the opportunity which has been given to them to repay in part America’s and the world’s immeasurable debt to the land and people of Italy.

Milan, Italy, February 20, 1909.

RED CROSS RELIEF SHIP “BAYERN”

BY LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER REGINALD R. BELKNAP
United States Navy

Rome, January 19, 1909.

Directly after the news reached Rome of the magnitude of the disaster in Southern Italy our American Ambassador, Mr. Lloyd C. Griscom, organised a committee of prominent American men in that city for the purpose of assisting the Italian Government, Red Cross and National Committees in the immense work of relief that required all the aid human sympathy at home and abroad could provide. The fact that Messina was in Sicily; that the railroad service had been seriously disorganised, and that the necessity of moving troops to the scene of the disaster would largely employ what trains and what lines were still available, led to the prompt conclusion that aid must be sent mainly by sea. Acting under this conviction, the American Committee chartered and equipped the steamer Bayern—a few of the members guaranteeing the necessary amount so as to lose no time, while waiting to hear from Washington if the American Red Cross would provide the $100,000 necessary for this purpose. This our Red Cross, on receipt of Mr. Griscom’s cable, immediately consented to do. Just sixty hours after this ship was chartered it entered the harbor of Messina, under the command of the American Naval Attachè at Rome, Lieutenant-Commander R. R. Belknap, U. S. N.

Fifty-eight thousand dollars in a few hours’ time had been expended for the medical outfit, provisions and clothing, particular attention having been paid to the selection of food for little children.

Before leaving on the Bayern Mr. Griscom was received by King Victor Emmanuel, and notified His Majesty and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Signor Tittoni, who was present, that the steamer would fly the Red Cross emblem. Both the King and the Minister remarked that his was an admirable example to the world of international fraternity for the Geneva Flag to fly over a ship carrying aid from one country to another in a period of disaster.

The following interesting report, somewhat abbreviated as to details, has been received from Lieutenant-Commander Belknap, to whose ability, conscientious work, deep interest and constant energy the American Red Cross is greatly indebted for the success of this expedition.—Editor.

I have the honor to submit the following report of the cruise of the North German Lloyd Steamship Bayern, which was chartered and fitted out at Genoa by the American Red Cross, through the American Relief Committee in Rome, and sailed from Civita Vecchia on January 7, with the Committee’s expedition on board, to render aid at Messina, Catania and other places in Sicily and Calabria to sufferers by the earthquake of December 28, 1908:

PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES

On Monday, January 4, about 6 P. M., the Bayern was engaged, to sail in 36 hours (afterwards changed to 4 P. M., Wednesday, without actual loss of time to the expedition), provisioned for 50 first-class passengers for 15 days and 1,000 steerage for 10 days; she was to carry a steam or motor launch, and every effort was to be made to expedite her loading and sailing on time. To the American Consul-General in Genoa, Mr. James A. Smith, the Committee sent the following telegram at midnight, Monday:

American Consul, Genoa:

American Committee for relief work, Calabrian Coast, has chartered German Lloyd steamer, Bayern, now in Genoa. You personally urge agent make every effort get steamer off Tuesday night, fifth instant, and arrive Civita Vecchia early Wednesday afternoon; also arrange with steamer agent to purchase at Committee’s expense and load on Bayern for relief distribution large quantity pasta flour, stockfish, tinned milk and also especially all available sterilized milk, biscuits, olive oil, hams, onions, sausages, beans, potatoes, salted pork, cheese, lard, chocolate, beef extract in jars or tins, macaroni, sugar, also 500 each blankets, trousers, coats. To cover these purchases draw on American Relief Committee Fund Banca Commerciale Italiana, Rome, up to 25,000 lire for food and 10,000 for clothing. Absolutely necessary that steamer have a motor or steam launch on board and other boats suitable for landing along the coast, as this is the main purpose of the expedition. Committee depends upon your active interest to forestall any delay of ship. Report progress Tuesday noon.

(Signed) GRISCOM, Chairman Committee.

Next day, Tuesday forenoon, the amount allotted to Consul-General Smith for purchases in Genoa was increased to 85,000 lire. A very satisfactory report came from him that afternoon, saying that the Bayern would surely be ready for us at Civita Vecchia by eight o’clock Thursday morning.

Definite arrangements were now made for the transportation of the expedition and the Rome purchases to Civita Vecchia. This matter was placed entirely in the hands of Mr. Stein, the well-known Spediteur. The Italian Government placed every facility at the service of the expedition, both on the railway and at the port of Civita Vecchia; and the Navigazione Generale Italiana also instructed its agents there and at all other ports to afford us every assistance, at the same time giving me a letter of the same purport to present to their agents, if necessary. With the way thus cleared, Mr. Stein was able to carry out his part with entire satisfaction and in good time, notwithstanding that Wednesday, the day when innumerable packages and cases had to be collected from shops scattered all over Rome, was a fiesta. Much credit is due Mr. Stein for his success in this.

During the final meeting of the Committee, before the departure of the expedition, about six o’clock Wednesday evening, word was received from Mr. Anniser that the Bayern had sailed from Genoa at 4 P. M. Thursday morning, at 9.30 the expedition left Rome by special train, reaching Civita Vecchia at 10.55. The Sub-Prefect, the Sindaco and the captain of the port met the party and conveyed them on board the Bayern. Mr. Anniser, the steamer agent, had come down by earlier train, and with the local agent of the Navigazione Generale Italiana was attending to all remaining to be done before departure of the steamer; the loading was progressing satisfactorily, and expected to be completed in time for sailing at 4 P. M.

Dr. Bastinelli was not to accompany the expedition, but he had come down to the ship to advise with Dr. Scelba, chief medical officer of the expedition, and the ship’s doctor as to the best disposition of the space available for hospital arrangements. It was decided by them to keep the medical departments of the expedition and of the ship entirely separate, with the exception of taking the two rooms allotted as ship’s hospital for use as isolation rooms for any infectious cases that might develop. The necessary work of arrangement recommended by the doctors was immediately undertaken.

Officers and Passengers Aboard the “Bayern.”

Directly on coming on board I conferred with Mr. Anniser, the agent, and Captain Max Mitzlaff, commanding the Bayern, coming to the necessary understanding as to the control and management of the vessel and work of various kinds. Captain Mitzlaff promptly grasped the situation, and from the first moment did all in his power to forward the work of the expedition. He never made an objection; often suggested improvements that I was glad to adopt; and what was most important of all, he communicated his own zeal and interest throughout his entire ship’s company. Our relations throughout were most cordial, and I feel that we were most fortunate in having Captain Mitzlaff in command of the ship.

All guests were started ashore at 2.30 P. M., and loading was completed at 4. The captain of the port very kindly procured for us three small boats against the need of landing on an open beach, for which the ship’s boats were less suitable, and at 4.07 the Bayern sailed.

PERSONNEL OF THE EXPEDITION.

Representatives of the American Committee on board—Mr. Griscom, American Ambassador and chairman of the Committee; Lieutenant-Commander Belknap, U. S. Navy, Naval Attachè at Rome; Mr. William Hooper, of Boston; Mr. H. Nelson Gay, of Boston and Rome.

Executive Organization on board—Lieutenant-Commander Belknap, in charge of the expedition; Mr. Gay, in general charge of arrangement and distribution of supplies; Mr. Hooper, recorder, treasurer of the expedition and in charge of the afterholds.

Assistants—Mr. Weston R. Flint, cashier, and in charge of the forwardhold; Mr. Wilfred Thompson, supplies accounts and records of deliveries; Mr. John Elliott, interpreter, assistant in afterholds and elsewhere; Mr. Robert Hale, assistant in forwardhold; Avvocato Girodana, interpreter, clerical work and translation, assistant with handling supplies, aide to Lieutenant-Commander Belknap.

Medical Department—Dr. Cesare Scelba, Chief Medical Officer, in general charge; Dr. Guido Egidi, Dr. Paolo Alessandrini; Miss Mary H. Lawrence, head nurse; Miss Amy Claxton, second nurse; Miss Helen M. Moir, Miss Frances E. Nelson, Miss Emily A. Tory, Miss Mable W. Shingleton, duty nurses; Emma Niccolucci, head of Italian women nurses; women nurses, Schiarmi, Negri, Consolati, Manganelli, Antinori; Lanzi, head of Italian men nurses; men nurses, Neuci, Perfetti, Tondinelli, Guardabassi, Cascapera.

The Committee of the “Bayern.” Comdr. Belknap and Messrs. Hooper (of Boston) and Gay (of Boston and Rome).

Additional, not permanently with the expedition—Mr. Earle Dodge, Jr., embarked at Civita Vecchia and worked industriously in the forehold for the two days that he was on board. Mr. W. Bayard Cutting, Jr., American Vice-Consul at Milan, on special duty in Sicily, came on board at Messina, and continued from that time in close co-operation with the Committee to the great advantage of the prosecution of the work of the expedition. Mr. Winthrop Chanler came on board at Messina and remained until the second day at Catania, rendering very useful service for which his experience and knowledge of general and immediate conditions in the locality were valuable.

A few general orders were given, cautioning against the use of matches and smoking below decks; to report when orders had been compiled with; to apply for assistance from the ship only to the first officer or Lieutenant-Commander Belknap and the like. Simple arrangements were drawn up and posted also for stations for “Fire and Abandon Ship.”

Immediately on getting under way to Civita Vecchia, the work of arranging our supplies began, so that we might know what, how much, and where to lay our hands on everything. Fortunately, good weather favored us; the work continued in the forehold until 10 P. M. on Thursday, and went on all over the ship next day, so that by 4 P. M., when Messina was sighted, we were in all respects ready.

Only a few hours from Civita Vecchia we narrowly missed a serious handicap, Mr. Gay having a bad fall in the hold, breaking a rib. The loss of one who combined the best knowledge of what was included in our outfit, with tireless energy in getting it systematized, would have imposed a delay very unpleasant to contemplate, but, happily, Mr. Gay was the only sufferer by this accident, as he kept at work the same as before.

RELIEF FACILITIES.

Summarizing, the Bayern’s relief facilities were: