Messina

“ Even as a small Italian town would be incomplete without its piazza where streets converge and commercial pulses beat their liveliest measure, so every larger one contrives to possess a public garden for the evening disport of its citizens; night-life being the true life of the south. Charming they are, most of them; none more delectable than that of old Messina—a spacious pleasaunce, decked out with trim palms and flower-beds and labyrinthine walks freshly watered, and cooled, that evening, by stealthy breezes from the sea. ”

“ As the range of the Neptunian hills, and the town of Messina with its large cathedral—its numerous churches and convents, its terraced streets sweeping round swelling eminences, and its busy harbour crowded by a forest of masts—closed, lessened, and sank astern; the bay of Reggio, on the other hand, opened to our view, with all the spires and casements of its town gleaming in the beams of the morning sun: the high peaks of its hills behind covered to the summit with dark green pines, and fragrant orange or citron trees. ”

“ Messina, Sicily and Italy, in this tragic hour of disaster, feel an infinite sense of emotion before the universal spectacle of nobility and human kindness, before the common impulse that moves, in aid of so many sufferers from the reckless violence of nature, the generous, munificent souls of the world. ”

“ Messina (78) , on a bay at the NE. corner of Sicily; is a very ancient city, but rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783; has a 12th-century cathedral, two old castles, and a university, founded 1549; it manufactures light textiles, coral ornaments, and fruit essences; its excellent harbour encourages a good trade.
Messina, Strait of, 24 m. long, and at its narrowest 21⁄2 broad; separates Sicily from the Italian mainland; here were the Scylla and Charybdis of the ancients. ”

“ The victorious fleet then returned to Messina with the released princess and the captive prince. Never had there been seen such rejoicings in Messina as greeted the admiral on his return. The Queen and her sons went on board the galley to receive their long-imprisoned relation. It was a most affecting scene. The two sisters embraced each other, weeping for joy mingled with sorrow. Since they had seen each other their father Manfred and their cousin Conradin had been killed; their mother and all the rest of their family had died in prison. ”

“ Luckless Messina! For eight francs the Palermitans can make a trip to see the wreck of the proud city once Palermo’s rival!
“Poor devils—to be made a spectacle of!” sighed Patsy. “Still it helps to have anybody{412} make money! The railroad will get something out of these special trips; any movement is better than none.”
Outside a large dry-goods shop an immense placard called our attention.
“Bazar Messinesi. Bankrupt stock from Messina, to be sold out below cost.”
In the Via Marquada, a fine bustling modern street, I found my friend Palladia the milliner. ”

“ Messina is beautifully land-locked. The only possible winds that can affect its port are the north-west and south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more sea breeze than any other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek friend, however, says that Constantinople is in this respect not only superior to Messina, but to any other place in the seas of Europe. Pity that the fellows are Turks! We did not find much to interest us within the walls of Messina. There was, to be sure, a fine collection of Sicilian birds, amongst which we were surprised to see several of very exotic shape and plumage. ”

“ The senate was suppressed, and Messina lost its privileges. This was fatal to the importance of the city. In 1743 the plague carried off 40,000 inhabitants. The city was partially destroyed by earthquake in 1783. During the revolution of 1848 against the Bourbons of Naples, Messina was bombarded for three consecutive days. In 1854 the deaths from cholera numbered about 15,000. Garibaldi landed in Sicily in 1860, and Messina was the last city in the island taken from the Bourbons and made a part of united Italy under Victor Emmanuel. ”

“ To halt now will be destruction; to pursue our course, glory, and deliverance. Our forces are sufficient to raise the whole country as far as Messina, and Messina must not belong to the foe; we share the same origin, the same language, the same past glory and present shame, the same experience that slavery and misery are the result of division.
"All Sicily is stained with the blood of the strangers. She is strong in the courage of her sons, in the ruggedness of her mountains, in the protection of the seas, which are her bulwarks. ”

“ All educated people knew Messina by name previously, but it was not until the Italian wires flashed the story of the earthquake which had wrought destruction so swiftly and dramatically that it will always be ranked as among the most appalling that ever happened, that everyone with one consent turned their attention to Messina, and the eyes of the whole world were focused on it. ”

“ The dangers which were supposed to beset mariners in their passage through the narrow strait which divides it from Italy, on one side of which was Sylla, and on the other Charybdis, sufficiently point out the ignorance and inexperience of the ancients in the construction and management of their ships.
The principal town on the eastern coast of Sicily, opposite Greece, was Messana, now called Messina: it was the first which the Romans possessed in the island: it was one of the most wealthy and powerful cities in ancient Sicily. ”

“ When I pass in review the hundreds of survivors I have seen and talked with in Rome, Syracuse, Palermo, finally in Messina itself, I see clearest of all the face of Rosina, the ancient woman; I hear her shriek of woe:
“Messina non esiste più!{39}”
II
THE STRAITS OF DEATH
Wednesday, December 30th, the King and Queen of Italy sailed through the straits and into the harbor of Messina. As their ship, the “Vittorio Emanuele,” approached the Faro, the gunners of the Russian cruisers, the English men-of-war, and the Italian battleships began to fire the royal salute. ”

“ How everything is relative in this world. Had I gone to Messina after visiting Florence and Naples, instead of before, I should most likely have thought it a very insignificant looking place. But after Constantinople and Smyrna, it looked a town of palaces. The nice pavement, the fine large stone houses, with their balconies before every window, on which dark girls in gay Sunday dress stood among flowers. ”

“ They come because they believe that the streets of London are paved with gold, but too many of them find our streets guttered by the tears of foreign waiters who have failed to find work. You had much better stay where you are like a good boy, and I will come to Messina and see you next autumn.
Then a basket arrived containing the prickly pears in a state of pulp, exuding juice from every pore because he had not attempted to pack them, and accompanied by a card wishing me a Merry Christmas.
Early in the morning of the 28th December, 1908, Messina was destroyed by an earthquake. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII. Messina.—​Trade of the place.—​The Fata Morgana.—​Embark for Naples.—​The Sicilian pilot.—​The Faro of Messina.—​Scylla and Charybdis.—​Exaggerations of the ancient writers.—​Fatal adventure of a Neapolitan diver.
We found Messina quite a lively, bustling place, with a harbor full of all sorts of Mediterranean craft. Several American vessels lay at the quay, loading with oranges and lemons for Boston. These fruits constitute the chief trade of the place, and give employment to a great part of the population of the city and neighborhood. ”

“ It is about four hours after passing Stromboli that we enter the straits which separate Sicily, the three-cornered island, from Italy, which seems to be kicking it away with the toe of its foot. Land begins to close in on us, and in the dazzling sunshine it appears radiant, while the sea is a mirror of blue. On both sides we see houses and villages built on the sloping shores, but the interest heightens when we come close abreast the great town of Messina which, on the 20th of December 1908, suddenly became world-famous owing to the awful misfortune which befell it. ”

“ From the rich gloom of the mosaics His grave face looks out on the ruins of Messina, upon His world. For the world has never been so truly Christian as it is today; not even when Richard of the Lion Heart wintered in Messina on his way to Palestine to fight for the Holy Sepulchre, that same winter he took to wife the lovely Berengaria. A new name is added to the long list of those who have made their camp beside Charybdis, opposite Scylla, on the most beautiful, the most deadly coast in all the world—the Americans, who came not to conquer or to ravage, but to help and to save. ”

“ In the city alone 77,283 persons perished. Humanity stood aghast before a catastrophe so tremendous that the intelligence could not grasp its full significance of horror. And when the final relief work was completed, the last reports tabulated, the toll of Ætna on both sides of the Strait—in Calabria as well as in Sicily—mounted up to two hundred thousand—nearly a quarter of a million lives!
Sleeping and praying, weeping and cursing, unconscious and paralyzed with terror, Messina died in the murdering cruelty of the most appalling of all the disasters the heroic city had ever known. ”

“ From Marseilles to Genoa the course lies toward the northeast along the coast of France. Thence, in going toward Messina, it turns toward the southeast, and follows the coast of Italy. The route may be traced very easily on any map of modern Europe. The reason why Messina had been appointed as the great intermediate rendezvous of the fleet was two-fold. In the first place, it was a convenient port for this purpose, being a good harbor, and being favorably situated about midway of the voyage. Then, besides, Richard had a sister residing there. Her name was Joanna. ”

“ There are, again, others that have commenced their existence as paltry hamlets on the sea-shore, and which, by degrees, have seen sailing vessels succeed the simple boat, and noble ships the tiny barque—whose modest huts have given place to lordly palaces, while the gold of Potosi and the wealth of the Indies flow into their ample ports.
It is for these reasons that we give to cold, inanimate nature epithets that truly belong to man’s nobility alone. Thus we say, Messina the noble, Syracuse the faithful, Girgenti the magnificent, Trapani the invincible, and Palermo the blessed. ”

“ It is past midnight, and I must close. Cæsar started this afternoon, alone, for the ascent of Etna. I would have accompanied him, but my only chance of reaching Messina in time for the next steamer to Naples is the diligence which leaves here to-morrow. The mountain has been covered with clouds for the last two days, and I have had no view at all comparable to that of the morning of my arrival. To-morrow the grand procession of the Body of St. Agatha takes place, but I am quite satisfied with three days of processions and horse races, and three nights of illuminations. ”

“ The working men are perforce thinner and [Pg 23] less exuberant. But they hang together in clusters, and can never be physically near enough.
It is only thirty miles to Messina, but the train takes two hours. It winds and hurries and stops beside the lavender grey morning sea. A flock of goats trail over the beach near the lapping wave's edge, dismally. Great wide deserts of stony river-beds run down to the sea, and men on asses are picking their way across, and women are kneeling by the small stream-channel washing clothes. The lemons hang pale and innumerable in the thick lemon groves. ”

“ The flat-roofed city, whose streets appear like narrow footpaths; the buzz of the inhabitants who seem like pigmies; carriages appearing no larger than children’s toys, and with difficulty distinguished; on one side the rich Neapolitan country, on another the majestic Apennines, with Vesuvius in front, and on the other side the bay covered with boats, and its shores lined with villages—the whole produces a rich and beautiful sight.
IX. Messina (Sicily) , March, 10, 1841. ”

“ The *Voyage through the Straits of Messina (Faro or Stretto di Messina) , the Fretum Siculum of antiquity, is one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean. Both banks are luxuriantly fertile, shaded with palms, and yielding oranges, pomegranates, and prickly pears. The Calabrian coast, thickly studded with villages, partly in ruins, culminates in Montalto (5424 ft.) , the highest peak of the wooded Aspromonte, the ancient Sila, while we survey the Sicilian coast as far as Mt. Ætna. ”

“ The safety of Messina appearing to be the first object for the preservation of Sicily from the French, five hundred troops were immediately ordered thither by the Portuguese ships; and his lordship also urged his Excellency, the Vice-Admiral Theodore Uschakoff, who commanded the Russian fleet then before Corfu, to send as many ships and troops as possible to Messina, for the promotion of the common cause, and the good of his Sicilian Majesty in particular. ”

“ The city itself, with its forts, its cathedral, and its imposing line of buildings on the quay, looks wonderfully picturesque. The straits are at this point so narrow that they look like a river; and the mainland of Italy, with hills covered with thick chestnut forests, seems but a stone’s throw from the town. There were a great many English vessels in the harbour, all engaged in taking in lemons, which are at this season the staple export of Messina. But even more welcome than the sight of these English ships, was the appearance of my old friend the Charles Quint. ”