It was found that
both legs were broken and that she had been badly crushed about the
body.
Some extraordinary escapes from death took place. A man and his
four children were rescued after having been lost in the ash-covered
wilderness for fifty-six hours. They were terribly exhausted, and were
reduced almost to skeletons.
Robert Underwood Johnson, one of the editors of the "Century Magazine",
who happened to be in Rome at the time of the eruption, made one of a
party who ventured as near the scene of destruction as they could safely
approach. From his graphic story of his experiences we copy some of the
most interesting details.
AN AMERICAN OBSERVER.
"We caught a train for Torre Annunziata, three miles this side of
Pompeii and two miles from the southern end of the wedge of lava which
destroyed Bosco Trecase. We had a magnificent view of the eruption,
eight miles away. Rising at an angle of fifty degrees, the vast mass of
tumult roundness was beautifully accentuated by the full moon, shifting
momentarily into new forms and drifting south in low, black clouds of
ashes and cinders reaching to Capri. At Torre del Greco we ran under
this terrifying pall, apparently a hundred feet above, the solidity of
which was soon revealed in the moonlight. The torches of the railway
guards added to the effect, but greatly relieved the sulphurous
darkness.
"We reached Torre Annunziata at three in the morning. There was little
suggestion of a disaster as we trudged through the sleeping town to the
lava, two miles away.
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