"In many places temporary shelters had been built by the roadside,
like children's playhouses. Here women were huddled with their bedding,
awaiting the coming of supplies which the army had begun to distribute.
The men were largely occupied with shoveling cinders from the stronger
roofs and floors into heaps three to six feet deep along the roadside.
Many two-wheeled carts loaded with salvage, drawn by donkeys or pushed
by peasants, were making their way along, the women with bundles on
their heads or carrying poultry.
"In the square of San Giuseppe was an encampment of soldiers, with low
tents. Near a destroyed church, in coarse yellow linen shrouds, were the
bodies of thirty-three of the persons who there lost their lives. The
peasants were sad, but uncomplaining; in fact, for so excitable a people
they were wonderfully calm. As evidence of the thrift and self-respect
of these, we were not once asked for alms during the afternoon."
THE KING AT THE FRONT.
The Italian Government did all it could at the moment to alleviate the
horrors of the situation, sending money to be expended in relief
work and dispatching high officials of the government to give aid and
encouragement by their presence. The King, Victor Emmanuel, and Queen
Helene reached the scene of destruction as early as possible and lent
their personal assistance to the work of rescue.
Obliged to leave his automobile, which could not move over the
cinder-choked road, the King went forward with difficulty on horseback,
the animal floundering through four feet of ashes, stumbling into holes,
and half blinded by the fall of dust and cinders.
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