nsity of the bubbling life.
As I passed the Municipio in a side street, I saw a wedding party going
in. One evening I went to the theatre and saw _Feudalismo_ with Giovanni
Grasso, a homonymous cousin of the great Giovanni, in the principal part
and Turiddu's mother, Signora Balistrieri, as one of the women.

The first time I was in Messina after the earthquake all this was only
beginning and many of the people were living in railway waggons in the
sidings, of which few now remain. It was strange to see rows of railway
carriages with curtains to the windows and some with steps up to the door
and a little terrace outside with creepers growing over it. The cabins
and the waggons are supposed to be safe, because they would not crush
their tenants in another earthquake. But they do not seriously fear
another earthquake; Messina has been so thoroughly destroyed that it must
now be the turn of some other town.

I replied: "Yes, the Veil of S. Agata preserved Catania this time, but it
may desert her next time as the Letter of the Madonna deserted you last
winter. By the by, what has become of that miraculous Letter? Was it
destroyed or did anyone save it?"

They did not know and muttered something about "stupidagini," and perhaps
there will be no need to trouble oneself with any such thoughts when one
is living the life after death. Later on, in another part of the island,
I asked a dignitary of the Church, who had not been through the
earthquake, what had become of the Madonna's Letter and he assured me
that it had been preserved. I had pretty well made up my mind that this
would be his answer before putting the question; but if the earthquake
had destroyed Girgenti and I had asked him about the letter from the
Devil, which is said to be preserved in the cathedral there, I should
have expected him to tell me that that letter had not survived the shock.

GIUSEPPE PLATANIA

In Catania I saw my friend Lieutenant Giuseppe Platania, who was
quartered in Messina during the winter of 1908-9. He was away for
Christmas and returned about midnight on the 27th December and went to
bed at two in the morning on the 28th. He was awakened by the falling of
a picture, which hit him. He guessed the reason, covered his head with
the pillows and lay still, waiting. He had to wait fifty-seven
seconds--at least many people told me the earthquake lasted fifty-seven
seconds, but the recording instruments were broken, so it is