use. He entered the woman's house after the earthquake,
accompanied by another malefactor. The woman's daughter was killed, but
the woman was under the ruins alive and they pulled her out. She
exclaimed:

"I do not know you."

But she did know the carbonajo quite well, or at least well enough to
know he was a bad man and to suspect his intention. They asked her where
her money was concealed. She only repeated:

"I do not know you."

They believed her, thinking she was confused by the shock of the
earthquake; this was what she intended, otherwise she feared they would
have killed her. They threatened her, and at last she told them where
the money was, still protesting that she did not know them. They took
her money and then, being afraid she might give the alarm and they might
be caught before they could escape, they pinned her down with a large
piece of the ruins on her left arm and departed, taking the risk of her
being rescued later and saying she had been robbed by unknown men. She
was rescued and brought to Palermo. In the hospital she begged Cece to
put an end to her:

"What is the use of living? My daughter is dead, my arm is gangrened, my
money is stolen. Let me die and have done with it."

Cece did not kill her, he chloroformed her and amputated her arm. She
gave information about the carbonajo, who was arrested in Messina. His
accomplice escaped, but the woman got back her money and thanked Cece for
amputating her arm instead of killing her.

FUGITIVES AND VICTIMS

At Caltanissetta they told me that the trains were bringing fugitives
from Messina all day and all night. The fugitives were mostly naked and
all very dirty, some with rugs, some with cloaks, some with rags. A
woman got out of the train clothed, like Monna Vanna, in nothing but a
cloak which a soldier had given her. They asked her:

"What do you want done for you?"

She opened her cloak and showed that she wanted everything.

Another woman came with her daughter whose leg was broken and they were
both naked. The doctor said to the mother:

"And what do you want?"

"Help for my daughter."

To another destitute woman: "And you?"

"Shoes for my baby."

Michele, a young man, was known to be in Reggio where he was employed in
the Municipio. His father went from Caltanissetta to look for him and
returned after four days, during which he had searched for his son and
suffered mental anguish and physical discomfort