Ex-Governor Guild on January 26 informed the Red Cross that forty-nine portable houses could be obtained in Massachusetts from the Springfield Portable Construction Company. These were purchased for $6,978, and shipped on one of the vessels carrying the government lumber directly to Messina, without expense. The Springfield Portable Construction Company kindly returned to the Red Cross $500 of the payment made on these houses as their contribution for the relief work. As the Congressional appropriation has been entirely expended for house materials and the chartering of ships, the American Red Cross, besides expending $10,000 for the erection of the houses it has sent over, has transmitted $38,000 to pay for the erection of the houses to be made from the materials purchased and shipped by the United States Government. [Illustration: HON. ELIHU ROOT Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.] EARLY DAYS OF RELIEF BY W. BAYARD CUTTING, JR. Special Representative of the American National Red Cross. _Mr. W. Bayard Cutting, the American Vice-Consul at Milan, who was promptly sent to the scene of the disaster by the Ambassador at Rome to look after American and consular interests, was requested by the American Red Cross to act there as its Special Representative, and $15,000 was placed at his disposition to meet any immediate needs, especially those of any Americans he might discover among the victims. Mr. Cutting most kindly consented to act in this capacity. He was on the scene within a few days of the catastrophe, and his interesting article written for the_ BULLETIN _gives a graphic description of the early days of the relief work. The Red Cross is not only indebted to Mr. Cutting for this article, but for the valuable aid he rendered to the Society._—EDITOR. When the steamer _Nord Amerika_ entered the harbor of Messina on the morning of January 2, 1909, there was no excited rush among the passengers to get a first view of the town. We knew that we were about to have one of the greatest impressions of our life, to see a panorama of desolation and destruction such as the world has rarely presented in the history of man. Amid that desolation we were to live for days and weeks, and to perform trying duties; new sensations would soon crowd upon us; curiosity would be satisfied all too soon. Meanwhile there was no reason for hurrying to a scene of horror. Thus we sat uneasily in the saloon, where we had spent a night of seasick misery, and tried to munch dry bread and ship’s biscuit, inventing pretexts for not going on deck. We all dreaded the flames and the ruins, and the corpses floating through the straits, up and down with the tide. Then the engines stopped; we had arrived, and must go ashore. Each of us stuffed a loaf or a biscuit into his pocket, and had a look at his revolver. Those few who had water-bottles filled them. With nerves braced to face any horrors, we ascended the companion way. [Illustration: HON. JAMES TANNER