Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1902 — BURIED BY LAVA. [ARTICLE]

BURIED BY LAVA.

An Awful Volcanic Eruption in Island of Martinique. WORSE THAN POMPEII City of St. Pierre Des Toyed end 40,000 Persons Reported Dead. Mount Pelee Explodes and Bttrlts the Town Under Rain of Molten Lava and Ashes— Eighteen Vessels In the Harbor Are Burned or Sunk—Neighboring Parishes Are Devastated by the Shock—Large Area of Destruction s Total number of lives lost (estimated).4o,ooo Loss of life at St. I’lerre 30,000 Surrounding Islands 10,000 Vessels destroyed In harbor IS Rescued from vessels, only 80 An appalling catastrophe has overwhelmed the Island of Martinique, one thgt will go down in history among the world's greatest disasters. In this little island there has been a volcanic eruption, followed by an earthquake, which lins destroyed St. Pierre, its principal city, and all of the town’s inhabitants. It was one of those terrible outbreaks of nature's forces which cannot be anticipated and which leave widespread death and desolation behind them. Such a calamity might come upon auy of the adjacent islands in tilt- long chain Which stretches in a southeasterly course from Porto Ilieo well-nigh to the coast of Venezuela, beginning with Guadalotipe and ending with Trinidad. Destroyed Like Pompeii. More than -40,000 persons perished at St. Pierre beneath tire avalanche of lire, cinders and molten lava belched forth by the volcano Mount Pelee. St. Pierre and its environs are buried beneath a erust of seething, melted rock which suddenly overwhelmed that portion of the island. Since the days of Pompeii no more horrible volcanic disaster is recorded. Mount Etna, in Sicily, in 100-4, killed 18.000 persons, and between 00,000 and 100,000 persons perished in the earthquakes that followed. At Yeddo, Japan, 300,000 perished by the earthquakes in 1703, and at Pekin, in 1708, 1110,000 met death. But the St. Pierre horror was so sudden, so awful, that it will go down in history linked with the destruction of Pompeii, Stabae and Herciiluueum, in A. It. 79. In all essential points they were alike Mount Pelee suddenly belched forth thousands of tons of liquid lava, which buried St. l*ierre and miles of territory beneath a bed of fire. Then the earth quaked, opened an awful chasm, and swallowed thousands of persons. The sea receded, and then a mighty tidal wave swept over the harbor, engulfing the ships and their crews. A great cloud of steam arose, tons of fire descended from the sky, the waters of the bay mingling with the hot lava roared, the heavens filled with smoke, vapor and ashes. Quiet ensued. A city had perished. Peries of Eruptions. first disturbance occurred in Guatemala four or rive weeks ago and was of a seismic nature. Although the loss of life was comparatively small, the earthquake was one of unusual severity, extending over a considerable area of the country, ruining large numbers of coffee plantations, doing much damage to property In the cities, and killing nearly 1,000 persons,'soo of •whom perished at Qnczaltennngo, the second city of Guatemala. At the aarne time an extinct volcano in Salvador broke out again, but w ithout doing any damage at last accounts. Upon the heels of this news came the reports of earthquakes add volcanic disturbances at St. Vincent in the British West Indies, which were so alarmiug that the people were fleeing for shelter in all directions. The flow of lava from Mount Pelee volcano began on Saturday and on Monday 200 persons lost their lives in the vicinity of St. Pierre. Later the eruption increased in violence, ending in the destruction of the city and leaving but thirty persons alive. That the eruption was one of almost unprecedented severity and destructiveness is shown by the fact that even the essels in the harbor could not get away com the storm of fire and ashes which descended upon them 'from the volcano, it was the story of Herculaneum and Pompeii over again. And this may be only the beginning of the end. Alarming rumors come from Gundaloupe. Dominica and other islands in the Antilles where volcanoes, supposed to be extinct, are .beginning to be active again. That there is some connection between the seismic disturbances in Central America nnd those among the islands along the eastern limit of the Caribbean Sen is undoubtedly true. We can regard destruction of this kind in far-away Asia or Africa with complacency, but the nearness of the horror, at our very doors even, eannot but be regarded with apprehension. Among the survivors are eight passengers from the steamer Itoraima,, nil of the rest having perished when the vessel went down. They are horribly burned with molten lava that fell on the steamer in showers. The Uornimu's survivors suy that there had been earthquake shocks for days, and that the volcano was sending up clouds of steam nnd ashes for some time. The great disaster did not come until Thursday morning, May 8. The Itoddam only escaped by cutting Is cable* and steaming away at full speed. The captain was severely burned. The chief engineer Is dead. All the officers and engineers were dead or dying. Nearly every member of the crew is dead. Supercargo Campbell and tec of the crew of the Koddnni jumped overboard at Bt. Pierre and were lost. At 1 o'clock Thursday afternoon, when the Huchet nailed away to carry the news of the disaster to the nearest cable office and to get assistance, the town of St. Pierre was (.ns mass of roaring flame.

They say that between 7 and 8 o’clock I the volcano, Mount Pelee, seemed to ex- I plode. There was a terrible convulsion of land and sea. The upheaval of the waters seemed to pick the steamer up. throw it at the sky, and then drop it into the seething waters of the bay. The | steamer was dashed to pieces, only eight j persons surviving. They clung to pieces j of wreckage in the water until they were ! picked up by the cruiser Suehet. From the crater of Mount Pelee the, survivors of the Itoraima say moiten rocks and ashes belched out for about three minutes. The great mass of burning lava poured out directly over the towa and covered the surrounding districts for a radius of four miles. The first eruption from Mount Pelee came Saturday, accompanied by a series of earthquake shocks. The cable lines were destroyed early in the week, but the inhabitants of neighboring islands heard, the reverberations from frequent explosions. Still the 'inhabitants of St.’ Pierre took no alarm, and only a few of the white people of means left the city for safer places down the coast. Cornea Without Warning. The culminating disaster seems to have come without warning. There was an ‘explosion,' v/liich threw an immense volume of molten rock, dust, ashes and black smoke thousands of feet into the air. Then, almost instantly, the rain of fire descended upon the city. The shower of lava and ashes extended for five miles out to sea and presumably as far inland. Ships in the harbor were tossed and pitched about by the upheaval accompanying the explosion, and most of them were shattered into wreckage. Those not destroyed in this manner were almost instantly set on fire by the burning lava, from which there was no escape. Sailors on the different vessels, erased by fear and suffering, leaped into the sea in a vain endeavor to escape the pitiless rain of fire; but of all that took refuge in the water only- thirty were picked np by the boats lowered by the cruiser Suehet, which arrived after the explosion of the volcano. From the number of dead bodies seen on the wharves, which completely encircle the water front of St. Pierre, it is believed that when the rain of fire began to descend upon the city from Mount Pelee the inhabitants rushed to the shore, hoping to escape death by taking to the sea. But everything in the shape of a boat must have been consumed in the Haines, and the unfortunate people perished on the spot they had sought for refuge. The water in St. Pierre harbor is so deep that ocean vessels of the deepest draft are able to discharge cargoes directly on the wharves. This being the case, many who sought refuge in the water are believed to have been drowned. Eighteen Ocean Ships Destroyed. There were eighteen ocean steamers and vessels in the harbor and all were overwhelmed by the downpour of fire from the volcano. It is from these eighteen vessels that the Suehet picked up the thirty survivors. The clouds of ashes and smoke which poured from the crater of Mount Pelee covered the sea for a distance of four or five miles from shore. The town of St. Pierre itself, as well as the surrounding country, was shrouded in almost impenetrable darkness. At last reports the eruption from Mount Pelee continued without interruption. There is no cable communication with St. IMerre. The repair steamers sent to restore the line which was broken earlier in the week were destroyed in the general catastrophe.

ST. VINCENT POPULOUS. Inland Threatened by Volcano Was Overwhelmed in 1812. St. Vincent is seventeen miles long and ten miles wide', and has a population of 50,000. Kingston, the capital, has a population of 8,200. It lias more extensive valleys than a majority of the lesser Antilles, but culiniuates in a vast volcanic crater, Soufrere, which was last in eruption in 1812, when thousands of people lost their lives. This eruption was most disastrous in its effects, covering the whole island with ashes, cinders, pumice and scoriae, destroying many lives and ruining many estates. It lasted three days and 10,000 perished in a moment of time. A most curious feature of this eruption was that ashes from this volcano descended upon Barbados, ninety-five miles to the windward.

BT. VIERHK A BUSY CITY. Town Which Is Destroyed Was Chief Port of Island. The principal towns of Martinique are Fort de France, the political center of the island, and St. Pierre, the principal port. Fort de France, formerly Fort Itoyal, was a hundred years ago the leading port of entry, but has been supplanted by Its more enterprising neighbor a few miles away. St. Pierre had an individuality of its own. Its houses wenc painted yellow, their shutters blue, their tiled roofs were red; so with red, yellow and blue on the deep green background of tropical vegetation one of the most startling combinations that the eye of the artist could desire was noticeable. Like all tropical towns. St. Pierre was dead in the middle of the day, all business and pleasure being suspended from 0 to 3 o'clock during the hot season, und In these hours everybody kept indoors and slept. CAUSE OK ERUPTIONS. Volcanic Outbreaks Are Explosions of Steam in Subterranean Cavities. Volcanic outbreaks, according to Prof. Shaler of Harvard University, are merely the explosion of steam under high pressure, steam which is bound In rocks buried underneath the surface of the earth and there subjected to stteh tremendous heat that when the coiufitions ore right its pent-up energy breuks forth and it shatters its stone prisou walls Into dust. Great Seismic Disasters. Since records began to be kept of the Atlantic disturbances, which was about 1500 B. C., W.7U5 disastrous earthquakes have been noted. In the nineteenth century alone more thou 4,000 serious earthquakes occurred. Pompeii 83,000 A.D . 79 I.lsbou 80,000 A. D. 1733 Mount Aetna 13.000 A. D. 11TO Mount Aetna 104.000 A. D. ItliM Ycddo, Japan 800.000 A. D. 1703 Pekin rn.iiOO A. D. 1708 Mt. Pierre 40.000 A. D. IUO3 St. Joseph, Mo., la to hare a new dally afternoon paper. (