Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1902 — BURIED BY LAVA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BURIED BY LAVA

An Awful Volcanic Eruption in Island of Martinique. WORSE THAN POMPEII City of St. Pierre Des'royed and 40,000 Persons Reported Dead. ■onntPelee Eiplodes and Bur lea the Town tinder Ruin of Molten Lava •nd Ashes Eighteen Vessels in the Harbor Are Burned or Sunk—Neighboring Parishes Arc Devastated by the Shock—Larue Area of Destruction An aYVpiiThhjFcatastrophe Iras overwhelmed the Island of Martinique, one that will gS down in history among the world's greatest disasters. In" this little island there has been a volcanic eruption, followed by an earthquake, which has destroyed St. Pierre, its principal city, and all of the town's inhabitants, it was one of those terrible outbreaks of nature’s Mixes which cannot be anticipated and which leave widespread death and desolation behind them. Such a calamity might come upon any of the adjacent islands in the-4uug„_ chain which stretches iu a southeasterly course from Porto llieo weil-uigh to the coast of. Venexuela. beginning with Gnadaloupe and ending with Trinidad, Destroyed Like Pompeii. More than 40.000 persons perished at St. Pierre beneath the avalanche of tire, cinders anYFiuolten lava b'elched forth by The volcano Mount Pelee. St. Pierre and it' environs are buried beneath a crust of seething, melted rock which suddenly overwhelmed that portion of the island, Ijinre s of-Pompeii no ■lore horrible volcanic disastef ls so : corded. Mount Etna, in Sicily, in 11594, killed 18,1X10 persons, and between 60,bOO and 100,000 persons perished in the earthquakes that followed. At Yeddo, Japan, odtl.OOO perished by the earthqua'kes'Tu 17tc;, and at Pekin, in 1708, —4=0.0 X* 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 Herenlaneuin. in A. D. 79. In all essvinTal points they were alike Mount Pt h e suddenly —belched forth thousands of tons of liquid lava, which buried St. Pierre and miles of territory beneath a bed of fire. Then file earth quaked, opened an awful chasm, and swallowed thousands of persons. The aea receded, and then a mighty tidal wave swept over the harbor, engulfing the ships and their crews. A great cloud •f steam arose, tons of fire descended from the sky. the waters of the bay-min-gling with the hot lava roared, the heav-

ens tilled wth smoke, vapor riyal ashes. Quiet ensued. A city bad perished. bcriei of Eruptions. The Jirst disturbance occurred in Guatemala four or rive Weeks ago and was of a seismic nature. Although the loss of life was comparatively smalt, .the earthquake was one of unusual severity, extending over a considerable area of ♦be aouutry, ruining large numbers of coffee plantations, doing much damage to jjnqierty in the cities, and killing nearly l.iMMt persons. SUO of whom perished at Qaezalten'ango, the second city of Guatemala. At the same time an extinct volcano in Salvador broke put again, but without doing any damage nt last accounts. Upon the heels of this news came the reports of earthquakes and volcanic disturbances at St. Vincent jn the British W est Indies,' Which were so alarming that the people were fleeing for shelter in all directions. The How of lava from Mount I’elee volcano began on Kst■nlay and on Monday 200 persons lost their lives in the vicinity of St, i’ierre. Later the eruption increased 'in violence, eading in the destruction of the city and leaving but thirty persons ali/e. That the eruption was one of almost ■■preeedented severity and destructiveae*s is shown by the fact that even the veasels in the harbor could not get away from 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 Guadaloupe, 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 and those among the islands along the eastern limit of the Caribbean Sea 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, cannot but be regarded with apprehension. . Among the survivors a~e eight passengers from the steamer Roraima., all 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 Roraima’s survivors say that there had been earthquake shocks for days, and that. the volcano was sending up clouds Of steam and ashes for some time. Tire- great drsaster dbl not come until Thursday mofhlng, May S. Volcano Seems to-Explode. They say that between 7 and 8 o’clock the volcano, Mount Pelee, seemed to explode. There was a terrible convulsion of land and sea. The upheaval of the -waters—seemed_lQ pick. the steamer AIK throw it at the sky, and then drop it into the seething waters of the bay. The steamer was dashed to pieces, only eight persons surviving. They clung to pieces of -wreckage in-tbe-water until they were picked up by the cruiser Suchet. From the crater of Mount Pelee the survivors of the Iloraima say molten rocks and ashes belched out for about three minutes. The great mass of burning lava poured out directly over the town and covered thesurronnding districts for a radius of four miles. The Roddam only escaped by cutting its cables and steaming away at full speed. The captain was.severely burned. The chief engineer is dv;id. All

the officers anti engineers were dead or dying. Nearly every member of the crew is dead. Supercargo Campbell and teu of the crew of the Roddam jumped board at St. I’ierre and were lost. At 1 o'clock Thursday afternoon, when the Suchet sailed away to carry the news of the disaster to thf nearest cable office and to get assistance, the town of St. I’ierre was one mass of roaring flame. The first eruption from Mount I’elee came Saturday, accompanied by a series of earthquake shocks. The arable lines were destroyed early in the week, but the Inhabitants of neighboring" islands heard tbe rovarlMii ntbms from frequent sions. Still of St. i’ierre t<M>k no ahirfin rind only a few of the white people of means left the city for safer places down the coast. Comes Without Warning. The culminating disaster seems to have come without warning. There was an explosion, which 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 fire 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, crazed by fear and suffering, leaped into the sea in a vain endeavor to escape the pitiless fain of fire; but of all that took refuge in the Water only thirty were, picked up by the boats lowered by the cruiser Suchet, 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 flames, and the unfortunate people perished on the spot they had sought for refugq, ■ 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 vase, many who “sought refuge in the water are believed- to have been- drowned. City a Fiery Furnace. According to eye witnesses the whole of St. Pierre feeemed suddenly to become fiery furnace, while awful shrieks—of agony rose in an instant from thousands of victims wrapped in liquid flame, and then'there was no further noise except the crackling of burning buildings and the roar of the volcano. There was no time for those alive to lopk back. If parr ent or child was behind it was left in the wild rush to escape what seemed the opening of hell upon earth, and of those who sought escape many were stricken by bolts of quivering flame which came down apart from the general mass. It was evident that most of them had not been merely suffocated, but burned to death in a lake of fire precipitated upon them. The corpses showed signs of terrible agony. While the streets

were full of dead, whole families perished in their houses, which caught fire, the inmates being roasted inside the dwelling. There were eighteen ocean steamers and vessels in the harbor and all were overwhelmed by the downpotlr of fire from the vplcano. - It is from these eighteen vessels that the Suchet picked up the thirty survivors. There is no cable communication with St. I’ierre. The repair steamers sent tb restore the line which was broken earlier in the week were destroyed in the general catastrophe. ■ UNCLE SAM TAKES ACTION. - ___ Congress Appropriates SIOO,OOO to Aid Sufferers in Martinique. The United States was (he first nation tn appropriate money for the relief of the sufferers in the French West India. Under a suspension of the rules Saturday the Senate unanimously passed a bill appropriating SIOO,OOO for the relief of the citizens of Martinque. The bill authorizes the President to purchase provisions, clothing, medicines and other necessaries and" tender them, in the name of the government of the United States, to the French, government for the relief of her terribly afflicted people and authorises the Secretary of War te use such vessels as are necessary for the quick transportation of the same. '

ST. VINCENT ALSO IN RUINS. North Half of Island Laid Waste by Havoc—soo Are Dead. As was expected, news now comes from the British Island of St. Vincent, which lies directly south of Martinique, being separated from it by the Island of St. Lucia, that —there —has —been 11vlolent tTdeaniFThiWreakVTluiT fTie~enT7re' northern end of the island is being devastated, and that it is cut qff from the southern end by streams of lava. It is certain that more persons have already perished in the rain of lava from the craters of the volcano in the northwest part of the island. Streams are (tried mp: and in-many places a food mid water famine is threatened.-' All the plantations have been destroyed and the ashes are two feet deep. A FERMENT OF TERROR. Inhabitants of the Whole West Indian Group Terror-Stricken, The whole of the West Indies is in a ferment of terror. The inhabitants have aid'll way to insensate panic, fearing eruptions of many of the volcanoes which have been supposed to be extinct. The crater of Mont Pelee, in Martinique, had been extinct for fifty years, and the people in adjotntng-Tslanils“believe that if the Martinique volcano became active all the others will also. Grief and terror have seized the people where earthquakes have begun. Deaths iu fifty families, as a result of earthquakes, have already occurred at St. Thomas. France Raises Relief Fund. I President Loubet has contributed 20,000 trances and the French cabinet has donated 5,500 francs to the fund being raised in Paris for the sufferers by the St. Pierre disaster.

Xeck of the Harbor Showing Where Volcanic Flow Overwhelmed Town and Tidal Waves Were Caused by the Lava liunniug into-the Sen.

(Guadaloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad are all bellevel ‘ to kava been affected by aaiimlc disturbances).

THE SEA FRONT OF ST. PIERRK.

MT. PELEE, THE DEATH-DEALING VOLCANO.

MAP or THE LESSER ANTILLES ISLANDS.