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DAY
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To the Last the LightHearted Population Refused to Believe There
Was Danger Though the Warning Was Ample
The special correspondent of the
New York Herald writing from St
Pierre Martinique says
It is not so very long ago that I vis
ited this poor St Pierre this now
city of the dead It had I am told
undergone but few changes until the
coming of that frightful day which
changed it so utterly
Where all is now aching desolation
a chaos of ruined walls blackened
stumps of trees and sickening stench
there basked in summer sunshine a
little city splashed through with vivid
5io
fall tell of how short lived the fright
was and how quickly the mercurial
population regained its buoyant spir
its Some there were who looked
grave when ashes white and fine as
powdered magnesia began to sift
from the great cloud which hung over
Pelees crest but it seems that none
thought to connect these myriads of
floating particles with the deep muf
fled rumble which had just been
heard none to trace the one to the
other the effect to the cause Their
minds were not grooved to such
ZONES OF DESTRUCTJVENESS AT ST PIERRE
f AS REPORTED BY UNITED STATES -GEOLOGIST
Quaaf de Pkri
color red tiled roofs cutting sharp
lines on walls of creamy white yellow
and orange and birds eye blue min
gled with the green of tropic verdure
Built on a long undulation which slop
ed to the sea where it clustered in a
riot of color near the shore its sub
urban spots could be picked out here
and there along the flanking spurs
and foothills which roll from Pelees
base that great volcanic bulk whose
crest is ever shrouded in a veil of
clouds
Over the doomed city the morning
ot May 1 broke in miracle splendor
skies bright and blue and foliage
washed to a tresher green by a hard
rain which had swept over the island
the preceding night But it was the
last fair day that St Pierre was to
know
The market place the first section
of the city to show life when a West
fi
Professor Robert T Hill
First Man to Penetrate to the Crater
of Mont Pelee and Report on the
Eruption
Indian town awakes was filling with
venders and purchasers when the
first murmur of Pelee the sleeping
giant was heard a deep toned jarred
growl which instantly blanched the
faces of all who heard for those bred
in the shadow of the volcano had long
since learned to dread its wrath and
growing up these in turn had taught
other generations of tie malevolent
r x that giant bulk Startled eyes were
turned to the gloomy mountain
and were reassured to see it still quiet
so far as vision went for its top was
hidden in a white mist and there was
no sign of boiling lava and no fall
of hurtling rocks
Those who by chance were in the
city that and who by far
luckier hazard were out of it before its
analysis they were too simple too
West Indian for that Sufficient that
the rumble had gone
St Pierre was gay that night of May
1 The municipal band played music
in the plaza as was its wont Thurs
day evening This band night was
the one when youths and maidens
might mingle in public and the young
gallants and mademoiselles prome
nading around the square under te
watchful eyes of fathers and mothers
and duennas talked lightly of Pelee
and that whitening fall
Up near Morne Rouge abode of St
Pierres well-to-do there was a
lawn party that evening which car
ried its gayety far into the night
zitzas tinkling in the tropic air and
mantilla draped girls dancing in the
moonlight to the click of castanets
Friday day of the evil omen dawn
ed over St Pierre It was made
sombre by a thunderstorm which
brooded over the mountains and from
whose dark clouds came intermittent
flashes of lightning The nervous
started at every thunderclap and anx
iously asked one another if that was
not Mont Pelee while others sought
to trace the olinding flashes to their
source to see if they were really the
mere play of lightning or volcanic
blazes from the time worn crater
which many believed and all hoped
was long ago extinct Then a heavy
mist settled over the city and its sur
roundings and under its depressing
influence the day wore itself to a
close
Saturday May 3 Just five days
to the obliteration to death utterly
wholesale sudden and tragic And
yet St Pierre went forth that day to
carnival doings local celebration in
honor of something or somebody
Facts are meager as to that one day
and those following for it must be
remembered that nobody survived the
horror that was so soon to come But
there were some who had spent days
in tne city just previous to the trag
edy some who had left it only a
scant half hour before the holocaust
Grieving for their own lost dead and
with nerves unstrung by the narrow
ness of their own escape it may be
that their overwrought minds are
coining visions now but these tell ear
nestly of a column of smoke which
arose black as a pall from Pelees
white shroud to rear its billows of
crape into the form or a great up
ended coffin However that may ne
there is evidence that all festival gay
ety went when showers of pebbles be
gan to rattle over the city with now
and then a snower of sand of grains
hot to the touch despite their long
flight through the air
St Pierre it is now said was in a
more sober humor that evening than
it has been within the memory of those
who tell disjointedly the tale of the
Jays that ushered in its doom And
when on the next morning Sunday
that was another growling note was
heard from Pelee and a small river of
hot black mud touched here and
there with red was seen to come snak
ing down out of the mists screening
Pelees summit to cascade over a
hundred foot precipice and then to
follow the line of least resistance un
til it swirled about the Guerin factory
setting that building ablaze and des
troying many lives then apprehension
grew into fear and soon might have
lapsed into a panic which doubtless
would have saved through flight the
lives of the thousands that were soon
to be sacrinced
It was at this crisis that the hand
of the government appeared To Fort
de France the seat of local authority
had come reports of the uneasy feel
ing of those dwelling in St Pierre
Martiniques commercial theater It
is thought that Gov Mouttet honestly
believed there was no cause for alarm
and that a panic in St Pierre would
work disaster in many ways interrupt
ing commerce and injuring the whole
island as well as the threatened city
He if none other realized that an
exodus from the place would be a
tacit acknowledgment of the danger
that lurked in the volcano which all
in Martinique would have the world
believe was long ago extinct and never
to be restored to the list of still active
nor yet classed with those that are
dormant
So it came about that the governor
saw fit to exercise moral restraint
it not being within his province or
within that ot any ether man to use
physical force in a matter of this
kind
In St Pierre there were some gov
ernment employes among these gray
beards who had spent years in vol
canic regions and wno knew some
thing of the preliminary warnings
which come from tnese excitable
hills When the lava streams came
pouring down from Pelee these at once
made hurried applications for leaves
of absence The government sought
to make an example of the youngest
and in a communication to him denied
the application for furlough and said
moreover that if the applicant quitted
his post at the time his position
would be taken from him This man
unfortunately names are hard to
obtain now from Martiniques hysteri
cal population promptly decided that
his life was worth more than his place
and packing up his belongings went
with his family to some point inland
just where no one seems to know
It seems teat the others were not
so hardy or were more so according
to ones way of looking at it At all
events when the governments dic
tum was known all the government
employes uecided to remain and as
fear loves company no less than mis
ery does these affected to make light
of the danger so as to better induce
the others to remain
Monday May 5 Less than eighty
hours and the 30000 lives of St
Pierre are to be blotted out as quickly
as one snuffs a candle Fear is rife
among the popuiace the morning of
tnis day and an unwonted silence per
vades the city the hush that precedes
a great tragedy Macaws and parrots
squawk discordantly from cages foun
tains tinkle merrily seas and skies
are blue but pervading all is an air
of expectancy of dread
Few have yet left the city but it
would now take little to turn every
street into a struggling stream of hu
manity fleeing panic stricken from the
vicinity of that awful volcano From
tales I have heard one can easily
conceive of what a trampling rush
might have followed some tocsin alarm
such a mad rush for safety as theater
crowds are wont to make when the
cry of fire is heard
But there was none in Martinique
to give needed warning not even
Pelee All that day and the next and
the next the volcano smoked and at
intervals emitted clouds of ashes
finely pulverized pumice the chemists
say the ashes are composed of but
the wind sent the smoke and ashes
away from the city and while the roll
ing clouds were seen from far off
points and while the ashes fell on
the ships half a hundred miles away
none in St Pierre seems to have
known that the mountain was even
then pouring forth smoke and ashes
What the residents did know was
that a commission of geologists had
been appointed by the government to
survey Pelee and report upon it
SCENE OF DEATH AND DESOLATION IN MAETINlQDE
Official Trench gotVraoeat nsp of northwestern JIartlaisJe Kits cclrta ol ciUcr Interest at present Indicated
to say whether there was danger there
or not Then too the governor was
coming and moreover his family was
coming with him Could ihere possi
bly be any danger where so eminent
and so important personages as these
were Also a company of soldiers
from Fort de France were coming
and while the St Pierrans were talk
ing of their arrival the company ap
peared
It seems singular that the presence
of this small band of soldiery should
have inspired a misplaced confidence
but it was so though none seems to
have asked what good the soldiers
could have done or even the mighti
est army have effected against vol
canic Pelee
The governor came and with him
his family arrived from Fort de France
on the little steamboat Topaz With
the governor came the geologists the
wise men who were to sit in judg
ment and to so fatuously misjudge
They pondered long and then gave
fatal assurance that all was well The
people read the assurances which the
papers printed drew a long breath of
relief and then turned their attention
to other things to affairs of business
and pleasure and all that goes to
make up the indolent happy life of
the pleasure loving natives of this
isle And that night the night of
May 7 the wise men hastened back
to Fort de France
The governor and his family were
to have followed the next day the
French cruiser Suchet having been di
rected to leave her anchorage at Fort
de France at 7 oclock for the purpose
of bringing home the governor and his
party
That plan if carried out would
have brought the cruiser to her doom
and her crew will never cease to
thank their saints and bless the blun
dering mechanic who broke something
in the engine room as the vessel was
about getting under way which acci
dent delayed her departure and proba
bly saved the lives of all on board
Wednesday night eve of horror
There are none left alive to tell
what the city was like that night but
just around a little promontory at
its southern edge nestles the little vil
lage of Carbet a pretty town of some
six or seven hundred people And
not one of them was hurt the town
having been screened by the high
ridge which lay between it and St
Pierre and runs sheer to the sea
Its northern Avail was precipitous
and built close up to it was the south
ern section of St Pierre a thickly
populated district whose houses left
P
strange quiet of the racked earth
Thomas T Prentiss United States
consul at St Pierre was sitting on
the veranda at his home in the early
hours of the following morning A
friend came driving by in a buggy
You had better get out of this
he called to the consul I am getting
out and getting out as fast as I can
Oh you are just merely a little
scared Mr Prentiss replied There
is no need of anyone going away
It is better to be safe than sorry
retorted tne citizen as he whipped up
his team and hastened on
It is from this man who witnessed
the disaster a short time later from
a neighboring elevation with a few
who survived the wreckage in the of
fing and the few who looked on the
cataclysm from distant points that
IjT
Governor Mouttet
Martinique Official Whom Scientists
Hold Was Responsible for the Great
Loss of Life rom the Eruption of
Mont Pelee
the only eye witness versions can be
had
The hour of the disaster is placed
at about 8 oclock A clerk in Fort
de France called up another in St
Pierre and was talking with him at
755 by Fort de France time when
he heard a sudden awful shriek and
then could hear no more
The little that actually happened
then can be briefly very briefly told
It is known that at one minute there
lay a city smiling in the summer
morning that in another it was a
mass of swirling flames with every
soul of its 30000 writhing in the
DIAGRAM OF VOLCANOES IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
A
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7 Ys
MHPTW V
PACIFIC
pi lHUIkiii I i
Hi OV S K
1 I 1S sf
aVekca y
X iw
ATLANTIC
Mm J f
r i vr s
OCEAN
barely enough room for streets the
buildings huddling close to the steep
and wooded acclivity as if seeking to
escape on the otner side of the ridge
The intervening distance was short
By the broad finely graded bridge
and tunneled highway which connect
ed city with village one would judge
that a five minutes brisk walk would
be amply sufficient to reach the one
from tne other
But none sought safety by that
road at least none escaped by it
The heart breaking pity of it all is that
safety was so near at the end of
ones fingers almost For just over
the ridge the grass and palms are
everywhere as green as any in the
tropics to day while up to the very
crest of its northern slope are the in
effaceable marks of ruin and disaster
as if some sea of flame had brimmed
to the very crest of the ridge to suck
back again before overflowing on the
other side
So it is the the village folks of Car
bet that one must turn for the last
act in this horrible tragedy
Night fell the villagers say with
an unnatural unearthly quiet Not a
breath of air to stir tne palms fring
ing on the shores not a ripple to
break the mirror like clearness of
still waters It was as if the hush of
death lay everywhere True earth
quake weather more than one of the
villagers observed as they noted the
oppressive stillness of the air and the
ii
OCEAN
throes of death One moment and
church bells were ringing joyous
chimes in the ears of St Pierres 30
000 the next the flame clogged bells
were sobbing a requiem for 300u0
dead One waft of morning breeze
flowed over cathedral spires and
domes over facades and arches and
roofsand angles of a populous and
lightiiearted city the next swept a
lone mass of white hot ruins The
sun glistened one moment on spark
ling fountains green parks and frond
ed ponds its next ray shone on fusing
metal blistered flame wrecked squares
and charred stumps of trees One
day and tne city vas all light and
color all gayety and grace the next
its ruins looked as thouga they had
been crusted over with twenty cen
turies of solitude and silence
Prof Robert T Hill United States
government geologist and head of the
expedition sent out by the National
Geographical society has just come
in from a daring and prolonged in
vestigation of the volcanic activity in
Martinique
Prof Hill chartered a steamer and
carefully examined the coast as far
north as xort de Macouba at the ex
treme edge of the island making fre
quent landings After landing at Le
Precheur five miles north of St
Pierre he walked through an area of
active volcanism to the latter place
and made a minute examination or I
the various phenomena disclosed
TERSM PEACE
BRITISH EXPECT SOON TO AN
NOUNCE SETTLEMENT
NO DOUBT OF ITS CONCLUSION
Despite Balfours Pretended Uncer
tainty Parliament Is Sure of Plan
Cabinet Put3 Fininshing Touches on
the Agreement
Y
LONDON May 31 The government
leader A J Balfour announce in
the house of commons that ho hoped
to be able on Monday next to an
nounce the result of the peace negotia
tions in South Africa
Mr Balfour added I cannot
however be absolutely certain of be
ing in a position to do so and until
the statement can be made I do not
think it expedient to take up the
budget
The government leader also said
A recent phrase hung in the bal
ance has been absurdly misinterpret
ed as referring to divisions in the cab
inet on the subject of the budget That
is not a fact and the question is
whether the house can properly bo
asked to discuss the budget until they
kuow precisely where they stand in
regard to the negotiations
In spite of Mr Balfours pretended
uncertainty there is no doubt what
ever in the house of commons or else
where that a full peace settlement
will be announced Monday next
The capture of Commandant Halan
announced from Middelburg Cape Col
ony renews attontion to the rebellion
in Cape Colony Commandant Mnlan
took the Commandant Scheepers com
mand when the latter was captured by
the British and became chief Boer
commandant in Cape Colony after
Commandant Kritzingers capture
Malan who was mortally wounded
when captured by Major Coletth
mounted troops was among the irre
concilables who refused to send dele
gates to the peace conference at
Vreeniging Transvaal
According to the latest uncensored
correspondence from Capetown the
Boers are still in constant occupation
of at least twenty two different local
ities in Cape Colony having morp
than a score of Lands of raiders
mounted and armed and of sufficient
mobility to defy successful pursuit al
though the British have often swept
and cleared every mile of the col
onys territory A correspondent re
ports that the invasion is more ac
tively aggressive than ever and rebel
lion is more rampant
The campaign against the roving
Boer commandoes in Cape Colony
which has ben in active progress for
sixteen months has achieved nothing
beyond keeping them moving Any
occasional success the correspondent
adds obtained by the seventeen
Uritish columns operating in Cape
Colony is more the result of luck than
of their tactics and these unpalatabl
facts will continue as long as so few
columns co operate in the hustling
The inadequacy of the supply of th
troops is at the root of the unsatis
factory operations
The British cabinet was specially
summoned last night and sat for a
little over an hour It is generally
accepted this morning that the ses
sion though brief sufficed to put th
final touches on the agreement which
will terminate the war
Spanish Are Still Sore
PARIS May 31 It is announced
in a dispatch to the Patrie from Ma
drid that Senor Sabino Arana leader
of the Biscayan nationalist party sent
a long cable message to President
Roosevelt congratulating him on the
establishment of the republican gov
ernment in Cuba and that the Span
ish censor suppressed the message
Conrelly Must Serve ivo rears
COLUMBUS Neb May 31 A mo
tion for a new trial in the case againt
Vincent Connelly of Lindsay
of assault with intent to kill in
the district court last week was over
ruled and Judge Jamison sentenced
Connelly to two years in uie peniten
tiary
Death for Train Robbery
WASHINGTON May 31 Senator
Piatt of New York has introduced a
bil making train robbery a felony
and providing the death penalty for
tho offense
Passes Silver Coinage Bill
WASHINGTON May 31 The
hcuse passed the bill to increase the
subsidiary silver coinage
Herbert Gets the Appointment
LONDON May 31 Hon Michael
Henry Herbert who is nominally sec
retary to the British embassy at Par
is probably will be the next British
ambassador to the United States in
succession to the late Lord Paunce
fote yr Herbe Jcs appointment
probabiy will not be announced until
the remains of Lord Pauncefote ar
rive in England The only question
as to Mr Herberts selection is the
approval of King Edward
4