Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-05-16
Still Continues in the Volcanic
District.
Victims On St. Vincent Island
Number 4, 600 So Far-St.
Pierre Dead Number
Forty Thausand.

VI uC duNS, MAY ID. -RClu-
gees from the neighborhood of st.
Pierre continue to flock to this al
ready densely crowded city. They
reach here on the verge of starva-
tion and many of them are badly
burned. Fort de France is a city
of mourning. There is hardly a
family in it that had not one or
more members in the catastrophe.
Wiped OFF the Map.
None ofthose who have crowded
5nto Fort de France has any idea
of returning to the slopes of the vol.
cWo. 1t is more than doubtful if
st. Pierre will ever again figure on
any map. It is no longer a city, its
hardly a ruin, and is not likely to be
rebuilt. Certainly nobody who is
IN Martinique will ever live there
after havieg seen the scenes that
are all about US. The volcano is
still vomiting fire and smoke over
the city that was erased from earth
in a moment.
Dead In All Attitudes.
st. Pierre's dead are a multitude
as great as the living that now
make Fort de France the most
crowded community in the West In.
dies. They lie in all manner of at
titudes, and believe they dice
without much suffering. Most o
them were probably smothered a
once by the sulphurous gases. TIL
few faces that retain enough of th
features to show expression ar
calm. The case of the chief en-
gineer of the steamer Roddan
bears out this theory.
He was sitting in a chair reading
book and facing the volcano wher
the deadly blast came, and wher
the steamer had run through the
storm of fire he was found dead,
still in the chair and with warped
fragment of his book still clutched
in his hand.
st. Vincent Yelled.
The situation in St. Vincent is
yelled behind a wall of fire. Nobody
can approach the neighborhood Of
the volcano of Soufriere.
Among the other victims are the
last of the Carib aborigines of the
islands. Word of the destruction o.
the Carib village, which was in q
valley near the center of the death
zone on st. Vincent, was brought
here by Mr.. Renshaw, a rich mer
chant of St. Louis.
Last of Caribs Wiped Out.
In the Spanish islands the abor
igines were all killed off, but the
British fostered this remnant anc
helped them maintain this village
There were only a few dozen Of
them. So this volcanic upheavaI
has wiped a race from the earth,
for there is not now a Carib alive in
the world.
There is intense suffering all
over st, Vincent. The streams are
allied with lava and people are dy.
ing of thirst.
Changes in Oceans Floor.
The vessels of all nations now in
these waters are apprehensive that
the channels have changed and
there must be new reefs to cores
pond with the enormous subsistence
of the sea bottom, which dropped
900 fathoms off the coast of Marti.
que. A theory Is that the terrific
casting out of material from the
bowels OF the earth by Mont Pelee
made gap that the sea bottom
failed to fill. The waters receded
from the coast 800 feet after the
eruption, leaving the bottom ex-
posed until a back rush much slow
.er covered it again. 1t may be that
this rush of water was to fill the
hole caused by the sinking OF the
ocean floor.
Efforts are being made by the
French officers of the French cruis-
er Suchet to approach the crest Of
Pelee to report on the probability
of another violent outburst. They