Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1902-05-28
|EyI CAAakEl HOUSE
/ ST. Pierre the Dead Are
strewn Among Debris
by Thousands.
IS DESTRUCTION DUE TO GOV
eRNoR's DISREGARD OF
WARNING
..;..,s Assertion That Explosion
w.. Certain Was Ignored by Gov
ernor Mouttet.
,e,es TO KEEP PERIL SECRET

81. Pierre. May 26.-St. Pierre today
vast charnel-house. Skirting for
early league the blue waters Of the
caribbean, its smoking ruins aHe the
,nora1 pvre of 100000. not one OF
yhou lived long enough to tell ade-
nate]y story that will stand grim,
wfu1 unfoigotten as that OF Hercl-
onaum when the world is older by
thousand years.
Ct Pierre is as dea daS PCmpeH.
Most of her people lie fathoms deep
n a tomb made in the twinkling OF
IN eve by the collapse OF their homes.
Ind sealed forever under tons Of boil
Ing mud, avalanches of scoria and a
hurricane of volcanic dust.
Over the entombed city the volcano
from a dozen vents yet pours its
6teaming vapors in long. curling
Mreaths. that mount thousands Of feet
bloft. like smoking incense from
ElSdUllc CSlSOl UDONC lIlS " II ~ '7piiAN
mighty dead.
Dead by Tnucsards
Mingled masonry, crumblins mortar,
mud and ashes termed foul, nosome
Earies of hillocks, beneath which the
bead lay by thousands. At every step
The explorer encountered relics suS-
gestve OF the simple home life of
the people The wheels and pendulum
Fof a mantle clock We're kicked out
Eof the debris as tac party shovc'ed
Through the flying dust. An Old spring
bed projected amid the ruins of a
private house. and close beside it the
relic OF human skull and the f,asss-
Imelts CT G SPINAL column indicated al
THAI w&s left off its possible occupant
III too many Instances there were
evidences Of t.fc too 3lert Industry IF
|the lootels ana shouls VIII" had come
|oniy To Prey on the cily CT tie dead.
| In TIE deep graz powder that coy
! Eelad tie surface OF all things visible
coGld be traced the footprints af The
Hooters and Of the rescuiag p@rtles
lwho had traversei the ground before,
| Save for these the only evidences OF
/ life in the stricken town w"ie the foot
pihts of the sea birds aloi:.5 he
strand
Cathedral Is Wreck.
Through Victor Hugo street went
/ the party to what had been the Cath
edral de Moullace. Had it been ham
mered for a fortnight under the s;:Hs
' OF fleet of battleships it's ruin could
hardly have been more complete. Aloft
IN the remnant of the higher of its
TWO towers a pair of bells vet hung
lettering in the belfry. There for
scores of Years their mellow peal had
summoned residents of ST. Pierre to
early masses. But the peak of the
tower, smitten b. the resistless blast
mad been detached bodily together
with the heavy iron framework sup
porting the largest bell Of the chime
TIE Whole mass, twisted, bent and aft
ef@ard welded in the fiery furnace
lay half-buried forty feet away in tho
patlo of what had been a parish
house.
Directly in front of the cathedr2
a0a the parish house was the Place De
Moullace A little Eden it h:1 been
green and fresh with the verdure o1
'he coeoanut and the royal palm. un
GER the Shc dc OF which the residents
vi 81 Pierre were wont to gather daily
and gossip. Not so much as a stunt
Vi . tree remained to indicate the for
Mef beauties c. this little bit Of tropic
al paradise.
Die |, ExnIosion.
Nowhere was stronger shown thai
mere that the cataclysm was explos
I've IN character Nowhere else in the
siient city We're the visible dead mar
shalled in such awful hosts as in thu
immediate vicinity Of the cathedra
and the Place re Moul1ace. One couli
escape the thought that, gray and mel