Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-05-15
Bodies of St. Pierre Victims
Roasted Afterwards.
HORROR UNPARALLELED
Death Cairo Instantly to People in
Doomed city-Fompeii is No Critic.
ricn to Judge OF Awful Rcsults-city
is Gone.

fort de france, Martinique, May 10.
st. Pierre wcs destroyed not by lava
streams and not by showers OF red-hot
rocks, but by one all-consuming blast
OF su!foccting, poisonous, burning
gases.
Death came to the inhabitants III
stantly. 1t was not q matter of hours
or minutes. 1t was matter of sec
onds They did not burn to death.
They died by breathing flame and their
bodies were burned afterward.
Dr7p in Tracks.
1t is not merely true that no person
inside the limits of the town escaped,
but it is probably literal fact that no
person lived long enough to take two
steps toward escape.
These facts, which will go on record
as the most astounding in the history
OF human catastrophes, have been
practically established by the investi-
cations at the site of the city, helped
out in slight degree by the scanty tes-
timony of few tortured sufferers on
boats in the harbor who alone surviv-
ed.
Unique in History.
The manner of the humiliation of
st. Pierre is unique in the history OF
the world. Pompeii was not a paral-
lei, for Pompeii was eaten up by de-
moniac rivers of lava and lava became
its tomb. But where st. Pierre once
stood there is not even lava bed now.
The city is gone from the earth.
The half-dead victims who escaped
n tho Pndiof,, n,.N hrn,,ol,f hor
by the Suchet talked of Hurricane of
now appears that that phrase was no
figure of speech, but literal state
ment of what happened.
Death Comes Quickly.
There are bodies lying in the streets
of the city-er rather on the ground
where streets once were, for in many
places it is impossible to trace the line
between streets and building sites-to
which death came SO suddenly that
the smiles on the faces did not have
time to change to the lines of agony.
That does not mean death by burn
ing, though the bodies have been char
red and half consumed, nor does it
mean suffocation, for suffocation is
slow. 1t can mean only that the bath of
burning fumes into which the city was
plunged affected the victims like a
terribly virulent poison when the first
Whit of the gases entered their lungs
Hands on Mouth.
There are many of the victims who
died with their-hands on their mouths
That one motion of the arm was
probably the only one that they made
before they became unconscious. 9th
ers fell on their faces and died with
their lips pressed into the earth.
There was no time to run, perhaps
no time even to cry out, no time to
breathe prayer. 1t was as if st
Pierre has been just dipped into an i'm
mense white-hot furnace and then sci
out to cool. Mount Pelee went sput
tering on, but that made no longer any
difference. In the city all life was de
stroyed.
Burns All Things.
Every combustible thing was burn
er. Animal bodies, full of moisture
glowed awhile and then remained
charred wrecks Wood and other cas-
lily combustible things burned tc
ashes.
On the ground lay the bodies, amidst
heaps of hot mud, heaps of cleaning
ashes and piles OF volcanic stones
That was all.
That st. Pierre and the strip o.