The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-06-10
ST. PIERRE
DESCRIBED
Continued from Third Page.

when the stumbling, uncertain journey
up the Rue Turail has been made, and
one is in the Rue Bouille, just over tbs
threshold OF the dead city, then descend:
upon everything that indescribable 81
Ience Of deserted places or of death
but a silence one can feel in the heal
about him. 1t is not the silence which
can be broken by & CALL by a fall Of
stone, or even BY the soft pat-pat-pat OF
the tropic rain which begins spotting tbs
I dust. Sounds are swallowed up in it
and at last the beating OF the heart is
infinitely louder than the noise Of slip
ping, stumbling feet.
The houses OF ST. Pierre were built OF
rubble, spherical volcanic stone, and the
cemented walls were often yard in
thickness, so IN tearing them down and
! scattering them the volcano has given
ample token of its enormous energy. In
the majority of cases the line of fall is
4 10 the southwark, tending somewhat to-
ward the eastward nearer the mountain
and indicating the swerve of the annihil-
ating blast along the very line of the
] crescent-laid city The three-foot walls
/ have not only been dashed into the
/ streets below, but carried over them and
/ flung upon buildings across the way.
/ No vestige Of roof beams or trusses ex-
( lists, no structural inhammable, save a
+ few tree truns, has been burned or bur-
/ led beneath the cinders.
The next street beyond the Rue Bouille
| is The Rue Victor Hugo, the most inter
esting street of St. Pierre, a cosmopolitan
highway Looking northward through
it from the Rue Turail, it is a choked
gorge, the walls OF which rise not more
than ten or twelve feet above the mass
of rubbish. Here were rich shops, resi-
dences, cafes. places OF entertainment
and amusement, and passing them dur
ing every cool hour Of the day crowd
from the corners of the earth Hardly
week came that there was not q war
snip perhaps two or three, in the har-
Dor; these sent their officers and men
ashore to mingle with the picturesque
people. the natives and the native
French of the city. st. Pierre was fam
ed for its brilliancy and hospitality.
only the night before the city was de-
stroyed, NJ. Leon Marie. one of the rich
est merchants. gave an entertainment in
his mansion at L'Anse in honor of his
daughter and Signorina Paravacino,
daughter Of the Italian consul, who were
on a visit home from the convent on
Morne Rouge Thirty-seven servants
were engaged in the preparations, and
afterward attended the guests. LAnse
is now a bare hillside. Only the strip
ped foundations Of the Marie mansion
remain to mark its location.
At No III Rue Victor Hugo was the
office OF Les Colonies. the Republican
newspaper Of St. Pierre, which. ever
since a guide named Roman had visit
ed Pelee and brought back news of its
disturbance. had fought the rising fear
Of the people. The office is a square of
yellow walls. There is no sign of a press
or of any other fitting of a printing Of
fee. The roof has come crashing inward
and taken the two floors with it. Near
by is the wreck Of a cafe. Below the
surface dust. which has been blown
away in patches. eight or nine round,
Handicapped tables. with iron legs. are
visible: across the street is a crockery
shop where one Of the party has just
kicked up a pile of plates, not one Of
them so much as cracked, although close
beside them are three glass tumblers
fused together.
AS the Rue Victor Hugo Jared. so far
ed every other street in st. Pierre. The
ruins look like the ruins OF uncompleted
houses. Walls DO not appear even to
have been lined, and for yards they are
bare of the stucco with which they were
faced. And over all hand the intense
heat, the gray dust, and the sickening
odor. Although great activity on the
part of the French soldiers detailed to
the burning of the dead is reported,
scores of bodies are still to be found in
the southern section of the city, the
Mouillage quarter. The writer of this
letter came upon five in one heap across
the threshold Of a house in the Rue du
College. Most of the bodies, as the five
Just referred to, lie il distorted atti-
tudes with arms and legs burned off
Whether the attitude is Indicative of
agony or is merely the result Of the heat
blast, it is impossible to say. South Of
the Cathedral due Mouillage, the fore
most religious edifice of St Pierre in the
narrow Rue BouIlle. is q bakeshop. The
two ovens are readily distinguishable,
and in one Of them is the body of man.
The legs are drawn up TO make the body
as compact as possible; the attitude is
one which might have resulted had the
baker crept in there for refuge. This IS
only one Of the countless enigmas of the
ruins.
Among the blasted buildings Of the
AIouillage quarter, one rises sentry-like
this is the cathedral II marked the
northern boundary of the quarter. and
was known as the Cathedral du Mouil-
lage. a pleasantly euphonious name.
suggestive of Christian rest, the Cath
edral of the Anchorage. St. Pierre was
Justly proud of this sreat building with
its two white towers. in the north one
The great two-ton bell and in the south
one the chimes which rang out morn
and eve across the land and the waters
and sent out the fsher-folk and called
them home again. Thousands OF francs
had been expended upon the cathedral
unou its bells. upon its altar and altar
service. and high mass there was an i'm
posing ceremonial.
-aass was in progress the very hour
that the a-e-hosts Of Pelee swept down
To destroy the city and left hundreds
dead upon the cathedral steps Forum
ately these have been piled together and
burned. and the shattered towers stand
as headstones over them. Until last
Tuesday lNay 2N the bells swung in
their bolfries, but Pelee wrenohod them
of that day with their iatticed steel sup
ports and stuffed their mouths with the
rubbish OF the towers.
Superstition alone can assign anything !
save mere chance TO the fact. bat the |
fact remains that the cathedral is the !
only ruin IN s. Pierre which rises above !
The rfrsr story The rarfh Tower rises