The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-17
THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE
The Outlook, May 17th.

The Outlook, May 17tb.
No description of the appalling scenes at st.
Pierre and St. Vincent can exaggerate the heart
rending tragedy of the facts. Death and devas-
tation fell with instantaneous and resistless
force. st. Pierre, which few days ago was
pleasant town with twenty-five thousand peo-
pie is today nothing more than mere heap of
burning cinders, ashes, and lava covering the
bodies of the inhabitants. st. Pierre was the
commercial capital of Martinique, while Fort
st. France whence reports of the disaster are
now comingl is the political and military capital
Martinique itself is an island of the Lesser
Antilles, group which is of vocanic origin it
contains about three hundred and eighty square
miles belongs to Eranee and il thiGk1S n
sugar making. Mont Pelee, the principal but
not the only volcano of the island, has been
classed as semi-active its last eruption was in
1851. Scientists have long known that there was
seismic connection of some sort between the
volcanoes of this group of islands and those of
Central America, and there is little doubt that
recent eruptions and earthquakes in Mexico,
Guatemala and Nicaragua have some mysteri-
Gus subterranean share in the gigantic convul-
sion which has just devastated part OF the West
The story of the eruption of Mont Pelee has
many points of resemblance with that of the
storm of fire and lava which buried Pompeii
and Herculaneum; in the extent of the life de-
stroyed it is comparable only with the event
lust named, with the destruction of Lisbon by
earthquake, and with the stupendous eruption of
Krakatoa, near Java, in 1883, when one hundred
and sixty-three villages were buried and about
thirty-seven thousand persons killed. Mont
Peee had been showing unusual signs of activi-
ty for some days before the tremendous out
burst of last week Thursday; on Sunday hot
ashes fell in St. Pierre itself on Monday a
stream of burning lava rushed down dry tor
rent-bed, overwhelming plantations. buildings,
CATTLE and human beings in fiery flood half a
mile wide and at the coast utterly destroyed the
great Guerin sugar factory. Although two or
Of Of Monday. those in St. Pierre seem to have
been only moderately alarmed, and report
from Government commission which visited
the volcano assured them of safety. But on
Thursday the blow fell with the suddenness of
a lightning stroke. 1t is asserted that single
thousand lives. 1t is doubtful whether any of
those who were in the city itself escaped I'M
known numbers of men, women. and children
in the neighboring country persisted; and the
survivors gathered in pitiful and helpless crowds
in places of comparative safety waiting for
What took place in that awful minute is de-
scribed by an observer on vessel in St Pierre
harbor as a tremendous cloud of smoke and Gin
ders rushing with terrific rapidity over the town
and port. in an instant completely enveloping
the former in sheet of flame and raining fire
on the ships. Several vessels were instantly
Submerged by the tidal wave that followed one
the Roddam, crept to st. Lucia, with ten of her.
crew burned to death, others fatally injured,
the captain barely able by dnt of strength and
courage to steer with his own burned hands.
For day or two efforts by the French ship
Suchet and other vessels to enter st. Pierre
were baffied at last, on Sunday, landing was
made: everywhere were found ruins, heaps
of dead bodies families locked in one an
others arms in the cathedral alone were
the bodies of three thousand people; instant
cremation was the only way of meeting the hor-
rible problem presented by this mass of death.
One of the party of discovery reports that the
evidence all goes to show that there must have
been suddenly shot down from the mountain
great sheet of flame accompanied by terrible
gaseous whirlwind flowing lava and shower
of burning ashes would not have produced such
instant destruction The Governor of the island,
the English and American Consuls, and, with
few exceptions. all of the city's officials and peo
pie of note, persisted with the multitude.
Steamships from Fort de France and from
other nearby islands are removing the survivors
provisions for the shelterless and homeless
thousands. France is contributing literally for
the destitute officially and individually; AID OF
money and food will also be needed from the
United States. and President ROOSEVELT mas sent
a message to Congress urging that an appropr1-
alton of 100000 be made; naval vessel with
supplies will start for Martinique at once.
The island of st. Vincent, an English posses
sion has suffered only less severely than Marti-
nique. A so-called sympathetic eruption from
or seven hundred people-very likely more, for
reports are as yet quite incomplete. a dispatch
from st. Lucia says of st. Vincent: 1.-The con-
figuration of the mountain is entirely changed.
Estates, chapels and everything in the vicinity
of the volcano are buried in lava. In some
cases entire families persisted"
MAN named William NJ. Ledey, convicted
in the Criminal Court of Baltimore city upon
the charge of attempting to obstruct justice,
has been sentenced to Jail by Judge Richie for
sixty-five days. Ledley had been arrested
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