Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-13
Explanation OF What Snuffed Out
the Lives of Over $4,000
Inhabitants.
A Sudden. Overwhelming Blast
OF Deadly, Poisonous Gases
Enveloped Them.
Lives Ended in an Instant, With
Scarcely Time to Breathe
a Prayer.

st. Pierre was destroyed, not by lava
rocks, but by one all-consuming blast
OF sufrocating, poisonous, burning
gases.
Death came to the inhabitants in
stantly. 1t was not matter of hours
or minutes. 1t was g matter of seconds.
They did not burn to death. They died
by breathing flame and their bodies
were burned afterward.
II is not merely true that no person
| inside the limits of the town escaped,
| but 1t is probably i 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
cut in q slight degree by the scanty
testimony of the few tortured sufferers
| On boats in the harbor who alone sur
| yived.
The manner of the humiliation of ST.
Pierre is unique in the history of the
world. Pompeii was not parallel, for
Pompeii was eaten up by demoniac riv-
ers of lava and lava became its tomb
But where st. Pierre once stood there is
not even a lava bed now. The city is
gone from the earth.
The half-dead victims who escaped
on the Roddam or We're brought here
by the Suchet talked of a ehurricane OF
flame" that had come upon them. 1t
pow appears that that phrase was no
figure of speech, but literal statement
of what happened.
There are bodies lying in the streets
of the city-or rather on the ground
where streets once were. for in many
ria ces 1T 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.
rs That does not mean death BY burn
Ing tho the bodies have been charred
end half consumed. nor does it mean
suffocation, for suffocation is slow. 1t
canrmean only the bath of burning
fumes into which the city was plunged
affected the victims like terribly viru-
Isn't poison when the first Whit of the
gases entered their lungs.
There are many of the victims who
died with their hands to their mouths.
That one motion of the arm was proba
bly, the only one that they made before
they became unconscious. Others fell
to their faces and died with their lips
pressed into the earth. $50
There was no time to run, perhaps no
- <,.Ap tl,a
Il prayer. 1t was as il St Pierre had
been just dipped into an immense
white-hot furnace and then set out to
cool Mont Pelee went suffering on,
hut that made no longer any difference.
In the city all life was destroyed.
Every combustible thing was burned.
Animal bodies, full of moisture. glowed
awhile. and then remained charred
wrecks. Wood and other easily COM
bustible things burned to 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 of coast
to the north and south Of ii Were
burnedsin an instant was probably due
to the first break in the mountain COM
ing on its western side and Immediate
~ above them, tho the direction of the
wind may have had littlt to do with 1T.
In this way one can understand how
the mountain resort of Morne Rouge,
where about 600 people We're staying,
escaped annihilation, Rocks and dust
and boiling mud fell upon 1t. no doubt
farming IT, but they did not destroy 1t,
for it was out of the pathway of the
first awful blast.
Since Thursday, beginning indeed i'm
Imediately after the first explosion, Mont
Pelee has been sending down lava
streams in many directions. They have
filed the ravines and followed river
courses and made their way to the sea.
They have done great destruction, but
most of the inhabitants in their course
have had some chance at least to es-
cape.
From LIE Precheur around the north
ern end of the island, to Grand Riviere,
Macouba, and perhaps to Grande Anse,
directly across the island from st.
! Pierre, the lava has been flowing. Great
crevasses are opening from time to time
| in the hills. The earth is undulatinS
| like waves. Rivers are thrown out OF
their courses by the change in land
| levels. In some places they submerge
the land and form lakes. In other places
they are licked up by the lava that
flows on them and turns them to steam.
| Constant rumblings. thunder and
| lightning storms make the surround
| ings so terrible that many persons have
actually died of fright.
! There is no reason to change earlier
| estimates as to the total loss Of life
| in the neighborhood of st. Pierre. Four
thousand people have been brought
here on lighters from the neighborhood
of lie Precheur. There are still others
| to take off II is estimated that as many
as 1000 people have died on the hills
from injuries and exhaustion since they
| took refuge there.
In this city. twelve miles from what
was once st. Pierre, the immediate ter
| ror is starvation. Despite the supplies
that have been brought by the Suchet
| and other relief ships, there has been
nowhere near enough for all the re-
fugees. Crazed with fear and with
| their sufferings, the blacks, under the
further spur of hunger, have repeatedly
tried to storm the warehouses. The
soldiers have had to beat them off In
fierce struggles.
| Deaths Are $4,000.
] Fort De France Island of Martinique,
| May 13.-It now seems to be generally
admitted that about 10000 persons lost
their lives at ST Pierre as result of
| the eruption of Mont Pelee.
| Careful investigation by competent