The suburban citizen., 1902-07-19

| estates, the homes of DR.. Barbe and
NJ. Leon Marie. Their estates Joined
each having its handsome, solidly con.
structed chateau, its servants lodges
and its magnificent grounds, gardens.
walks and driveways.
"LAnse had not felt the full effect
of the blast that came from Pelee on
the morning of May 8. The ash line
| that marked the desolated zone from
the zone of safety ran just beyond on
the crest of Morne d'Orange. But there
was nothing left of life in L'Anse.
Chateaux, lodges, walks and walls
We're blended in one gray ruin. The
big iron gates that had opened to the
grounds of the Barbe estate lay prone.
broken and twisted as by some giant
strength.
Just inside the gates lay a gray,
charred form, perhaps the body of a
servant who had got that far in his
rush for safety. All around, as we
proceeded toward the chateau. lay
other gray, charred forms. l couldn't
think Of them as the shells of those
who but q little before had breathed
the breath Of life. The sight of one
dead body may be grewsome, even
horrifying, but in the presence Of hun
dreds, thousands of them, the impress
sion is too general; it is so much as TO
bcnumb the sensation of particular and
individual horror. They seemed to me
at the time as so many ashen mounds.
"Pelee's wrath had been freakful.
Massive stone structures We're demol-
ished, but here before us, a hundred
yards or so from the stricken chateau.
was frail lodge, one of the servants
quarters, standing intact, with not an
inch of the wood OF it's shingled roof
scorched. My husband pushed open
the door, into a little room perhaps
12X10
The single article of furniture in
the room was q boX-made cot against
the side of the further wall, with
little extension running out from the
head, like the base OF an L. On the
cot lay negro woman, in an attitude
Of sleep. Her face was calm and un-
marked. The white garment she wore
was not even blackened
"A short. black clay pipe hung from
her lips, and rested with the bowl on
her breast.
ION the table part of the cot stood a
half-flled bowl of Cruel, with a spoon
still in it, part Of loaf of bread, and
a little tin oil lamp.
Lying on the floor beside the cot
were two little children, perhaps three
and five years Of age, the head CT one
resting on the breast of another. Their
single garments, little slips, were not
even scorched. 1t was as if they had
fallen down while at play and gone to
sleep.
"The mother had evidently had her
morning meal and lain down on the
cot to smoke. with the children playing
about the floor. They were not
crushed, they were not burned. They
must have been killed, sharply and
suddenly, by some very deadly gas, as
quickly and nercifully as by light
ming stroke.
"Dr. Barbe's fine chateau we found
in ruins almost complete. Broken walls
were standing to the second floor, and
part of the roof still remained. The in
terror was mass Of broken stones and
ashes. Dr.. Barbe, with his family and
all his servants, perished.
1--WE had a mournful mission to the
ruins of the estate Of NJ. Leon Marie.
Signor Paravacieno, the Italian Consul
at Barbados, was one OF the party,
and he was looking for the body Of his
daughter. This young woman, who
was one of the most beautiful girls in
Barbadoes, had been at school at the
convent on the heights Of Morne
Rouge, back Of ST. Pierre. She was
about finishing, and her family who
idolized her, had been making all sorts
Of preparations for her homecoming.
Her brother had imported a new car
riage from England for coming-out
gift, and her father had built new
residence especially in her honor.
Plans were in preparation for a grand
fete when she came home.
ION the day before the disaster the
nuns sent her from the convent to the
residence of NJ. Marie, thinking that,
in its much further distance from the
volcano, she would be safer there than
at Morne Rouge. The convent was un-
touched, while every soul in and about
NJ. Marie's place perished.
"The Marie estate was an extensive
one. NJ. Marie entertained lavishly,
and had a corps Of forty servants. On
the very eve Of the destruction of ST.
Pierre he had big house party from
the society folk of the city. None Of
the merry guests who drove through
the big carved gateway that night
ever went out aga. Half a dozen
big elegant carriages were found in the
courtyard. Under one of them lay the
body Of a man. All about the grounds
were other bodies, some Of them lying
In heaps. They were charred and un-
recognizable. Bodies Of horses, cattle
and chickens were strewn about. In
the bed of the little rivulet lay
dozen cattle, with the herdsman's body