Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1902-05-15
ca~es ,o our rescue. We were

then building raft"
From the Italian ship Teresa Low
co several men were saved, but they
are in a frightful state except Jean
Prudent of st. Pierre. Although on
deck and unprotected he was little
burned. Prudent says there was an
awful noise OF explosion and right
away cyclone OF smoke and fire,
but such was the poisonous, choking
nature of the smoke that it burned
worse than the fire. When it struck
people they fell dead. The cyclone
OF gas tore the masts out of ships,
blew others up and sunk some of
them. Soon afterwards came a wave
OF fire bigger than the smoke cloud.
THAT cloud" continued Prudent,
was bigger, it seemed, than the noun
tain. The fire burned nearly every
where at once. Near me | saw only
dead men: but on shore l saw men
and women rushing back and forth
amid the flames for an hour They
would not run long. Then came that
choking smoke and they would drop
like dead flies. The explosion, smoke,
and fire all came and went In three
minutes, but the city burned for three
hours. Then every house was finished
and nothing alive was left. At no
time were there any earthquakes, but
big stones were rained down and fire
fell like rain for long time"
In a separate part of the hospital
were found several persons saved
from Carbet village, four miles from
st. Pierre. The village of Urine.
south of st. Pierre, was almost entire.
ly burned and almost all the inhabi-
tants were killed. One of the. sur
vivors of Urine, who will die, says the
sea, boiling hot, invaded the land.
Six womea, whose bodies are one solid
burn, are writhing in another ward
of the hospital. Ten women severely
burned from Urine were brought in
and four of them have died. 1t is
doubtful ii any of the six still alive
can recover. An evidence of the swift
ness of the onslaught of fire is found
in the fact that none of the victims
was blinded, although the eyelids of
most of them are nearly burned
through. All those saved, except the
engineers of the Roraima, are poor
sailors and Martinique negroes. No
one knows how the passengers Of
the steamers persisted.
Three hours exploration of the
ruins of ST. Pierre resulted in the find
Ing OF no trace of the American con-
sulate. Consul Thomas T. Prentis.
his wife and two daughters are I'M
doubtedly dead. That quarter of the
city is still vast mass of blazing
ruins.
Words fail to describe the present
situation at st. Pierre A small de-
tachment of French troops is making
efforts to inter the dead, although the
government seems to be strikingly I'M
concerned as to what is done in this
direction. The looting of the ruins
has begun already. While coming to
Fort de France the tug Potomac
picked up boat containing five col
ored men and one white man, whose
pockets We're filled with coin and Jew
elry, the latter evidently stripped from
the fingers of dead. A famine here
is imminent. The northern section of
the island is depopulated.
Provisions are. needed for at least
100000 people. A shipload of lime is
also greatly required at st. Pierre for
sanitary purposes. The stencil there
from dead bodies is overpowering.
Fort de France, Island of Martinique,
May 14.-It is estimated that the to-
tai number of deaths on the island Of
st. Vincent from the volcanic erup-
ton reached 1000. Most of the vic
tins are said to be Carib Indians.
La Soufriere was in full eruption
May 10. A stream of stone and mud
half mile wide was then issuing from
the volcano. Stones two inches in
diameter fell II miles away. At Kings
ton, the capital of the island, the
ashes were two inches deep. Most of
the estates on the island have been
burned to ashes and it is automatically
reported that two earthquakes &C.
Cured there. 1t Is believed the sub
marine cables in ST. Vincent have been
broken by the disturbances. The
present volcanic eruption on st. Vim
cent Is the first since 1872.
HOUSE PASSES BILL FOR AID.