The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1902-06-20

Reecued From a fr.son Druse-n Af5er
Fear DAYS o. suffer ng.

Raorl Sartout . metimes called
Pelino, will live in history as the sole
human being to escape from i Pierr
when the Martinique city wa oblitcr-
ated from the face Of the island by the
shower OF death from Mont Pelee
Beautiful women. sweet children,
brave soldiers and the honored fathers
OF the city, leaders in trade and the
professions, periehed. Not one OF these
was saved But a coarse negro, Set
blacb AM stupid, with little more mind
than an animal. was strangely pre-
served to continue a worthless life
The very fact that Sartout was unfit
to be at large among people was his
salvation. for the poisonous gases and
red-hot rocks and ashes did not pene
trate TO the far depths OF the dungeon
In which he was a prisoner.
Sartout has told slowly, by degrees,
as a little child might tell, of his four
/ horrible days and nights in the dun
geon, with the silence OF death above
him; a stiffness that terrified his ur-
taught mind. and that his instinc
rather than his intelligence led him
feel was the result of some terrih
/ happening.
Sartout was weak mentally and ig.
norant not vicious. He had been ar.
rested for a trivial offense the week
previous to the eruption OF Mont Pelee,
and was serving OUT n short Jail
sentence on the day of the disaster
He behaved SO badly In Jail that 20
subdue him he was placed In a dun
geon und the jail and located almost
beneath the sidewalk. There were
gratings looking into the cellar from
the sidewalk for purposes OF ventila-
ton, but the dungeon was so placed for
disciplinary purposes that Sartout was
in darkness. The grating was one cell
removed from him.
Sartout could plainly hear he says
the noises made by the mountain early
on The morning Of the disaster, and he
felt the trembling of the earth.
He was not frightened in the least,
for he feat, like many another native Of
the place, that no harm could possibly
come from Mont Pelee, upon which he
had looked every day since he was a
little child.
Suddenly, as he sat alone in his dark
cell, there were noises, terrific crashes,
and such qulkings OF the earth as he
mad never known before.
Ae at once realized that something
extraordinary was happening.
lie could not see anything. but the
thick stone walls of his prison could
not prevent him from hearing the deep
rumble and cyclonic tearing of the cy-
clone OF death through the city in
which he had lived all his life.
He was panic-stricken, and beat with
his hands against the walls.
He succeeded in getting open a door
leading into a cell little larger than
his own, over which was the iron graf
ing looking up through the sidewalk.
He stumbled into this apartment, to
find il half-flled with a sitting mass of
hot ashes and dust.
1t burned him severely, and he was
not slow in retreat to the inner cell
from which he had just escaped.
Then came the awful silence that
} seemed TO paralyze him with fear more
than the first roar that had awakened
the keenest sense of danger In his sim
pie, untaught soul. He has since said
J that he lay on the floor of his dark cell
for hours, scarcely daring to breathe,
oppressed by the terrifying silence. He
does not know how many hours he lay
there.
Finally he summed up courage
enough to open the cell door and look
into the other apartments. He was met
, by a wave of dust that choked his
mouth and nostrils and half blinded
him.
, 1t had cooled and he had to wade
through the soft. faky-like mass to-
ward the iron gratings, through which
descended a constant volume OF smoke
, and almost invisible dust.
He cried aloud again and again, and
at every echo his voice seemed TO in
crease the shower through the grating
He went to the door which shut of
his escape to the stairs leading TO the
floor above and pounded at it until his
fists were bruised and torn He waited
y for a response, none came. He strug
gled through the mass OF ashes TO the
grating again to shrek and cry ou
for help.
Hunger and thirst overcame him anC
he crept back into his dungeon e
sleep, but he could not. He says h'
!. did not close his eyes from the moment
he heard the terrifying roar of the vol
y cano ball until Monday morning, foul
:, days later, when his shrieks wer'
d heard by the first party Of searchers t
!. invade the stricken city.
His cries were feeble this time, ans
l. he had almost despaired Of liberation.
I Finally a marine from the Frencl
y cruiser Suehet heard Sartouts wall
and tracing 1t, rescued the one Living
creature in the city.
l. The bars of the grating had to b.
y pried open and Sartout was dragge'
\ out, more dead than alive. He wa
found TO be not only on the verge o
D. death from starvation and thirst, bu
t suffering from trrible burns about hi
e body.
Sartout is now In the hospital a
Fort de France. and will soon aga n b