The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1902-07-03

trench, Tito which it was bundled and
rapidly covered over. Fortunately the
loose nature Of the dust made the dig
ging Of the trenches easy work.
In the schoolroom close to the Water
loo works twenty-five bodies had been
found, and they had been buried in
separate trench close by. Death was
everywhere-death in its worst form.
From under the shop at Rabaka two
corpses were dragged while we were
passing by. AS we went along mounds
were pointed out to us which contained
ten, twenty, thirty, fifty or more bodies
bundled pe!lmell into trenches and
hastily covered over. In one shop forty
persons had taken refuge and had all
persisted.
If the scene of desolation and death
outside of Georgetown was appalling,
that of anguish and suffering in the
hospitals was heartrending. Lying on
the ground close together was a mass
of suffering human beings writing and
moaning. Now and again wall would
be heard of 20 God, help usY' 80 Lord,
! deliver .usr Then would arise in agon-
izing tones the narrowing chant 20
God, help usg' 20 Ford, deliver u.s."
Many of these poor wretches. mad
with pain, would try to rise on their
mutilated hands and feet, and as they
tumbled about they fell over others,
who shrieked with agony when their
burned limbs were touched.
~. ~
had a child two years old in her ban
daged arms. Regardless of her suffer
ings, she swayed to and fro over her
gasping infant, the picture of anguish
and despair Most of these poor
wretches were burned to the muscles,
some to the very bones. Faces, hands
and feet had suffered most, the flesh
hanging in shreds from the tendons.
The condition of affairs in George
town during the outbreak of the Sou
friere was vividly described by the
wife of the Rev. a. II. Leslie, Yves
leyan minister, who was in the place at
the time
prom Sunday night, May f." said
Mrs. Leslie, 'the heat had been OPP
pressive Never had I experienced such
heat before. 1t was with the utmost
difficulty that one could breathe, and to
sleep was impossible We had no
means of testing the temperature, but l
am satisfied that a thermometer would
have shown a record of great inten-
sity.
"On Tuesday | learned from Mrs.
Darrell that the Chateau Belair side
of the mountain was exhibiting signs
OF activity. On Wednesday morning
between and 10 o'clock the lightning
and thunder began. Such lightning and
member, and thrice terrible was it to
behold binding flashes that zigzagged
with kissing fury and a lurid light
ominous of destruction!
.'Mr Leslie said he had never before
heard thunder in May and declared the
occurrence was most unusual. He left
the house with the object of making
some observations, and on his return
he said that the Soufriere was active.
In the meantime some fisher girls, who
came down over the mountain, said
they had observed the water in the
mountain lake to be boiling rapidly
and the grass IN the vicinity to be up
turned. Then, you will understand, /
got anxious. The storm grew in fury.
The thunder became louder and louder.
Natures forces were cannonading with
power Of defamation that would have
awed the bravest Of human hearts
"Amid the crashing thunder peals
and the dreadful lightning there began
to fall shower of small pebbles, and
later on there fell stones as big as your
fist. Meanwhile dismal rumblings
were heard, as though the mountain
groaned under the weight Of accumu-
lated fury, and the earth swayed in
deep sympathy.
Eat half past o'clock the explosion
occurred, and darkness fell upon the
land. What words can depict the
sound or tell Of the sensation it caused
those who heard it? Language is in
adequate to the task Vain would il
be to ransack the vocabularies Of dead
or living languages in the hope Of find.
ing adequate terms. The sounds were
weird and abysmal and caused our
hearts to culver with fear.
1.-THE rain Of big stones continued up
to about IL o'clock at night, when sand
began to fall. From where we were
we could see the reflection of the fire
in the sky, but could not see the blaze.
So terrible were the earthquake shocks
as to give the impression that the end
of the world had come. The hours Of
the night-that night Of horrors crept
slowly along with leaden feet, and
morning was so long in coming that it
seemed as though daylight had been
extinguished for all time. But at last
morning broke-not morning like the
rosy fingered mornings of tropical
brightness and sunshiny beauty that
we had been accustomed to, but dull,
dismal, dreary day came, not much dis
tinguishable from the preceding night
of Egyptian darkness. But it was day,
and that fact afforded some measure Of
relief. We could see and hear others