The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-06-16

that was-another growing note was
heard from Pelee and a small river of
hot, black mud, touched here and
there with red, was seen to come snak-
ing down out of the mists screening
Pelees summit. to cascade over
hundredfoot precipice and then to
follow the line of least resistance I'M
til it swirled about the Guerin factory,
setting that building ablaze and des-
troyins many lives. then apprehension
grew into fear and soon might have
lapsed into a panic, which doubtless
would have saved through fight the
lives of the thousands that We're soon
to be sacrinced.
1t was at this crisis that the hand
of the government appeared. To Fort
de France, the seat OF local authority,
had come reports of the uneasy feel
ing of those dwelling in st. Pierre.
Martinique's commercial theater. 1t
is thought that Gov. Mouttet honestly
believed there was no cause for alarm
and that panic in st. Pierre would
work disaster in many ways, interrupt
ing commerce and injuring the whole
island as we'll as the threatened city.
He. if none other realized that an
exodus from the place would be
tacit acknowledgment of the danger
that iuried in the volcano, which all
in Martinique would have the world
believe was long ago extinct and never
to be restored to the list of still active
nor yet classed with those that are
dormant.
So it came about that the governor
saw fit to exercise moral restraint,
it not being within his province or
within that OF any other man to use
physical force in a matter of this
kind
In ST. Pierre there were some gov
eminent employees, among these gray
boards who had spent years in vol
canic regions, and VINO knew some
thing OF the preliminary warnings
which come from these excitable
hills. When the lava streams came
pouring down from Pelee these at once
| made hurried applications for leaves
of absence. The government sought
! to make an example of the youngest.
and in communication to him denied
! the application for furlough, and said
moreover that if the applicant quilted
! his post at the time his position
would be taken from him. This man
unfortunately. names are hard to
! obtain now from Martinique's hysteri-
! cal opulation-promptly decided that
| his life was worth more than his place
and, packing up his belongings, went
! with his family to some point inland.
| just where no one seems to know.
1t seems tnat the others We're not
! so hardy, or We're more SO. according
to ones way of looking at it. At all
| events, when the government die
tum was known all the government
! employees decided to remain. and as
| fear loves company no less than mis-
| cry does, these affected to make light
| of the danger so as to better induce
| the others to remain.
Monday. May 5-Less than eighty
hours, and the 80. 900 lives of ST
| Pierre are to be blotted out as quickly
| as one snuffs a candle. Fear is rife
! among the popuIace the morning of
| this day and an unwonted silence per
vades the city-the hush that precedes
great tragedy. Macaws and parrots
| squawk discordantly from cages, foun-
tains tinllle merrily. seas and skies
! are blue, but pervading all is an air
| of eXpectancy--of dread.
! Few have yet left the city. but il
| "Oulu HOW ldht llOliS " lul every
| street into a struggling stream of hui
mainly fleeing panic-stricken from the
vicinity of that awful volcano. From
tales | have heard one can easily
| conceive of what a trampling rush
might have followed some tocSin alarm
such mad rush for safety as theater
crowds are wont to make when the
| cry of fire is heard.
But there was none in Martinique
to give needed warning-not even
| Pelee. All that day and the next and
| the next the volcano smoked, and at
| intervals emitted clouds of ashes,
finely pulveriZed pumice the chemists
say the ashes are composed of, but
the wind sent the smoke and ashes
away from the city. and while the roll
ing clouds were seen from far-off
points and while the ashes fell on
the ships half a hundred miles away
| none in ST Pierre seems to have
| known that the mountain was even
then pouring forth smoke and ashes.
What the residents did know was
that a commission of biologists had
been appointed by the government to
survey Pelee and report upon it