Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1902-05-23

tTicts, tue people losing all their lIv
stock. Streams are dried up and il
! many places a famine of both food an,
water is threatened. People are flee
, ing to town. the capital, which i
in the extreme southwest of the islant
: and about fifteen miles distant from
! the sulphur volcano. The govern
ment is feeding numbers of sufferers.
Some of the refugees report tha
great physical changes have taker
place in the neighborhood of the Sou
fiiere.
A dispatch from Fort de France
Martinique, dated the 1lth, says thai
all the hills surrounding Carbet and
Precheur, suburbs of St. Pierre, having
altogether 10000 inhabitants, are COW
cred with refugees, to the number oI
about 5000, who are being taken away
gradually. In the meanwhile provi
sions are being conveyed to them.
The corpses which are heaped in the
ruins OF st. Pierre are not only com.
pletely naked but are frightfully mu.
tilated.
The commander OF the French
cruiser Suchet, conducted search at
st. Pierre, on the 10th. He report,
that the town there was mere heap oi
smoking ruins, under which the vic.
Tins OF the catastrophe are buried.
The Suchet was able to convey some
OF the inhabitants OF Prechcur to Fort
de France, but could not reach the
northernmost part of the island, on
account of the dense rain OF ashes
which was falling.
The Captain further reported that
Mt. Pelee continued to have q threat.
eniag aspect Saturday evening. Sub
terranean rumblings we're still heard,
flashes of flame frequently belched
from the volcano, and stones were
thrown out with immense force.
1t is thought that not more than 40
out of population OF $4,000 in st.
Pierre escaped.
There were some eighteen vessels
anchored in the harbor OF ST. Pierre,
including the Roddam, the French
sailing ship Tamaya, four larger sail.
ing ships and others. All Of the ves-
sells Immediately canted over and be.
gan to burn. All the boats except
the Roddam sank soon afterward and
at the same moment.
The volcano is versatile. 1t calls
the earthquake to aid; some men it
Stays by covering them with hot lava
which cools into solid rock, as at Her
culaneum; some it buries in soft lava
dust, as at Pompeii; some it boils in
mud, as at Bandaisan, Japan, in 1865
Against sea-coasts it hurls huge tidal.
waves, as when the Krakatoa eruption
of 1883 "sent your stoutest steamships
to roost with the startled crows" in
tree.tops, and when nearly 10000 per.
sons perished.
| The eruption OF ST. Pierre, though
unexampled in its swift and terrible
destructiveness, seems not to have
been upon 80 vast scale, and no men.
ton is yet made Of any remarkable
tidal.wave as following it. 1t was the
density Of the population and the
nearness of the source of danger which
made. that unhappy place, hitherto
known to most readers mainly as the
childhood home of the Empress Jose.
phine, the victim in calamity of sci.
dom-equalled completeness Of horror.
Pelee is one OF many volcanoes that
frown on populous scenes. Naples il
beyond danger from Vesuvius, but q
great eruption might wipe out many
nearer towns and be as destructive as
was the great one of A. d. 70, when
Pompeii. city Of 10000 people. with
an amphitheater larger than the Mad.
ison Square Garden, and Herculaneum
and other towns were destroyed; and
fewer people might escape than then
fled to safety. Under Etna live AGO.
600 people, including 100000 in Ca.
tania, which was destroyed in 116e
and 1893, when from $4,000 To 100000
people were killed. A Lisbon earth
quake as severe as that Of Nov. 1. 1855
would slay more than the $4,000 tc
10000 people who are supposed tc
have then perished.
The escape of the British steamer
Roddam from the fire-deluged harbol
of st. Pierre-the only vessel of eigh
teen to get away, the others founder
ing instantly-is one OF the miracles
of the West Indian horror.
! Steered by dying men, her deck
afire and ten OF her crew, scared BY
hot lava, lying dead, she fought he
way through the shower Of fire ant
through the violent upheaval Of tn
sea out to safety.
The brave captain lies dying in
, hospital at ST. Lucia. Officers who
suffering with maddening burns
helped steer the ship from the harbo
of fine, died when she was in port Q
safety. Others of the crew have die
since she finished her remarkable ruI
; from st. Pierre. Like a specter shir
gray and dismantled. her paint peele
e off by heat, her rigging torn and brok
> en-, her decks covered with dead, an
: frosted all over with ashes and lava
! the Roddam limped into St. Lucia o.
i the afternoon Of the Sth.