Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-06-18
IN RUINED ST. PIERRE.
The Ghastliest Ghost of the Modern
Centuries.


Centuries.
Today we saw st. Pierre, the ghast-
liest ghost Of the modern centuries.
But yesterday the fairest of the fair
of the wondrous cities Of the storied
Antilles, bright, beautiful, glorious,
glistening and shimmering in her prism
of tropical radiance, an opalescent city
in a setting of towering forest and
mountains; now a waste Of ashen gray,
without life, form, color, shape, drear
monotone, a dim blur on the land
scape-it seems even more than the
contrast between life and death. The
dead may live. st. Pierre Is not alive,
and never will be. Out Of shape has
come a void. 1t is the apotheosis OF
annihilation. To one who sits amid
the ruins and gazes the long miles up
ward over the scanned sides of La
Pelee, still laundering her terrible
wrath, may come some conceptions OF
the future ruin of the worlds.
AS we drew near, Mont Pelee reveal
ed herself more and more definitely
gaunt, haggard, forbidding, uplifting
into cloudy obscurity. Poised over her
head hung giant smoky pillar. rising
high above the clouds, narrow and
black at the base, widening and light
ening as it ascended until it spread
cup shaped at the top like the stem
and bowl Of a champagne glass. II
was a giant signpost pointing down
ward: Here Is La Pelee."
Then occurred a wonderful thing, nc
more unusual indeed that the rising OF
the sun, but it is not given to every
body to see the sun rise over an awak-
ened and wrathful Pelee. The great ort
seemed to spring suddenly from behind
the dark mass, lighting the low-hang-
| ing clouds into all the colors of the
prism. Light fleecy clouds they were
that hung directly over the mountain
top and part way down the fanks
They hung in parallel layers, a cloud
formation characteristic Of volcanic
mountains. The edges Of these layers
were fringed with delicate seashell
pink, deepening to rudder hue as the
cloud thickened. One small cloud, dis
tinct in itself, was entirely permeated
by the sun rays, its luminosity giving
the effect of fire on the heights.
The increasing light accentuated the
blackness Of the smoke arising from
the Pelee crater, the centre Of vast
growing circle Of light and color and
shade, suspended in mid-heaven. Be-
low, the fianks Of the great mountain
stretched sullenly to the sea, still dim,
indistinct, chilling. 1t was La Pelee
sunrise, a sunrise worthy of the brush
of painter yet to be born.
High on the jutting outline of Morne
d'Orange was the first visible sign of
the devastation Of st. Pierre. For
many, many years a gigantic white
statue of St. Mary the Virgin, called
by the people Notre Dame des Garde,
had pointed to mariners the anchorage
place Of the port. 1t was the most con-
spicuous object for miles about The
statue had been splintered from its
base and lay about 40 feet to the south.
1t had faced the north and, as subse-
quent investigation showed, it lay with
the head still in the same direction, the
force of the destructive blow having
been evidently in the middle Of the en-
tire structure, at the top of the base
and the foot of the statue.
Just a few yards to the south Of the
fallen Lady Of the Watch could be
traced a perfect line of demarcation be-
tween the zone of desolation and the
zone of safety. 1t was as clear as
though drawn with a giant pencil. On
one side of q line beginning to the
southwark Of Carbet and curving
northward to a short distance from the
statue running up over the undulating
hills to the central backbone noun
tains, all was ashen grayness-not
green leaf, not a sprig of grass: on the
other side the greenery or rank tropi-
cal vegetation.
Rounding the Morne dOrange into
the roadstead Of st. Pierre, the gray
blankness of the devastated city struck
silence to our hearts. Half a mile
away all that could be distinguished
was a gray streak. AS we came nearer
the outlines of what once might have
been buildings could be made out. The
general effect was unutterably weird
and sinister.
So complete was the obliteration that
nothing was left of the exterior Of any
building in the whole city, save the Ca
thedral, to enable the observer who had
not known it's location before to tell
whether it was dwelling or factory, sta
BILE or palace, shop or chateau. Some
times in the interior of the ruin brok-
en- and twisted household utensil or ar
ticle of furnishing or decoration might
proclaim the character Of the structure
that had stood there.
AS in other French towns, although
there were better" residence sections
than others, very fine dwellings were
scattered throughout all parts of the
city. The sunken baths, in very many
cases, proclaiming the abiding place OF
prosperous citizen. These were parti-
cularly numerous in one part of the
southeastern section. They were of
circular shape, built Of masonry usual
ly, with a carved marble inlet for the
water and q few marble steps leading
down. They were from IL to 16 feet
in diameter, frequently, and from 3 to
6 feet in depth. In every case these
baths were found choked level with
mud and ashes.
q FL Co AZ