Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-19
CARING FOR THE DEAD.
Two Thousand Have Been Recovered
- CT Diarre

Two Thousand Have Been Recovered
at ST. Pierre.
Fort de France. May 19.-The ap-
proash to St Pierre is easier. The fires
in the wrecked buildings of the city are
eStirlguished. and representatives of the
commercial houses from Fort de France
are digging in the debris of the houses
and stores in search of documents and
yalma bles. The town is mass OF indie
scritable ruins which bear Il striking
resemblance to those of Polnpeii. In
The lower part of the town, called the
Moullage the outlines of the streets
can be made out, and in places here and
there are stretches of walls of houses
several yards long which are still erect,
but battered and crushed in at the top.
The number of the victims is so great
in places that in the great heaps of
dead Identification of individuals is
very difficult. The odor of The bodies
makes the work Of handling theai not
only offensive but dangerous to The
searchers as well. Thus far 1000 bodies
have been found and disentangled from
The ruins. OF these 592 have been
buried.
A noticeable thing is that petroleum
does not catch fire when 1t is thrown on
the bodies. On the ground floor of the
hospital there is mass of twisted iron
reds to be seen. but no trace of fire. 1t
lis supposed that an enormous puff of
gas produced great atmospheric
pressure. The formation of the gas
doubtless caused thousands to die of
49, Co.. tl,aR ,-., oh
them This would explain the condi-
ton of the bodies. which are covered
with superficial swellings and superb
cial burns. caused by the great cloud of
fire which followed the first gust of gas
from the volcano. After this there
came a shower of stones. some as large
az apples, consisting of punlice stones.
Certain bodies have the marks of
wounds produced by this awful hail OF
rocks All the dead are covered by a
lawer of ashes ranging in depth from
few inches to a foot or more.
An inhabitant of Morn,e Rouge. a
town of 500 inhabitants, four miles
from St Pierre, who was watching the
volcano at the moment of the catastro-
phe, says that there We're seven lumin-
Gus points on the volcanoes sides just
before 1t burst. He says that all about
him when the explosion came there was
a terrible suction of air which seemed
to be dragging him irresistibly toward
the mountain in spite of al his resist
ance. The volcano then emitted n
sheet of flame which swept down
toward st. Pierre. There was no sharp
distinct roar or explosion as when
great cannon is fired, but only awful
Earring rumblings. He thir ks that the
entire outburst that did all the work of
havoc did not last more than thirty sec
ends.
Then there was complete darkness
for ten minutes, >aused by the dense
volumes of sulphurous smoke and
clouds of dust and shattered rocks. The
entire country all about St. Pierre was
turned into chaotic waste. All the
trees were either torn UP by the roots
or snapped off and lie level with the
ground.
The body of an old man was found
lying by carriage to which "a pair Of
dead horses were harnessed. The old
man was still holding the reins in his
bands us If about to get intos the car
rage when stricken down. A boy lay
dead by his side. The features of both
were calm. Inside the house and be-
hind parlor door was the body of a
young girl. Her hair was down and
terror was stamped upon her features.
In the streets CT St Pierre heaps of
melted copper and silver have been
found. In the neighborhood of the tele-
graph office the instruments We're
found, but some of them had been
hurled to a distance of fifty yards. The
metal of the instruments was melted
but the instruments themselves could
be recognized.