The Opelousas courier., 1902-05-17
Terrible Disaster.

Not since the destruction OF
Pompeii by Mont Vesuvius has
the world been visited by a more
terrible disaster than has befallen
the city of st. Pierre, Martinique,
w. l., on May Sth. Although the
inhabitants surrounding Mont
Pelee had received warnings from
that monster n week before it
belched forth like the Internal re-
gions very few took heed, and were
caught like rats in trap. Enough
has already been revealed to in
dicate that the very worst antici-
pations as to the result of the
eruption are realized.
Mont Pelee, whose monster era
ter vomited it's flood of molten
lava and ashes upon the city Of
st. Pierre and neighboring towns,
laying waste every living thing in
its path, destroyed all the inhabi-
tants of that doomed city, num-
bering $4,000 souls, together with
over $4,000 inhabitants of the two
neighboring towns.
What horrible revelations of
the havoc wrought to human life
which the grim mounds are yet to
reveal can hardly be imagined.
A later dispatch from Fort-de-
France, island of Martinique, says
that access to the town Of St.
Pierre is becoming easier, but that
the activity of the volcano seems
to be increasing.
The scenes within the dead city
are strange and gruesome, says
the dispatch. In the section of
the city known as the Moullege
no sign Of fire is visible, but
everything seems to have been
rent and scattered as though by q
tornado. The iron bedsteads in
the hospital are twisted, but there
are no marks of heat. The bed
clothes and all textiles in the hos
pital simply vanished.
About 200 corpses have been
found in the streets of St. Pierre,
most of them lying face down.
ward. The central quarter of the
town and the fort are buried sew
eral yards under cinders. In the
neighborhood of the creek sew
eral houses were found intact,
but their inhabitants were dead
and appeared to have been killed
by lightning. Here the bodies
were lying, sitting and reclining
in curiously life-lile attitudes.
All possible sanitary precau-
tions have been taken at St.
Pierre, but the stencil there is
awful.
Another horror must be added
to the already terrible disaster
mentioned in our columns, this
time within our own domain.
Briefly stated, on Monday even
ing last freight train COM
posed of naphtha tank cars tele-
scoped in the yards of the Pan
handle Railroad Co. at Sheridan,
suburb of Pittsburg, Pa, which
was followed by the ignition OF
the naphtha by an open switch
lamp; by the flowing of the naph-
tina, first free, and then ignited.
through culvert leading to the
Ohio river, half a mile away, and
its explosion, with attendant dam
age to life and property, and by
the explosion of three other naph.
tha tanks at the point of the or.
iginal mishap, after hundreds Of
people had been attracted to the
spot by the fire, which was send
/ ing up flames, a hundred feet high
This deadly fluid seemed to be il
search of victims as it ran through
the railroad yards, exploding ane
/ blowing to atoms two hotels in it,
path, and badly Wrecking a frame
building, in which we're congre
| gated 200 or more men from Pitts
| burg and vicinity, few of whom
escaped injury. So far9Wenty ar
reported killed, and two hundred
injured, of whom it is thought tina
Is per cent will die.
-eS@ o
i We have received an invitation
:. to attend the closing exercises 0
| the first session of the Southwest
ern Louisiana Industrial Institut
at Lafayette, La, on May 90, "a
EI25 and 26, 1902, which include
the annual concert, inspection o
the work of the institute, annua
; meeting of the board of trustees
lopen session Of the Attakapa
literary society, addresses, sermon
exercises, etc.
The Mississippi building at tn
Worlds Fair will be a reprodue
: ton of Beauvoir, the home Q
Il jefferson Davis. In this hous
Mr.. Davis prepared his manr
!. script on 1.-THE Rise and Fall Q
the Confederacy.
-S &c e--
/ There is a complete tie-up i
!, the anthracite region of Pennsy
/. / = M 1.