BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-06-17

everything infammab1e, save few
tree trunks, has been burned or buried
beneath the cinders.
The next street beyond the Rue /
Bouille is the Rue Victor Hugo, the
suggestive of Christian rest, 1.-THE Cathe
most interesting street of St. Pierre, a
cosmopolitan highway. Looking north
ward through it from the Rue Turail,
| it is a choked gorge, the walls of which
rise not more than ten or twelve feet
above the mass of rubbish. Here we're
rich shops, residences, cafes, places of
entertainment and amusement, and
passing them during every cool hour of
the day crowd from the corners of
the earth. Hardly week came that
there was not war-ship, perhaps two
officers and men ashore to ming1e with
the picturesque people, the natives and
the native French Of the city St Pierre
was famed for it's brilliancy and hos
pita1ity Only the night before the city
was destroyed, Mr. Leon Marie, one of
the richest merchants, gave an enter
tainment in his mansion at LAnse in
honor of his daughter and Signorina
Paravaccino, daughter of the Italian
Consul, who were on a visit home from
the convent on Morne Rouge. Thirty
seven servants were engaged IN the
preparation, and afterward attended the
guests. L'Anse is now bare hillside.
Only the stripped foundations of the
, Marie mansion remain to mark its To-
cation.
At No. III Rue Victor Hugo was the
office of Les Colonies" the Republican
newspaper of St Pierre, which, ever
since a guide named Roman had visit
ed Pelee and brought back news of its
disturbance had fought the rising fear
of the people, The Office is square
: of yellow walls. There is no sign of a
press, or of any other fitting of print
, Jag office. The roof has come crashing
inward and taken the two floors with
it. Near by is the wreck of cafe.
Below the surface dust, which has been
blown away in patches, eight or nine
round, handicapped tables, with iron
legs, are visible across the street is a
crockery shop where one of the party
has just kicked up pile of plates not
one of them SO much as cracked,
although close beside them are three
glass tumblers fused together.
Bodies Of The Sudden-Stricken
Dead.
AS the Rue Victor Hugo Jared. so
Jared every other street in St. Pierre.
The ruins look like the ruins of tncon-
pleted houses. Walls do not appear
even to have been lined, and for yards
they are bare of the stucco with which
they were faced. And over all hang
the intense heat, the gray dust, and the
sickening odor. Although great activ-
ity on the part of the French soldiers
detailed to the burning of the dead is
reported, scores of bodies are still to
be found in the southern section
OF the city, the Mouillage quarter.
The writer came upon fire in one
heap across the threshold of house in
the Rue du College. Most of the bodies
as the five just referred to- lie in dis
Itorted attitudes with arms and legs
burned off. Whether the attitude is in
Idicative of agony or is merely the re-
lsult of the heat blast, it is impossible to
Isay. South of the Cathedral du Mouil-
Ilage the foremost religious ediiee of
st. Pierre, in the narrow Rue Bouille,
is bakeshop The two ovens are read
lily distingtiishab1e, and in one of them
is the body of man. The legs are
drawn up to make the body as compact
as possible; the attitude is one which
might have resulted had the baker
crept in there for refuge. This is only
one of the countless enigmas of the
ruins.