The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-30
DEFYlNG PELEE'S WRATH.
pere Marye, the Priest of Morn'
Rouge.

From the New York Eevening Post.
Morne Rouge, Martinique. June s.
This is the story of nun who stood
by isis guns. lie was a man OF peace
the cure of a parish just under Pc
lee valcano.
In the first place. as a source of wor-
ny to him in his ministerial capacity.
there had been the immortality of st.
Pierre. DO you know" he said to as,
that out of every twelve births in st.
Pierre, only two were legitimate?"
And. besides, as we progressed with
the dinner. which, in the seminary re-
fectory. we were hungry for after a
twelve hours horseback ride, he told
Us OF the Satanists and the Socialists,
the one worshippers of the devil and
the others blasphemers of God. The
Satanists had a regular ceremonial of
devil worship, and, alas! the head of
1t was an artist from Paris named
Guiallaume, who had frescoed rather
well the cures church at Morne
Rouge. TO offset Guiilaume's teach
ings and the influence of the blasphem-
Gus paper Proiotaire of st. Pierre, this
priest had to hold missions on the
boundary of ST. Pierre, and organize
street parades, and he was preparing
a series OF sermons to show the rallacy
of Socialism when the crater burst
ana destroyed st. Pierre, it's immoral
people, its Satanists and its Socialists.
When the crater of Pelee burst. the
priest. Pere Marye, was celebrating
mass. He had, he recalls, thirty per-
sons at communion that morning. AS
he left the church he observed an "ar-
dent boiling" from the mountain. A
light, a fire-burst, shaped as a cornu-
copia, at that moment occurred. As
1t rose 1t formed a cloud above. Sud
denly through this cloud lightnings
shot, lateral lightnings. from the CEN
ter to the circumference, from the cir
conference to the CENTER making
sounds like s'z-z-z-z-z, and then BOOM
m-m-m-m. Bombs might have been
exploding, titanic ones. Then this
cloud quickly directed itself down to-
ward st. Pierre. Why, it remains for
the scientists to agree upon. The fire
and smoke came out like torrent"
like a geyser. 1t did not roll at first,
but, meeting distractions, 1t did begin
to roll, over and over, a black stream.
1t continued to explode, as it rushed
down upon the city that lay at it's
foot, by the sea, enclosed on all sides
by hills or bluffs, yet with a close Glow
en- ravine through which draught
could be had. The cloud was like a
kind of artificial fireworks in form it
was like an inverted chemists retort,
the outlet curving downward buA >sx-
banded, not confined. There were eX-
blossoms whenever the cloud struck an
obstacle, and loudest when it touched
the shore front and the sea. The pres
emit state of the houses at st. Pierre,
it may be remarked, is that of houses
that had been exploded-their walls are
thrown outward into the street and
their tile roofs are fallen in.
Some days ago / was again at St.
Pierre, and with opportunity for a
tive-hours, observation found streets
piled six feet high with the stones
and mortar of demolished buildings,
and probably of the bones of dead
citizens, as not a quarter of the 10000
cadavers have been found. Stones and
bones are cemented now, since the tor
rental rains, with the dust and sand
of several eruptions. The treasure
trove that a Scotch minister was sure
would be found by early visitors is all
buried or recovered (mostly buried
and only now and then is a china aft
er-dinner cup seen complete, or a ten
| franc piece Of gold discerned on the
surface by a group of bones. In the
ruins of the house of the President of
the Banque Anglais there was an Eng
fish book for children, adventures by
sea and land, hid stories of fairies,
and in another mansion, in the cham
Der of the daughter of the house, evil
IDENTIFY, there were a melted perfume
bottle with a woman's hairpin entan-
gled in it's stem. purse with few
melted coins, and in the kitchen de-
bris the signs of the petit dejeuner
with the skeleton of the cook in the
ruin of the range. In one mansion
there were four skeletons, close togeth-
er, just by a door through which they
were rushing to escape. One was the
figure of a young woman, not all the
integuments yet stripped from the
bones. Her beautiful small hands were
wholly preserved. and on the third
finger of the right hand there was a
ring. She was somebody's sweet
heart. 1 like to think that the token
will be buried with her.
'PeeIee From Morne Rouge.
But to return to Pere Marye. One
gets to his parish of Morne Rouge by
ponies, poor, starveling ponies, over
mountain roads filled with cinders and
dust or washed away and INSTRUCTED
by trees blown down-a wearisome
ride of nearly a day. We heard church
bells when two miles away. Our
mounts barely able to walk. the blood
spurs had cut cruelty. we entered the
village about 8 o'clock in the afternoon.
There was no hotel. no planter that we
knew, but we confidently rode into the
priests yard and put our ponies in his
stable. We had been told that to ex-
pect hospitality from the priests of
Martinique was never to be disappoint-
ed We walked into his open door.
There was his librarv-a single
bookcase. There was his table-big
enough to seat dozen persons. There
his sideboard--wine and fruit upon IL
in plain invitation.
we went through the library to the
church portico. Appearing exceedingly
close rose the high Jagged monstrous
cone of the new crater of Pelee, send
ing up a huge pillar of white, and
dripping pale hot mud down it's fur
rowed jowl. In the churchyard the dust
from the first two eruptions was drift
ed fully foot deep. 1t had had to be
shovelled away from the doors, as
New England villager in winter clears
his doorstep of snow. Morne Rouge lies
almost as near to the crater as St.
Pierre. but only a few of It's people had
been scorched and no houses had been
damaged. The church stood intact; it's
bells were pealing solemnly.
Up the road came a procession. II
turned in by the church gate; some
black girls marched in front wearing
a ribbon and silver cross; some black
nuns followed. then some white women.
and after them the cure, plump and
ruddy, eyes to the ground, In golden
vCstments. walking under a scarlet and
gold canopy upheld by six stalwart