The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-06
REGENT COMMENTS ON
 CARIBBEAN FAIRY LAND

i only this mantle of ashes You, can dis tlngulsh not one object from another. ev- erything blends in an universal ash tint. IL Is only when you reach the shore and ianu, that you can piece out, bit by bit, the terrible story of the Last Days of St. Pierre
 The difficulty in presenting a 'repliea' of the Martinique disaster is embodied in us Vastness' yet completeness; it's ruth lessness tempered with It's inexplcable yagarles St. Pierre was not engulfed by a tidal wave dismembered by a cyclone or destroyed by conhagration. 1t was absolutely obiterated and by a power en- bodying the combined force of each. cou- eerning the character of which scientists are at sea. Then the people of St. Pierre experienced singularly varied forms or grades of their 1ife's extinction. Many were burned to a cinder. other corpses were simply blackened and distended with gases. One man was found sitting in a rocking chair as if asleep; another on the Place Bertin, was lying on his back. his hands clasped in supplication, his flesh had fallen from the bones. his bowels had burst forth. And the town tumbling to the sea in pillows of tropical color
 It has bequeathed us no shape. form, or variance of color. Iris a iumbed mass of debris; its amphitheatric frame of hills an expanse of ashes; while watching over all is Montague Pelee, breathing steam eeaselessly from it's catfish mouth.
 'St Pierre experienced a series of ca lamitous vlsitations; not among the least destructive a tidal wave from the Carib- bean sea. Indeed. one would think some insane murderer had been at work. Tor rents of boiling mud were vomited upon the prostrate town. Cyclonic whrlwinds leveled it's walls. Red hot seoriae and vol canic dust were precipitated upon it. Tor O Inc fO1i tt,a rapid decomposition of the myriad dead. the frightful stench therefrom, rendered the spot intolerable; and the work of in- terment' facilitated by hurried cremation, was brought to a halt. Gradually was thus evoked the present St. Pierre, the northern (and aristocratic) portion of which Is buried under volcanic mud, the southern (and buslness) section sub merged by scoriae and volcanic ash; under all rest thousands in the varied positions in which they surrendered life, and OCT al is thrown the uniform ghastly gray pail of silence. Yet through this wool of an irredeemable obliteration of a pictur- esque town, of an unique peoples. runs a weird warp of surprises
 The main thoroughfare of the town, the Rue Victor Hugo, is filled in, leveled, until it 'resembled pike running through marble yard. It Is tapped at several points by outletting Cor inletting) minor avenues; narrow (and in localities) pre- clpitous-some of these have the original pavement exposed. My attention attract ed in some way I moved up one of them. On the left hand rose comparatively perfect concrete building, to which was attached a two-story lean-to, approached by a stairway and landing. This stair way and landing, although of wood were not even scorched Across the stairway had been hurled. coming from God knows where. the smirched skeleton of a tama- rind tree. effectually barring any ascent. Tramping around, seeking some method of ascent, for I felt sure behind the door at the head of the flight lay some grim souvenir. 1 very nearly stepped upon a snow-white human thigh bone. and stopped to pick it up. l had hardly re- covered an erect position when I noticed the pelvic socket of the bone protruding from the debris upon which l was tramp ling. Further examination revealed a womans skeleton imbedded in the debris as fly in amber. Horror stricken. I laid the thigh bone gently down. discontinued further effort to ascend the stairway, and retraced my steps to the Rue Victor Hugo.
 Here you have, arranged almost ar tistically the mystery of St. Pierre; the gruesome; the inexpicable horror thereof as If in far away Guadeloupe; the charreu tamarind giant, thrown from God knows where; the pitiful. overwhelmed, imbed- ded corpse of a woman; while Der all brooded Mount Pelee, grim, ptiless."