The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-29
New York Evening post.

~ qults ~ la.aa
struction of Saint-Pierre, I again set
foot on Martinique's soil. A torrid
SUN was beating down upon the
pratrie-like savane of Fort-de- France.
and the tall and richly timbered royal
palms that shadow the statue of
show the passing of d tie raj rainy Season.
There We're not many people about.
and the city OF $4,000 inhabitants
showed it's usual appearance of mono
tonous decay. Fort-de-F'ra is per-
haps as intensely uninteresting as
Saint-Pierre was the reverse. and even
fairer sister as the center Of popula-
ton of the island, 1t does nothing to
relieve itself Of the air Of WEAKNESS
which Is it's chief characteristics. I
found no change in the doings Of its
people since September. Newspaper
politics we're, as heretofore, running
high, and the editorial columns Of
he ia Waf of races ssss fN yo Hane
was still q part Of the hourly food, and
its workings were officially chron icled
almost daily; but there seemed to be
few who were more than passively9in
eterested in the extraordinary structure
that it had developed, the gigantic
obelisk Of rock which transfixes the
d.
Tower Of Babel, towers over the sum-
NIT of the mountain to height of 500
feet and more. And, incredible tho it
may appear, there are still hundreds
and thousands Of the inhabitants who
to this day have not visited Saint
Pierre.
The silent city remains much as it
was at the time Of my last visit, nine
months before. A little more ash has
accumulated here and there, and some
of it has been taken off elsewhere; but
the ruins are the same battered,
.crumpling walls, unchanged save that
they have gained in color thru the
washing off Of the ash-rnud that plas-
tered and cloaked their vertical sides.
In a few places. excavations We're being
made to recover Treasure" or to To-
cate sites, but the providers among the
dead were few, and what was recov-
cred was in most cases Insignificant.
Insect Life and Flowers.
One significant change has come
over Saint Pierre Tt is no longer an
absolute desert, for little colonies of
ants and other insects. are inhabiting
the ruins, and, the land-snail has come
to live with them. Green creepers and
many plants with bright flowers here
and there hang about the battered
masonry, and from some of the old
caraibien and the banana. And even
the few trees that have been left
standing on the surrounding heights,
and thought to be dead, have sprouted
out new leaves, and give a new sun
shine to the Landscape. Well UP on the
and quite to the Rivigre des Peres,
these signs of returning vegetation are
apparent, and on one side of the
Roxelane itself everything is green.
| But, after all, it is more the imme-
diate foreground that gives these signs
of resuscitation, for, farther beyond,
and below the hanging volcanic cloud.
the grays are as gray as ever, and the
valley of the Riviere Blanche, chOked
with the immense amount of debris
that has been thrown into 1t, is white
like snow with the new ash thai, lis
periodically being swept over its
course. <S3< lfTa
At Morne Rouge, which fell an the
storm Of Aug: 80, not a%shoase re- re-
NAMED inhabited: The beautiful
roof good Pere Mary Had sought re.
fuge for nearly his last hours, still
stands with its foot in the ash. My
attendant climbed into the belfry and
tolled the bells that hung uninjured
from the posts. It was the voice In
| the wilderness, for there were none
" I1SI6u " IL UuL OuISCTVcSs SII1dpS
| far away on the hillsides, where
| specks of cottages appeared in the
| surrounding green, some may have
| recognized the beautiful resonant
tones. <$> #
The exquisite woodland that, pre-.
! vious to Aug. 80, bordered most of the
road between here and Ajoupa-Bouil:
! Ion, stood out now as ragged tree.
trunks, spectres in the destroyed land.
scape, with naked arms and upturnet
roots, begging, as It were, from the
new sunlight that Surrounded them
Here and there the eye fell upon thu
returning fronds Of the tree-fern arfG
clumps Of bamboo; on the mslast1m n
were merely visions Of what had beer
before.
Pelee's Obelisk.
| On June 13, in company with one
commission, I made my fourth ascen
Of Pelee. The passing night prom.
Used everything. "A few high cloud:
lowered about the blue and receding
mornes that stretched off toward Car.
bet, but over the volcano itself there
was nothing, and the great obelisk
| its base fiery red with the molten lava
that was being poured into it, stood
/ out in bold. relief against the green
blue western sky. We left our quar-
ters early, SO. as to gain upon the
clouds. that vicious1y,s gather. about the
summit, but the clouds had preceded
us, and already at the breakfast hour
by which time we had reached the
former summit, everything was wra
in cloud and mist, and little was visible
beyond ourselves. We succeeded in
steering a course across what had be-
fore been the basin of the Lac des
Palmistes, and in a few minutes stood