The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-02-14
CITY RISING
FROM TOTAL RUINS
MEN or MARTINIQUE YIELD TO
THE LURE OF THEIR DESTROY
ED HOMES

A city rising from total ruins in what !
the traveller now beholds, whose path |
lies beside the once fOurishing st. |
Pierre, at the foot of the famous Peee |
in Martinique, says the New York Post. |
Time is gradually effacing the once
popular belief that ST. Pierre would |
never again be the home of living |
things and nature, with her cloth OF |
green, by slowly plotting out the evil |
dence of the fearful devastation
five years ago, is bringing back to hlns
and basins the beauty which once made |
st. Pierre the garden spot Of the West
Indies.
Still living in respectful fear Of the
peak which in an hour snuffed out the
lives of thirty odd thousand of his fell
low islanders, the pioneer is not hasty
in entering the fallen city, but builds
his house just beyond the limits of the
green covered ruins.
Today the new settlement can be de-
scribed only as a fishing village. There
are probably dozen houses just to the
south of st. Pierre, bordering on the
Caribbean, where the more adventu-
rous of the pioneers have located to
take advantage of the excellent catch
es to be had near the great cliffs of
Aux Abymes. The never failing dread
of return of the monster which in
the popular superstition came out OF
the mountain and laid waste the city,
shows itself in the new architecture.
Instead of the artistic little domlciles
of stone with their attractive red tile
roofs, the newcomer has built for him
self an inexpensive matched hut, bare
of everything but absolute necessities.
| all of which he can leave at moments
notice and suffer little loss should oc-
casion demand it.
The fsherman's boat is moored at
his very door and his mast is always
standing and his sail is always ready
for work should Monte Pelee give the
| slightest sign of unrest. But, despite
all his fears, his superstitions and his
precautions, the rebuilder of st. Pierre
is constantly gaining neighbors.
Each day the little steamboat from
Fort de France carries tourists to the
new settlement, landing them at the
first of the jetties to grow on the site
of the old. These people must have
guides. They pay well and so the
guide follows the tourist and places his
= tho Rch
There is much to see in the grave OF
st. Pierre Every one visits the Ole
burying ground and the ruins OF the
old cathedral from which the statue OF
the Blessed Virgin, that can be seen
in the little shrine back of the church
in Fort de France, was thrown into
the the sea, only to be cast back on
shore again; every visitor must have
some relic of the great disaster.
In doing all this, hunger and thirst
are aroused and that the traveller may
obtain relief businesslike government
has built a fairly satisfactory hotel JUS
in the middle of the mass OF ruins
This was the first new building to ris'
on the foundation of the old. witt
good accommodations at fair rates, IL
fame spread rapidly and tourists from
all parts of the world visited it in sucl
numbers that the government of tn
! island believed beginning had beel
- made for the rehabilitation OF 81
Pierre, as a travellers resort.
To allay any fears that might eXis
as to safety thereabout from depreda
lions of natives the government mex
10 built barracks for housing gendarme
u and then, encouraged by this, one g
70 the mercantile houses of Fort d
France erected branch adjoining tn
police station and thus the nucleus c
the new st. Pierre was formed
Standing on the roomy veranda
the hotel one is impressed by the shar
y contrasts about. Here is a little sci
Element of three buildings, gay wit
Iife and light, land containing tn
hopes of the ney city that probab
b. will be, while at their very doorstep
amid an almost impenetrable tropics
= growth, among which winds only til
's dreaded fer-de-lance, lies the ruins
the city that was, the final Resin
place of a multitude.
u We in the north who have seen lars
= parts of cities swept away in flame
take to ourselves great credit whe'
- backed by the wealth of nation, "
10 replace the fallen walls and max
. greater cities than before What or
dit is due, then, to the man of Mart
nique who, born to every superstition
and inspired by the fear of actual da
ger, goes back without hope of al
. reward to re-establish the industT
- and the wealth of such a city as s.
Pierre?
But this he is doing. In the hea
~ Of the man of Martinique who took r
fuge in Fort de France when the cru