Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-03

rain of dust and ashes. covering all
| things hidden as for the most part
they remain hidden to this day.
And more mercifully yet nature In
the tropics is prolific. Whatever man
holds he holds only by keeping the
vegetable armies at bay; wherever he
retreats the ranks of the green things
advance. From the hill slopes
on all sides vegetation has pushed its
way among the ruins. Seeds have
been borne by the wind or dropped by
birds, or having long lain dormant in
crevices Of houses and in the uncon-
genial earth of the city, have now
thrust up through the everything lay
er of debris to the air. In every in
terstice, overhanging every wall from
where the roofs once were, a mantle
of foliage and blossoming shrubs has
been drawn over the whole dead city.
Each straight paved street, with the
white walls on either hand, is little
more than a pergola, a grotto, an ave-
nue. cut through the green. On ev-
cry side a dense scrub of faint per-
fumed mimosa and eupatorium, with
it's clustered flower heads and gray
green leaves, has thrust up and over
and among them climb strange creep
ers. in which the yellow gherkinlike
fruits of the mOmordica are conspicu-
Gus.
And over and among these again
are the butterflies and moths, gorgeous
things to make the European lepi-
dopterist despair; splendid fritillaries,
all molten copper and silver and rose,
beautiful moths of the Lithosia or
FoOtman family, white butterflies and
yellow, and a host Of representatives
Of genera unknown to British collec-
tors. So over the huge sepulchre
wherein the 10000 human beings lie
buried there is a constant play OF life,
the grace of green leaves and bril-
liant flowers and bright colored wings
Shimmcrng i'm the hot West Indian
sun.
Leaving the silent street we turned
shoreward, another and myself. and
walked for a mile along the edge Of the
incoming tide, and 1t Is strange walk
ing, for the sand beneath ones feet
treads as firm and sound as anywhere
SCOT black In all the mile also we
found not a single shell. A few crabs
live in holes in the black stuff, which Is
part sand, part cinderS, and scramble
out Of ones way as one approaches. A
line of debris marks the limits Of the
tides-stones worn smooth by the ac-
ton of the water, bits Of glass polished
and frosted by the salt-in one place
tablespoon and in another the blade Of
knife, both showing through the rust
the blistering effects Of fire-but all
dead things, with not a scrap of sea-
weed or a fragment Of a shell.
On this level background, inky black,
whatever there Is stands out conspicu-
ously and there Is something ominous
and dreadful in the utter absence OF all
signs Of life. For some miles out from
shore they say that the floor Of the sea
Is even now after all these years car
peted deep in this black nall under
which and on which nothing lives. A
mile or so along the shore one comes
to the broad pebble strewn bed Of the
watercourse (down the centre of which
ten foot wide rivulet Of water bab-
bles crystal clear fl ON the mountains)
which acted as a barrier against the
lava flow and kept it from overwhelm-
ing the desolated town.
Up to the nearer shore Of the old bed
everything Is green and flower stud
ded. Beyond 1t lies a barren land.
scanned and brown: such a land as that
in which Roland wandered when he
came to the Dark Tower Scanned and
parched and brown, 1t stretches as far
as the eye can reach up the slopes of
Pelee to the white cloud wreaths
Back we turned again from the shore
through the silent streets OF the Sleep
ing city. Here the circular basin Of
fountain holds in it's centre the pedes-
tai of what was an elaborate bronze
group with swans nearly life size at
each corner which one may believe
once poured water through their curved
necks. The necks are headless now.
Only one swan still stands on its base.
Two others, melted out of shape, lie In
the empty basin, mere Jumps OF metal
In another place the head Of an iron
lion thrust out from the wall, with
open month, through which once again
water used to pour; but the pipes are
melted away and under the rust the
features of the lion are blurred and
half obliterated by the breath OF the
furnace. We passed where two mas
sive columns still show what was the
stately entrance to the governors
house, but the heavy iron gates lie
wrecked and twisted on the ground
and beyond the noble pleasure grounds
is a wilderness Of langle woodland
growth. with here and there a hum
mock of ruined masonry half draped
in green.
In the cemetery the tombstones lie
split by the heat and twisted from
their beds, and the monuments lie
strewn broken on the ground, but 1t
has little meaning now, this place
where the resting places of few hum
dred dead were nonored with monu-
ments Of marble and granite, while all
around in the city which Is one vast
cemetery lie 10000 dead unmarked.
MY ships officer told me that he knew
St. Pierre we'll before 1t was stricken,
and no less than once year since then
he has been able to put in here ana
come ashore, and at each visit he has
seen how nature has gained upon the
town. In a few more years the streets
will all be overgrown, the masonry bur.
led in green and the forest growth VIII
have pushed it's way down to the shore.
This is one of the islands where the
dreaded snake, the Fer de Lance. Is
found. In just such broken wilder
ness as this, where under the flowers
and the butterflies the wreckage OF the
city offers strange dark hiding places
II will love to make its home. Then
few people will care to push their way
through the thick growth among the
ruins. Ships will content themselves
with passing off shore, and passengers
will be shown from a distance the place
where once ST. Pierre stood. But lit
tie more and a generation will arise to
which the story of the disaster is but
q tradition, and the very site or the
wickedest spot in the west lndles VIII
be forgotten, its memory overgrown
with myth and legend, even as the ruins
of the city itself are already half sub
merged in flowers and green leaves
Where jackson Was Born.-Andrew
ra,..o,, ,roc horn In SOuth Carolina.