The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1914-09-04
UNDER A VOLCANO
A Town That Lives In Perennial
Dread of Extinction.
C0LIMA'S CRATER IN ACTION.

Peak When "oid Faithful" Explodss,
as II Does Regularly Once Year.
It Is singular how Indifferent to a
persistently threatened danger human
beings can become, even when the dan
ger ia of a deadly nature and may
imperil their very lives. Harry IL.
Dunn, In the Montreal Herald and
Star, tells OF a case I'm which a whole
townful Of people lie under the con-
slant threat Of extinction by volcano.
The roof OF the little boxlike hotel In
Colima. capital OF the state OF Colima.
in Mexico, was freshly drenched with
water In vain effort to fight of some
of September's heat. think there were
eighteen Of us gathered there In the
cool, gray night. The almost silent
town lay like black and white check
erboard Mt our feet.
Twenty miles away, across a valley
still green with the rains Of summer,
rose a conical mountain, almost soil
tary. Even by night It looked sinister;
by day II was terrible, with Its barren,
lava coated sides, its gas exuding cone
Stunned even by the vultures which
haunted mountain and plain. 1t was
the volcano OF Colima, the "Old Faith
full" Of craters, which explodes regu-
larly once a year-and 1t was almost
due for an exhibition.
"He should begin soon," droned the
hotel keeper. Maybe today, maybe to-
morrow, maybe not for week, but 1t
IL the middle Of September. and 1t Is
his time"
The old man had scarcely finished
when a bubble, black as night, crowd
ed itself out OF the broken end OF the
mountain, which we knew was pot OF
molten stone, twenty miles away. The
bubble, 80 dark that we could see 1t
plainly, swelled like n growing pufYball
and then, pushed out from below, rose
like a giant umbrella, with incredible
speed, into the sky. Behind 1t came
straight tubular column Of smoke, such
smoke as that Of which the bubble was
made, back and thick and ominous.
Up, up, up, rose the bubble, riding, 1t
seemed, on the column below It. 1t ap-
peared to hang like huge blanket a
thousand feet In the heavens; then
slowly, like some great octopus feeling
It's way along the bed Of the sea, the
bubble flattened and began to spread
out. Probably II moved miles every
minute, but 1t was far away and SO
nonstrous that we could not judge 1t
BY ordinary standards.
It seemed that the town below Us
heaved q long sigh. The thing for
which Its ten or twelve thousand in
habitants had been waiting was about
to happen. The mighty drama was
about to be enacted before their eyes,
as 1t was before the Spanish conquis-
tadores set foot on Mexican soil. Yet
to them the spectacle was ever excit-
ing, for Its end might be death, might
be destruction OF their town, as 1t had
been the destruction of the many small
er towns clustered more closely round
the skirts Of the gloomy peak.
The roofs filed with people. Here
and there woman screamed; many.
both men and women, prayed; queru-
lous cries and questions from children
rose on the night air, and the bells In
the churches began to ring, slowly at
first and then more rapidly, as the fire
god began to play about the crest Of
Colima.
Like waterspout on the crest OF n
lofty roller at sea, the smoke column
and its spreading top rested for mo-
ment on the volcano and then, with n
thunderous outrush Of air, which must
have been heard for at least hundred
miles, vanished into thin air. A col
umn of fire took their place.
No ordinary fire was this. No fame
ever kindled by human hands burned
so white as that tower OF luminous bits
of lava and sand and stone and super
heated gases that shot upward from
the mouth Of the crater.
gazed at 1t spellbound as the light
of day spread round all over the valley
and the city. A constant roar came
from the volcano, a roar so insistent,
80 monotonous, that l could not hear
what the old hotel keeper who stood at
my elbow was saying. bent my ear
to him and heard: mot so bad as last
year. Mayhap we shall not be harmed.