The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-09-10
VOLCANO
,.w, That Lives In Perennial
Dread Of Extinction.
CRATER IN ACTION.

All LAY VftH LII u"
..,.u, spectacle For the Dwell
:, the Shadow of the Gloomy
-. when "oId Faithful" Expiodes,
!. does Regularly Once Year. i
!. q singular how Indifferent to
,s.ently threatened danger human
80 can become, even when the dan
- -. Of a deadly nature and may
NH their very lives. Harry 81.
I'M in the Montreal Herald and
~ tells of case in which a whole
S~nful of people lie under the con-
..n, threat of extinction by volcano.
~ns roof of the little boxlike hotel in
c.lma. capital Of the state Of Colima,
MEXICO. was freshly drenched with
-,ter in vain effort to fight of some
!, Santembers heat. think there were
.Iehteen of us gathered there in the
ri gray night. The almost silent
avn Law like a black and white check
aboard at our feet.
twenty miles away, across valley
An green with the rains Of summer,
nse conical mountain, almost soil
sr. Even by night 1t looked sinister;
~ day 1t was terrible. with its barren.
hya coated sides, its gas exuding cone
.hupned even by the vultures which
haunted mountain and plain. 1t was
the volcano of Colima, the "Old Faith
fp of craters, which explodes regu-
| hrly 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
| b the middle Of September, and 1t is
bis 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, so dark that We could see 1t
plainly. swelled like growing puffball
and then, pushed out from below, rose
Ike a giant umbrella, with incredible
speed, into the sky. Behind it came a
straight tubular column of smoke, such
smoke assthat Of which the bubble was
made, black and thick and ominous.
Up, up, up, rose the bubble, riding, it
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
TIA way along the bed Of the sea, the
bubble fiattened and began to spread
ont. Probably it moved miles every
minute, but it was far away and so
monstrous that we could not Judge It
by ordinary standards.
1t seemed that the town below us
heayed a 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 it's end might be death. might
be destruction of their town, as 1t had
been the destruction of the many small
ef towns clustered more closely round
the skirts of. the gloomy peak.
The roofs filled with people. Here
and there o. woman screamed; many
both men and women, prayed; queru
lous cries and questions from children
rose on the night air, and the bells II
the churches began to- ring. slowly a
frst and then more rapidly, as the fir'
god began to play about the crest o.
Colima.
Like a waterspout on the crest of
lofty roller at sea, the smoke column
and its spreading top rested for a mo
ment on the volcano and then, with
thunderous outrush Of air. which mus
have been heard for at least hundre'
miles, vanished into thin air. A col
umn.of fire took their place.
No ordinary fire was this. No ham
ever kindled by human hands burne
% white as that tower Of luminous bit
Of lava and sand and stone and super
heated gases that shot upward fror
the mouth of the crater.
gazed at it spellbound as the ligh
Of day spread round all over the vale
and the city. A constant roar cam
nom the volcano, roar SO insisten
SO monotonous, that l could not hea
what the old hotel keeper who stood 9
my elbow was saying. ! bent my ca
to him and heard: mot so bad as las
year Mayhap we shall not be harmed