Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-09-23
UNDER A VOLCANO
a Town That Lives In Perennial
Dread of Extinction.
coLIMA'S CRATER IN ACTION.

,.s a Solemn Spectacle For the DWELL
.rs In the Shadow Of the Gloomy
Peak When "oid Faithful Expiodes,
a. II Does Regularly Once Year.
II Is singular how Indifferent to a
nersistently threatened danger human
be,ngs can become. even when the dan
cor Is of deadly nature and may
imperil their very lives. Harry II.
nunn. in the Montreal Herald and
star, tells of case In which 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 a vain effort to fight OF some
~ 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 at our feet
Twenty miles away, across a valley
sill green with the rains of summer,
rose coniesi mountain, almost soil.
tary. Even by night 1t looked sinister;
BY day 1t 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
fuly OF craters, which explodes regu-
larry once 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
is the middle Of September. and 1t Is
his time"
The old man had scarcely finished
when 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
like a giant umbrella, with Incredible
speed, into the sky. Behind 1t came a
straight tubular column of smoke, such
smoke as that of which the bubble was
made, black and thick and ominous.
Up, up, up, rose the bubble, riding, 1t
seemed. ON the column below It 1t APP
peared TO hang like huge blanket a
thousand feet In the heavens; then
slowly, like some great octopus feeling
its way along the bed of the sea, the
bubble fattened and began to spread
out Probably 1t moved miles every
minute, but II was far away and so
monstrous that we could not Judge 1t
by ordinary standards.
1t seemed that the town, below us
heaved 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 filled with people. Here
and there a 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
hrst and then more rapidly, as the fire
god began to play about the crest Of
Colima.
Like a waterspout on the crest Of
lofty roller at sea, the smoke column
and its spreading top rested for mo-
ment on the volcano and then. with
numerous outrush of air, which must
nave 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
80 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
ahd the city. A constant roar came
IRON the volcano, roar so insistent,
30 monotonous, that / could not hear
What the old hotel keeper who stood at
my elbow was saying. bent my ear
70 MIN and heard: Not so bad as last
year. Mayhap we shall not be harmed"