The Press., 1915-08-18
THE ONE SURVIVOR
Great Disasters In Which a SoIi-
 tary Life Was Spared.
TALES OF NARROW ESCAPES.

TALES OF NARROW ESCAPES.
 Curious Case of St. Pierre Prisoner
 During the Mont PsIee Eruption.
 The British Retreat From cabul-A Tragedy of the Terrible ManaeIes.
 There are many curious cases on rec
 ord where death in one of its many
 dread forms of disaster grips an entire
 party fin its clammy embrace and then,
 while its icy fingers close upon the rest, lets one solitary member of the
 band slip away to be the sole survivor f Of the tragic calamity.
 One hundred and fifty eight dead, one saved That was in brSef the tale of the wreck of the mail steamer General | Chanzy, which struck in the terrible storm of Feb. 1O 1910. on the rocks of northwest Minorca.
 Marcel Bader, the solitary survivor from the wreck of the Chanzy, owed his preservation entirely to the fact that he was a strong and fearless swimmer.
 A few years ago the timber vessel Anna Rebekka. one day out of Memel, was caught in a squall and capsized. Most of her crew were swept away and drowned. but three skipper, a sailor and the ships boy-clambered on to the keel, where they drifted without food or drink. On the third day the sailor was washed or, but the skipper saved him Then the boy went mad and died On the fifth day the sailor was washed or again. and this time the captain had no strength to help him On the seventh day the capsized vessel drifted in sight of land. A life boat put out and found the captain still alive.
 The Manacles have seen many sights of horror, but none to excel that Janu- ary night many years ago when two British troopships- Dispatch and the Primrose-both went ashore on these terrible rocks within a few hours of one another. Seven soldiers strug gled ashore from the Dispatch through the crashing breakers and reused the village of St Neverne. When the fish ermen gained the beach the Dispatch had vanished But there was the sec ond ship-the Primrose-on the rocks. They pushed out, but the doomed yes sel was shattered to fragments before they could reach her, and all that tho boat brought back was a f1fteen-year- old ships boy, whom they picked up swimming desperately in the trough of the icy waves.
 Perhaps the most terrible disaster fin modern British history was the retreat from Cabul in the winter of 1S42. An army of 3,4S0 soldiers, with over 12.OO0 camp followers, started southward from the Afghan capital under promise of safe conduct. On the following Jan 13 a solitary figure, filthy, unshaven, unkempt. his mind almost destroyed with the horrors through which he had passed. rode out of the mouth of the Khyber pass. He was Dr. Brydone. the only survivor from all that mighty host The bodies of the rest, slain by the treacherous Ghilzals. lay scattered for miles along the snowclad floor of the defile.
 It was stupidity. not treachery, which
  Japanese regiment in January, 1901. On the 23d of that month a detach- ment of 210 men and officers, under command of a major, left the town of Awombri for long route march. It came on to snow very. heavily, and soon a regular blizzard was raging. with the temperature many degrees be low freezing point
 They lost their way and wandered on, burning their rife stocks for fuel. By the 25th only seyenty-one were left alive. On the afternoon of the 27th a corporal alone was picked up by relief party, alive but badly frozen.
 At the end of April, 1902. Mount Pelee, the blunt headed volcano behind St. Pierre, began to show signs of ac- tfvity. These increased until on May 5 a little before 8 in the morning there was a terrific roar, and a huge column of whitehot sand. burning cin- ders and poisonous gases came rolling down the mountain side.
 Whatever that cloud consisted of, 1t destroyed St Pierre completely. The very stones were cracked with the aw- ful heat, and within few seconds 40,- 900 human beings perished. Yet days afterward. when the ruins were cool enough to explore, man was found alive. He was negro prisoner who had been confined in an underground cell and who. though scorched. scared and almost suffocated. still survived the only living thing in fifty square miles.-London Answers