Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, May 17, 1902, Page 6

The Hevald--Review. By E. C. KILEY. GRAND RAPIDS, - MINNESOTA. PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS. Arrangements for the National Edu- cational Convention. Irwin Shepard of Winona, secretary of the National Educational associa- ticn, has issued tke official program iiletin for the forty-first annual con- ntion to be held at Minneapolis July 7-11. es full imformation as el rates, sale of tickets and the s for said trips and to he exc h ; of the association. ion @f the association will open at the exposition building on y afternoon, July 8, There will ef welcome by Gov. Van Sant, Mayor Ames, State Supt. Olsen, Supt. Gordon of Minneapolis and Pres- ‘orthrop @f the University of Minne a. President Be. waster will deliver his . y evening. The mext session will be held Wednesday even- ing, when Archbishap Ireland will be one of the speakers. Thursday morn- ing Hon. James Wilson, secretary of iculiure; Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell university, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman-Catt will speak. Thursday evening there will he:a reception at the versity. A session will be held Fri- morning, and dhe closing session ay event e various branches will ‘meet as council, ‘Unitarian y, Wednesday, national Monday, ‘Tues: Kindergarten education, ‘First -Con- .tional church, Wednesday fore- hur fternoon. tary education, First ‘Congre- day and Friday nal church, Thurs noons. y education, East Side high Wednesday forenoon, ‘Thursday school, afternoon. Higher education, University Library building, Wednesday and Friday aft e shools, ‘Olivet Baptist ay forenoon, Thursday afternoon. Department of superintending, Law ng at university, Thursday after- aining, university chapel, forenoon, ‘Thursday aftcr- education, ‘university chapel, nesday and ‘Thursday afternoons. education, Minnesota School Wednescay, Thursday and afternoon 1 study, East Side ‘igh school, Wednest ind Friday afternoons. Physical education, exposition ‘build- Weénesday and Friday afternoons. cial education, Plymouth church, .y and Friday afternoons. Indian education, Plymouth church, Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon. SANTOS. siness of Busine A BID FOR The State Management Is After ‘the Aeronaut. ne activity of the present manage- nt of the Minnesota State fair‘is re- ted in the fact that when any great event in the amuserent .or spectacle -vorld is mentioned, its production ‘is nmetiately talked about as a possi- ty at the state ‘Thus tthe an- nouncement that ntos-Dumont is to offered ‘$100,000 to come to Atlantic er and run flying ma- né is ‘imm. ély followed by 1 statement that the Minnesota ‘State f after the out, peotile have a word to subject, but none of them truth of the story as the - will not bring it to America on its own account, y confidently asserted ‘that nis visits will not ‘be -c Eastern pleasure resorts; comes West he will most cer- isit the Minnesota fatr, for no- Vest is there a larger n fie nied the Of cours ntos-Dumont matter fiterally and figura- probability that a pyrotech- While th n the there is will hi air a action the Yestruction of St. reproduced by the Paines of g all the reality for which famous. concern is noted. Vice ident Chester A. Smith of St. Paul mdence with the Paines > suLject is under careful fair of 1902 Secretary Ri eliminary catalogue of the great rd cattle show and sale which will be one of the features of the fair. < at the fair grounds is going on priskly. Two crews have just begun the laying of somthing like a mile of ne footwalks to connect all on the grounds. Another crew ng for the new sheep exhibition which is to be erected this and much miscellaneous work ing on. Double Their Earnings. The miscellaneous receipts of the state institutions under the jurisdiction of the state board of control for April aggregated $11,629.99, about 50 per cent more than for March. The increase is largely in the receipts of the insane hospitals and the Faribault institutions, which are now disposing of grain and other ferm products raised last year and stored. The receipts were: Stillwater penitentiary, $6,076.05; St. Cloud reformatory, $1,228.28; Red Wing training school, $590.94; Rochester hos- pital, $702; St. Peter hospital, $623; Fergus Falls hospital, $357.97; Anoka asylum, $29.15; Hastings asylum, $15.40; school for feeble-minded, Faribault, $711.45; school for blind, $89.50; school for deaf, $218.28; Owatorna public school, $1; Moorhead normal, $45.59; St. Cloud ncrmal, $209.58; Winona normal, $451.92; Mankato normal, $279.05. Section Foreman Killed. Forest Lake, Minn., May 15.--Section Foreman Fergin, whose home is at ‘Wyoming, and who has been employed here twenty-three years, was killed by falling between cars. He leaves a wife and five children. e | WORST DISASTER _ SINCE POMPEII OVER FORTY THOUSAND LIVES LOST BY VOL- CANIC ERUPTION IN MARTINIQUE. City of St. Pierre, Capital of the Island, Is Wiped Out in the Twinkling of an Eye—Three Other Towns Also Destroyed—Molten Lava Turns the Northern Part of the Island Into a Rocky Wil- derness — Island of St. Similar Catastrophe, London, May ‘10.—A dispatch to the ‘Daily Mail from Point-a-Pitre, Island sof Guadoloupe, F. W. I., dated yester- day, says “The Mont ‘Pelee (St. Pierre) crater ejected yesterday morning molten rock and ashes @uting three minutes, and completely destroyed St. Pierre and the districts within a radius of four miles. All the inhabitants were burned. Eight passengers from the Roraima, of the Quebec Steamship line, were saved by the French cruiser Suchet. The inhab- itants of the ‘southern district of the island, who were dependent upon St. Pierre for provisions, are menaced by famine.” San Juan, P. I, May 10. The cable officials here have received advices from Dominica that a schooner which has arrived there from the island of Martinique reports that over 40,000 peo- ple are supposed to have perished dur- ing the volcanic disturbance in Martin- ieue. The cable repair steamer Grap- pler, belonging to the West India & Panama Telegraph company of London, was lost with all hands during the erup- tion of Mount Pelee at St. Pierre, Mar- tinique. The Grappler was one of the fist ships to disappear. Forty Thousand Lives Lost. St. Thomas, ‘D. W. I., May, 10.—It is now estimated that 40,000 persons per- ished as a result of the volcanic erup- tion in the Island of Martinique. The British schooner Ocean Traveler, of St. John, N. B., arrived at the Island of Dominica, B. W. L, at 3 p. m. yester- day. She was obliged to flee from the Island of St. Vincent, B. W. I., during the afternoon of Wednesday, May 7, in consequence of a heavvy fall of sand from a voleano which Was Erupting There. She tried to reach the Island of St. Lu- cia, B. W. I., but adverse currents pre- vented her so doing. The schooner ar- rived opposite St. Pierre, Martinique, Thursday morning. While about a mile off Mount Pelee exploded, and fire from it swept the whole town of St. Pierre, destroying the town and the shipping there, including “he cable repair ship Grappler, which was engaged in re- pairing the cable near the Guerin fac- tory. The Ocean Traveler, while on her way to Dominica, ‘ncountered a quan- tity of wreckage. Only Twenty Escaned. ‘Washington, ‘May 10.—.—The follow- ing cablegrami has just been received at the state department, dated Pointe-a- Pitre “At 7 a. m., on the 8th inst., a storm of steam, mud and fire enveloped the city and community. Not more than twenty persons escaped with their lives. Eighteen vessels were burned and sunk with all on board, including four Amer- ican vessels and a steamer from Quebec named Roraima. The United States consul and family are reported among ‘the victims. A war vessel has gone to Guadeloupe for provisions, and will S»ave at 5 to-morrow. “—Ayme, Consul.” OW BURNING. ISLAND Is Northern Portion of Martinique Naught But Burning Wilderness. Lordon, May 138A dispatch to the Times from St.Thomas, D. W. L., says that St. Pierre was destroyed in the twinkling of an eye.and that not forty of the innabitants.of the city escaped. Some of the outlying parishes of the Island of Martinique shave been inun- dated. ‘The whole northern portion of the island is,yburning; it has been de- nuded of vegetation ani is a rocky wilderness. It iis reported that Fort- de-France is threatened, concludes the correspondent, and there is frightful tension everywhere. Worst Anticipations Realized. Fort-de-Franee, Martinique, May 13. —A landing has at last been made at | St. Pierre and the work ef exploring the ruins of the annihilated city has begun. | While it will be many days before the magnitude of the havoc wrought can be asceriained, enough is already re- vealed to indicate that the very worst anticipations are mere tham realized. It is estimated tisat there are 30,000 dead’ in the city. Theose who have come back here from the city report that the streets and all the neighbor- hood around, what a few days ago was the largest and most prosperous city in Martinique, are now encumbered with heaps upon heaps of bodies in all di- rections. All the dead thus far seen Were Stark Naked their clothing apparently having been burned from their bodies like so much tinder, while they themselves were roasted to death. In the vast majority of instarces fires seem to have been the sole cause of death. Great numbers of the bodies have been burst asunder by the terrific heat and lie disemboweled. In many insta1ces the faces of the vic- tims are quite calm, and though they were stricken down instantly where they stood without a moment's warning, or with hard]? time to appreciate for an instant the Jeadly peril they were in. Others have stamped on their faces an expression of indescribable terror. Odor of Burned Flesh. ‘The entire city and the neighborhood Vincent Visited by a all about it reeks with a horrible odor of burned flesh. In one ixstance an en- tire family of nine persons were found, all tigbtly locked in cach other's arms and the bodies in a horrible state of de- composition. Almost the first thing done was to make preparations for the cremation of the dead. Fatigue parties of soldiers built enormous pyres of wood and branches of trees upon which they heaped the dead bodies by scores and burned them as rapidly as possible. To facilitate the combustion and to de- stroy the odor of burning flesh which came from them the impromptu crema- tories were heavily coaked with coal tar and petroleum. Heap of Smoking Ruins. Paris, May 12.—The minister of ma- rine, M. De Lanessan, yesterday re- ceived a cable dispatch from the com- mander of the French cruiser Suchet, dated Fort-de-France, Martinique, say- ing that he conducted a search at St. land is laid waste. Three large com- munities, exclusive of St, Pierre, have been destroyed.” A dispatch received here from Fort- de-France, says: P “All the hills surrounding Le Carbst and Le Preceur (near St. Pierre) are covered with refugees to the number of about 5,000, who are being taken away gradually. In the meanwhile provis- ions are being conveyed-to them. Of the thirty persons who were originally rescued by the French cruiser Suchet, th2 majority were fearfully burned and nine died while on their way to the hos- pital. The corpses which were heaped in the ruins of St. Pierre are not only completely naked, but are frightfully mutilated.” Details of the Disaster. Fort-de-France, Martinique, May 13. —Adavices received here from the vicin- ity of St. Pierre (ten miles from here) contain further details of the terrible voleanic upheaval which resulted in the utter destruction of that town and the death of nearly all its inhabitants. Whe crater of Mont Pelee had been wearing its “smoke cap” since May 3, but there was nothing until last Mon- day to indicate trat there was the slightest danger. On that day a stream ef boiling lava burst through the top f the crater and plunged into the val- ley of the River Blenche, overwhelming the Guerin sugar works and killing twenty-three work people and the son of the proprietor. 4 A commission was appointed by the governor to investigate the outbreak and it returned a reassuring report on Wednescay evening. About 8 o'clock on Thursday morning A Shower of Fire rushed down on St. Pierre, and the coast from Le Carbet, which has a population of 6,000, to Le Precheur, which had a population of 4,000, burn- ing up everything im its patch. Throughout Thursday the heat in the vicinity of St: Pierre was so intense and the stream of flowing lava was 80 unremitting that it was i-ipossible to approach the town during the early part of the day. As evening approached the French cruiser Suchet, after a he- roic battle with the heat, suffocation and sulphur fumes, succeeded in mak- ing a dash toward the shore, nearing the land close enough to enable her to take off thirty survivors of the disaster, MOUNT PELEE, THE DEATH-DEALING VOLCANO. Pierre yesterday. The captain reports that the town is now a mere heap of smoking ruins, under which the victims of the catastrophe are buried. The Suchet was able to convey some of the irhabitants of LePrecheur to Fort-de- France, but could rot reach the north- ermost part of the island on account of the dense rain of ashes. The captain further reported that the Mont Pelee voicano still had 2 threatening aspect. Subterranean rumblings were still heard, flashes of flame frequently belched from the volcano and stones were thr¢wn out with immense force, Corpses Frightfully Mutilated. Paris, May 12.—The Temps, referring to the destruction of St. Pierre, says: “We believe, from the information re- ceived kere from the island of Martin- ique (meaning doubtless the official dis- patches) that the disaster surpasses all that imagination can conceive. The whole northeastern portion of the is- all of whom were horribly burned and mutillated. St. Pierre at that time was an ahksolute smoking waste, Concealing 30,000 Corpses, whose rapid decomposition necessitatéd in some cases instantly completing their cremation, which was only par- tially accomplished by the lava. The inhabitants of Fort-de-France were panic stricken the morning of the disaster, when the sky suddenly black- ened until it was as dark as midnight. The sea shrank beck thirty yards, and hot rain began to fall, while gravel the size of walnuts poured down on the town, This lasted about fifteen min- utes. The 450 survivors who were brought here yesterday from the vicinity of St. Pierre by the French cable repair ship Pouyer Guertier, came from the town of Le Precheur, where, surrounded on all sides by flowing lava, they were nearly roasted to death and expected qmomentarily to be engulfed. | AWFUL SCENES IN ST. PIERRE THIRTY THOUSAND CORPSES STREWN ABOUT OR BURIED IN THE RUINS, EARLIER REPORTS ACCURATE RELIEF EXPEDITION VISITS THE SCENE OF THE TERRIBLE DISASTER. COAST VILLAGES DESTROYED ALL SWALLOWED UP BY CYCLONE OF FIRE IN SHORT SPACE OF TEN MINUTES. N Fort-de-France, Martinique, May 13. —It now seems to be generally ad- mitted that about 30,000 persons lost their lives as a result of the outbreak of the Mount Pelze volcano at St. Pierre on Thursday last, Careful investigation by competent government officials shows that the earlier reports of the Associated Press were accurate. Briefly put, Iast Thursday morning the city of St. Pierre disappeared with- in ten minutes in a whirling fire vom- ited from Mount Pelee; thirty thousand persons were instantly and horribly killed, and the voleano, whose ancient crater for mor? than fifty years had been occupied by a quiet lake in which picnic parties bathed, suddenly dis- charged a torrent of fiery mud, which rolled toward the sea, enrulfing every- thing before it. Then the last of cable communication was broken and the doomed city was isolated from the world. The American consul at Guadeloupe, Louis H. Ayme, has reached the deso- late spot where St. Pierre stood and confirms the awful story in all its es- sential details. Story of the Disaster. From an interviev with Col. Ayme, who is a trained American newspaper man, a correspondent of the Associated Press learned the following facts: Thurséay morning the inhabitants of the city awoke to find heavy clouas shrouding the Mount Pclee crater. All day Wednesday horrid detorations had been heard. These were echoed from St. Thomas on the north to Barbados in the south. The cannonading ceased on Wednesday nizgnt, and fine ashes fell like rain on St. Pierre. The inhabitants were alarmed, but Gov. Moutett, who had arrived at St. Pierre the evening before, did everything possible to allay the panic. The British steamer Roraima reached St. Pierre on Thursday with ten passen- gers, among whom were Mrs. Stokes and her three children and Mrs. H. J. Ince. They were -vatching the rain of ashes when, wit a frightful roar and terrific electric discharges, a cyclone of fire, mud and steam swept down from the crater over the town and bay, sweeping all before it and destroying the fleet of vess2ls at anchor off the shore. There the accounts of the catastrophe so far obtainable cease. Thirty Thousand Corpses are strewn abceut, buried in the ruins of St. Pierre, or else floating, gnawed by sharks, in the surrounding, sea3. The Associated Press steamer chartered at Gaudcloupe neared Martinique at $:30 Sunday morning. Enormous quan- tities of the wreckage of large and small ships and houses strewed the sur- face of the sea. Huge trees and too often bodies with flocks of seaguiis soaring above and hideous sharks fight- ing about them, were fioating here and there. At Le Precheur, five miles north of St. Pierre, canoes with men and women, frantic to get away, begged for a pass- age on the steamer. The whole north end of the island was covered with a silver g! coating of ashes resembling dirty ow. =Furi- ous blasts of fire, ashes and mud swept over the steamer, but, finally, St. Pierre was reached. The city of St. Pierre stretched nearly two m along the water-front and half a mile back to a cliff at the base of the voleano, The ruins were burning in many places and frightful odors of burned fiesh filled the aair. With great difficulty a land- ing was effected. Not one house was left intact. Viscid Heaps of Mud, ash and voleanic stones were seen 6n every side. The streets could hardly be traced. Here and there amid the ruins were heaps ef corpses. Almost all the faces were downward. In one corner twenty-two bodies of men, wom- en and children were mingled in one awful mass, arms and legs protruding, as the hapless. veing fell in the last struggles of Geath’s agony. Most nota- ble was the utter silence and the awful, overpowering stench from the thou- sands'of dead. Careful inspection showed that the fiery stream which so completely de- stroyed St. Picrre must have been com- .posed of poisonous gases which in- stantly suffocated everyone who in- haied them, and of other gases burning furiously, for nearly all the victims had their hands covering their mouths or were in some other attitude showing that they had sought relief from, suffo- cation, All the bodies were carbon- ized or roasted. The stories of the survivors added to the awful details of the particularly harrowing sccount of the British steamer Roraima, A Cyclone of Fire. C. C. Evans of Montreal and John G. Morris of New York, who are now at the military hospital at Fort-de-France, say the vessel arrived at 6. As eight bells were struck a frightful explosion was heard up the mountain. A cloud of fire, toppling and roaring, swept with lightning speed down the moun- tainside and over the town and bay. The Roraima was nearly sunk and caught fire at once, “I never can forget the horrid, fiery, choking whirlwind which enveloped me,” said Mr. Evans. “Mr. Morris and I rushed below. We were not very badly burned, not so bad as most of them. When the fire came we were going to our posts—we are engineers— to Wei,h anchor and get out. When we came up we found the ship afire aft and fought it forward until 3 o'clock, when the Suchet came to our rescue, We were then building a raft.” Ben Benson, the carpenter of the Roraima, said: “I was en deck, amidships, when I heard an explosion. The captain ordered me to up-anchor. I got to the wind’vss, bue when the fire came I went to the forecastle and got my ‘duds.’’ When I came out I talked to Capt. Muggah and others. They had been on the bridge. The captain Was Horribly Burned. He had inhaled flames and wanted to jamp into th, sea. I tried to make him take a life p.eserver. The captain, who was undressed, jumped overboard and held onto a line for a while. Then he disappeared.” Gus Linder, the quart2rmaster of the steamer, who is horribly burned, and can scarcely talk, confirmed this, From the Italian ship Terese Lovico several men were saved, but they are in a frightful state, except Jean Louis Prudent of St. Pierre. Although on deck and unprotected, he was little burned. Prudent says there was first an awful noise of explosion and then, right away, a cyclone of smoke and fire, but such was the poisonous, choking nature of the smoke that it burned worse than the fire. When it struck people they fell dead. The cyclone of gas tore the masts out of ships, blew others up and sunk some of them. Sodn afterward came a wave of, fire bigger than the smoke cloud. “That cloud,” continued Prudent, ‘was bigger, it seemed, than the mcuntain. Burned Everywhere at Once. “The fire burned the city everywhere at once. Near me I saw only dead men; but on shore I saw men and women rushing back and forth amid the flame> for an hour. They would not run long. Then came that choking smoke an@ they would drop like dead flies. he explosion, smoke and fire all came an@ went in three minutes, but the city burned for three hours. Then every house was finished and nothing alive was left. Some men from the sinking ships got ashore, but they were burned up there. At no time were there any earthquakes; but big stones were rained down and fire fell like rain for a long time.” The village of Irrine, south of St. Pierre, was almost entirely burned and almost all the inhabitants were killed. One of the survivors of Irrine, who will die, scys the sea, boiling hot, invade? the land. An evidence of the swiftness of the onslaught of fire is found in the fact that none of the victims was blinded, although the eyelids of most of them are nearly burned through. No one knows how the passengers of the steamers perished and it is impossible to get a full list of the vessels’ lost. The cable repair ship Grappler was lost with all on board, as was the French vessel Tamaya. There were eighteer or twenty vessels in the road- stead at the time of the disaster. Coast Villages Destroyed. The coast villages near St. Pierre were destroyed simultaneously witha that town. The entire island, up to within miles of Fort-de-France, is cov- ered with mud and ashes, The cattie of the island are either all dead or dy- ing. The streams have dried up or are polluted. Thousands of persons are flocking to Fort-de-France. Unless re- lief is promptly sent famine is immi- nent, and there is urgent need for the services of the Red Cross scciety. The French cable line via Europe is now the only means of telegraphic com- munication with the outside world. The demands made upon this line are extremely heavy. The central and southern parts of St. Pierre are still burning. The country- side is deserted. Every family on the island is mourning the loss of relatives or friend Business is at a complete standst St. Pierre was the financial and provisioning center of the and. Mount Pelce is still in eruption, and even more violent and di trous erup- tions may follow. Volcanic ashes have fallen against the wind on the Islands of Domini and St. Vincent. SOUFRIERE BELCHES OUT RUIN. St. Vincent’ Suffers Greatly Fromm Continuer Eruption of Volcano on British Isle. Roseau, Dominica, B. W. I., Ma The Soufriere volcano on the island of St. Vincent has keen in full eruption since Wednesday last. Several planta- tions have been destroyed. E: quakes and Joud reports accom the eruption, and stones and ashe: at Kingston. Many persons wounded, and the bodies of 500 dead are unburied. Barbados, ninet miles off, was in total darkness for a time. Pebbles and gretty substances have fallen there. noes crowded with refugees are arriving at Dominica, and their occupants are most hospitably received. KING EDWARD LIBERAL, Sends a Personal Contribution of Five Thousand Dollars for the Martinique Sufferers, Pari May 13—King Edward has sent 25,000. francs as his contribution to the sum being raised for the relief of the sufferers from the Martiniqie disaster. The czar has telegraphed to President Loubet expressing the sincere sympa- thy of himself and the czarina, who share with France the sorrow caused by the terrible West Indian catastro- phe. THEY WON'T WAIT. Interstate Commerce Commission Will Not Delay Hearing. Chicago, May 13.—The interstate com-~ merce commission has declined the re- quest of the railroads for a continuance of the hearing of the charges made by the Chicago Live Stock association that the railroads have heen violating the federal law. +. Strike May Be Settled. St. Peul, May 13. — Encouragement that the local strike in the building trades may soon be settled was offered yesterday by the result of the confer- ence at the builders’ exchange between @ committee from the trades and labor assembly and a committee from the exchange. After the conference each side said that separate meetings had been arranged between the committee for each union interested and a cor- responding committee of the contract- ors belonging to the a ee eee