The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 10, 1902, Page 1

per not | en from e Call. VOLUME XCI-NO. 161. SAN FRANCISCO, SATURDAY. MAY 10, PRICE FIVE CENTZ2 FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE PERISH IN THE AWFUL AVALANCHE POURED FROM CAULDRON OF MONT PELEE VEN the incomplete data at hand make the disaster at 'St. Pierre, Island of Martm:que, one of the most terrible in hlstory Followmg are some of the facts of importance: Volcanic action began May 3, 1902; date of great disaster, May 8, 1902 ; 40,000 ; population of Martinique, 165,000 ; population of St. Pierre, 25, 000 Vessels lost 18. Torrents of Hot Ashes Bury the Country and Cause an Awful Harvest of Disaster and Death. TSRENETS M . o 3 qUT oF S7 FIEBRE '7‘!1)?01/6}5/ A HAIL OF flllfi/b’//}% | TAKING THE { i "/MY | ! 17 ] ALl Al S ORTY thousand hu-| | man lives are believed | i to have been lost b.\-!. | the volcanic enmtiomi the French West Indies. St.| erre, the principal city of Mar- ‘ ‘ nique, the gem of the \\1.1(1- | : [ rd Is , has been b ot!cd‘ out - the storm of fire .’mt!} | 1 ¢ | the avalanches of molten rock| | hes. With a popu ation | 1 of twenty-five thou- | ersons, the city has been | destroyved and survivors are re-| | ported to number iess than two | score, nearly all of them burned, | | nded and suffering a\\::ull-‘ { ures. The ~loss -of dife in | 1d parishes, it is swell the death list to| | { Morne Rouge and other neigh- | ‘ 57 | ing tofal of forty thou- | ‘ o such calamity has| nicled in recent times. ng approximuting a| orrof and in extent of | | one must hark back | of the cities of the or to the doom of Hercu- | | and Pompeii. Even un-| | historic outpouring from Vesuvius ihe loss of life was not so great as that| | curred on Thursday in ssed little island of SHOWER OF DEATH. Mont Peclee, a great zolcano | d to be extinct, | awoke from the sleep Out of the| 1e treacherous crater. i which nestled the sum- as and pretty hcmes of |+ i wealthier of the French|Passengers from the north had | West Indian residents, suddenly | disembarked previously at other | belched smoke and flame. Then, | ports. Of the officers and crew like the discharge from a Titanic of the British steamship Roddany the wholé crest of the moun-| 1€arly all are reported dead or in leaped thousands of feet into dying. The supercargo and ten from the awful cal-|™en leaped into the sea and went the air ané dron’s mouth poured down oped them. RELIEF IS SENT. showers of fire, swallowing up| everything that lay in their path“ to the sea. | . ‘the disaster comes from ‘many Torrents of redhot ashes bur- ied th miles, covering it asa blizzard| | dies and from the commander of blankets the earth in January. | the French warship Suchet. Groves, orchards, towns and city| All direct communication with burst into flame wunder thd the blighted island is cut off. Re- shower of death, and even the|lief expeditions are being sent shipping in the roadstead of St. out from St. Thomas, St. Lu- cia and San Juan, Porto Rico. The eruption still continues. i | Forty thousand lives are report- ',v;x(JAnC\\EiZ?”::i]:df lr;n?uib:‘iécd lost. The steamers Roraima N ok ey oo {and The Grappler, of thr‘. gable vork on April 26, was lost, and company, were burned in‘ the it is believed that all on board{parbor. The first explosior lasted perished. Most, if not all, of her|only three minutes. The ciuiser Pierre had no time to up anchor and get to sea. i down as a storm of fire envel-| Confirmation of the extent of | | sources from The Call’s special | | ¢ country around about for| ., -resnondents in the West In-| =i E i g .’. \‘\ ! LL\\\\\\‘“““‘ » Suchet is going to Martinique { with provisions. S PN AWFUL PANIC ‘ AT ST PIERRE | Survivors of the Roddam Describe the Scene as G/impfsgsmol' Hell. ONDON, May 10.—A dispatch to the Reuter Telegram Company from Kingston, Jamaica, giving the details of the Martinique disaster, already known, says: “Thousands were killed at St. | Pierre, where a terrible panic prevuiled The eruption began Saturday, May 3, when St. Plerre was covered with ashes and appeared to be enveloped in fog. The flow of lava continued untll Wednesday, May 7.” The message adds: In the island of St. | Vincent the soufriere (volcano) is active and earthquakes are frequent. So far no damage has been done.” In response to the request of Governor Liewellyn of the Windward Islands, the British cruiser Indefatigable will be dis- patched from the island of Trinidad to the island of St. Vincent by way of St. Lucla. of zzi'?flfioytp crry AND Jz/fifiawffilfl N TBY - - 5% | i i Ay, loss of life (estimated), People of Doomed St Plerre Refuse to Heed Recent Warnings and Die Through Their Bravery. Lkl Special Dispatch to The Call. T. THOMAS, D. W. I., May 9.—An erup- ticn of Mont Pelee volcano destroyed by ! laming gas and cinders the beau- tiful town of St. Pierre, Mar- | tinique, morning. | | From 8 o'clock in the morning ;unti] 1 o'clock in the afternoon | St. Pierre was a mass of fire. | i During the intervening hours a | torrent of redhot cinders poured yesterday | down upon the commercial cap- | ‘ ital. The streets were filled with the destructive outpouring, cut- | | ting off all avenues of escape. It | |is believed that very few of the | twenty-five thousand inhabitants | of the city could have escaped. From all information so Tar ob= | tained it is estimated that the :number of lives lost in Mar- } tinique Island will reach forty | thousand. A vessel which arrived at Dominica to-day reports that she was compelled to run from St. Vincent because of the vol- canic eruption on that island on | Wednesday afternoon. This ves- sel was off Martinique yesterday morning about 8 o’clock when the eruption of Mont Pelee oc- | curred. Those on board the ves- sel say there was a tremendous i afy explosion of the mountain, and a great cloud of fire seemed to sweep down upon the city and all the territory around, leaving no chance for escape for its citizens. S£HIPPING IS ENVELOPED. Shipping lying off St. Pierre was also enveloped in the seeth- ing flames and destroyed with wonderful quickness. * i Hope is abandoned that the | | Governor ef Martinique and his wife have survived. Nothing has | | been seen or heard of the mili- tary forces quartered in the town. The French ‘cruiser Suchet was in port when the disaster took place. Her officers went ashore to give relief, but were unable to render much assistance ex- cept to rescue about thirty per- sons. Great heaps of bodies were | | seen on the blazing wharves. It was impossible for the Suchet's officers to penetrate the town. Although Mont Pelee volcano had been emitting fire and smoke at intervals for several days, the & | residents of St. Pierre did not ap- SCENES IN THE VICINITY OF MONT PELEE, WHOSE CRATER SENT FORTH A MASS OF MUD, HOT WATER AND CINDERS THURSDAY AND CAUSED THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BEAUTIFUL TOWN OF ST, PIERRE AND A LOSS OF LIFE ESTIMATED AT 40,000. prehend any great eruption. When the volcano became ae- * \, A dispatch to the Daily - Mail from Pointe-a-Pitre, island ~of Guadaloupe, French West Indies, dated yesterday, says: “The Mont Pelee (St. Pierre) crater ejected yesterday morning molten rocks and ashes during three minutes and com- pletely destroyed St. Pierre and the dis- tricts within a' four-mile radius. All the inhabitants were burned.” X . About ‘eight passengers from the Ro- raima of the Quebec Steamship line were saved by the French cruiser Suchet. The inhabitants of the southern dis- ; 3 tricts. of the island, who were’ dependent | Roddam describe the scene at St. Plerre| and became panic-stricken. But on 'St. Plerre for provisions, are menaced | 2s being “glimpses of hell,” beyond their A dispateh to_the Daily Mail trom Ja-| Killed chiefiy, by molten lava. “The first intimation of a ‘disaster (st Martinique) was the break- 1ng of the cables on Tuesday. The French c..bl- to Martinique from Puerto Plata was broken Wednesday. Cable communi- cation 'ltll all the northerm islands is 4| tive after a silence of half a cen- The survivors of the British steamer| tUTY the inhabitants were startled i description. ‘The Roddam’s men were | fears began to subside after a few days. Then came the destruction The Roraima was wrecked In a terrible | .~ 3 p upheaval of land and sea. The whole | Of the Guerin factories, near Mar- crew perished. . s AR 2 , and the loss of about 1 Two ships were lost with all on board in HOWNG 50 an attempt to approach Martinique. lives. The panic in the town Continued on Page Two. Continued on Page Two. -