The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 14, 1902, Page 1

Call.\ VOLUME XCI—-NO. 165. SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1902. PRICE FIVE CENTS. GOVERNOR PREVENTS GENERAL ORT DE FRANCE, Island of Martinique, May 13.—The northern section of the island is depopulated. Provisions are needed here immediately for 100,000 people. A shipload of lime EXODUS is also needed at St. Pierre for sanitary purposes. The stench there from the dead bodies is overpowering. Mont Pelee was siill erupting smoke and fire at a late hour last night. Every.praise is given United States Consul Ayme. He has worked in- defatigably to succor the survivors. He has bandaged the limbs of the wounded. and has worked without sleep-and without food. He is now thoroughly exhausted. Forty persons rescued from the city are now in hospitals here. It = 1t was reported lere yesterday from the British island of Dominica that 300 survivors of the St. Pierre disaster had reached there in canoes. AND THE AWFUL LOSS OF LIFE ENSUES SN N 177 1‘\\\\\\\\{\‘\ NS ) A URCH Ae STREEZ ROSEAU, DOMPICA - LOOTING OF RUINS AND ROBBERY OF DEAD IS BEGUN AT ST. PIERRE } ORT DE FRANCE, Island of Martinique, May 18.—The looting of the ruins of St. Pierre has begun already. While coming to Fort de France the United States tug Potomac picked up a boat containing five colored men and one white man, whose pockets were filled with coin and jewelry, the latter evi- Lieutenant B. B. McCormick, commander of the Potomac, arrested these men and turned them over to the commander of the French cruiser Suchet for punishment. | dently stripped from the fingers of the dead. Special Correspondent of The Call Describes Horrors at St. Pierre, Where, It Is Feare(i, Mont Pelee May Again Send Forth Death-Dealing Fire. ; From the Special Correspondent of The Call and the New York Herald. Copyright, 1902, by the New York Herald Publishing Company. ORT DE FRANCE, Island of | ashes and cinders spread by Mont Pelee. | burned by soldiers, but few of those in, brought to this city are not true. A great nique, May 13.—I have Plerre, unable to longer | the terrible hard- encounter the hor- rible sights th with me every min- | ute of the twenty-four hours of my stay | rised that more of the dead were not | sight. Not more than 1000 bodles were | strewn along the streets, the others being | & Jeast partly buried under the mantle of Every moment of my stay in St. Pierre | belch fire. streams, which flow down its sides, chang- ing the surface of the northern end of the island every hour. It is the stench and | When I reached St. Pierre I was | the danger of pestilence that makes St.|crater of 'the volcano, Pierre a place of even greater horror than | was caused by the first result of the ex- plosion of Mont Pelee. All of the bodies first found on the surface have been the ruins have been dug out. It will re- that cover the city are still hot. WAVES OF HEAT. Waves of heat come down from the making work among the ruins difficult when it is not absolutely impossible. Reports that all of the inhabitants of the village of Le Precheur had been wave of lava swept across one portion returned from the ruins | I feared that the volcano would again | quire months, unless a greater force of |of the village, destroying the lives of forth its billows of death-dealing | men is employed, before the dead are |about eight hundred inhabitants. 1t continues active, vomiting lava in | properly disposed of. The sand and ashes | others fled to the seashore and were res- The cued by the French cruiser Suchet. Other villages at the foot of Mont Pelee wera destroyed by the lava, which flowed along the course formerly followed by the rivers. Indignation against Governor Mouttet grows as the panic of the Continued on Page Five. | T SCENES ON ISLANDS THAT SUFFERED FROM LA SOUFRIERE. — S— La Soufriere Claims Two Thousand Victims and Destroys Estates of the Island of St. Vincent. (From the Special Correspondent of The Call and the New York Herald. T. THOMAS, D. W. I, 13.—Great alarm continues to be telt regarding the fate of St. Vincent. Communication has been cut off since Sunday. At that time the Soufriere was in furlous eruption. Kingston, on the op- posite end of the island, was being bom- barded, stones and ashes falling in an un- ceasing shower. The northern part of St. Vincent had been utterly destroyed. fore Sunday morning the deaths num- bered 1600, and it is feared that this esti- mate is far too small. It is believed that 2000 have perished. Much excitement was caused here by a slight shock of earthquake, which was Be- ; Herald Publishing Company.) noon. many rushed out of their houses, but the tremors of the earth stopped before any actual damage was done. FORT DE FRANCE, May 12.—It is es- timated that the total number of deaths | on the island of St. Vincent from the vol- canic eruption reached two thousand. Most of the victims are said to be Carib Indians. The United States Government tug Po- tomac will leave here to-day for the isl- and of St. Vincent, where conditions are reported to be worse. 1L.a Soufriere on St. Vincent was in full eruption May 1. A stream of stones and mud half a mile Copyright, 1802, by the New York May‘ felt about half-past 4 o'clock this after- | wide was then issuing from the volcano. The public was greatly excited and | Stones two inches in diameter fell twelve miles away. At Kingston, the capital of the island, the ashes were two inches deep. Seven hundred dead were reported Sunday, May 1l. Most of the seven estates on the island have been burned to ashes, and it is authentically reported that two earthquakes occurred there. It is believed the submarine cables in St. Vincent have been broken by the disturb- ances. The present volcanic eruption om St. Vincent is the first since 1812, Governor Hunt of Porto Rico has asked Louis Ayme, the United States Consul at Guadeloupe, who is now here, what as- sistance he could render. Governor Hunt's offer has been communicated to' the Gov- ernment, which will aceept it