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Show T I Thirty Thousand Are Dead in Martinique e became Instantly alive wth activity. It was made ready for sea aa quickly as possible and started away at full speed up along the coast in the direction of St Pierre and the great. of smoke and fire. There were several boats that had arrived at Fort de Frame that same morning, and they, too, made instant preparations to return. Troops and provisions were hurried aboard of them, and they started away in the wake of the Suchet. They had not been gone over two hours when they returned, bringing back the tidings that St. Pierre was utterly destroyed and that the entire seashore from the suburb of Le Corbet as far as the Village of Le Precheur was on fire, and that it was Impossible to land at any point on account of the Intense iZDuttcwrs pol-um- CWWEILZ VNWLi j mem. & WROBEft n heat. &M,- or (Mount Polo NAP OF ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE. ak.nd town of St. Pierre, scene of recent volcanic aster, shown on northwest end of Island.) This Is the first authentic account of the fearful disaster on the island of Martinique. It was sent by cable to Paris from Fort de France: I visited Bt Pierre yesterday afternoon with the first party that has landed at the site of the destroyed city since Thursday morning's catastrophe. The streets and all the neighborhood around what a few days ago was the largest and most prosperous city in Martinique were found incumbered with heaps upon heaps of dead bodies li all directions. All the dead seen were stark naked, their clothing, apparently having burned from thelrt bodies like so much tinder, while they themselves were roasted to death. In the vast majority of instances 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 Instances the faces of the victims are quite calm, as though they were stricken down instantly where they stood, without a moment's warning or with hardly time to appreciate for an Instant the deadly peril they were in. Others have stamped on their faceB an expression pf indescribable terror. The entire city and the neighborhood all about reeks with a horrible odor of burned flesh. In one instance an entirely family of nine persons was found, nil tightly locked in each others arms, and the bodies in a horrible state of decomposition. Almost the lirst 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 tli,,m as rapidly as possible. The total number of dea l is now The disas estimated at fully ter itself took place within thirty and in that half minute the vast majority of all these people were killed. It is supposed, for there is nobody Iivlr.fr apparently to tell the exact facta, that there was suddenly shot down from lie mountain a great sheet of flame, uccompaniid ly a terrible and flashes of gaseous whirlwin-lightning, precisely such as are as playing about the summit of .a Suufriero. on the Island of St. Vincent. Wlmt liorrildt! revelations of tho havoc wrought to lmi.iau life which these grim mounds are yet to reveal Iii these two can hardly be of the i f the city not a traquarters lhuv cun be seen. streets that exi'-tThey are buried as completely out of sight as were those of Pompeii. Along the water front there are a few walls standing and the ruins of the custom house were found. Curiously enough, the face and hands of th clock on the hospital were not destroyed, and they furnish an Important record In the history of this terrible catastrophe. The hands of the clock lmd stopped at precisely ten minutes to 8. showing thut it was at that moment that the city was overwhelmed and all these thousands of people within It, und In Its uuvlrous, were destroyed. sec-end- l - 1 Along the shore the spectacle was appalling. It looked as though the whole of the northern part of the island was one mass of flame. The cruiser Suchet got back to Fort de France some time after the other boats which had followed in the effort to reach the scene of the dis&Bter. On board the Suchet were thirty survivors, who were picked up iu the St. Pierre Buburb of Le Corbet. All of them were frightfully burned and wounded, and nine of them died on board the cruiser before it reached this port. Every preparation has been made In the hospital at Fort de France to take care of as many wounded as possible. The work of rendering aid has been put on an organized basis, provisions have been requisitioned and the principal stores, banks, and even the bakeries, are guarded by soldiers. FORT OE FRENCH dis- The work of exploring the ruins for the treasure buried beneath them was going on at the same tfme with the incineration of the dead. The vaults of the bank of Martinique were opened and all the securities, notes and cash were found intact. They were all secured, and together with other treasure have been brought to Fort de THE WORLD'S GREATEST DISASTERS half-craze- ar-rivn- g here. Steamers also are going bark as rapidly as possible to the scene of the disaster, carrying with them proviThe 450 people brought here by the cable ship Pouyer Quertier were from the neighborhood of the village of Le Precheur. They were entirely without shelter when found, but none of them was burned. Every ship in the harbor at the time of the disaster, with the single exception of the English steamer Roddam, was burned with all on board lost, excepting one captain, who was saved. In relating his escape he Bays that the only way in which he managed to save his life was by repeatedly diving. He was an expert swimmer and was able to remain under water for a considerable length of time. He returned again and again to the surface, barely exposing his face for a moment or two to the terrific heat and thus getting enough breath for another long dive. Ever since the 23d of April last the volcano Mont Poleo, which finally wrought all tho havoc, lots been manifesting disquieting sjmptoms. A great column of smoke kept mounting from it. and there were from time to time showers of ashes and cinders falling. Finally, on the 5th of May. there was a terrific erupt ion, which hurled into the air vast volumes of mud, which completely swallowed up the Cnierin which stood near tho sugar River Blanch-'- . Tin; first that was known hero at Fort do France of the disaster was at S oclock in 11m morning of the 8th day of May. At that hour tlvue suddenly spread over the town of Fort de Franco a thick cloud ni smoke, cinders and afhes, which came from the direction i f it. Pierre. The cloud swept over tlic city with turning bright terrifying fw:.tn-.- g daylid.t into the darkness i f night, with itat.lly a lama.-at'warning. From thi- - cloud a rain of rocks poun d neon the town and threw tho entire population into the v. blest volcanic origin. In 1767 there was a great earthquake which cost the lives of more than 1,600 persons. That was the greatest disaster in the history of the island previous to this now reported. There was an earthquake in 1839 which destroyed nearly half of Port Royal, the present capital of the isThe land, and killed 700 persons. damage resulting from that shock extended all over the Island. Historys pages arc full ofdj&asters which have befallen the human race, but no calamity of its kind in recent years can even approximate the terrible loss of life which has made notable the destruction of St. Pierre on the island of Martinique. Of events which have shocked the world by the enormity of the destruction which followed in their wake, none but the battle of Gettysburg can approach the recent disaster for loss of life. Instances where whole towns and communities hare been wiped out are comparatively few, but all have been terrific in their consequences. St. Pierre has been no exception. Among the calamities which are most notable, the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the year 79 stands as the most ancient of which there is a complete account extant Strangely enough, the destruction of these cities is the nearest approach in history to the disaster which befell St. Pierre. The work of the Vesuvius on this occasion was as slow Herculaneum as it was roinpb'te. was literally swept from the earth by a stream of reopen lava, while Pompeii was su (b oated by t!i- cinders ami n lasted 'tor days ashes. The and covered tie; two ejii s to a depth of from eighteen to twenty feet, and so r!'angnd the topography of tin country that it was ceuMirios before topographers wen- able to locate the of life on tills lost cities. The b occasion was never known, but it must have reached tar int i ih.e thousands. Not until 1755 was tie- world again shocked by a cr.tast .vpim of similar proportions, atiuiiu.h lii- -i e were many throughout Italy. .'Icily, South Amcr- iea and tin- (bier.l where the loss of i .timute.l nt much highlife has er li.;uivs, wli'cii impossible of Tho great earthquake au.l lid'll ware of Lisbon in 1755 was g and doei.e of th most st active p'.eii:,iv!in of nature which has ci me down in history. It was a f ini day ia the city and all Im rimi was there. I.r.te in the afteniei c a ::aut wave rwopt over t lie dm l. ie,l city, and in eight minutes, when the wave had receded. It carried with it 5".'ini people into the sea. The survivors crowded tho htmie wharves along the water front, many only to be carried away by the tremendous swell which followed thu movement of the first gigantic mass or water. The disturbance reached the shores of Spain, Morocco, Madeira, and many other islands in the archipelago, carrywith it ing death ami destruction wherever it went. Tlu shook of tho earthquake was felt over a territory 5,000 miles long. 86,-00- e e In March. 1SVJ, the great storm In the harbor of Apia, Samoa, electrified the world with its appalling loss of life. The German gunboats 01ga,Eber and Adler, and the United States men-of-w- ar Nlpriic, Trenton and Vandalia went to pieces on the reefs, and fifteen merchant vessels either went to the bottom or stranded. One hundred and forty-twmen from the warships in the harbor were lost. Japan has proven Itself a veritable home of earthquakes, the latest gigantic loss of life occurring iu 1891, and resulted In a loss of 4.l).0 lives, 5,000 injured, aud 50,ihm) homes destroyed. The great Johnstown flood was the first of two great disasters in recent years which has come home to the people of the United States with crushing force. Cu May 29, 1889, by the bursting of the dam of the Conemaugh river, Johnstown and surrounding towns were Bwept out of existence, and a loss of life approximating 10,000 souls took place iu the twinkling of an o eye. The calamity which befell GalveBton on the 8th of September, 191)0, ranks with Johnstown as the most appalling within the memory of present generations. Beginning with a storm of moderate proportions, the Increasing wind rolled the waves higher and higher upon the beach, until, after a sudden shift of winds near nightfall, the island city was completely submerged, and great waves from the sea rolled over the town Bite. It was a night of the most terrible suffering and misery, In which nearly 50,000 souls in and near GalveBton expected every, moment to die. Between 8,000 and 10,000 people lost their lives in the Btorm, and millions of dollars worth of property was destroyed. The visitation of fire from neigh" boring volcanoes has wrought a destruction of life and property upon St. Pierre which is yet to be definitely determined, but promises to be one of the greatest In the world's history. The Islands off the China coast, and the Malay Hortas, being of volcanic origin, have been especially subject to earthquakes. It used to be said of the Philippines that shocks were constant there, and it is true that the needle In the seismograph in the Jesuit observatory In Manila is always writing. But there has been no extremely disastrous disturbances, and none serious since 1884, when the tower of the great cathedral was thrown down and many lives were lost. .l - fac-toi- panic. Tht Hava Slain Tbalr Ihouiand. This Is the third time the Island of Martinique has suffered disasters of France. As much help as possible has been sent to the surviving people In the vicinity of the city. Steamers loaded d with men, women and children from districts in the neighborhood of St. Pierre are constantly sions and clothing. and Battle Earthquake, flood About the beginning of the seventeenth century Central America was visited by an earthquake which killed 40,000 people, scattered over a wide territory. Naples at the same time began to feel a series of earthquake shocks which continued Intermittently foi seventy-fivyears and eventually amassed a total of 111,000 people slain. Not until the battle of Gettysburg was reached, however, has such a tremendous list of casualties occurred In such a limited space of time and territory as at St. Pierre. In the throe days' fighting before Gettysburg, In July, 1863, tho I'nion loss was 23,190, of whom 2,384 were killed and 13,713 wounded. The Confederate loss for the same engagement has never been officially stated, but was approximate-e- d 36,1)00, of whom 5,000 were killed and 23.000 wounded. By far the worst of recent seismic shocks, however, occurred in the region of the Malay archipelago iu 1883. It accompanied the explosive eruptions of the volcano Krakatoa, on the Island of the same name, in the strait of Sunda, between Java and Sumatra. The eruption, which began in May, continued for nearly four months. Nearly the entire Island was destroyed. The wonderful phenomena which followed this disturbance are still well remembered. The ashes and dust were thrown so high as to mark the upper air currents and be carried completely around the globe, producing a peculiar effect in the air, like a twilight glow, that continued for many months. The sound of the explosions of old Krakatoa was heard at a distance of 2,250 mlleB, and It was estimated that the air waves traveled four and a half 0 times around the earth. Between and 37,000 lives were lost, and 160 villages were destroyed. Two years liter the first earthquake Imin the United States of world-widportance occurred In Charleston. On the night of August 31 an earthquake shock was felt along the entire Atlantic coast of the United tSates, and several hundred miles into the interior especially in the southern states. Before morning It was known that Charleston had suffered an unusual visitation, and when the final news was known it was found that forty-onlives had been lost in the falling walls of the city t.nd property to the amount of $5,000,uu0 had been destroyed. - - 1 - I'c.-i- ' ! j i w.-.- veriiii-alioii- . - i -- The sea suddenly swept back In a great wave lor a distance of between fifty and sixty feet ami voscls fastened to the wharves were set crashing against each other with groat force. Twice the great wave swept in and out from the shore, and finally the waters settled down to their nor null level. As quickly as possible in tlic confusion the government authorities and tho mayor of the city, realizing what need them was. began to organize Honii! system for carrying to those known to bo In dire di: tress. The French cruiser Sir.'het, which happened to be lying in tho harbor, ln-l- BIONT lFI.EE IX THE DISTANCE. 0 |