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Show TERRIBLE RAIN OF ASHES Experience of Seckels Family Fam-ily Returning From Peru. FIFTEEN TONS ON VESSEL Well-Known Salt Lakers Felt Effects of IUcent Eruption of Quatamalan Volcano, Santa Maria Fall of Five Inches, Lasted Twelve Hours and Caused Passengers on Luxor Oreat Distress Ashes Lay Eight Inches Deep on Vessel's Deck When the Stotm Ceased .frf Twelve hours raining pumice stone as line as flour, pitch dai knees from 3 o clock in tho afternoon until dawn of the next daj, during which time the thermometer ranged fiom 100 to 110 degrees and It was necessary to wear a towel over the face In order to keep the ashes out of their throats und ejes such was the awful experience through which the ticckcls family of this city had to come on their leturn trip from Peru to San Prnnclsco. UHCIDHD ON PACiriC. Louis yeckles Is auditor of the Cerro de PaiHO Mining companj. In which A W McCunc Is one of the lirgest stock-holdeis. stock-holdeis. Two months ago .Mrs Heckles and her fou Ijouis J and daughter Alice started on a trip to the Cerro do Pasco mines In Peru to visit the head of the famllj The voyage from New York to Central America vvns pleasant enough, but ufter landing In Central America and dossing the isthmus of Panama so many vexatious delaya were experienced experi-enced on nreount of quirnntlnlng the veisel ut almost every port ns a precautionary pre-cautionary measure against jellow fever fe-ver that the Seckles made up their minds to return by the Pacific coast to San l'ranclsco i:.pi:ctkd HAIN. The Luxor was walling nt Pan Henlto on Octobr 2Sth for her cleirlng papers, which were for some reason or cither delajed The heat In the cabins was Insufferable, In-sufferable, nnd the Jided passengers were lounging on deck endeavoring to get a breath of fresh nil A dense black cloud which had for some tlmo been observed hanging over Ihe southwest distance had been gradually creeping up to the zenith, und the hearts of the hatf-suffocateel vojagers were gladdened glad-dened with the hope of a refreshing shower Hut the injetcrlous cloud kept creeping up and still llieie wis no precipitation pre-cipitation of the welcome rain Instead, the atmosphere seemed to grow more stifling ns the day wore on. ALMIMHD PASSIINOHRS. Preson'llj. when one of the officers came down from the bride, It was ob-served ob-served that his cap und shoulders were covered with n fine silt or powder. He looked as If he had been Btandlng out In one of those line, powdery snow storms Then It was noticed that the deck was covered with a very fine film of the sune powder. Tho phenomenon caused much speculation and wonderment wonder-ment nnioiig the passengers, who later learned (hit the ashes came from the Santa Maria volcano of Guatemala. It was not till fullv an hour later that some of tho passengers began to take utarm The scare, once started. In no lime assumed the dimensions pf u pin-li pin-li One elderly man came to Mrs Heckles and entreated her to go to the Captain and ask him to set sill. Hhe asked him why he did not go himself. lie replied that the Captain would not piy anj attention Ip such n request from one of the male passengers and he pleaded so hard that Mrs Heckles, although al-though ut Hint time not at all alarmed herself, yielded to his entreat j Hhe went down the companion nnd. knocking knock-ing at the door of the I'uptnln H cabin, preferred the request that he weigh an-chor an-chor and get away from the proximity of the erupting volcano, for by this time It was generally understood lhat tho rain of ashes was due to an nctlvo volcano tip to this time the pissen-gers pissen-gers had been moio entertained thnn cored at the fall of line powder on tho deck nf the steamer. They had been spreading newspapers nn the deck to gather the nshes, and had been bottling the deposit lo take home iim souvenirs of having been In the vicinity of n real volcano PllllHHADHn CAPTAIN TO SIL. The captain, u gruff and somewhat crustj old Herman while perfectly civil, gave Mrs beckels to nndeisiand that the anihur would pit he weighed till the messenger came off the shot j with tho clearing papers, which he believed be-lieved would bo about S o'clock. It wus then only 3, but It was almost ns dark as If night had fallen, nnd u starless and moonless night at that. Mis r-eckels had been followed to the captains cap-tains cihln bj twenty or thlrtj Hpin-Ish Hpin-Ish women, who thronged into the cabin und on their bended knees, with tears In their eyes, besought the captain to set sail and get out of Ihe dreadful Mclnllj to Iho volcuno before vvoise befell them At last tho captiln jleld-eil jleld-eil Id their Importunity, hut Instead of sailing up tho toast tn the northwest the ship steamed slowly out to the southeast, FALL 01' AHIIHS onKW HHAVIHlt To the consternation of the passengers passen-gers tho ruin of iishes Inn cased Instead of ilecie'ased as the vessel moved fui-ther fui-ther from the shore Hy this tlmo tho ship was covered by n pall of impenetrable impene-trable gloom The boat's UrIiIh tlueiv shadowH on clouds of whit looked like the llun diiftlng snow' nf un Ameilcnii blkzaid, but Instead of Iho freezing cold the volcanic bllzird was accoin-panled accoin-panled bj Iho most Intense and suffocating suffo-cating licit! unci to make matters worse It wis necessary lo rovei tho mouth with ii towel In older to uvold breathing lu dust a Nuiiir or liomioit 'Ihe most nhirmlng reports of enith-quakes enith-quakes as many as twenty light In one dij and devastating tidal waves began be-gan to be lanvassed uiiiong the thoi-oughly thoi-oughly ul ii inul passengtrs. 'the ship was only creeping along It wiia found neeessniy to take continual soundings, und Ihe foghorn was kept blowing nil night long It was ii night of horror No thought nf sleep entered the mini of any pissengei Pelee and all Its n cent horrors rose like n giunt binshee In tho minds of the lerrllled women There wns no way of telling whether it was night ot daj except hj rifeieu to watches anil clocks Thn Heckeles saj It wns (he longest twelve hours they ever oxperlenied In un ordinal j ralnstoim the ocean la ulwnjB n shade or two darker than tho sky In ihl rase the sky wns blacker thin the wa tcr a dense. Inky, Impenetrable Ida k ness At length wearied out vvllh fi ir and watching, tho passengers retired o their cabins FHTHIIN TONS OP AHIIHB The chief ollleer Infoimoil them next morning that i was a o'clock In the morning tefore the nwful pnll began in lift Just twelve hourB since the un iintninl night had set In on Ihe previous nftirnnnn It win discovered that tin ic had been a precipitin in of no less in in eight Inches on tint deck tf pu 1. 1 iishis ns line as Hour The captain is llinated that there were no less Hi in lift rn tons of ashes nn the ship It was found that the cloost made in ex cedent substitute for holystou m t rubbing thf decks, nnd twent ) n ki of it wer . ived for this pun r was ?sn".n ii,U"l '" '"" ,",m l" l'l was iso miles nt sea ., lao Newport, which arrived In ,,'an Tronclsco three dnjs after the Luxor, corroborated the tale brought hy the passengers of tho latter boat, having passed through el similar experience. The members of tho Seckels family are glad to be home In Halt Lake once more, and do not care for u repetition of the experience |
