McKinley assassi Pan-American Exhibition is held at Buffalo and an International Exhibition in Glasgow. Santos-Dumont's airship sails around the Eiffel Tower. Prince Chun goes to Germany to express regret for the murder of Baron von Ketteler. President McKinley is shot at the Pan-President American Exhibition in Buffalo on September nated. 6, and dies on September 14, when President Roosevelt takes the oath of office. The PanAmerican Congress is opened in the City of Mexico. The South Carolina and West Indian Exhibition is held in Charleston, S. C. Great Britain and the United States sign the Isthmian Canal treaty. In 1902, the Emperor and Empress Dowager of China re-enter Pekin. England and Japan form an alliance to preserve the integrity of China and Corea. An earthquake in Transcaucasia kills about 2,000 people. Prince Henry of Prussia visits the United States. China and Russia sign a convention at Peking, wherein Russia agrees to evacuate Manchuria. The first Congress of the Cuban Republic meets at Havana. An eruption of Mont La Soufrière, St. Vincent's, on May 7, destroys 2,000 persons, and on May 8 an eruption of Mont Pelée, Martinique, destroys St. Pierre and 30,000 inhabitants. T. Estrada Palma is inaugurated first President Palma first of Cuba; the Campanile at Venice falls. Mont of Cuba. Pelée is again in eruption (August 30-September 4), and more than 2,000 persons are killed. Lieutenant Peary travels to 84° 17 T. Estrada President northwest of Cape Hecla. Stanley Spencer, the English aeronaut, sails his airship 30 miles over London. The Canadian-Australian caCanadian- ble, of 3,455 miles, from Vancouver to Fanning Island, is completed. The Assouan pleted. Dam on the Nile is opened December 8. The Australian cable com Great Britain and Germany present an ultimatum to Venezuela, seize her fleet, and demolish a fort at Puerto Cabello. Venezuela appeals to the United States for arbitration.] THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE (A.D. 1902) ROBERT T. HILL "W" HAT has to-morrow in reserve for us? A flow of lava, a rain of pumice-stone, jets of asphyxiating gas; what submerging cataclysm, or will there be simply an inundation of mud? There is a great secret, and when it is known many Propheta men will be unable to bear it."-Editorial from La Colonie of May 7, 1902; the last paper published in St. Pierre. The editor of La Colonie wrote the foregoing portentous words two days before the great explosion, and they were probably the last copy hung upon the hook. They appeared in the columns of the last paper that was ever published in St. Pierre and were preserved through the energy of Father McGrail, the chaplain of the Dixie, who by scouring the shops of Fort de France, secured a file of the paper for a week prior to the catastrophe, which constitutes one of the most precious results of the expedition. For a week the editor had been filling his S sion. (2413) Vol. 5 |