The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Galveston Disaster, by Paul Lester

Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

RICHARD SPILLANE
EDITOR OF THE “GALVESTON TRIBUNE” AND ASSOCIATED PRESS CORRESPONDENT, WHO WAS CHOSEN BY THE MAYOR AND CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE TO SEIZE ANY VESSEL IN THE HARBOR AND CONVEY TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD THE NEWS OF THE GREAT DISASTER

THE GREAT
Galveston Disaster
CONTAINING A
Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times
INCLUDING
VIVID DESCRIPTIONS OF THE HURRICANE AND TERRIBLE RUSH OF WATERS; IMMENSE DESTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS, BUSINESS HOUSES, CHURCHES, AND LOSS OF THOUSANDS OF HUMAN LIVES
THRILLING TALES OF HEROIC DEEDS; PANIC-STRICKEN MULTITUDES AND HEART-RENDING SCENES OF AGONY; FRANTIC EFFORTS TO ESCAPE A HORRIBLE FATE; SEPARATION OF LOVED ONES, ETC., ETC.
Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death
TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF THE SURVIVORS; VANDALS PLUNDERING BODIES OF THE DEAD; WONDERFUL EXHIBITIONS OF POPULAR SYMPATHY; MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SENT FOR THE RELIEF OF THE STRICKEN SUFFERERS

BY PAUL LESTER

Author of “Life in the Southwest,” Etc., Etc.

With an Introduction by

RICHARD SPILLANE

Editor “Galveston Tribune” and Associated Press Correspondent

PROFUSELY EMBELLISHED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE DISASTER

ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1900, BY

HORACE C. FRY

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C.

PREFACE.

Thousands of men, women and children swept to sudden death. Millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. Scenes of suffering and desolation that beggar description. Heroic efforts to save human life. The world shocked by the appalling news. Such is the thrilling story of the Galveston flood, and in this volume it is told with wonderful power and effect.

There have been many disasters by storm and flood in modern times, but none to equal this. In the brief space of twelve hours more persons lost their lives than were killed during a year of the war between the British and the Boers or during a year and a half of our war in the Philippines.

The calamity came suddenly. Galveston was not aware of its impending fate. News of an approaching cyclone produced no alarm. Suddenly word was sent that the hurricane was bending from its usual course and might strike the city. Even then there was no sudden fear, no hurrying to escape, no thought of swift destruction. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the city waked up to the awful fact that it was to be engulfed by a tidal wave, and buried in the flood of waters.

The news of the overwhelming disaster came as a shock to people everywhere. Bulletin boards in all our cities were surrounded by eager crowds to obtain the latest reports. Many who had friends in the stricken city were kept in suspense respecting their fate. With bated breath was the terrible calamity talked about, and in every part of our country committees of relief were immediately formed. The magnitude of the disaster grew from day to-day. Every fresh report added to the intelligence already received, and it was made clear that a large part of the city of Galveston, with its inhabitants, had been swept out of existence.

This work furnishes a striking description of a great city of the dead. It depicts the terrible scenes that followed the calamity, the fate that overtook the victims, and the agony of the living. It tells of the heroic efforts of the survivors to save their homes and families, and recover from the terrible blow.

It tells of a thousand of the dead towed out and buried at sea and of many hundreds cremated on shore; of the vandals who rushed in to strip lifeless bodies, unterrified by the scenes of horror on every hand; of United States soldiers shooting the robbers on sight and putting an end to their horrible sacrilege.

The story of the appalling horror, the oncoming of the cyclone, the rising waters threatening the city, the inhabitants overtaken by the flood and cut off from escape, thousands hurried to death, chaos everywhere, recovery of bodies ravaged by thieves, all this is vividly told in this volume.

The work contains thrilling stories by eye-witnesses. In this volume the survivors speak for themselves. They tell of the sudden danger that paralyzed thousands and made them helpless against the onslaught of the tempest.

They tell of separation from those who were attempting to afford relief and how futile all efforts were against the fury of the waves. They tell how their homes and places of business, their hospitals, school-houses and churches were swept away as in a moment.

There were splendid examples of courage and heroism. The graphic description of the great disaster contained in this book thrills the reader. Amidst the alarm, the threatening death, the overwhelming flood, he sees how nobly men struggled to save their families and their fortunes. He seems to ride on the crest of the waves and witness with his own eyes the terrible tragedy.

Our Government at Washington was quick to come to the rescue. It ordered tents to be provided and issued rations by the tens of thousands for the survivors. The chords of sympathy which make all men akin vibrated through every part of the civilized world.

Thousands of helping hands were stretched out toward Galveston. Millions of dollars were given for the relief of the sufferers. This volume is a complete and authentic account of the great calamity told by the survivors.

Introduction

BY RICHARD SPILLANE.

[RICHARD SPILLANE, editor of the “Galveston Tribune,” was chosen by the Mayor and Citizens’ Committee to seize any vessel in the harbor and make his way as best he could to such point as he could reach, so as to get in touch with the outside world, tell the story of the tragedy and appeal to mankind for help. He crossed the bay during a squall, the little boat in which he sailed being in imminent danger of swamping, having been stove in during the hurricane. He reached Texas City after a perilous trip, then made his way over the flooded prairie to Lamarque, where he found a rail road hand-car. With this hand-car he managed to reach League City, where he met a train coming from Houston to learn what fate had befallen Galveston. On this train he reached Houston, where after sending messages to President McKinley and Governor Sayers, he gave the news in detail to the newspapers of the nation.]

In the world’s great tragedies, that of Galveston stands remarkable. In no other case in history was a disaster met with such courage and fortitude; in no other case in history were the people of the whole world so responsive to the call for help for the helpless.

There prevails a belief that Galveston is subject to severe storms. That is a mistake. There have been heavy blows, and there have been times when the waters of the bay and the Gulf met in the city’s streets, but the storm of September 8, 1900, is without parallel. The best proof of this statement is furnished by the old Spanish charts of three hundred years ago. They contain as landmarks of Galveston Island the sign of three great trees—oaks—that stood three hundred years ago in what is known as Lafitte’s grove, twelve miles down Galveston Island from the city. These oaks withstood the storms of three centuries. They were felled by the fury of the storm of September 8.

The storm of September 8th did not, as has been supposed, come upon the city without warning. The same storm, less ferocious perhaps, had swept along the South Atlantic coast several days before. It had its origin in that breeding place of hurricanes, the West Indies, and, after swirling along the Florida and Carolina shores, doubled on its tracks, entered the Gulf, came racing westward and developing greater strength with each hour, and centered all its energies upon the Texas coast near Galveston.

On September 7th there was official warning of the approach of a severe storm, but no one expected such a tempest as was destined to devastate the city. Such warning as was given was rather addressed to mariners about to go to sea than to those living on shore.

Simultaneously with the approach of the hurricane was a great wind from the north, known locally as a “Norther.” This developed at Galveston about 2 A. M., on September 8th. The approaching hurricane from the east and southeast had been driving a great wall of water toward the shore at Galveston. The tremendous wind storm from the north acted as a counter force or check to the hurricane element.

The north wind blew the water from Galveston Bay on the one side of the city and the storm in the Gulf hurled its battalions of waves upon the beach side of the city.

Early in the day the battle between these two contending forces offered a magnificent spectacle to a student of scenery of nature. As long as the north wind held strong the city was safe. While the winds dashed great volumes of water over the wharves and flooded some streets in the business portion of the city and the waters of the Gulf on the other side of the city encroached upon the streets near the beach there was no particular fear of serious consequences, but about noon the barometer, which had been very low, suddenly began to drop at a rate that presaged a storm of tremendous violence.

Following this came the warning that the wind would, before many hours, change from the north to the southeast and to the fury of the wall of water being driven upon Galveston by the approaching hurricane would be added all the tremendous force of the wind that had previously acted as a partial check to the Gulf storm.

To those who previously had no fear, the certainty that the wind would change came as the first real note of warning. With the first shifting of the wind the waters of the Gulf swept over the city. Houses near the beach began to crumble and collapse, their timbers being picked up by the wind and waves and thrown in a long line of battering rams against the structures. Men, women and children fled from their homes and sought safety in higher portions of the city, or in buildings more strongly built. Some were taken out in boats, some in wagons, some waded through the waters, but the flood rose so rapidly that the approach of night found many hundreds battling in the waters, unable to reach places of safety. The air was full of missiles.

The wind tore slates from roofs and carried them along like wafers. A person struck by one of these, driven with the fearful violence of the storm, was certain to be maimed, if not killed outright. The waves, with each succeeding sweep of the in-rushing tide, brought a greater volume of wreckage as house after house toppled and fell into the waters. So tremendous was the roar of the storm that all other sounds were dwarfed and drowned. During the eight hours from 4 P. M. until midnight, the hurricane raged with a fury greater than words can describe. What height the winds reached will never be known. The wind gauge at the weather bureau recorded an average of 84 miles an hour for five consecutive minutes, and then the instruments were carried away. That was before the storm had become really serious. The belief, as expressed by the observer, that the wind averaged between 110 and 120 miles an hour, is as good information as is obtainable.

Nothing so exemplified the impotency of man as the storm. Massive buildings were crushed like egg shells, great timbers were carried through the air as though they were of no weight, and the winds and the waves swept everything before them until their appetite for destruction was satiated and their force spent.

A remarkable feature about the storm is the disparity in the depth of water in different portions of the city, and the undoubted fact that the waters subsided on the north side of the city hours before they did on the south side.

These peculiarities are explained by the topography of the island. Broadway, which marks the center, or middle of the city, proper, is on the ridge, from which the land slopes on one side, toward the bay and on the other, toward the Gulf. The waters from the Gulf passed over this ridge and swept on toward the bay during the most furious stages of the storm, but the full energies of wind and water were directed upon that portion of the city between the Gulf and the Broadway Ridge. Of the lives lost in the city, 90 per cent. were in the district named.

How many lives were sacrificed to the Storm King will never be known. The census taken in June showed that Galveston had a population of 38,000. Outside the city limits on Galveston Island there were 1,600 persons living. The dead in the city exceeded 5000. Of the 1600 living outside the city limits, 1200 were lost. This frightful mortality—75 per cent.—outside the city is explained by the fact that most of the people there lived in frail structures and had no places of comparative safety to take refuge in. In the mainland district swept by the storm, at least 100 persons perished. It is safe, therefore, to state that at least 7000 lives were lost.

Of the property damage no estimate can be considered accurate. The estimates range from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.

Of marvelous escapes from death, of acts of supreme heroism, of devotion and courage beyond parallel, the storm developed many instances. In some cases whole families were blotted out, in others the strong perished and the weak survived. Of the various branches of one family, 42 were killed, while in one household 13 out of a total of 15 were lost.

Such a scene of desolation as met the eyes of the people of Galveston when day dawned Sunday, September 9, has rarely been witnessed on earth. Fifteen hundred acres of the city had been swept clear of every habitation. Every street was choked with ruins, while the sea, not content with tearing away a great strip along the beach front, had piled the wreckage in one great long mass from city end to city end. Beneath these masses of broken buildings, in the streets, in the yards, in fence corners, in cisterns, in the bay, far out across the waters on the mainland shores, everywhere, in fact, were corpses. Galveston was a veritable charnel-house. To bury the dead was a physical impossibility. Added to the horror of so many corpses was the presence of carcasses of thousands of horses, cattle, dogs and other domestic animals.

To a people upon whom such a terrible calamity had been visited, now devolved a duty the like of which a civilized people had never been called to perform. To protect the living the dead had to be gotten rid of with all speed, for with corpses on every side, with carcasses by the thousands, and with a severe tropic sun to hasten decomposition, pestilence in its most terrible form threatened the living if the dead were not removed.

The tumbrels that rumbled over Paris streets with the gruesome burdens that came from Robespierre’s abattoir had little work compared with the carts and wagons of Galveston in the days that followed the awful storm. It was at first determined to bury the dead at sea, but the procession of the dead seemed neverending, and the cargoes that were taken to the deep and cast upon the waters came back with the tides and littered the shores. Then it was decided to burn the dead.

Ye who know not the horror of those days, who took no part in the saddest spectacle that man ever witnessed, may well shed tears of sympathy for those whose human tenement blazed on the funeral pyre in street or avenue, or whose requiem was sung by the waves that had brought death—but shed tears, too, for the brave men who faced this most gruesome duty with a Spartan courage the world has never known before.

The dead past has buried its dead.

For a week Galveston was under martial law. There was no disorder. There was some robbing of the dead by ghouls. This was checked by a punishment swift and sure.

The city rose from its ruins as if by magic. Street after street was cleared of debris. A small army of men worked from early morn until the shadows of night descended, to lift the city from its burden of wreckage. Then, when danger of epidemic seemed passed, attention was turned to commerce. The bay was strewn with stranded vessels. Monster ocean steamers weighing thousands of tons had been picked up like toys, driven across the lowlands, and thrown far from their moorings. One big steamship was hurled through three bridges, another, weighing 4,000 tons, was carried twenty-two miles from deep water, and dashed against a bayou bluff in another county.

The great wharves and warehouses along the bay front were a mass of splintered, broken timbers.

But the mighty energy of man worked wonders. Marvelous to say, under such conditions, a bridge 2⅛ miles long was built across the bay within seven days and Galveston, which had been cut off from the world, was once more in active touch with all the marts of trade and commerce. An undaunted people strove as only an indomitable people can strive, to rehabilitate the city.

The signs of the cripple are still upon the city, but every hour brings nearer the day when the crutches will be thrown away and Galveston, which by nature and by man was chosen as the entrepot for the great West, will rise to a loftier destiny and a more enduring commercial prosperity than seemed possible before she was tried in the crucible of disaster. Longfellow says:

Our lot is the common lot of all,

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

The dark and dreary days were crowded into Galveston’s life with horror unspeakable. It is an inexorable law of nature that after the storm comes the radiance of a glorious sunshine.

CONTENTS.

HOTEL GRAND AND ITS ENVIRONS—GALVESTON

BRINGING THE INJURED TO THE HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT

CHAPTER I.
First News of the Great Calamity—Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by Winds and Waves. Thousands Swept to Instant Death.

The first news of the appalling calamity that fell like a thunderbolt on Galveston came in the following despatch from the Governor of Texas:

“Information has just reached me that about 3000 lives have been lost in Galveston, with enormous destruction of property. No information from other points.

“JOSEPH D. SAYRES, Governor.”

This despatch was dated at Austin, Texas, September 9th. Further intelligence was awaited with great anxiety in all parts of the country. The worst was feared, and all the fears were more than realized. Later intelligence showed that the West Indian storm which reached the Gulf coast on the morning of September 8th, wrought awful havoc in Texas. Reports were conflicting, but it was known that an appalling disaster had befallen the city of Galveston, where, it was reported, a thousand or more lives had been blotted out and a tremendous property damage incurred. Meagre reports from Sabine Pass and Port Arthur also indicated a heavy loss of life.

Among those who brought tidings from the stricken city of Galveston was James C. Timmins, who resides in Houston, and who is the General Superintendent of the National Compress Company. After Mr. Spillane he was one of the first to reach Houston with news of the great disaster which had befallen that city, and after all he reported it was evident that the magnitude of the disaster remained to be told.

After remaining through the hurricane on Saturday, the 8th, he departed from Galveston on a schooner and came across the bay to Morgan’s Point, where he caught a train for Houston. The hurricane, Mr. Timmins said, was the worst ever known.

The estimate made by citizens of Galveston was that four thousand houses, most of them residences, were destroyed, and that at least one thousand people had been drowned, killed or were missing. Business houses were also destroyed. These estimates, it was learned afterward, were far below the actual facts.

The city, Mr. Timmins averred, was a complete wreck, so far as he could see from the water front and from the Tremont Hotel. Water was blown over the island by the hurricane, the wind blowing at the rate of eighty miles an hour straight from the Gulf and forcing the sea water before it in big waves. The gale was a steady one, the heart of it striking the city about 5 o’clock in the evening and continuing without intermission until midnight, when it abated somewhat, although it continued to blow all night.

WORST HURRICANE EVER KNOWN.

The water extended across the island. Mr. Timmins said it was three feet deep in the rotunda of the Tremont Hotel, and was six feet deep in Market street. Along the water front the damage was very great. The roofs had been blown from all the elevators, and the sheds along the wharves were either wrecked or had lost their sides and were of no protection to the contents.

Most of the small sailing craft were wrecked, and were either piled up on the wharves or floating bottom side up in the bay. There was a small steamship ashore three miles north of Pelican Island, but Mr. Timmins could not distinguish her name. She was flying a British flag. Another big vessel had been driven ashore at Virginia Point, and still another was aground at Texas City. At the south point of Houston Island an unknown ship lay in a helpless condition.

The lightship that marks Galveston bar was hard and fast aground at Bolivar Point. Mr. Timmins and the men with him on the schooner rescued two sailors from the Middle Bay who had been many hours in the water. These men were foreigners, and he could gain no information from them.

A wreck of a vessel which looked like a large steam tug was observed just before the party landed. In the bay the carcasses of nearly two hundred horses and mules were seen, but no human body was visible.

The scenes during the storm could not be described. Women and children were crowded into the Tremont Hotel, where he was seeking shelter, and all night these unfortunates were bemoaning their losses of kindred and fortune. They were grouped about the stairways and in the galleries and rooms of the hotel. What was occurring in other parts of the city could only be conjectured.

The city of Galveston was now entirely submerged and cut off from communication. The boats were gone, the railroads could not be operated, and the water was so high people could not walk out by way of the bridge across the bay, even were the bridge standing.

Provisions were badly needed, as a great majority of the people lost all they had. The water works’ power house was wrecked, and a water famine was threatened, as the cisterns were all ruined by the overflow of salt water. This was regarded as the most serious problem to be faced. The city was in darkness, the electric plant having been ruined.

BODIES FLOATING IN THE BAY.

There was no way of estimating the property damage. The east end portion of the city, which was the residence district was practically wiped out of existence. On the west end, which faces the gulf on another portion of the island, much havoc was done. The beach was swept clean, the bath-houses were destroyed, and many of the residences were total wrecks.

Among the passengers who arrived at Houston on a relief train from Galveston was Ben Dew, an attache of the Southern Pacific. Dew had been at Virginia Point for several hours, and said that he saw 100 to 150 dead bodies floating out on the beach at that place.

Conductor Powers reported that twenty-five corpses had been recovered by the life-saving crew, many of them women; that the crew had reported that many bodies were floating, and that they were using every endeavor to get them all out of the water. The water swept across the island, and it is presumed that most of these were Galveston people, though none of them had been identified.

LOST WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.

One of the refugees who came in on the relief train and who had a sad experience was S. W. Clinton, an engineer at the fertilizing plant at the Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton’s family consisted of his wife and six children. When his house was washed away he managed to get two of his little boys safely to a raft, and with them he drifted helplessly about. His raft collided with wreckage of every description and was split in two, and he was forced to witness the drowning of his sons, being unable to help them in any way. Mr. Clinton says parts of the city were seething masses of water.

From an eye-witness of the vast devastation we are able to give the following graphic account:

“The storm that raged along the coast of Texas was the most disastrous that has ever visited this section. The wires are down, and there is no way of finding out just what has happened, but enough is known to make it certain that there has been great loss of life and destruction of property all along the coast and for a hundred miles inland. Every town that is reached reports one or more dead, and the property damage is so great that there is no way of computing it accurately.

“Galveston remains isolated. The Houston Post and the Associated Press made efforts to get special trains and tugs to-day with which to reach the island city. The railroad companies declined to risk their locomotives.

“It is known that the railroad bridges across the bay at Galveston are either wrecked or are likely to be destroyed with the weight of a train on them; the approaches to the wagon bridge are gone and it is rendered useless. The bridge of the Galveston, Houston and Northern Railroad is standing, but the drawbridges over Clear creek and at Edgewater are gone, and the road cannot get trains through to utilize the bridge across the bay.

“Sabine Pass has not been heard from to-day (September 9th). The last news was received from there yesterday morning, and at that time the water was surrounding the old town at the pass, and the wind was rising and the waves coming high. From the new town, which is some distance back, the water had reached the depot and was running through the streets. The people were leaving for the high country, known as the Black Ridge, and it is believed that all escaped. Two bodies have been brought in from Seabrooke, on Galveston Bay, and seventeen persons are missing there.

“In Houston the property damage is great, a conservative estimate placing it at $250,000. The Merchants’ and Planters’ Oil Mill was wrecked, entailing a loss of $40,000. The Dickson Car Wheel Works suffered to the extent of $16,000. The big Masonic Temple, which is the property of the Grand Lodge of the State, was partly wrecked. Nearly every church in the city was damaged. The First Baptist, Southern Methodist and Trinity Methodist, the latter a negro church, will have to be rebuilt before they can be used again. Many business houses were unroofed.

MANY TOWNS DEMOLISHED.

“The residence portion of the town presents a dilapidated appearance, but the damage in this part of the city has not been so great as in some others. The streets are almost impassable because of the litter of shade trees, fences, telephone wires and poles. Much damage was done to window glass and furniture. Many narrow escapes are recorded.

“Another train has left here for Galveston, making the third to-day. The two preceding ones have not been heard from, as all wires are prostrated.

“Meagre reports are arriving here from the country between Houston and Galveston, along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad. The tornado was the most destructive in the history of the State.

“The town of Alvin was practically demolished. Hitchcock suffered severely from the storm, while the little town of Alta Loma is reported without a house standing. The town of Pearl has lost one-half of its buildings.

“L. B. Carlton, the president of the Business League of Alvin, and a prominent merchant there, reports that not a building is left standing in the town, either residence or business. Stocks of goods and house furniture are ruined, and crops are a total loss. Alvin is a town of about 1200 inhabitants.

SANTA FE TRAIN BLOWN FROM THE TRACK.

“The Santa Fe train which left here at 7.55 Saturday night, the 8th, was wrecked at a point about two miles north of Alvin. The train was running slowly when it encountered the heavy storm. It is reported that the train was literally lifted from the track.”

A thrilling story was told by two men who floated across from Galveston to the mainland. It came in the form of a telegram received at Dallas from Houston:

“Relief train just returned. They could not get closer than six miles of Virginia Point, where the prairie was covered with lumber, debris, pianos, trunks, and dead bodies. Two hundred corpses were counted from the train. A large steamer is stranded two miles this side of Virginia Point, as though thrown up by a tidal wave. Nothing can be seen of Galveston.

“Two men were picked up who floated across to the mainland, who say they estimate the loss of life up to the time they left at 2000.”

The above message was addressed to Superintendent Felton, Dallas, and comes from Mr. Vaughn, manager of the Western Union office at Houston. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas north bound “flyer” was reported wrecked near Sayers.

The office of the Western Union Telegraph Company at St. Louis was besieged with thousands of inquiries as to the extent and result of the terrible storm that cut off Galveston from communication with the rest of the world. Rumors of the most direful nature come from that part of Texas, some of them even intimating that Galveston had been entirely wrecked and that the bay was covered with the dead bodies of its residents. Nothing definite, however, could be learned, as the Gulf city was entirely isolated, not even railroad trains being able to reach it. All the telegraph wires to Galveston were gone south of Houston, and to accentuate the serious condition of affairs the cable lines between Galveston and Tampico and Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, were severed; at least no communication over them was possible.

The Western Union had a large number of telegraph operators and linemen waiting at Houston to go to Galveston, but it was impossible to get them there. San Antonio was being reached by El Paso, in the extreme southwestern portion of the State, a procedure made necessary by the prevailing storm.

WATER BLOWN COMPLETELY OVER THE CITY.

Mr. Joyce, another refugee from Galveston, made the following statement:

“The wind was blowing Saturday afternoon and night at about seventy-five miles an hour, blowing the water in the Gulf and completely covering the city. The people of Galveston did not think it was much at first and kept within their homes, consequently when the wind began blowing as it did and the water dashed against the houses, completely demolishing them, many lives were lost. I have no idea how many were killed, but think there will be several thousand deaths reported, besides many people whom we will know nothing about.

“I was in the storm which struck Galveston in 1875, but that one, bad as it was, was nothing in comparison with Saturday’s.”

The following account of Galveston will be of interest to readers in connection with the great disaster that has ruined that once prosperous and thriving city.

Galveston is situated on an island extending east and west for twenty seven miles, and is seven miles in its greatest width north and south. No city could be in greater danger from such a horrible visitation as has now come to Galveston. In no part of the city, with its former 38,000 population, is it more than six feet above the sea level.

The flat condition not only points to the desperate situation of the people at such a time as this, but their danger may be considered emphasized when it is known that exactly where the city is built the island is only one and one-quarter miles wide.

On the bay, or north side of the city, is the commercial section, with wharves stretching along for nearly two miles, lined with sheds and large storage houses. Then, in that portion of Galveston, there are three elevators, one of 1,500,000 bushels capacity, one of 1,000,000 and the third of 750,000.

A BRIDGE TWO MILES LONG.

The island from the north side is connected with the mainland by railroad bridges and the longest wagon bridge in the world, the latter nearly two miles in length. In 1872 the entire east end of the city was swept away by the tidal wave that followed a terrific storm that swept the Gulf coast for three days. Then the eastern land, on which buildings stood, was literally torn away. The work of replacing it has since been going on, and Fort Point, that guards the entrance to the harbor, has since been built, and on its parapets are mounted some of the heaviest coast defense ordnance used by the government. By the force of the storm of 1872 six entire blocks of the city were swept away.

It is on the south side of the city, beginning within fifty yards of the medium Gulf tide, that the wealthy residence portion of the city is located, and which was the first part of Galveston to be stricken by the full force of the storm and flood. All of the eastern end of the city was washed away, and in this quarter, between Broadway and I street, some of the handsomest and most expensive residence establishments are located. There was located there one home, which alone cost the owner over $1,000,000. Most of the residences are of frame, but there are many of stone and brick. In the extreme eastern end of the city there are many of what we call raised cottages. They are built on piling, and stand from eight to ten feet from the ground as a precaution against floods, it being possible for the water to sweep under them.

Any protection that has ever been provided for the Gulf side of the city has been two stone breakwaters, but many times, with ordinary storms coming in from the Gulf, the high tidewater has been hurled over the low stone walls right to the very doors of the residences. From Virginia Point, six miles from Galveston, in ordinary conditions of the atmosphere, the city can be plainly seen. If it is true that Galveston cannot be now seen from the Point, then the conditions of the people in the city must be indescribably horrible. In short, a large part of the city is obliterated and has disappeared.

VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY INVESTED.

Many millions of dollars are invested in the wholesale and retail business of the city. On Strand street alone there are ten blocks of business establishments that represent an invested capital of $127,000,000. Market street is the heavy retail street, and there, in the heart of the flooded district, the losses cannot but reach away into the millions. The fact, as indicated by the despatches, that water is standing six feet deep in the Tremont Hotel, furnishes startling evidence to me that Galveston has been, indeed, dreadfully visited. The hotel is in almost exactly the centre of the city. Two years ago Galveston did the heaviest shipping business in cotton and grain of any Southern city. When I was at home two shiploads of cattle were leaving the port on an average every week.

Dr. H. C. Frankenfeld, forecast official of the Weather Bureau, gave an account of the West India hurricane that travelled through Texas. The first sign of the storm was noticed August 30 near the Windward Islands, about latitude 15 degrees north, longitude 63 degrees west. On the morning of August 31 it was still in the same latitude, but had moved westward to about longitude 67 degrees, or about 200 miles south of the island of Porto Rico. At that time, however, it had not assumed a very definite storm formation. It was central in the Caribbean Sea on the morning of September 1st, evidently about two hundred miles south of Santo Domingo City.

It had reached a point somewhere to the southwest, and not very far from Jamaica, by September 2d. The morning of September 3d found it about 175 miles south of the middle of Cuba. It had moved northwestward to latitude 21 degrees and longitude 81 degrees by September 4th. Up to this time the storm had not developed any destructive force but had caused heavy rains, particularly at Santiago, Cuba, where 12.58 inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours.

OMINOUS PROGRESS OF THE STORM.

On the morning of the fifth, the storm centre had passed over Cuba and had become central between Havana and Key West. High winds occurred over Cuba during the night of the fourth. By the morning of the sixth the storm centre was a short distance northwest of Key West, Fla., and the high winds had commenced over Southern Florida, forty-eight miles an hour from the east being reported from Jupiter, and forty miles from the N. E. from Key West. At this time it became a question as to whether the storm would recurve and pass up along the Atlantic coast, a most natural presumption judging from the barometric conditions over the eastern portion of the United States, or whether it would continue northwesterly over the Gulf of Mexico.

Advisory messages were sent as early as September 1st to Key West and the Bahama Islands, giving warning of the approach of the storm and advising caution to all shipping. The warnings were supplemented by others on the second, third, and fourth, giving more detailed information, and were gradually extended along the Gulf coast as far as Galveston and the Atlantic coast to Norfolk.

On the afternoon of the fourth the first storm warnings were issued to all ports in Florida from Cedar Keys to Jupiter. On the fifth they were extended to Hatteras, and advisory messages issued along the coast as far as Boston. Hurricane warnings were also ordered displayed on the night of the fifth from Cedar Keys to Savannah. On the fifth storm warnings were also ordered displayed on the Gulf coast from Pensacola, Fla., to Port Eads, La. During the sixth barometric conditions over the eastern portion of the United States so far changed as to prevent the movement of the storm along the Atlantic coast, and it therefore continued northwest over the Gulf of Mexico.

On the morning of the seventh it was apparently central south of the Louisiana coast, about longitude 28, latitude 89. At this time storm signals were ordered up on the North Texas coast, and during the day were extended along the entire coast. On the morning of the eighth the storm was nearing the Texas coast, and was apparently central at about latitude 28, longitude 94. The last report received from Galveston, dated 3.40 P. M., September 8, showed a barometric pressure of 29.22 inches, with a wind of forty-two miles an hour, northeast, indicating that the centre of the storm was quite close to that city.

ALWAYS IN DANGER DURING A HURRICANE.

At this time the heavy sea from the southeast was constantly rising and already covered the streets of about half the city. Up to Sunday morning no reports were received from southern Texas, but the barometer at Fort Worth gave some indications that the storm was passing into the southern portion of the State. An observation taken at San Antonio at 11 o’clock, but not received until half-past five, indicated that the centre of the storm had passed a short distance east of the place, and had then turned in the northward.

Situated as Galveston is, with much of the shore but a few feet above the mean high water, there is so scant a margin of safety that, as was the case on the South Carolina Sea Islands on August 27, 1893, and among the bayous of Louisiana in October of the same year, any abnormal tide means death and destruction. Sabine Pass is a mere sand spit, and Galveston Island itself is but a few feet above the ocean level at the best, and is but three feet above high tide in many places. As the great storm wave raised by the cyclonic winds of the average hurricane may easily have a crest of from eight to nine feet, for a city such as Galveston this would be most ominous.

Such a fate as an inundation during the prevalence of a hurricane has been forecast for the island city, whose population according to the new census is 37,789, many of whom live under conditions that invite loss of life in case of a tidal overflow. And yet, though such a disaster has been foreseen and forecast, the inertia of one’s adherence to normal life and duties is such that even in the face of specific warning it is not likely any number would flee to the mainland. On September 8th, for instance, the Weather Bureau, which had not lost track of the storm, very correctly pointed out that the hurricane was moving northwestward slowly, towards the Texas coast, Port Eads, La., giving a wind velocity of fifty-six miles an hour. Storm warnings were ordered for the eastern Texas and middle Gulf region, and high winds were specifically forecast for the coast of eastern Texas. More the Bureau could not do, but it looks as if its warnings were in vain.

THE FATEFUL WINDS GATHERING FORCE.

Unfortunately for Galveston, the slow movement of the hurricane was an additional menace, since this meant the longer pounding of the vertical winds of high velocities. As most readers know, the hurricane is a storm which has two entirely distinct motions. It is a great cyclonic whirl in which the winds blow into and about the centre at great velocities, while its motion along its track may be comparatively slow.

In the present case it took the hurricane four days to cross the Gulf from Key West to Galveston, which was at a rate of about twelve and one-half miles an hour. Its rotary winds, however, even a hundred miles from the centre on Friday, were raging at a rate of over fifty miles, and as the vortex passed directly and slowly over Galveston, the buffeting of the winds beginning on Friday evening and continuing far into Saturday, must have been terrific. Moreover, as the whole of Galveston is built up of frame houses without cellars on uncertain foundations, the evil possibilities must be obvious.

CHAPTER II.
The Tale of Destruction Grows—A Night of Horrors—Sufferings of the Survivors—Relief Measures by the National Government.

The following graphic account of the terrible disaster is from the pen of an eye-witness, written within twenty-four hours after the city was struck by the hurricane: “No direct wire communication has been established between Dallas and Galveston, and such a connection is not likely to be established earlier than to-morrow. The gulf coast, back for a distance of approximately twenty miles, is one vast marsh, and in many places the water is from three to ten feet deep, making progress toward the stricken city slow and unremunerative in the matter of direct news.

“Although Dallas is 300 miles from Galveston, all efforts for direct communication centre here, as it is the headquarters of the telegraph and telephone systems of the State. Hundreds of linemen were hurried to the front on Saturday night and Sunday morning from this city to try to put wire affairs in workable order.

WIND STORM OF GIANT FORCE.

“Less than half a dozen out of approximately half a hundred wires between Dallas and Houston have thus far been gotten into operation. This is because the wind storm extended inland with terrific force for a distance of 100 miles, and destroyed telegraphic, telephonic and railroad connections to such an extent as nearly to paralyze these channels of communication. With the best of weather conditions, it will require several weeks to restore these systems to anything like their normal state.

“Nothing like definite and tangible information is likely to be received from Galveston earlier than Wednesday or Thursday. All reliable information that has been received up to this hour comes from the advance guard of the relief forces and the linemen sent out by the railroad, telegraph and telephone companies.

“None of these reports place the number of dead at Galveston at less than 2000; some of them predict that 5000 will be nearer the mark. No one places the property loss at Galveston at less $10,000,000, while Manager Vaughn, of the Western Union office at Houston, wires Manager Baker at Dallas: ‘Galveston as a business place is practically destroyed.’ When the waters shall have receded it is feared Manager Vaughn will be found to be a wise prophet. Along the coast for 100 miles either way from Galveston is a district that is nearly as completely isolated as is Galveston itself. In this territory are not less than 100 cities, villages and hamlets. Each of these as far as heard from reports from two to twenty dead persons.

OVER SEVEN HUNDRED CORPSES FOUND.

“In a radius of approximately twenty miles from Virginia Point, the centre of railroad relief operations, up to late this afternoon more than 700 corpses had been washed ashore or picked up from the main land. Hitchcock, Clear Creek, Texas City, Virginia Point, Seabrook, Alvin, Dickinson and half a dozen other points midway between Houston and Galveston compose one vast morgue.

“Down along the coast toward Corpus Christi and Rockport all is silence. Not a word had come from there up to this evening. The first news from that section is likely to come from San Antonio, as that is the most directly connected point with that section of the Gulf. An awful calamity, it is feared, will be chronicled when the report does come.

“Telegraphic communication was opened late this afternoon with Beaumont and Orange on the other extreme end of the Gulf to the eastward of Galveston. The joyful news was contained that those two towns and Port Arthur were safe, but in the territory adjacent, forty miles wide and 100 miles long, many lives are believed to have been lost and immense property damage sustained.

“Conservative estimates of the property losses, including commercial and other material interests at Galveston and Houston, put the total at from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 for the State. This includes the damage to cotton, which is placed at 250,000 bales. John Clay, one of the foremost men in the cotton trade at Dallas, addressed wire inquiries to all accessible points in the cotton growing districts of Texas concerning crop losses. He states they will reach ten per cent. of the State’s crop. Spot cotton sold at ten cents per pound on the market, an advance of half a cent a pound over Saturday’s best figures.

RELIEF WORK STARTED.

“Relief work for the Galveston sufferers started in Dallas vigorously on receipt of an appeal from Governor Sayers. The City Council appropriated $500. A mass meeting of citizens appointed soliciting committees, as did also the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. Fully $10,000 in cash had been subscribed by night.

“A special train was started for Houston over the Houston and Texas Central Railroad carrying committees of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and citizens to render aid and distribute relief in the storm districts. At the request of many persons in Dallas a telegram was sent to Governor Sayers by J. C. McNealus, Secretary of the Dallas County Democratic Executive Committee, asking the Governor his idea as to calling an extra session of the Legislature. Governor Sayers this evening replied as follows:

“‘Telegram received. I will do nothing until I can hear directly and authoritatively from Galveston except to call upon the people to render assistance.’

“As there is approximately a surplus of $2,000,000 cash in the State Treasury, it is reasoned that the citizens of Texas would endorse the Governor’s action should he conclude to call a special session to furnish public relief to the stricken sections of the State.

“A bulletin received at the Houston and Texas Central headquarters from the headquarters of the company in Houston stated that a courier from the relief force had just arrived. He stated that signal reports from men sent forward to Galveston Island to the relief parties on the main land read:

“‘Sixty dead bodies in one block. Six hundred corpses recovered and 400 more reported. People dying from injuries and sickness and for want of fresh water. Survivors threatened with starvation and disease. Doctors, nurses and fresh water needed at once.’

“The telegraph offices at Dallas have been besieged all day with men and women anxious to hear from friends who were in Galveston when the hurricane came on. Messages of inquiry have poured in from all parts of the United States. More than 10,000 messages were piled up in the Dallas offices to-day from local and outside parties, and every telegraph operator has been kept busy as long as he could work. The offices have uniformly had to inform the customers: ‘We can’t reach Galveston; can only promise to forward from Houston by boat as early as possible.’ Notwithstanding discouragements of this kind, the customers have almost invariably insisted on having their messages sent. Some of the scenes at the local telegraph offices have been very pathetic.

“A telegram was received from E. H. R. Green, son of Hetty Green, dated at Rockport, stating that Rockport had not been damaged by the storm, and that the visitors at the Tarpon Club House, on St. Joseph’s Island, were safe. This news lessens the fear felt for the safety of the people living along the coast in the vicinity of Rockport and Corpus Christi.

“Houston and Texas Central Railroad officials at noon received bulletins from their general offices in Houston that the loss of life will reach 3000 in Galveston. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas relief forces near Galveston and along the coast telegraphed at noon that the loss of life will not be less than 5000 and may reach 10,000.”

THE CITY IN RUINS.

Richard Spillane, a well-known Galveston newspaper man and day correspondent of the Associated Press in that city, who reached Houston September 10th, after a terrible experience, gives the following account of the disaster at Galveston:

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, GALVESTON, AFTER THE STORM

WRECKAGE OF CARS OF GRAIN—GALVESTON

AVENUE L AND TWENTY-SIXTH STREET, SHOWING THE URSULINE CONVENT, THE REFUGE OF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE

RUINS OF THE GAS WORKS AT THIRTY-THIRD AND MARKET STREETS

BURYING BODIES WHERE THEY WERE FOUND

AVENUE L AND FIFTEENTH STREET—SHOWING DESTRUCTION DONE BY THE HURRICANE

TANGLED MASS OF RUINS ON NINETEENTH STREET

VOLUNTEERS REMOVING DEBRIS ON TWENTY-FIRST STREET, LOOKING SOUTH

“One of the most awful tragedies of modern times has visited Galveston. The city is in ruins, and the dead will number many thousands: I am just from the city, having been commissioned by the Mayor and Citizens’ Committee to get in touch with the outside world and appeal for help. Houston was the nearest point at which working telegraph instruments could be found, the wires as well as nearly all the buildings between here and the Gulf of Mexico being wrecked.

“When I left Galveston the people were organizing for the prompt burial of the dead, distribution of food and all necessary work after a period of disaster.

CITY TURNED INTO A RAGING SEA.

“The wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tempest so terrible that no words can adequately describe its intensity, and by a flood which turned the city into a raging sea. The Weather Bureau records show that the wind attained a velocity of eighty-four miles an hour when the measuring instrument blew away, so it is impossible to tell what was the maximum.

“The storm began at 2 o’clock Saturday morning. Previous to that a great storm had been raging in the Gulf, and the tide was very high. The wind at first came from the north, and was in direct opposition to the force from the Gulf. Where the storm in the Gulf piled the water up on the beach side of the city, the north wind piled the water from the bay onto the bay part of the city.

“About noon it became evident that the city was going to be visited with disaster. Hundreds of residences along the beach front were hurriedly abandoned, the families fleeing to dwellings in higher portions of the city. Every home was opened to the refugees, black or white. The winds were rising constantly, and it rained in torrents. The wind was so fierce that the rain cut like a knife.

“By 3 o’clock the waters of the Gulf and bay met, and by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of the electric light plant and the gas plants left the city in darkness. To go upon the streets was to court death. The wind was then at cyclonic velocity, roofs, cisterns, portions of buildings, telegraph poles and walls were falling, and the noise of the wind and the crashing of buildings were terrifying in the extreme. The wind and waters rose steadily from dark until 1.45 o’clock Sunday morning. During all this time the people of Galveston were like rats in a trap. The highest portion of the city was four to five feet under water, while in the great majority of cases the streets were submerged to a depth of ten feet. To leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court death in the wreckage.

“Such a night of agony has seldom been equaled. Without apparent reason the waters suddenly began to subside at 1.45 A. M. Within twenty minutes they had gone down two feet, and before daylight the streets were practically freed of the flood-waters. In the meantime the wind had veered to the southeast.

VERY FEW BUILDINGS ESCAPED.

“Very few if any buildings escaped injury. There is hardly a habitable dry house in the city. When the people who had escaped death went out at daylight to view the work of the tempest and floods they saw the most horrible sights imaginable. In the three blocks from Avenue N to Avenue P, in Tremont street, I saw eight bodies. Four corpses were in one yard.

“The whole of the business front for three blocks in from the Gulf was stripped of every vestige of habitation, the dwellings, the great bathing establishments, the Olympia and every structure having been either carried out to sea or its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town, according to the vagaries of the tempest. The first hurried glance over the city showed that the largest structures, supposed to be the most substantially built, suffered the greatest.

“The Orphans’ Home, Twenty-first street and Avenue M, fell like a house of cards. How many dead children and refugees are in the ruins could not be ascertained. Of the sick in St. Mary’s Infirmary, together with the attendants, only eight are understood to have been saved. The Old Woman’s Home, on Roosenburg avenue, collapsed, and the Roosenburg School-house is a mass of wreckage. The Ball High School is but an empty shell, crushed and broken. Every church in the city, with possibly one or two exceptions, is in ruins.

“At the forts nearly all the soldiers are reported dead, they having been in temporary quarters, which gave them no protection against the tempest or flood. No report has been received from the Catholic Orphan Asylum down the island, but it seems impossible that it could have withstood the hurricane. If it fell, all the inmates were, no doubt, lost, for there was no aid within a mile.

“The bay front from end to end is in ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck of great warehouses remain. The elevators lost all their super-works, and their stocks are damaged by water. The life-saving station at Fort Point was carried away, the crew being swept across the bay fourteen miles to Texas City. I saw Captain Haynes, and he told me that his wife and one of his crew were drowned.

WRECKAGE SWEPT ACROSS THE BAY.

“The shore at Texas City contains enough wreckage to rebuild a city. Eight persons who were swept across the bay during the storm were picked up there alive. Five corpses were also picked up. There were three fatalities in Texas City. In addition to the living and the dead which the storm cast up at Texas City, caskets and coffins from one of the cemeteries at Galveston were being fished out of the water there yesterday. In the business portion of the city two large brick buildings, one occupied by Knapp Brothers and the other by the Cotton Exchange saloon, collapsed. In the Cotton Exchange saloon there were about fifteen persons. Most of them escaped.

“The cotton mills, the bagging factory, the gas works, the electric light works and nearly all the industrial establishments of the city are either wrecked or crippled. The flood left a slime about one inch deep over the whole city, and unless fast progress is made in burying corpses and carcasses of animals there is danger of pestilence. Some of the stories of the escapes are miraculous. William Nisbett, a cotton man, was buried in the ruins of the Cotton Exchange saloon, and when dug out in the morning had no further injury than a few bruised fingers.

“Dr. S. O. Young, Secretary of the Cotton Exchange, was knocked senseless when his house collapsed, but was revived by the water, and was carried ten blocks by the hurricane. A woman who had just given birth to a child was carried from her home to a house a block distant, the men who were carrying her having to hold her high above heads, as the water was five feet deep when she was moved.

“Many stories were current of houses falling and inmates escaping. Clarence N. Ousley, editor of the Evening Tribune, had his family and the families of two neighbors in his house when the lower half crumbled and the upper part slipped down into the water. No one in the house was hurt.

“The Mistrot House, in the West End, was turned into a hospital. All of the regular hospitals of the city were unavailable. Of the new Southern Pacific Works little remains but the piling. Half a million feet of lumber was carried away, and Engineer Boschke says, as far as the company is concerned, it might as well start over again.

EIGHT OCEAN STEAMERS STRANDED.

“Eight ocean steamers were torn from their moorings and stranded in the bay. The Kendall Castle was carried over the flats at Thirty-third street wharf to Texas City, and lies in the wreckage of the Inman pier. The Norwegian steamer Gyller is stranded between Texas City and Virginia Point. An ocean liner was swirled around through the west bay, crashed through the bay bridges, and is now lying in a few feet of water near the wreckage of the railroad bridges.

“The steamship Taunton was carried across Pelican Point and is stranded about ten miles up the east bay. The Mallory steamer Alamo was torn from her wharf and dashed upon Pelican flats, and against the bow of the British steamer Red Cross, which had previously been hurled there. The stern of the Alamo is stove in and the bow of the Red Cross is crushed. Down the channel to the jetties two other ocean steamships lie grounded. Some schooners, barges and smaller craft are strewn bottom side up along the slips of the piers. The tug Louise, of the Houston Direct Navigation Company, is also a wreck.

“It will take a week to tabulate the dead and the missing and to get anything near an approximate idea of the monetary loss. It is safe to assume that one-half the property of the city is wiped out, and that one-half of the residents have to face absolute poverty.

“At Texas City three of the residents were drowned. One man stepped into a well by a mischance and his corpse was found there. Two other men ventured along the bay front during the height of the storm and were killed. There are but few buildings at Texas City that do not tell the story of the storm. The hotel is a complete ruin. The office of the Texas City Company was almost entirely destroyed. Nothing remains of the piers except the piling.

“The wreckage from Galveston litters the shore for miles and is a hundred yards wide. For ten miles inland from the shore it is a common sight to see small craft, such as steam launches, schooners and oyster sloops. The life boat of the life-saving station was carried half a mile inland, while a vessel that was anchored in Moses Bayou lies high and dry five miles up from La Marque.

MULTITUDES SWEPT OUT TO SEA.

“From Virginia Point north and south along the bay front, at such places as Texas City, Dickinson, Hitchcock, Seabrook, Alvin and a dozen small intermediate points, the number of dead bodies gathered up by rescue trains and sailing craft had reached at noon more than 700. This is only a small scope of the country devastated, and it is feared the death list from the storm will ultimately show not less than 5000 victims. Hundreds have been swept out to sea who will never be accounted for. Two mass meetings were held at Dallas, and many thousands of dollars were subscribed for the relief of the Texas Gulf coast storm sufferers.”

The towns of Sabine Pass and Port Arthur, news from which was anxiously awaited, passed through the terrific storm virtually unscathed. At Port Arthur the water spread over the town, but it did not reach a depth sufficient to destroy buildings. The town pleasure pier was washed away completely, as was also the pier in front of the Gales and Elwood Homes. The dredge Florida, property of the New York Dredging Company, which cut the Port Arthur Channel, sunk at the mouth of Taylor Bayou. No other property of consequence was injured.

At Sabine Pass the water reached a depth of about three feet, but nothing except small buildings near the water-front were washed away. Several mud-scows and sloops were washed ashore. The Southern Pacific wharves and warehouses were not damaged in the least. The railroad between Beaumont and Sabine Pass was under water for a distance of twelve miles, but not more than four miles were washed out. The life-saving station of Sabine Pass was washed from its blocks, but the light tower was not damaged. There was considerable damage at Sabine Pass by water rising into the streets.

ARMY TENTS AND RATIONS FOR THE SUFFERERS.

The officers of the National Government took steps at once to render all possible aid and assistance to the flood-sufferers of Texas. The President sent telegrams of sympathy to the Governor of the State and the Mayor of Galveston, and promised to render all possible relief. Adjutant-General Corbin also telegraphed instructions to General McKibbin, commanding the Department of Texas at San Antonio, to proceed to Galveston and investigate the character and extent of the damage caused by the hurricane, and to report to the Secretary of War what steps were necessary to alleviate the sufferings of the people and improve the situation.

Battery O, First Artillery, which garrisoned Fort San Jacinto, was commanded by Captain William C. Rafferty. First Lieutenant Lassiter was on detail duty at West Point, but the Second Lieutenant, J. C. Nichols, was with his company during the storm. Acting Secretary of the Treasury Spalding ordered two revenue cutters, one at Norfolk and one at Wilmington, N.C., to proceed at once to Mobile, Ala., and there await orders. They were needed in supplying food and tents to the storm-sufferers.

Governor Sayers, of Texas, applied to the War Department for 10,000 tents and 50,000 rations for immediate use for the sufferers. Acting Secretary Meiklejohn issued an order granting the request. The tents were sent from San Antonio and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. A large portion of the rations was procured at San Antonio.

AN APPEAL FROM HOUSTON.

The following telegrams passed between the White House and Texas:

“Houston, Texas, September 10.—William McKinley, President of the United States, Washington, D. C.: I have been deputized by the Mayor and Citizens’ Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins, and certainly many hundreds, if not a thousand, are dead. The tragedy is one of the most frightful in recent times. Help must be given by the State and Nation or the suffering will be appalling. Food, clothing and money will be needed at once. The whole south side of the city for three blocks in from the Gulf is swept clear of every building, the whole wharf front is a wreck and but few houses in the city are really habitable. The water supply is cut off and the food stock damaged by salt water. All bridges are washed away, and stranded steamers litter the bay. When I left this morning the search for bodies had begun. Corpses were everywhere. Tempest blew eighty-four miles an hour, and then carried Government instruments away. At same time waters of Gulf were over whole city, having risen twelve feet. Water has now subsided, and the survivors are left helpless among the wreckage, cut off from the world except by boat.

“Richard Spillane.”

“Washington, September 10.—Hon. J. D. Sayers, Governor of Texas, Austin, Texas: The reports of the great calamity which has befallen Galveston and other points on the coast of Texas excite my profound sympathy for the sufferers, as they will stir the hearts of the whole country. Whatever help it is possible to give shall be gladly extended. Have directed the Secretary of War to supply rations and tents upon your request.

“William McKinley.”

A copy of this telegram was sent to the Mayor of Galveston as well as to Governor Sayers.

“Austin, Texas, September 10.—The President, Washington: Very many thanks for your telegram. Your action will be greatly appreciated and gratefully remembered by the people of Texas. I have this day requested the Secretary of War to forward rations and tents to Galveston.

“Joseph D. Sayers,

“Governor of Texas.”

CLARA BARTON READY FOR RELIEF WORK.

Miss Clara Barton issued the following appeal in behalf of the Texas sufferers:

“The American National Red Cross, at Washington, D. C., is appealed to on all sides for help and for the privilege to help in the terrible disaster which has befallen Southern and Central Texas. It remembers the floods of the Ohio and Mississippi, of Johnstown, and of Port Royal, with their thousands of dead and months of suffering and needed relief, and turns confidently to the people of the United States, whose sympathy has never failed to help provide the relief that is asked of it now. Nineteen years of experience on nearly as many fields renders the obligations of the Red Cross all the greater. The people have long learned its work, and it must again open its accustomed avenues for their charities. It does not beseech them to give, for their sympathies are as deep and their humanity as great as its own, but it pledges to them faithful old-time Red Cross relief work among the stricken victims of these terrible fields of suffering and death.

“He gives twice who gives quickly.

“Contributions may be wired or sent by mail to our Treasurer, William J. Flather, Assistant Cashier Riggs National Bank, Washington, D. C.; also to the local Red Cross committees of the Red Cross India Famine Fund, at 156 Fifth avenue, New York City, and the Louisiana Red Cross of New Orleans, both of whom will report all donations for immediate acknowledgment by us.

“Clara Barton,

“President National American Red Cross.”

Miss Barton telegraphed Governor Sayers, at Austin, Tex., as follows:

“Do you need the Red Cross in Texas? We are ready.”

THE DESTRUCTION INLAND.

Later details show that from Red River on the north to the Gulf on the south and throughout the central part of the State, Texas was storm-swept by a hurricane which laid waste property, caused large loss of life, and effectually blocked all telegraphic and telephonic communication south, while the operation of trains was seriously handicapped.

Starting with the hurricane which visited Galveston and the Gulf coast Saturday noon, and which was still prevailing there to such an extent that no communication could be had with the island to ascertain what the loss to life and property was, the storm made rapid inroads into the centre of the State, stopping long enough at Houston to damage over half of the buildings of that city.

Advancing inland, the storm swept into Hempstead, fifty miles above Houston, thence to Chappell Hill, twenty miles further; thence to Brenham, thirty miles further, wrecking all three towns. Several persons were killed.

The Brazos bottom suffered a large share of damage at the hands of the hurricane, and was swept for fully 100 miles of its length, everything being turned topsy-turvy by the high winds, and much destruction resulting to crops as well as farmhouse property. The winds were accompanied by a heavy rainfall, which served to add to the horror of midnight. The telegraph and telephone companies have large forces of men trying to rig up wires to Galveston. The storm seems to have swept all the tableland clear of everything on it, razing houses to the ground and tearing up trees by the roots. It also swept into the mountain gorges and there inflicted the worst damage, and considerable loss of life was reported from that section. From Southwest Texas and points along the Gulf to the city of Galveston the reports were alarming. A number of parties summering at various points along the coast were not heard from. The cotton was nearly ruined, as the storm swept the cotton-belt.

CHAPTER III.
Incidents of the Awful Hurricane—Unparalleled Atrocities by Lawless Hordes—Earnest Appeals for Help.

On September 11th, the Mayor of Galveston forwarded the following address to the people of the United States:

“It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 5000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately one-third of the residence portion of the city has been swept away.

“There are several thousand people who are homeless and destitute. How many, there is no way of finding out. Arrangements are now being made to have the women and children sent to Houston and other places, but the means of transportation are limited. Thousands are still to be cared for here. We appeal to you for immediate aid.

“WALTER C. JONES.”

On the same date the following statement of conditions at Galveston and appeal for aid was issued by the local relief committee:

“A conservative estimate of the loss of life is that it will reach at least 5,000, and at least that number of families are shelterless and wholly destitute. The entire remainder of the population is suffering in a greater or less degree. Not a single church, school or charitable institution, of which Galveston had so many, is left intact. Not a building escaped damage, and half the whole number were entirely obliterated. There is immediate need for food, clothing and household goods of all kinds. If nearby cities will open asylums for women and children, the situation will be greatly relieved. Coast cities should send us water, as well as provisions, including kerosene, oil, gasoline and candles.

“W. C. Jones, mayor; M. Lasker, president Island City Saving Bank; J. D. Skinner, president Cotton Exchange; C. H. McMaster, for Chamber of Commerce; R. G. Lowe, manager Galveston News; Clarence Owsley, manager Galveston Tribune.”

The white cotton screw men’s organization held a meeting and tendered their services, that of 500 able bodied men, to the public committee to clear the streets of debris. Big forces went to work, and the situation was much improved so far as the passage of vessels was concerned. The city was patrolled by regular soldiers and citizen soldiery. No one was allowed on the streets without a pass. Several negroes were shot for not halting when ordered.

The steamer Lawrence arrived here early on the morning of the 11th, from Houston, with water and provisions. A committee of one hundred citizens were aboard, among them being doctors and cooks. W. G. Van Vleck, General Manager of the Southern Pacific Railroad, arrived at the same time. He thought it would be possible to establish mail service from Houston to Texas City by night, with transfer boats to Galveston.

BODIES BEING BURIED IN TRENCHES.

It was found to be impossible to send bodies to sea for burial. The water receded so far, however, that it was possible to dig trenches, and bodies were being buried where found. Debris covering bodies was being burned where it could be done safely.

Work on the water works was rushed, and it was hoped to be able to turn a supply on in the afternoon.

Outside of Galveston smaller towns were beginning to send in reports as telegraphic communication improved, and many additions to the list of the dead and property losses were received. Richmond and Hitchcock each reported sixteen lives lost. Alto Loma, Arcadia, Velasco, Seabrooke, Belleville, Areola and many other towns had from one to eight dead. In most of these places many houses were totally destroyed and thousands of head of live stock killed.

The railroads alone suffered millions of dollars in actual damage, to say nothing of the loss from stoppage of business. The International and Great Northern and Santa Fe had miles of track washed out, and the bridges connecting Galveston with the mainland must be entirely rebuilt.

The following is the description of an eye-witness on September 11: “Galveston is almost wiped off the earth. Fifteen thousand persons are homeless. The loss of life will reach into the thousands. Bodies are piled everywhere.

“When daylight broke over the expanse of floating bodies, rubbish heaps and ruins were all that remained of the prosperous city. A few leading citizens assembled in several feet of water at a street corner and called a meeting at the Tremont Hall, to which they adjourned. A committee of Public Safety of fifteen leading citizens was formed, and Colonel J. H. Hawley, one of the best known men in Texas, was made chairman. He, with Mayor Walter C. Jones and Chief of Police Edward Ketchum, formed a triumvirate, with absolute power, and declared the city under martial law.

MILITARY FORCES AND SPECIAL POLICE.

“They issued a commission to Major L. R. D. Fayling, which made him commander-in-chief of all military forces and special deputies of police, and only subject to the orders of the Mayor and the Chief of Police. Major Fayling was authorized to requisition any men or property he may require for his force, and his receipt will be honored by the city of Galveston and any such property paid for by the city.

“As soon as Major Fayling received his authority he collected a handful of half-naked, barefooted soldiers, clothed them, supplied them with food and put them under command of Captain Edward Rogers. Around this nucleus of a force he has built up to meet the necessities of the situation his present force of three full companies of volunteer soldiers and a troop of cavalry.

“A horde of negroes and whites—even white women—were in the ruins of the city. They were robbing the dead and dying, killing those who resisted, cutting off fingers to obtain rings and ears to obtain earrings. Drunken men reeled about the streets intimidating citizens.

“Chief of Police Ketchum ordered the sale of liquor stopped, and began to swear in hundreds of special policemen to rescue the wounded, feed the living and convey the dead to a hundred different morgues. He worked for thirty-six hours without going home to inquire about his family’s fate, which was in doubt. When told he should do so he replied, characteristically, ‘God will be good to me and mine, for I am going to be good to others.’

THE STENCH UNBEARABLE.

“The stench from the dead by Monday morning was unbearable. The triumvirate ruling the city pressed citizens into service to take the dead out in barges and bury them in the Gulf. The soldiers impressed into service, at the point of the bayonet, every wagon that came along and every negro to assist in throwing the dead into the sea. It was impossible to give other burial.

“From the stench which pervades the city it is apparent that hundreds of bodies yet lie under the ruins. The sun is hotter than in July. The regular soldiers, who had been working for two days with bloody feet, were utterly exhausted by Monday evening, and were assembled by Captain Rafferty and put in a hastily extemporized hospital, which was formerly a church. Their places were filled by Major Fayling with new recruits, whom he drafted on the streets and supplied with arms and equipment from the local armory.

“Every part of the city was patrolled by 6 o’clock in the evening. Among many other incidents of last night was the besieging of the squad guarding St. Mary’s Hospital. They were surrounded by a horde of armed negro thieves. Several hundred shots were exchanged. Sergeant Camp killed four negroes with his rifle, and about ten or twelve were killed by the squad. The soldiers have since been picketing the city, doing fourteen hours’ duty without rest. Every hour during the night a fresh negro shooting was reported at headquarters.

“The tug ‘Juno’ and the propeller ‘Lawrence’ brought 2000 gallons of water here from Houston but the supply is not enough to go around, and half the population is without any water. Breakfast at the $4 per day hotel Tremont was served to a fortunate few to-day, and consisted of a small piece of bacon and a single cup of coffee. The hotel was untenable yesterday, and guests were refused. It is jammed to-day with local citizens who have been made homeless.”

G. W. Ware, teacher of penmanship in a Dallas educational institution, was in Galveston during the hurricane. He reached Dallas on Tuesday, the 11th and made the following statement:

WORK OF HEARTLESS CRIMINALS.

“It was a godsend, the placing of the city under martial law. The criminal element began looting the dead, and the cold blooded commercial element began looting the living. The criminals were stealing anything they could with safety lay hands on, and the mercenary commercial pirates began a harvest of extortion. The price of bacon was pushed up to 50 cents a pound, bread 60 cents a loaf, and owners of small schooners and other sailing craft formed a trust, and charged $8 a passenger for transportation across the bay from the island to the mainland.

“Mayor Jones and other men of conscience were shocked at these proceedings, and the Mayor decided that the only protection for the citizens would be to declare martial law, confiscate all foodstuffs and other necessities for the common good, and thus stop the lootings and holdups.

“The price of bread was reduced to 10 cents a loaf, bacon was placed at 15 cents a pound, and the price of a voyage across the bay was set at $1.50 a passenger. A book account is being kept of all sales of foodstuffs, and other transactions and settlements will be made at the scheduled rates.”

Mr. Quinlan, General Manager of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, said:

“It is in such cases as this Galveston disaster that the barbarity in some men is seen. I have seen enough in the last two days to convince me that a large element of civilized mankind are veneered savages. My policy would be to take nobody into Galveston except such persons as are absolutely needed to administer to the distressed. Thousands of residents of Galveston ought to be brought out of there as fast as boats can bring them to the mainland, and establish them in charity or detention camps on high ground, where they can get pure air and water and receive attention which cannot be given to them on the island.

“I hope Governor Sayres will find authority to enforce some such policy. This relief work is going to be an all-winter task. Persons who have lost homes and places of business must be taken charge of until they can properly take care of themselves.”

THE FINANCIAL OUTCOME.

The effect that Galveston’s disaster may have upon the financial obligations of that city was an interesting topic among local financiers. Whether the bonds will be paid when due or whether interest default will result when coupons are presented is a mooted question in certain circles. J. B. Adone, banker, of Dallas, and former member of the old banking firm of Flippin, Adone & Lobit, of Galveston, said concerning these points:

“Galveston’s bond and interest obligations will be promptly met, I feel sure. If left to their own resources in the face of the present calamity, the people of Galveston and their public officials would be probably temporarily embarrassed, but there will be no repudiation or defalcation. The people of Texas will respond to the needs of Galveston in her present terrible affliction, and out of the moneys contributed the city’s financial credit will be protected if this course should be found necessary.”

Pursuant to the proclamation of Mayor Brashear, issued Sunday night, a citizens’ meeting was held in the city council chamber at Houston and an organization effected for the relief of the victims of the storm. The following telegram was received by the Mayor from Governor Sayres:

“Austin, Texas, Sept. 10.—I have taken the liberty of directing that all supplies of food and clothing for Galveston be shipped to you. Will you undertake to forward them when received to Galveston for distribution? Answer quick.

“JOSEPH D. SAYRES, Governor.”

Mayor Brashear immediately replied that all supplies would be distributed where mostly needed. A telegram from Areola was received, and there were twenty-five persons there, mostly women and children, in urgent need of relief.

TENTS AND RATIONS SENT.

Orders were issued by the War Department at Washington, for the immediate shipment to Galveston of 855 tents and 50,000 rations. These stores and supplies were divided between St. Louis and San Antonio. This represented about all such supplies as the Government had on hand at the places named, but it was stated at the Department that the order could be duplicated in a day.

Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, issued an appeal to the citizens of New York, on the 11th, for help for the sufferers of Galveston, heading the appeal with a $500 subscription.

The Mayor also sent the following telegram to Mayor Brashear, of Houston, Texas:

“Hon. S. E. Brashear, Mayor, Houston, Texas.—In response to your telegram I have issued a call to the people of the city of New York to contribute to the relief of those afflicted by the disaster at Galveston. Please express to the Mayor of Galveston the profound sympathy of the people of New York for the people of Galveston in this hour of their distress.

“ROBERT A. VAN WYCK, Mayor.”

Ten doctors and twenty nurses from Bellevue Hospital, New York, volunteered to go to Galveston and help care for the injured and sick. They left New York by special train in the evening.

The following cablegram was received by the American representative of Sir Thomas Lipton:

“Very grieved to see press reports here regarding fearful calamity befallen Galveston. Sufferers have my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy. If getting up public subscription will be glad to give $1000.

“LIPTON.”

POST OFFICE STREET, SHOWING HARMONY CLUB BUILDING AND MASONIC TEMPLE

DESTRUCTION AT AVENUE I BETWEEN EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH STREETS

TAKING BODIES ON THE RAILROAD BARGE FOR BURIAL AT SEA