The Cry of Distress in the Wrecked City—Negro Vandals Shot Down—Progress
of the Relief Work—Strict Military Rule.
The situation on the third day after the flood was vividly described a
visitor to the city as follows: It is plainly apparent that as a result
of the Galveston disaster, a task confronts the public authorities such
as neither Texas nor any other State has ever before had to grapple
with.
Human nature at its worst has had opportunity for the display of its
meanest passions, and relentless measures have been rendered necessary.
Looters and vandals have ignored all moral restraints, and gunpowder has
had to be used unsparingly to subdue the savagery being practiced. It is
learned on unquestionable authority that the soldiers under Adjutant
General Scurry have to-day (Wednesday the 12th) slain no less than
seventy-five men, mostly negroes, guilty of robbing the dead.
POCKET FULL OF HUMAN FINGERS.
One of these had in his pocket twenty-three human fingers with costly
rings on them. The fingers had been cut from the victims of the storm
found on the beach or floating in the waters of Galveston Bay.
W. McGrath, Manager of the Dallas Electric Company, and representing
large Boston interests in Texas, returned from Galveston direct. He
says: “The only way to prevent an epidemic that will practically
depopulate the island is to burn the bodies of the dead. The Governor of
Texas should call an extra session of the Legislature and appropriate a
million or half a million dollars, or whatever amount is needed. The
situation must be taken intelligently in hand to save the State from a
possible epidemic. Before I left Galveston about 4,000 bodies had been
found. Eleven hundred had been tied together in bunches and sunk into
the sea. Last night some fresh water was found by forces of men who
explored the ground until the principal main of the city water works was
found. Tons of rubbish were removed and the main tapped. I believe the
water question is solved for the present, but money, clothing, wholesome
bread, ice, drugs, etc., are needed.”
A bulletin from Galveston, via. Virginia Point and Houston, received
here at 11 A. M., says:
“The situation grows worse every minute, water and ice needed. People in
frenzy from suffering from these causes. Scores have died since last
night, and a number of sufferers have gone insane.”
THE STORY INCREASES IN HORROR.
A despatch from Houston summed up the situation as follows: Houston is
now being rapidly filled with refugees from Galveston. Stragglers have
been arriving every few hours, and this afternoon a trainload of some
eight hundred reached the city thoroughly worn out and disheartened,
each with a tale of woe and harrowing experiences. Contrary to the usual
thing in chronicling catastrophes of the present character the story of
Galveston grows worse as the time progresses and the facts become known.
Each chapter is more appalling than its predecessor, and the burden of
death becomes heavier as the hours roll on. The estimates of the loss of
life have grown from 1,000 to 8,000, and even the latter figure is said
to be too small in the opinion of many of the survivors.
ACTUAL LOSS WILL NEVER BE KNOWN.
The actual loss will never be made known. The storm overwhelmed entire
families, who were swept into the Gulf with the wreckage of their homes.
The bodies may gradually be thrown on the sands, but identification will
be impossible. The committees are endeavoring to compile lists of both
dead and living, but they will not be accurate, as many mistakes have
already been made and the living reported dead. Registers have been made
and posted in the city in order to facilitate this feature of the relief
work.
DISPOSING OF THE DEAD.
So far the efforts of the searchers have necessarily been confined to
the open places, and it will be some time before the dead swept into the
fields, the alleys and the gullies are gathered and laid away for good.
The city is one awful stench of decaying animal matter. Nearly every
animal on the island was killed, and the thousands of human remains
still scattered beneath the vast piles of debris add to the danger of
the situation. Too much time was lost in consigning the dead to the sea,
and the workers were compelled by the exigencies of the situation to
pile the corpses where found, and cremate them as well as this could be
done.
PEOPLE DELAYED FLIGHT TOO LONG.
Oswald Wilson, editor of the _Texan_, who arrived with the refugees,
says that the situation cannot be painted any blacker than it really is.
Fully one-third of the city has been destroyed absolutely and every
building damaged. He says that one reason that the loss of life was so
excessive was due to the fact that they delayed leaving their homes
until too late. The water rose rapidly for several hours until the
centre of the city was six feet deep and the outlying section covered to
a depth of over ten feet. The people of Galveston were accustomed to
high water, although they had never witnessed so great an inundation,
but their fears were calmed by the fact that during this period the wind
had not risen above thirty miles an hour, and every year they had seen
this condition during the equinoctial periods.
REALIZED THEIR PERIL TOO LATE.
Men waded about the city laughing at the rise of the water for hours,
for the sea gradually encroached during the morning, and it was only
when they realized the bay was forcing its contents to meet the tide
from the Gulf that they lost their confidence that the present was but
another attempt of the elements to create a disturbance, and seriously
endeavored to reach a point of safety. Then it was too late, for the
tide swirled in the streets and the wind had begun rapidly to increase
in violence. It howled and screamed in great gusts, which increased in
strength every minute, and one by one the houses along the Gulf front
and in the Denver resurvey and about Fort Point began to go to pieces
and pile one against the other.
The waters were filled with debris and the debris with men, women and
children seeking to save their lives. Wading was impossible, save in the
centre of the city, and the unfortunates were swept to and fro, dashed
by the waves and bruised by the flying fragments, until death resulted
in one form or another. Many were the deeds of heroism, but rescuers and
all fell victims to the storm, for human efforts were unavailing.
MORE HORRORS DETAILED.
J. C. Roberts, of the firm of Behring Brothers, Houston, was sent to
Galveston to learn of the family of his employers. His journey was
arduous, for he was one of the first. Arriving in the city worn out, he
entered a little drug store and asked for whisky. He was refused. A
doctor was present and gave him a prescription for the stimulant. The
druggist charged $2.50 for the whisky, and the doctor $5 for his
services. He landed at Galveston at Twentieth street, and walked through
dead bodies.
His description of the scenes is horrible in the extreme. The dead were
everywhere. They were scattered on every hand, and nearly all in a
complete state of nudity. He saw an Italian woman standing in the street
holding in her hand the foot and leg of an infant severed from the
little body. She was unclad, but alive and insane, and refused to leave
the pile of debris which contained the remains of her little one.
Roberts witnessed one of the guards shoot five negro looters. He
observed one of the men robbing a dead body. The man refused to desist
and the guard shot him dead as he knelt on the sands. Four companions of
the ghoul started to assault the guard, when he threw himself on his
stomach, and, firing rapidly, killed them all.
NINETY NEGROES EXECUTED.
It is said that ninety negroes have been executed for robbery, and it is
unsafe for any one to stir at night unless provided with a passport from
the officer in charge. A description of the burning of the dead and the
burial at sea is beyond reproduction. All sentiment is at an end. It has
become a matter of self-protection and in order to avoid pestilence
rapid disposal of the corpses is necessary. Several loads of lime have
been sent from here, with other disinfectants. The people of Galveston
have had no bread since the storm save what little has been sent from
Houston. A cracker factory opened its doors Sunday and sold its entire
contents in a short time. Some food was left after the storm, but this
is rapidly being distributed.
Bonfires are burning all over the city. They are the funeral of a
thousand festering corpses cast back upon the shore at high tide
yesterday. Cremation has become a necessity to prevent an epidemic. The
negroes refuse to work, and the townspeople are paralyzed with fright
and suffering, or are making preparations to leave the doomed island.
The first train to carry refugees to Texas City, seven miles across the
bay, was announced this morning, and since daylight a thousand men,
women and children have been crowding into catboats, lifeboats, sloops,
schooners and a single steamboat, the Lawrence, all bent on escaping
from the city. Nearly all of them have lost some member of their
families. The women wear no hats, are unkempt and ill-clad. They look as
if haunted.
THE CITY OFFICIALS IN A LIVELY QUARREL.
The situation has gotten beyond the control of the authorities. The
powers in control have been quarreling. Last night at 7 o’clock every
citizen soldier under command of Major Fayling was called in, disarmed
and mustered out of service. Chief of Police Ketchum then took charge,
and the Major was relieved of his command. During an hour and a half the
city was unguarded. Negro looters held high carnival.
As the Major’s work was unusually brilliant, the citizens are furious.
This morning the situation from the police standpoint is improved. A
hundred of the State militia of the Houston Light Guards, Houston
Artillery and Houston Cavalry have arrived. They are patrolling the west
end of the city. General McKibbin, Commander of the Department of the
Gulf, and Adjutant General Scurry, of Texas, are on the ground, and are
advising with Mayor Jones and the Chief of Police Ketchum.
In all other respects the city is worse off than on the morning after
the tragedy. A terrible stench permeates the atmosphere. It comes from
the bodies of a thousand unburied dead festering in the debris, that
cannot be removed for weeks on account of the paucity of laborers. Every
tide brings scores back to the shore. During the early part of yesterday
trenches were dug and the bodies thrown into them, but it soon became an
impossibility to bury all, and the health authorities decided upon
cremation as an expedient.
WORK OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE.
At a meeting of the Relief Committee held this morning reports were
received from the various wards. The chairman called for armed men to
assist in getting labor to bury the dead and clear the wreckage, and
arrangements were made to supply this demand.
The situation in the city to-day is that there are plenty of volunteers
for this service, but an insufficiency of arms. There have been two or
three small riots, but the officers have managed to quell them. The
committee rejected the proposition of trying to pay for work, letting
the laborers secure their own rations. It was decided to go ahead
impressing men into service, if necessary, issuing orders for rations
only to those who worked or were unable to work.
All of the ward chairmen reported the imperative need of disinfectants.
A committee was appointed to sequester all the disinfectants in the
city, including the lime which escaped wetting, and to obtain more.
Houston was called upon for a barge load of lime.
WORK AT THE WATER WORKS.
Work on the water works had not progressed so satisfactorily as had been
hoped for. The men did not work last night. Chief Engineer Reynolds has
not been at the works since yesterday morning. Alderman McMaster took
charge of the work to-day. The machinery has been cleared of the debris
and the pipes found to be badly damaged, and plumbers, steam fitters and
boiler makers are at work on them. Mr. McMaster says he thinks it will
be possible to turn water into the mains to-morrow.
All saloons were closed by the Chief of Police on Sunday. At a meeting
of the General Committee with the city officials to-day, the policing of
the city was discussed. Mayor Jones announced that Adjutant General
Scurry would take charge of the situation with the soldiers and citizen
soldiery. The city is patrolled by about 2,000 police officers, special
officers, soldiers and deputy sheriffs. Deputy Chief of Police Amundsen
is acting as Chief. Chief of Police Ketchum is engaged in other work
outside of the police department.
STRICT POLICE RULES.
No liquor is permitted to be sold under any circumstances, unless
ordered by the chairman of one of the committees or by a physician, who
must state that it is to be used for medicinal purposes. All persons not
having business on the streets after dark must be identified before they
will be allowed to pass. Unless identification is forthcoming they are
arrested. No person is allowed to work in or about any building unless
he has a written permit signed by the Chief of Police or Deputy Chief.
No person is permitted to carry furniture or other property through the
streets unless he has a written permit from the proper authority. No
gambling is permitted, and any violations of this rule are prosecuted to
the fullest extent.
During the storm Saturday night the young men of the Boddiker family,
with the aid of a skiff, rescued over forty people and took them to the
University building, where they found shelter.
The organization of forces under the able administration of General
Scurry was observable on every hand, and the chaotic condition of the
city was being supplanted by a vigor of action that portended
restoration in the near future. Private enterprise went to work and the
people took heart.
NURSES FROM A DISTANCE.
The very presence of nurses was a sign that the calamity had attracted
the attention of the world at large, and the city would not be left to
succumb to the dire and terrible disaster that has overtaken it.
One of the local journals said: “Merchants are cleaning up their stores
and repairing their injured buildings; property owners are seeking
everywhere to obtain men and materials with which to restore their
shattered habitations. Hope has by no means departed. In a brief time
the sound of the locomotive will be heard upon the island, freight will
be pouring up to the ship’s side, and the mechanic and artisan will find
remunerative employment for years to come. Out of the destruction of the
greatest wind and tide force that ever played upon the American
continent, there has arisen already a feeling that what a week ago was
regarded as an irretrievable disaster, will yet prove the starting point
of a remodelled and reinvigorated Galveston. The whole world is behind
us in generous sympathy and noble beneficence.”
GOVERNOR SAYRES ON THE SITUATION.
Governor Sayres made the following statement to the Associated Press on
the flood situation:
“Conditions at Galveston are fully as bad as reported. Communication,
however, has been re-established between the island and the mainland,
and hereafter transportation of supplies will be less difficult. The
work of clearing the city is progressing fairly well, and Adjutant
General Scurry, under direction of the Mayor, is patrolling the city for
the purpose of preventing depredations. The most conservative estimate
as to the number of dead places them at 2,000. Contributions from
citizens of this State and also from other States are coming in rapidly
and liberally, and it is confidently expected that within the next ten
days the work of restoration by the people of Galveston will have begun
in good earnest and with energy and success. Of course, the destruction
of property has been very great—not less than $10,000,000, but it is
hoped and believed that even this great loss will be overcome through
the energy and self-reliance of the people.”
During the day the contributions have fairly deluged the Governor,
upwards of $100,000 having been received. Among the large contributors
are to be noted the Standard Oil Company, with $10,000; St. Louis
Commercial Club for a like amount, and the Huntington interests for
$5,000.
THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM.
This afternoon Governor Sayres received the following official report
from General Manager Trice, of the International and Great Northern
Railroad, who is conducting the operations of the relief corps at
Galveston:
“To Governor Sayres, Austin, Tex.—Your message of yesterday received.
The cars containing the tents and rations were turned over to the barge
line this morning and forwarded to Galveston, arrangements having been
made for all freight to be handled by barges hauled by tugs from Clinton
to Galveston, and passengers by our line to Texas City, and by boats
from Texas City to Galveston. This is the best arrangement that can be
made, and it prevents delay to either the freight or the passenger
service, for, if we handled the freight with the passengers to Texas
City, to transfer from the cars to the boats would cause too much delay
to the passenger service.
“We brought in one train, consisting of about three hundred Galveston
people, to Houston to-day, and will get another trainload to-night,
mostly women and children, which will make about 600 that we will get
out of Galveston to-day. The passenger and freight service between
Houston and Galveston is all free for sufferers, and we are issuing
transportation to all points north of Houston to all sufferers not able
to pay their way.
“L. TRICE.”
ADJUTANT GENERAL SCURRY’S ESTIMATE.
The following report was also received from Adjutant General Scurry:
“Governor Sayres, Austin.—Mayor of Houston ordered Houston military
companies here, sixty-five men and officers came. Thirty more come
to-morrow. Mayor of Galveston directed me to take command. Streets
patrolled for purpose of preventing thieving. Work of clearing the city
progressing fairly well.
“THOMAS SCURRY, Adjutant General.”
LOSS OF LIFE AND DAMAGE AT OTHER POINTS.
Governor Sayres began receiving reports from various points along the
Gulf coast, which would indicate that there has been great property
damage done for several hundred miles, and that the list of Galveston
fatalities and suffering will be largely augmented. Down the coast from
Galveston, the town of Dickinson was laid waste and five people killed.
The towns of Alvin, Alta Loma, Texas City and Brookshire, are wrecked
and hundreds are destitute. Richmond is so badly demolished that it will
require weeks to clear the town.
Missouri City and Stafford, just opposite, were entirely demolished, and
the few remaining people at these places have no homes to cover their
heads. Bay City, in Matagorda county, is reported wrecked, with much
loss of life, though no official report has been made to that effect.
Patton, Rollover, Bolivar Point, Quintana, Sugarland, Belleville,
Wharton, Fair View, Missouri City, Sartartia, Arcola and El Campo are
all reported heavy sufferers both in point of property destroyed and
lives lost. Owing to the fact that the telegraph service is still badly
crippled, Governor Sayres cannot ascertain the exact number of dead at
the points named, but it is approximated at 500.
BOATS FOR TRANSPORTATION.
The Governor was informed that quite a number of tugs from New Orleans
and other available points had either arrived or were on the way to
Galveston, and the transportation problem would soon be solved so far as
the getting people from the island to the mainland was concerned.
Hundreds applied to Governor Sayres for permits to go to Galveston, but
he refused all, saying that there were already too many people there.
THE DEVASTATION APPALLING.
The Quartermaster’s Department at Washington, received the following
from Galveston:
“Quartermaster General, Washington: Referring to my telegrams of 9th and
10th, I have, subject to approval, suspended the Crockett construction
contracts, and again urgently recommend that contractors be paid for
labor and material in place and on the ground. All swept away and lost
beyond recovery. Fortifications at Crockett, Jacinto and Travis all
destroyed and cannot be rebuilt on present sites. Recommend continuance
of my office here only long enough to recover Crockett office safes and
morning gun, when located; also to close accounts and ship my office and
recovered property where directed. I fear Galveston is destroyed beyond
its ability to recover. Loss of life and property appalling.
“BAXTER, Quartermaster.”
VESSEL ORDERED TO GALVESTON.
President McKinley received a telegram from Governor Sayres, of Texas,
asking that a light draft vessel be sent to Galveston to assist in the
communication between the island and the mainland. The message was
referred to the Treasury Department, and an order was issued to the
revenue cutter Winona, at Mobile, to proceed to Galveston without a
moment’s unnecessary delay. The Lighthouse Board also ordered the
lighthouse tender Arbutus, then at New Orleans, to clear at once for
Galveston.
Captain Shoemaker, Chief of the Revenue Cutter Service, is apprehensive
as to the fate of the cutter Galveston, which was anchored in Galveston
harbor at the beginning of the storm. It is assumed that she put to sea,
but as three full days have elapsed since she was heard from there are
fears for her safety.
The relief work, now under full sway at Houston, is along two lines—to
succor those who cannot leave Galveston and to bring out of the city all
those who can and are willing to leave.
Mayor Jones and the citizens’ committee of the island city are urging
that only those shall be permitted to enter Galveston whose presence is
imperative, and transportation lines are straining every nerve in order
that they may accord the privilege to those who are pleading to get away
from the scenes of horror and desolation around them.
Hundreds of people have come to Houston from the four points of the
compass, anxious to get into the stricken town, but since the exodus of
islanders has begun many of these have concluded to remain here rather
than run the risk of missing on the way those for whom they are in
search.
ATTEMPT TO SUM UP THE LOSSES.
News has gradually been reaching here of the immense losses along the
coast beyond Galveston. Damage difficult to estimate in dollars and
cents has been done in a wide stretch of territory, and many human lives
have been lost besides those which were wiped out in Galveston and its
immediate vicinity. Based on reports believed to be accurate, the
following statement is probably as near correct as can be arrived at at
this time:
Place. Lives lost. Property loss.
Galveston 8000 $10,000,000
Houston 2 300,000
Alvin 9 100,000
Hitchcock 2 75,000
Richmond 3 75,000
Fort Bend county 19 300,000
Wharton 40,000
Wharton county 8 100,000
Colorado county 250,000
Angleton 3 75,000
Velasco 50,000
Other points in Brazoria county 4 30,000
Sabine 40,000
Patton 10,000
Rollover 10,000
Wennie 10,000
Belleville 1 50,000
Hempstead 1 15,000
Brookshire 2 35,000
Waller county 3 100,000
Arcola 2 5,000
Saratatia 5,000
Other points 100,000
Dickinson 7 30,000
Texas City 5 150,000
Columbia 8 15,000
Sandy Point 8 10,000
Near Brazoria (convicts) 15 1,000
Damage to railroads outside of Galveston 200,000
Damage to telegraph and telephone wires outside of Galveston 30,000
Damage to cotton crop, estimated on average crop of counties affected,
50,000 bales at $60 per bale; total, $3,000,000. Losses to live stock
cannot be estimated, but thousands of horses and cattle have been killed
all over the storm district.
RELIEF PUSHED FORWARD NIGHT AND DAY.
Relief for those stricken in the awful calamity is now beginning to pour
in from all over the country. Relief committees are being organized, and
food, clothing and money raised to be sent here as rapidly as the
special trains can carry the supplies to the people so sorely in need of
them.
The Relief Committee here announces that the subscriptions in cash are
in excess of $15,000, and that in addition to the provisions which have
been forwarded from here the Federal Government has ordered 50,000
rations, which are now on their way from San Antonio. Lieutenant
Ferguson, of General McKibben’s staff, expects to take two car loads of
food to Galveston to-day. A telegram from New Orleans says that the
exchanges there have raised $6,000 for the sufferers.
Dr. C. P. Wertenbacker, in charge of the Marine Hospital Service in New
Orleans, has arrived here. He has special instructions to look after the
welfare of steamers which may be in distress in Galveston. Dr.
Wertenbacker believes that two camps may have to be established by the
Government, one for those who cannot leave Galveston and one for those
who may come here. The National Government will send the necessary
tents, and the local authorities are providing cots in large numbers.
AN APPEAL TO THE FREE MASONS.
Houston, Tex., Sept. 12.—An appeal has been sent out by the Masonic
Grand Master to the Masonic lodges and members in Texas, urging them to
remit or contribute to the assistance of the destitute.
Grand Commander W. F. Randolph, of North Carolina Knights Templar,
to-day telegraphed the following to subordinate commanders of North
Carolina:
“Our fraters in Texas in dire distress because of recent storm.
Immediate relief imperative. Grand Master appeals for funds. Wire or
send quickly to Henry B. Stoddard, Deputy Grand Master, Galveston, Tex.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS UNDER WAY.
Wilmington, Del., Sept. 12.—H. L. Evans & Co., bankers of Wilmington,
to-day started a fund to help the storm sufferers at Galveston. Bishop
Monaghan, of the Roman Catholic Church, in response to a telegram from
Bishop Gallagher, of Galveston, has also started a relief movement. The
money which was collected by the city during the Porto Rico famine is
still in the possession of Mayor Fahey, and it is likely that it will be
turned over for the relief of the people of Galveston.
Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 12.—At a special meeting of the City Council this
afternoon $2500 was appropriated for the Galveston storm sufferers.
Private subscriptions have amounted to more than this amount, and to-day
$4771 was sent to Galveston.
Liverpool, Sept. 12.—At a meeting convened by the Lord Mayor of
Liverpool, England, it was decided to open a relief fund for the
sufferers from the Galveston disaster, and £1500 was immediately
subscribed, exclusive of over £500 raised by the cotton association. The
Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool has passed a resolution expressing deep
sympathy with the people of Galveston.
PROTECTION OF GALVESTON A COSTLY PROBLEM.
To protect the city of Galveston from the ravages of future cyclones
would be almost as costly as to re-establish the city on a new site.
This is the opinion of eminent engineers in Washington. To insure the
maintenance of the channel it has been necessary to erect jetties, which
have cost more than $6,000,000, but these jetties do not furnish any
obstacle of value to the invasion of the sea when behind it is a force
such as a West Indian cyclone exerts.
Because of the effect of storms upon the Gulf coast it has been
customary for engineer officers stationed at Galveston to report yearly
upon the appearance of atmospheric disturbances of more than usual
intensity, and Captain Rich, the engineer officer, who is believed to
have lost his life, stated in his report for 1899 that storms which
occurred during April, May and June, 1899, “carried away nearly all that
remained of construction trestle and track, and caused more or less
settlement of the jetties.”
The need of a safe deep water harbor on the Gulf of Mexico has long been
appreciated, and in 1899 Congress passed an act directing the Secretary
of War to appoint a board of three engineer officers of the army to make
a careful and critical examination of the American coast of the Gulf of
Mexico west of 93 degrees and 30 minutes west longitude, and to “report
as to the most eligible point or points for a deep harbor, to be of
ample depth, width and capacity to accommodate the largest ocean going
vessels and the commercial and naval necessities of the country.” The
Board consisted of Lieutenant Colonels H. V. Roberts, G. L. Gillespie
and Jared A. Smith. The Board reported that Galveston was the most
eligible point for a deep harbor, but also called attention to the
harbors at Sabine and Aransas Passes as being worthy of consideration.
STORM TRAVELED OVER THREE THOUSAND MILES.
Under date of September 13th a prominent journal commented as follows on
the great storm:
“Fast disappearing into the Atlantic by way of Cape Breton Island the
great West Indian hurricane is passing into history so far as the United
States is concerned.
“For twelve days this storm has been under the surveillance of the
Weather Bureau. During this time it has traveled more than 3,000 miles,
and has described in its course a perfect parabola. When the storm began
its “swing around the circle” at Galveston its intensity was greater
than it has been since, although as it goes to sea to-night it is
reported to be again assuming terrine proportions.
“Its course now lies directly in the path of the North Atlantic Liners,
and what future destruction it may wreak remains to be seen from reports
of incoming vessels. Until the West Indian hurricane made its appearance
the United States had been for exactly two months without a storm, which
is the longest period on record since the establishment of the
Government Weather Bureau. With the disappearance of this storm, another
disturbance is reported near the west Gulf coast, with an arm of
barometric depression extending northward into Western Tennessee.”
NOT MEN ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE DEAD.
Further details of the great disaster were as follows: The citizens of
Galveston are straining every nerve to clear the ground and secure from
beneath the debris the bodies of human beings and animals and to get rid
of them. It is a task of great magnitude and is attended with untold
difficulties. There is a shortage of horses to haul the dead and there
is a shortage of willing hands to perform the gruesome work. It became
apparent that it would be impossible to bury the dead, even in trenches,
and arrangements were made to take them to sea.
Barges and tugs were quickly made ready for the purpose, but it was
difficult to get men to do the work. The city’s firemen worked hard in
bringing bodies to the wharf, but, outside of them, there were few who
helped. Soldiers and policemen were accordingly sent out, and every
able-bodied man they found was marched to the wharf front. The men were
worked in relays, and were supplied with stimulants to nerve them for
their task.
At nightfall three barge loads, containing about 700 human bodies, had
been sent to sea, where they were sunk with weights. Darkness compelled
suspension of the work until morning. Toward night great difficulty was
experienced in handling the bodies of negroes, which are badly
decomposed.
No effort was made after 9 o’clock in the morning to place the bodies in
morgues for identification, for it was imperative that the dead should
be gotten to sea as soon as possible. Many of the bodies taken out are
unidentified. They are placed on the barges as quickly as possible and
lists made while the barges are being towed to sea.
A large number of dead animals were hauled to the bay and dumped in, to
be carried to sea by the tides.
RELIEF TRAIN FROM HOUSTON.
A relief train from Houston, with 250 men on board, and two carloads of
provisions, came down over the Galveston, Houston & Northern Railroad
yesterday to a point about five miles from Virginia Point. It was
impossible for them to get the provisions or any considerable number of
the men to Galveston, so they turned their attention to burying the dead
lying around the mainland country.
There is no fresh water famine here, as the pipes from the supply works
are running at the receiving tanks. It is difficult, however, to get it
to parts of the city where it is needed.
ROBBERY AND MUTILATION OF THE DEAD.
A reporter has telegraphed from La Porte the story of the robbery and
mutilation of the dead in Galveston and death of the offenders.
Ghouls were holding an orgie over the dead. The majority of these men
were negroes, but there were also whites who took part in the
desecration. Some of them were natives and some had been allowed to go
over from the mainland, under the guise of “relief” work. Not only did
they rob the dead, but they mutilated bodies in order to secure their
ghoulish booty. A party of ten negroes were returning from a looting
expedition. They had stripped corpses of all valuables, and the pockets
of some of the looters were fairly bulging out with fingers of the dead,
which had been cut off because they were so swollen the rings could not
be removed.
Incensed at this desecration and mutilation of the dead, the looters
were shot down, and it has been determined that all found in the act of
robbing dead shall be summarily shot.
During the robbing of the dead, not only were fingers cut off, but ears
were stripped from the head in order to secure jewels of value. A few
Government troops who survived have been assisting in patrolling the
city. Private citizens have also endeavored to prevent the robbing of
the dead, and on several occasions have killed the offenders. Singly and
in twos and threes the offenders were thus shot down, until the total of
those thus executed exceeds fully fifty.
A REFUGEE’S STATEMENT.
J. W. B. Smith, who went to Galveston from Denver, was in Saturday
night’s storm, and reached Houston, after having an experience which he
will remember the remainder of his life.
He started from the city on Monday afternoon, and in walking from the
foot of Broadway to the Santa Fe bridge, counted two hundred dead bodies
hung up on wire fences, to say nothing of those floating in the water.
He constructed a raft out of planks, and in company with Clegg Stewart,
made for the mainland, which they reached after hours of exposure.
In every direction crossing the bay they saw the feet of corpses
sticking out of the water. Upon reaching land they walked to Hitchcock,
Mr. Stewart’s home, and found that twenty-five persons had lost their
lives there, and that, in addition, fifty bodies that had floated ashore
had been buried near there.
MONEY BADLY NEEDED.
The Galveston local relief committee sent out the following:
“We are receiving numerous telegrams of condolence and offers of
assistance. As the telegraph wires are burdened, we beg the Associated
Press to communicate this response to all. Nearby cities are supplying
and will supply sufficient food, clothing, etc., for immediate needs.
Cities farther away can serve us best by sending money. Checks should be
made payable to John Sealy, Chairman of the Finance Committee.
“All supplies should come to W. A. McVitie, Chairman Relief Committee.
We have 25,000 people to clothe and feed, for many weeks, and to furnish
with household goods. Most of these are homeless and the others require
money to make their wrecked residences habitable. From this the world
may understand how much money we will need. This committee will, from
time to time, report our needs with more particularity. We refer to
despatch of this date of Major R. G. Lowe, which the committee fully
endorses.
“All communicants will please accept this answer in lieu of direct
response and be assured of the heartfelt gratitude of the entire
population.
[Signed] “W. C. JONES, Mayor.”
CARNEGIE’S PRINCELY GIFT.
The Carnegie Company, of Pittsburg, was foremost in the contributions to
the relief of the sufferers at Galveston. At the meeting of the Chamber
of Commerce a motion to contribute $5000 was under discussion, when a
representative of the Carnegie Company entered and said that he had been
authorized by Mr. Carnegie through a cablegram to give $10,000 for the
distressed. The announcement was greeted with applause.
GREAT TIDAL WAVES IN THE WORLD’S HISTORY.
The tidal wave along the Texan coast will rank among the most disastrous
in history. History is deficient in the record of such tragedies in
human life, but the records are written in physical geography, and are
found in the conformation of shore lines, here and there, around all the
continents. It is impossible to estimate the number of lives lost
through inundations since mankind began, for purposes of commercial
intercourse, the development of seaports. Doubtless the total would run
into the hundreds of thousands, and might reach into millions.
Geology is quite sure that the rough Norwegian coast, pierced at
intervals of every few miles with the fiords or estuaries which
penetrate in many instances leagues into the land, tell the story of
many cataclysms such as that which has just occurred along the northern
coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Science, however, taking no note of the
traditions or folklore of a people, antedates all human life on the
Scandinavian peninsula in setting the time when this great rising of the
sea against the land took place.
Scientists are agreed on putting the formation of the Norwegian shore
lines as far back as the glacial period. But in the songs of the skalds,
as late as the reign of Harold Hardrada, there are allusions to the
valor of olden heroes over whom the seas had swept, but whose spirits
rode upon the winds which blew the Norman galleys to other shores. In
the Norway of the present day there are traditions, handed down through
countless generations, from the remotest antiquity, telling how, but not
when, the seas came in.
OLD AND CHARMING TRADITION.
One of the oldest and prettiest traditions in the world is that which
tells of a submerged city somewhere on the Scandinavian coast, the
minarets and towers of which poets can see reflected in the waters at
sunset, and the bells of which musicians, with ears divinely attuned to
concordant sounds, can hear at vespers. Without either the poet’s eye or
the musician’s ear it is still possible to conclude that traditions
which have survived so many centuries, and which contradict nothing of
the exact truth of science as to original causes, may be as well trusted
as science when it begins to speculate, which is all it does when it
seeks to prove that the Scandinavian fiords were in the country before
the Scandinavian himself.
[Illustration:
HON. JOSEPH D. SAYERS
GOVERNOR OF TEXAS]
[Illustration:
SHOWING TERRIBLE DEVASTATION ON AVENUE 1. BETWEEN TWELFTH AND
THIRTEENTH STREETS]
[Illustration:
THE JOHN SEALY HOSPITAL, GALVESTON]
[Illustration:
A RESIDENCE CARRIED FROM ITS FOUNDATION BY THE RUSH OF WATERS]
[Illustration:
REMOVING DEAD BODIES TO THE BARGES FOR BURIAL AT SEA]
[Illustration:
GENERAL VIEW ALONG THE GALVESTON BEACH AFTER THE FLOOD]
[Illustration:
CREMATING BODIES EXCAVATED FROM THE RUINS]
[Illustration:
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, GALVESTON, DAMAGED BY THE
FLOOD]
STORY OF THE LOST ATLANTIS.
The world, with the lapse of centuries, has not even been able to
outgrow the tradition of the lost Atlantis. Perhaps this is the oldest
of all traditions of cataclysms which have blotted out cities and
continents. It may be that it is because this one comes handed down to
us from the illustrous hand of Plato that we yield to it a veneration
which prolongs its life. Certainly it can never be more than tradition,
without a return to the ages of miracles. Our lately found expertness in
deep sea soundings have given us no new light on Atlantis.
And yet we cling to the old story, and are loath to turn from the
spectacle of a continent in the agonies of a watery burial, or to take
down from the walls of our brain cells the pictures of a submerged world
in which sea moss trails over and around great temples and monuments.
More than half the world believes that there is a lost Atlantis. The
Egyptians believed so, long before Plato’s day. It is in the mouth of an
Egyptian priest, talking to Solon, that Plato puts the description of
the vanished land. That description makes of Atlantis a land larger than
the Texas of to-day.
BELIEVED THE SEA HAD CONCEALED A LAND.
The Greek philosopher located it off the shores of North Africa, a
little to the southwest of Gibraltar. The Platonian description of the
interior of the Atlantis of ancient times is surpassingly beautiful, but
not more so than the rare imaginative power with which Plato writes of
the country and its people, a most fabulous and engaging history.
All this, of course, is the work of pure fancy, and only important,
beyond the fact that it is the work of Plato, as showing how deeply the
conviction had taken hold upon the mind of that age that the sea had
taken away a land which the ancients knew as the western shore of the
Atlantic Ocean, and had left nothing but a boundless waste of waters
west of Europe. Speculators have located the lost Atlantis near the
Canary Islands, and these islands are, in fact, supposed to be the
remnants of the lost continent. There is positively nothing tangible
upon which to hang the story of the lost Atlantis.
But, like most traditions which persist in living on after the world has
grown too practical to have any more use for them, it has, doubtless, a
foundation in some important fact of olden time, the tragedy of which
was in that sacrifice of the earth to the waters of the deep, which had
become familiar even to the ancients. Byron’s apostrophe to the ocean is
so singularly powerful and beautiful because it expresses that awe and
fear of man for the sea which is an instinct with us, and which, if it
had not been instinct with us at the first, would have become so through
the many and heavy afflictions visited upon the race by Neptune, god of
the sea.
TIDAL WAVES ON ENGLISH COASTS.
That the coasts of England have been visited by many and disastrous
tidal waves there is abundant evidence. In fact, the ocean bar, which
surrounds nearly the whole of England and Scotland, is evidence enough
that the entire shore line, as it exists to-day, is itself the result of
a great submersion, or series of submersions, which ages ago overflowed
the old coast, rushed in shore, made new land lines, and, hollowing out
between the new line and the old, a new ocean bed, leaving what had been
called the coast line to be forever after called the “bar.” The bar is
to be found in nearly every port of England, eloquent testimony to the
tidal waves of the past. But there is comparatively little of other
testimony save such as has been preserved in the records of seaport
towns.
One of the greatest cataclysms ever occurring on the British coast was
that on the coast of Lincolnshire in 1571. This has been commemorated in
verse by Jean Ingelow in the poem entitled “High Tide Off the Coast of
Lincolnshire.” The Lincolnshire coast is almost uniformly low and
marshy—so low, in fact, at some places that the shore requires the
defence of an embankment to save it from the encroachments of the sea.
A sea wall had been built when the great tidal wave of 1571 came, but it
appears to have been absolutely useless as a defence of the country and
the people of that time.
At the present day the fens of Lincolnshire are defended from the North
Sea by some of the finest engineering works in the world, and yet it is
much to be doubted whether they would prove effective against such
invasions as that which has just overwhelmed Galveston.
GREAT INUNDATION OF 1571.
There are ancient town records in nearly all the seacoast towns of
Lincolnshire which tell of the inundation of 1571. There was then as
there is now, a chime of bells in the tower of St. Botolph, Boston, and
when the tide was seen to be sweeping away the barriers the Mayor of
Boston himself mounted the belfry stairs and had played the old love
song called “The Brides of Enderby” as an alarm to the country side.
But the tide came so unheralded, there having been no premonition of it
in storm or tempest, that the meaning of the chimes was not understood.
Savants have never had an explanation of the Lincolnshire tide, coming
as it did so unheralded by anything threatening a cataclysm. The flood
found the people unprepared and thousands fell victims to its fury.
There is nothing in literature, and nothing of course in the musty
archives of the Lincolnshire towns, conveying as vivid an impression of
the horror of the day and night as the Ingelow verses. They are written
in the old, and what now seems to us the quaint, English of that day.
The story is told by an old woman whose daughter, out with her two
children looking and calling for the cows at eventide, is overwhelmed
and drowned.
A REAL TRAGEDY AT GALVESTON.
Perhaps it is a safe conclusion that the tragedy poetry as set for us on
the Lincolnshire stage had found expression in real life along the Texas
coasts. The old Lincolnshire woman’s plaintive narrative has never
seemed unreal, because it is filled with the spirit of a homely life,
but just now it seems like a voice from out the past telling us of the
tragedy now at our doors. The poem is a very long one, but a few
selections from its narration of the widespread desolation of the
country will picture much of the gulf coast of Texas at this time. The
cry of the housewife for the cattle dies out in the evening stillness
and then the old dame sees the flood:
And lo, along the river’s bed
A mighty eygre reared his crest,
And up the river raging sped.
It swept with thunderous noises loud—
Shaped like a curling, snow-white cloud,
Or like a demon in a shroud.
And rearing Lindus, backward pressed,
Shook all her trembling banks amain,
Then madly at the eygre’s breast
Flung uppe her weltering walls again,
Then bankes came down with ruin and rout,
Then beaten foam flew round about,
Then all the mighty floods were out.
So farre, so fast the eygre drave
The heart had hardly time to beat
Before a shallow seething wave
Sobbed in the grasses at our feet;
The feet had hardly time to flee
Before it brake against the knee—
And all the world was in the sea.
That flow strewed wrecks about the grass,
That ebbe swept out the flocks to sea—
A fatal ebbe and flow, alas,
To many more than mine and me.
TIDES AND EARTHQUAKES.
Many of the most fatal tidal waves of which we have any history, have
been accompanied by earthquakes, adding to their horrors, but making it
impossible to say whether the earthquake or the inundation has been the
more fatal and destructive. The great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755 was
accompanied by a tidal wave which, rolling up the Tagus river from the
ocean, submerged all the lower parts of the city and destroyed thousands
of lives which might possibly have escaped the earthquake shocks.
When the earthquake came to Caraccas in 1812 there was a tidal wave at
La Guyra, the entrepot of Caraccas, which destroyed many lives. Five
years ago a series of tidal waves, accompanied by or alternating with
earthquake shocks, visited some of the most populous islands of Japan.
The tidal waves reached from fifteen to twenty miles inland, being of
such a height, force and volume, ten miles from the ocean, particularly
when restricted to narrow valleys, as to be capable of destroying much
life.
The number of human lives lost at that time has never been stated in any
English newspaper, but that it ran far into the thousands there is no
room to doubt. Ten thousand is more apt to be an under than an over
estimate, such were the ravages of the combined seismic and cataclysmic
terrors visited upon that part of the world during nearly a week of days
and nights of horror, which, fortunately, come but seldom in the
experience of the race.
The affliction of Texas, while much less than this, is still monumental,
and will always rank among the great catastrophes of history. Perhaps
there have been events more destructive of life in times or places where
it was impossible that any record of them should be left. But few such
are known to history. Nor is it likely that the future will often bring
to any part of the world a severer affliction than that which has fallen
upon our Gulf coast.