Not a House in Galveston Escaped Damage—Young and Old, Rich and Poor,
Hurried to a Watery Grave—Citizens with Guns Guarding the Living and the
Dead.
The all-absorbing story of the great flood is continued in the following
pages, with new and thrilling incidents. Best informed residents of
Galveston who have been over all portions of the city estimate that from
1200 to 1300 acres were swept clear of habitation. It can be said that
not one Galveston home escaped without some damage.
Galveston’s great open-air show-place was the Garten Verein. There were
various structures devoted to recreation which stood on about seven
acres of ground that had been brought to a degree of perfection in
gardening hardly credible when the foundation of sand was remembered.
Hundreds of oleander trees and flowerbeds adorned the park. The Garten
Verein was wiped out of existence. Among the debris have been found many
bodies.
SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM THE STUNNING BLOW.
Galveston is now beginning slowly to recover from the stunning blow of
last week, and though the city appears to-night to be pitilessly
desolated, the authorities and the commercial and industrial interests
are setting their forces to work and a start has at least been made
toward the resumption of business on a moderate scale. Plans for
rebuilding the city are also discussed. The presence of the troops has
had a beneficial effect upon the criminal classes, and the apprehension
of a brief but desperate reign of anarchy no longer exists.
The liquor saloons have at least temporarily gone out of business, and
every strong-limbed man who has not his own humble abode to look after
is being pressed into service, so that, first of all, the water-service
may be resumed, the gutters flushed and the streets lighted.
The further the ruins are explored the greater becomes the increase in
the list of those who perished as their houses fell about their heads.
On the lower beach a searching party found a score of corpses within a
small area, going to show that the bulwark of debris that lies straight
across the island conceals many more bodies than have been accounted
for.
Volunteer gangs continue their work of hurried burial of the corpses
they find on the shores of Galveston Island at the many neighboring
points where fatalities attended the storm. It will probably be many
days yet, however, before all the floating bodies have found nameless
graves.
MANGLED CORPSES WASHED ASHORE.
Along the beach they are constantly being washed up. Whether these are
those who were swept out into the Gulf and drowned or are simply the
return of some of those cast into the sea to guard against terrible
pestilence, there is no means of knowing. In any event, the
correspondent, in a trip across the bay yesterday, counted seven bodies
tossing in the waves with a score of horses and cattle.
The city still presents the appearance of widespread wreck and ruin.
Little has been done to clear the streets of the terrible tangle of
wires and the masses of wreck, mortar, slate, stone and glass that
bestrew them. Many of the sidewalks are impassable. Some of them are
littered with debris. Others are so thickly covered with slime that
walking on them is out of the question.
As a general rule, substantial frame buildings withstood better the
blasts of the gale than those of brick. In other instances, however,
small wooden structures, cisterns and whole sides of houses are lying in
streets or backyards squares away from where they originally stood.
Here and there business men have already put men to work to repair the
damage done, but in the main the commercial interests seem to be
uncertain about following the lead of those who apparently show faith in
the rapid rehabilitation of the island city. The appearance of the
newspapers to-day, after a suspension of several days, is having a good
effect, and both the News and Tribune are urging prompt succoring of the
suffering and then equal promptness in reconstruction.
It is difficult to say yet what the ultimate effect of the disaster is
to be on the city. Many people have left and some may never return. The
experience of others still here was so frightful that not all will
remain if they can conveniently find occupation in other cities.
WONDERFUL COURAGE AND HOPE.
The bulk of the population, however, is only temporarily panic stricken,
and there are hosts of those who helped to make Galveston great who look
upon the catastrophe as involving only a temporary halt in the
advancement of the city.
The decision of the transportation lines will do more than anything else
to restore confidence. Big ships, new arrivals, rode at anchor to-day in
front of the city. They had just reached the port and found the docks
and pier damage so widespread that no accommodations could be given to
them.
The losses to the charitable institutions of the city were very heavy.
Sealy Hospital, the gift of the late John Sealy, was one of the largest
institutions of Texas. Very serious damage was sustained. Almost the
first work of restoration begun on any public structure was at the Sealy
Hospital.
The medical department of the University of Texas included what is known
as Brackenridge Hall. This hall was the gift of George W. Brackenridge,
of San Antonio. It was seriously damaged. The Old Women’s Hospital is a
complete ruin. St. Mary’s Infirmary, on Tenth and Market Streets, was
entirely destroyed. The Ursuline Convent and the Ursuline Academy were
partially demolished. The convent is now a haven of refuge of 500
houseless people.
The Catholic Orphans’ Asylum disappeared, leaving but slight traces in
the form of ruins. It was supposed that the inmates, some ninety-nine
sisters and little children, had been swept out into the gulf when the
waters receded. Within the past few days bodies of several of the
victims at the asylum have been found.
It appeared that when the sisters found the waters rising all around the
asylum their only thoughts were for their little charges. They tied the
children in bunches and then each sister fastened to herself one of
these groups of orphans, determined to save them or die with them. Two
of these groups have been found under wreckage. In each case eight
children had been fastened together and then tied to a sister.
Galveston’s school buildings, public and private, were unsurpassed for
solidity and architectural finish. An examination of the public school
buildings shows that scarcely one is fit for use.
Houses of worship suffered severely, although most of them were quite
substantial. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Baptist Church, Trinity
Episcopal, the Fourth Presbyterian, St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. John’s
Methodist, the Seamen’s Bethel and two other churches on Broad Street,
between Twenty-first and Tremont, sustained either total destruction or
such damages that they must be rebuilt. Grace Episcopal Church, in the
west end, which was one of the many benefactions of the late Henry
Rosenberg, escaped with slight injury.
BUSINESS HOUSES SUFFER GREAT LOSS.
One of the most notable buildings of the city was that of the
Improvement Loan and Trust Company, at Post Office and Tremont street.
The damage sustained was not serious. The E. S. Levy office building, on
Market and Tremont streets, cost $135,000. It contained 150 offices, and
was considered a marvel of the town. This building withstood the storm
and the occupants escaped by staying in their offices.
The Marx and Blum Buildings, Twenty-fourth and Mechanic streets, was one
of the large commercial structures. It was occupied in part by the
Galveston Hat and Shoe Co. The damages to the building and the stocks
are placed now at $75,000. The Clarke and Courts Building sustained a
loss to building and stock of $40,000. The Galveston Cotton and Woolen
Mills suffered to the amount of $75,000. The Galveston City Railroad
powerhouse was demolished, and it is estimated that $100,000 will be
required to restore the plant.
The business structures did not suffer the total destruction that
occurred in so much of the residence section, but many are so badly
damaged that they will have to be torn down.
LARGEST ELEVATOR BADLY DAMAGED.
Galveston had a gigantic elevator interest which had developed with the
port’s growing grain trade. Elevator “A” at Fourteenth street, on the
Bay side, was one of the largest in the world. Its capacity was in
excess of 1,500,000 bushels of wheat. All the upper works of the
elevator are gone.
One of the remarkable things about the force of the storm was that it
tore from their moorings several large steamships and carried them in
diverse directions. For example, the Kendall Castle an English ship, was
swept from Pier 33 across Pelican Island and landed on the shore at
Texas City. That was a course almost due north. Possibly a dredge may be
able to cut a channel which will let the Kendall Castle out of the shoal
part of the Bay, where it lies high in the water.
The Norwegian Gyller, a steamer of considerable tonnage, now lies
stranded between Virginia Point and Texas City. Its course varied
considerably from that of the Kendall Castle. A channel would have to be
cut so far to float out the Gyller that there is doubt whether it would
be warranted by the amount at stake.
One of the most serious results of the storm has been the damage to the
electric light and street car plants. The city has been in absolute
darkness for several nights, and only a few concerns who operate their
own illuminating services are enabled to do business. Nearly every
residence has gone back to the primitive candle. The absence of street
lights drives all who have no imperative business on the streets to
their homes at nightfall, but the work of the patrol system is made more
difficult thereby and the opportunity for looting greater.
The motormen deserted their cars when the fury of the wind and the rush
of the water made it no longer possible to operate them. Attempts are
being made now to get the cars in shape again. The great destruction of
live stock has eliminated the carriages and cabs as a means of
transportation.
The work of relief continues energetically. Mayor Jones and his
associates are bending every nerve to open a direct line of
transportation with Houston by which he may be enabled promptly to
receive the great quantity of provisions which are now on the way to the
city. The Relief Committee is striving to systematize its work. On
Tuesday an ordinance was passed authorizing rescuing and burying parties
to set fire to wrecked buildings and burn them. In these funeral pyres
hundreds of corpses were cremated.
CARING FOR HOMELESS REFUGEES.
Houston now is the haven of the unfortunate people of Galveston. Trains
have already brought in between 500 and 1000 of the survivors, and a
motley crowd they are. Men bareheaded, barefooted, hatless and coatless,
with swollen feet and bruised and blackened bodies and heads were
numerous. Women of wealth and refinement, frequently hatless, shoeless,
with gowns in shreds, were among the refugees. Nearly all of those who
came in have suffered the loss of one or more of their family. It is
remarkable, however, there is no whimpering, no complaining.
The refugees are being housed and fed, and those in need of medical
attention are placed in the hospitals. General-Manager Van Vleck, of the
Southern Pacific, says the damage to the wharves is fully eighty per
cent. The Southern Pacific, he says, expects to begin work on the bridge
within two days. It is expected that trains will be run into Galveston
within forty days.
John J. Moody, a member of the committee sent from Houston to take
charge of the relief station at Texas City, reports as follows:
“On arriving at La Marque this morning I was informed that the largest
number of bodies were along the coast of Texas City. Fifty-six were
buried yesterday and to-day within less than two miles extending
opposite this place and towards Virginia City. It is yet six miles
farther to Virginia City and the bodies are thicker where we are now
than where they have been buried. A citizen inspecting in the opposite
direction reports dead bodies thick for twenty miles.
“The residents of this place have lost all, not a habitable building
being left, and they have been too busy disposing of the dead to look
after personal affairs. Those who have anything left are giving it to
others, and yet there is real suffering. I have given away nearly all
the bread I brought for our own use to hungry children.
“Every ten feet along the wreck-lined coast tells of acts of vandalism.
Not a trunk, valise or tool chest has escaped rifling. We buried a woman
this afternoon whose fingers bore the mark of a recently removed ring.”
WASHED ACROSS THE BAY FROM GALVESTON.
B. F. Cameron, a lumber dealer of Stowell, Chambers County, says that
the relief party which went from Stowell to Bolivar, reported to him
that there was over 1000 dead bodies on the beach at Bolivar, Yeast Bay,
and in sight of the salt marshes which line the bay. The party succeeded
in burying only forty of the corpses. The others are lying in the water
and on land, decomposing in the heat. Many of these bodies were
evidently swept across the bay from Galveston.
In view of the completeness with which Galveston has been destroyed by
the storm, many believe the city will never be rebuilt. The argument is
that from its very location the city is ever in danger of a similar
visitation, and capital will be fearful of investment where the danger
is so constant.
There are many, however, who take the opposite view and say that in no
other place on the Gulf can there be found a location so advantageous,
and therefore, no matter if the risk be great, capital will seek
investment in Galveston, and the city will soon resume her importance as
a shipping port.
This sentiment is reflected in telegrams and verbal utterances, some of
which are here printed:
Dallas, Texas, Wednesday.—Much serious thought has been given to the
question of the future of Galveston by the best informed men of Dallas
since the calamity of last Saturday and Sunday. The outlook, to their
minds, is not a bright one. The expression of judgment most frequently
heard is “Galveston is doomed.” Men reason that to the perils the
population have ever to face from nature’s elements the timidity of
capital must now be added.
In the great storm of 1875 little of private or public capital ran the
risk of destruction. The great wharves, elevators, compresses and
railway and steamship systems had taken but slight foothold in the
island city. The federal government had built jetties and general harbor
improvements and coast defences, at a cost of more than $10,000,000 of
public money. All these millions of public and private wealth have been
put into Galveston enterprises since 1875.
CAPITAL WILL BE SHY HEREAFTER.
Capitalists will scarcely venture again in the near future to invest
their money in a place where it is likely to be wiped out at a ratio of
from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 to one equinoctial storm. And when the
Federal Government contemplates costly brand new coast defence
fortifications, such as Fort Sam Houston, shattered by wind and waves,
and ninety per cent. of the garrison killed, it will not consider the
place where these ventures were made a safe one for their duplication. A
harbor to be safe must be land locked.
These are the views of thinking men who have studied the situation. The
question then arises, What will supersede Galveston? Some predict that
Houston, fifty miles in the interior, on Buffalo Bayou, through the
agency of a ship canal built at the expense of the federal government,
is the coming metropolis of the Gulf.
Others say Texas City, ten miles from Galveston, will now be developed
as a grand maritime successor to the unfortunate island city. Others say
Clinton, on Buffalo Bayou, six miles below Houston, because of its
facilities to furnish water and rail terminals, will be the Texas
seaport of the near future.
Very few expect unfortunate Galveston to rise again and reassert herself
the mistress of the Gulf. A Galveston man illustrated the problem very
aptly to-night, when he said:
“Fully one-half of the population of Galveston will never go back there
to live if they be got off the island alive this time. My opinion is
that Galveston has had her rise and fall.”
AUSTIN PREDICTS NO DESERTION OF THE CITY.
Austin, Texas, Wednesday.—In the first shadow of the awful calamity
which has befallen Galveston the thought of many is that Galveston City
will have to be removed to the mainland or deserted. Nevertheless,
calmer opinion is that the city will not be moved. There are too many
interests concerned, too much money invested and too many possibilities
to think of moving the city.
Property losses, while great, are not beyond repair. The city may not
for many years regain the popularity it enjoyed up to last week, but it
is believed that with the passage of time and the allaying of public
fear the place will begin to revive.
Millions are invested there in harbor improvements that would be useless
were the island deserted. Millions more invested in business weathered
the storm, save as to windows and roofs, and these can be easily
repaired.
Wharfing interests representing millions will cost money to get back
into shape again, but the belief is general that it will be done. The
business interests of Texas demand a port such as Galveston, and while
the town may not regain within five or six years the resident population
it had, it is not probable that it will be depopulated.
When the storm of 1875 swept the island it did considerable damage, and
it took several years for the public to shake off the fear of a
residence there. They did so, however, and went back, and it is believed
that they will do so again.
Prominent citizens of Galveston to a man say that no thought of moving
the city to the mainland or a more protected spot can be entertained, as
there are too many interests in Galveston that cannot be transplanted,
and that have not been so badly affected by the storm as to render them
useless.
Railroads are already reconstructing bridges across the bay, and trade
will be moving through the port within a fortnight.
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. These jetties, however, do not furnish
an obstacle of any importance to the invasion of the sea when behind it
is a force such as a West India 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, said 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.”
GREAT NEED OF A SAFE HARBOR.
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 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. M. Robert, G. L. Gillespie
and Jared A. Smith. It is reported that Galveston was the most eligible
point for a deep harbor, but also called attention to the harbors at
Sabine Pass and Aransas Pass as being worthy of consideration.
In New York the views of railroad men concerning the future of Galveston
as a shipping point are far from gloomy. A. F. Walker, Chairman of the
Board of Directors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, says
he expects the city to be rebuilt within three months.
“Of course,” said Mr. Walker, “it is a serious blow to Galveston, and
with the city covered with mud and wreckage it is easy to prophesy evil
for its future, but two weeks will suffice to clear the wreckage and
clean the streets, get the dead buried and make a careful estimate of
the actual loss. This loss is tremendous, there can be no doubt, but it
has very likely been grossly exaggerated.
“Galveston will rebuild, and quickly, because the site combines the
greatest natural advantages as a Gulf port and has solid commercial
backing. It is imperative that we have a port on the Gulf—the extent of
shipping demands it. Galveston offers, in spite of the real handicap of
her low position, the best site, and I see no reason why it should not
be rapidly rebuilt.”
BELIEVES CITY WILL BE REBUILT.
Vice-President Tweed, of the Southern Pacific Railroad, said this
morning that he felt sure that his road would repair the damage done to
its properties at Galveston, and go on with further improvements
planned.
“I take it for granted,” Mr. Tweed declared, “that the directors of the
Southern Pacific will keep up the work they started there. I do not
think that this disaster, though certainly serious, will kill Galveston
as a shipping port. No definite reports have been received as to the
extent of our losses there. The two piers already completed on the
property of the Southern Pacific were certainly badly damaged. Any
estimate of the amount of damage would be only a guess, but I should say
that it would fall below $400,000. Three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars had been spent on the piers, and $75,000 paid for a short line
from Galveston to Houston, which was destroyed.”
Concerning the suggestion that Galveston will not be rebuilt, but that
another city will be established in a safer place on the Gulf, to serve
as a shipping port, Mr. Henry Mallory, of the Mallory line of
steamships, said:
“Texas naturally seeks an outlet through a Texan harbor, and there is
none other in Texas equal to the harbor of Galveston. All railroads
centre there. If the city were wiped out some man with money would begin
to build there. Locally, Galveston has suffered great loss, against
which there is no insurance. But that does not rob the city of its
pre-eminent valve as a port.”
Asked if it would be practicable to rebuild the city on an inner shore
of Galveston Bay, Mr. Mallory said that it would not. “There is no
better location,” said he, “for the city. It is not our purpose to
abandon Galveston. We have ten steamships—nine in commission and one
building—and we expect to remain in the Texas service.”
A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.
A correspondent, under date of September the 14th, wrote:
“So far as the actual presence of death is concerned, nobody would know,
from a glance at the streets to-day, that a terrible tragedy had been
enacted here. Human corpses are out of sight. They have either been
buried, taken out to sea or burned.
“But the horrors have not been obliterated by any means. The danger of
pestilence still remains. While the human corpses have been disposed of,
those of animals—horses, cows, dogs, etc.—have been permitted to remain
above ground. There was no time and no means to remove them. Their
putrifying remains lay where the waves left them—there to emit a stench
that is simply unbearable.
“Lime with which to consume these carcasses is all that will save
Galveston from epidemic.
“With corrupt flesh and bad water, or no water at all, Galveston is
already in the grasp of typhoid and other virulent fevers. The diseases
have not yet become epidemic, but if unchecked for twenty-four hours
there is no doubt they will become so.
“Appreciating the situation, Adjutant-General Scurry yesterday succeeded
in getting gangs of laboring men organized. The progress made is
remarkable and to-day it was much greater. Large piles of refuse were
gathered and burned, and the work of cleaning up proceeded in a
systematic manner. Heretofore there has been no system, everybody
working for the public good in his own way.
PEOPLE HURRYING TO ESCAPE.
“The exodus from the city was heavy to-day, and hundreds more were eager
to go who were unable to secure transportation. Along the bay front
there were scores of families with dejected faces, pleading to be taken
from the stricken city, where, in spite of every effort to restore
confidence, there is a universal feeling of depression.
“Shipping men say to-day that the damage to the wharves is by no means
as serious as at first supposed. More hopeful reports were received
to-day touching the water supply. The company is placing men all along
the mains, plugging the broken places and thereby assisting the flow. It
was serving some of its customers to-day, and hopes gradually to
increase the service. The water continues to run by gravity pressure.
“The only difficulty the people are having is in carrying supplies to
their homes or places of business. The ice supply continues bountiful,
and at many corners lemonade is being served at five cents for as many
glasses as you can drink at one time.
“The work of disposing of the dead continues. Several hundred bodies are
still buried beneath the wreckage. Thirty-two sand mounds, marked with
small boards, attract attention on the beach, near Twenty-sixth street,
and tell the story of where seventy-five bodies have been laid to rest.
In the extreme western part of the city sixty bodies were cremated with
wreckage of the homes of the unfortunate victims.
“A conflict of authority, due to a misunderstanding, precipitated a
temporary disorganization of the policing of the city yesterday. It
seems that when General Scurry, Adjutant-General of the Texas Volunteer
Guard, arrived in the city with about 200 militia from Houston, he
conferred with the chief of police as to the plans for preserving law
and order.
“An order was issued by the chief of police to the effect that the
soldiers should arrest all persons found carrying arms unless they
showed a written order, signed by the chief of police or Mayor, giving
them permission to go armed. The result was that about fifty citizens
wearing deputy sheriff badges were arrested by the soldiers and taken to
police headquarters.
FREE USE OF DEADLY WEAPONS.
“The soldiers had no way of knowing by what authority the men were
acting with these badges, and would listen to no excuses. After a
hurried conference between General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas it was
decided that all deputy sheriffs and special officers shall be permitted
to carry arms and pass in and out of the guard lines. The deputy
sheriffs and special and regular police now police the city during the
daytime, and the militia take charge of the city at night.
“More than 2000 dead bodies have been identified, and the estimate of
Mayor Jones, that 5000 perished in Saturday’s great hurricane, does not
appear to be magnified. The city is being patrolled by troops and a
citizens’ committee, and a semblance of order is appearing.
“At a conference held at the office of City Health Officer Wilkinson it
was decided to accept the offer of the United States Marine Hospital
Service and establish a camp at Houston, where the destitute and sick
can be sent and be properly cared for. The physicians agreed that there
were many indigent sick in the city who should be removed from
Galveston, and Houston was selected because that city had very
thoughtfully suggested the idea and tendered a site for the camp. Acting
upon the suggestion to establish a camp and care for the sick and needy,
a message was sent to the Surgeon-General, at the head of the Marine
Hospital Corps, asking for 1000 tents of four-berth capacity each; also
several hundred barrels of disinfecting fluid.
“The health department is calling for 100 men with drays to clean the
streets. The plan is to district the city and start out the drays to
remove all refuse and dead animals and cart all unsanitary matter from
the streets. It is anticipated that by Saturday the work will have
advanced to cover the greater portion of the business district and part
of the residence section.
“Prior to the hurricane Galveston was one of the richest cities in the
world, per capita, and the surviving millionaires who made their money
here have read with displeasure the telegrams that the city would never
survive the terrible blow it suffered. They insist that the city will be
rebuilt and will be another Chicago, rising superior to the calamities
that palsy the ordinary people.
“The determination to rebuild the city received a strong impetus to-day,
when it was learned that G. W. Boscheke, assistant engineer of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, had received orders by wire from New York to
prepare plans at once for a double-track steel bridge across Galveston
Bay ten feet higher than the old one, and to proceed with all the force
possible. Engineers are already at work making a survey and running
lines preparatory to the resumption of work.
NEW SURVEY WILL BE MADE.
“A telegram from New York says that Colonel H. M. Roberts, of the
Engineering Corps, United States Engineers for the southwest district,
said to-day that a survey will be made of the wrecked Galveston forts
and works. Captain Richie has submitted a report, in which he says the
foundations which were built on piling withstood the ravages of the
storm much better than the foundations without piling. In the future it
is proposed to use piling exclusively.
“Congressman R. B. Hawley, who was in Washington at the time of the
storm, has arrived in this city.
“‘Work of vast importance is to be undertaken here,’ said he; ‘work on
different lines from that which has been our habit heretofore.
“‘There are storms elsewhere. If the people in other parts of the
country built as we build, their cities would be down and out nearly
every year; but they build structures to stay, and we must rebuild our
city on different lines and in a different manner, that will resist the
gales as they do. The port is all right. The fullest depth of water
remains. The jetties, with slight repair, are intact, and because of
these conditions the restoration will be more rapid than may be
thought.’”
MORTALITY LIST IS ENORMOUS.
In fact, while the mortality list of the city grows larger every hour,
the prospects of Galveston grow brighter. An investigation shows that
industries that were supposed to be wrecked forever are only slightly
damaged, and business in them may be resumed any day.
“J. C. Stewart, the grain elevator builder, after careful inspection of
the grain elevators and their contents, said the damage to the grain
elevators was not over two per cent. The wheat will be loaded into
vessels just as rapidly as they come to the elevator to take it. Ships
are needed here at once. Mr. Stewart said he would put a large force of
men to work clearing up each of the wharves, and the company will be
ready for business within the next eight days. The wharves have been
damaged very little outside of the wreckage of the sheds. With the
wreckage cleared away, Galveston will be in good shape for business.
“At a meeting of the general committee last night the need of sprinkling
the streets with a strong bichloride solution and taking other sanitary
precautions was discussed, and after adjournment of the general
committee, the committee on correspondence sent the following telegram:
“‘Our most urgent present needs now are disinfectants, lime, cement,
gasoline stoves, gasoline, charcoal furnaces and charcoal. Nearby towns
also may send bread. For the remainder of our wants, money will be most
available, because we can make purchases from time to time with more
discretion than miscellaneous contributors would exercise. We are
bringing order out of chaos, and again offer our profound gratitude for
the assistance so far received.’”
[Illustration:
LOOKING SOUTH ON AVENUE I, SHOWING CHURCH OF SACRED HEART, COMPLETELY
DESTROYED]
[Illustration:
M. P. MORRISSEY
TRAFFIC MANAGER OF THE WILLIAM PARR & CO., GENERAL STEAMSHIP AGENTS,
WHO FIRST SUGGESTED AND CARRIED INTO EFFECT THE BURIAL OF BODIES AT
SEA AND THE BURNING OF OTHER BODIES ON SHORE TO SAVE THE SURVIVORS
FROM PESTILENCE]
[Illustration:
FIRE DEPARTMENT TAKING BODIES TO A MORGUE]
[Illustration:
BODIES AMONG RUINS—CHARACTERISTIC SCENE IN GALVESTON]
[Illustration:
WRECKED RESIDENCES CORNER TWENTY-SEVENTH STREET AND AVENUE M]
[Illustration:
REMOVING WRECKAGE IN SEARCH OF DEAD BODIES]
Surveying the situation, one of our great journals bestowed these words
of praise: “Another good day’s work was done yesterday in behalf of the
Texas sufferers. There has been no abatement in the generous giving of
supplies and money. The fearful plight of the thousands who outlived the
terrors of the storm has touched every heart profoundly. In Galveston
alone, where the cyclone swept inland with fiercest fury, 25,000 persons
are homeless. Half the population of what a week ago was a prosperous
city, in a single day was left dependent upon charity.
DANGER OF AN EPIDEMIC.
“The danger of an epidemic now threatens the survivors. Many of the
people are giving way to physical exhaustion. They have been compelled
to subsist upon unwholesome food, drink polluted water and breathe the
foul air of their unsanitary surroundings. In spite of all that has been
done for the relief of the stricken Texans, the death roll is still
growing. As many as possible must be removed from the scene of
destruction to more healthful conditions.
“What Philadelphia has done should go far to alleviate the immediate
distress, yet this is only a drop in the great flow of charity. An
additional $10,000 was sent to Governor Sayres yesterday, making $25,000
in all that has been forwarded by the Citizens’ Permanent Relief
Committee. And more subscriptions are daily flowing in. A number of
physicians and nurses have volunteered their services and are only
awaiting a reply from the Relief Committee on the ground. There will be
work for them if sickness becomes prevalent, as is now feared.
“Many of our citizens who wished to make donations of food, clothing and
other supplies have again had recourse to the special trains that are
being sent forward. Last night a second special of four heavily-laden
cars was sent to Galveston. In addition to this, many subscriptions of
money have been made and will be forwarded to the authorities in Texas.”