Startling Havoc Made by the Angry Storm—Vessels Far Out on the
Prairie—Urgent Call for Millions of Dollars—Tangled Wires and Mountains
of Wreckage.
Colonel “Bill” Sterrett, a well-known publisher of Austin, went to
Galveston after the storm and the sights he saw during his stay there
are thus described by him:
“How to commence the story bothers. Whether to start out with the
absolute truth and wind the sheet about the whole thing with the simple
expression ‘unspeakable’ or to go on and hint the details inexpressibly
sad, intimate the horrors, is the question.
“It would be better for the heart if a veil could fall from heaven and
conceal what it has done. It would be better if a fog, thick, like a
wall, should come up between the sea and the land that the latter might
never see the crime of the former. For if calm humanity shrieked against
the awfulness of the one element, it has done it now.
“The broad pampa between Houston and Galveston had been flooded. The
towns which in the last ten years had grown were scared and torn by this
fiend. Its anger was shown in pastures as well as in towns, and yet none
knew the fury of it. There were reports of destruction further on, and
the truth of them impressed each man in the cars as the cars counted off
its rattleteteck in toll-off the miles.
“Against a barbed wire fence the bloated carcasses of cattle had
floated, their swollen limbs stiff toward the sky, and yet others
browsed around in the meadow now which was a roaring sea but four days
ago. The sight was the first he saw of death, and every man in the car,
as to avoid the fear that arose in the mind of each, began to express
wonder how this could be, that is, that some of these poor brutes were
dead and others living. There were vessels of all tonnage, kinds and
degrees on the prairie.
“Out there was a tramp steamship, the other way was the dredge boat;
there were yachts, schooners and launches, but near us was the hobby
horse of a child. And so help me, I would rather have seen all the
vessels of the earth stranded high and dry than to have seen this
child’s toy, standing right out on that prairie, masterless. Because one
represented—well, why, say God, man’s heart is so weak. But surely he
will forgive it when it is soft for those who are weak.
“Debris of all kinds covered the prairie. It was from Galveston, because
it could be from no other place. Every ant hill was covered with the
remnants of homes in the city, six miles away. There were lace curtains,
furniture of all kinds, but mostly of the cheap kind. There were toys,
ladies’ toilet articles, bed clothes, and, in fact, everything that goes
to make up a home. This point was Texas City, six miles away from
Galveston, across the bay. The town had suffered badly.
GENTLE AS A COUNTRY POND.
“Human lives were lost there, and the agony of it was great, but above
all was the idea, ‘What of across the bay?’ It was six miles dead
across, and a schooner was in waiting to take us over. But before it
landed there was a chance of observation of the bay, in which the waters
now gently lisped. For the bay was as gentle as a country pond. It
lisped and kissed the few blades of grass that grew down where the rise
and fall of the ridge was natural. It did not moan like the sea. It
merely gurgled. But every little wave threw up and agitated the dead.
Bloated horses and cows which provident housekeepers in the city across
the water had owned and petted were there. Chickens, rats, dogs, cats
and everything, it seemed, that breathed, was there, dead and swollen
and making the air nauseous.
“But by their sides were people. The worn-out people of the district,
having saved their own lives and buried their dead, were quick to
respond to natural instincts and do right by their kind. I saw them take
swollen women and swollen men and swollen children and with quick shift
place them in two-foot graves. It was terrible, but what could they do?
“There were no burial services. The men who did work were simply doing
what they could to relieve the air of them. They were not gentle, but
how could they be gentle, when the bodies lay there with their black
faces, with their terribly swollen tongues and the odor of decomposition
threatening those who lived?
“In the debris from Galveston was everything. I was struck with the idea
that this must have impressed the people that the world had come to an
end. For twenty-five miles on the land into the interior this disorderly
element raged. It destroyed and it mangled, and when it ceased really
the sea had given up its dead and the secrets of life were revealed, for
walking among the debris I found a trunk. It had been broken open by the
waves.
“Letters were blurred by the waves. I picked up one, and it began, ‘My
darling little wife,’ and I closed it and threw it among its fellows on
the drift. She was dead. She had kept this letter. Their sacred
relations were exposed by this terror to those who would read them.
There were dozens of men who picked up those letters. No one read them,
for man is not so bad after all.
WRINGING THEIR HANDS IN AGONY.
“Two women—I talked to them—had left two children each in Galveston in
the destroyed district, and they sat through that whole five hours’ trip
wringing their hands and trying to curb the volcano of lamentation which
lies in the mother’s heart when those of her flesh are imperiled or
dead.
“We passed corpses. We passed the corpses of men and women and children.
The moon was out, floating real brilliantly, and the boat cut past,
barely missing a woman with her face turned toward God and the sky. I
fervently prayed I might never see the like again. And when we reached
the wharf, torn and skinned so that we had to creep to land, I saw
beneath me, white and naked seven bodies.
“My very soul turned cold at the grewsome sight. Horrible! The
contemplation of it yet makes me sick, though I have seen things since
then that make me and would make the world sick, if I were able to
describe them, unto death.”
Of the pitiful tales, that of Thomas Klee, of Galveston, is one of the
most pitiful. His wife was away from home when the house was destroyed,
and has not since been heard from. Klee with his infant boy and girl in
his arms was carried for an hour in the whirling water. Once he tried to
fasten the four year old girl in the branches of a tree, but she was
torn from his arms while he was trying to make her fast. When he finally
gained a firm foothold he found his boy dead in his arms. Since that
time he has hardly been a conscious being and he is still in the
hospital at Houston, where he was taken Friday.
The body of a nephew of Alderman John Wagner, a youth eighteen years
old, was found lodged in the forks of a tall cedar tree on Galveston
Island, two miles from his wrecked home, and tightly clinched with a
death grip in his right hand was $200 which his father gave him to hold
while the father attempted to close a door, when the house went down and
the whole family perished in the storm and flood.
CLASPED HANDS AND ESCAPED.
Encircling a water stand pipe with clasped hands, W. R. Jones and
fifteen other men prevented themselves from being carried away by the
water, and so saved their lives at Galveston.
In a wooden bathtub Mrs. Chapman Bailey and Miss Blanche Kennedy were
carried out into the gulf, where they spent Saturday night. Not till the
next morning did the tide bring them back to where the rescuing parties
could reach them. Neither of them has a relative in Galveston left
alive.
Captain John Delaney, chief customs inspector of the port of Galveston,
is one of the courageous men of the town. He lost his entire family,
wife, son and daughters, but his sixty years were not bowed by his fate.
The day following the disaster he was at his post, attired in a suit of
overalls, the only clothing he had saved from the wreck of his home, and
he has inspected all the vessels that have arrived since then.
Along the Galveston wharf front the storm was particularly violent. The
big steel tank of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, in which was stored
during the season cotton seed oil, at the foot of Fifteenth street, was
blown to Twenty-first street, a distance of six blocks. It landed on its
bottom and rests now in an upright position. It is a large tank and
heavy, but the elements got the better of it.
RESCUED TWO BABES FROM DEATH.
Ray Ayers, an eight year old boy, unwittingly rescued his sister’s two
babies during the flood. He was floating on a raft in Galveston when he
passed a box with the two children in it. He seized them, but the weight
was too heavy for his raft, and so he placed them on two bales of hay on
top of a floating shed. When he found his sister he learned that her
children were lost, and when a searching party discovered them, they
were still sleeping, unconscious of their danger.
James Battersole, of Galveston, was one of the men who were carried far
out to sea during the storm, whirled back again in the rush of waters,
and lived to tell of it. The roof of his house, on which he had sought
refuge, served as his raft, and the spot on which he landed was very
close to the location his house had formerly occupied.
Margaret Lee’s life was saved at the expense of her brother’s. The woman
was in her Twelfth street home, in Galveston, when the hurricane struck.
Her brother seized her and guided her to St. Mary’s University, a short
distance away. He returned to search for his son, and was killed by a
falling house.
While George Boyer, of Galveston, was being carried with frightful
velocity down the bay he saw the dead face of his wife in the branches
of a tree. The woman had been wedged firmly between two branches.
Mrs. P. Watkins is a raving maniac as the result of her experience. With
her two children and her mother she was drifting on a roof, when her
mother and one child were swept away. Mrs. Watkins mistakes attendants
in the hospital for her lost relatives, and clutches wildly for them.
Harry Steele, a cotton man, and his wife sought safety in three
successive houses, which were demolished. They eventually climbed on a
floating door and were saved.
Though separated by the storm and washed in different directions all the
members of the Stubbs family, of Galveston, were rescued. Father, mother
and two children were on a floating roof that broke in pieces. The
father, with one child, went one way. The mother went another, and the
remaining children went in still a third direction. Sunday evening all
four were reunited.
L. F. Menage, of Austin, who returned from Galveston Friday night,
reached the Tremont Hotel, Galveston, the Friday evening before the
terrible storm began. He says it has been the most terrible week in his
experience, the most awful two days a man could imagine were the Sunday
and Monday succeeding the hurricane.
“ALL GONE!—ALL GONE!”
“One man would ask another how his family had come out,” said Mr. Menage
last night, “and the answer would be indifferent and hard—almost offish:
‘Oh, all gone.’ ‘All gone’ was the phrase on all sides.
“The night before the disaster, when I reached the hotel, it was blowing
rather hard, and the clerk said we were in for a storm, and I asked him
if his roof was firmly fixed, and he said, ‘Well, it won’t be quite as
bad as that,’ but by the next night at the same time there was three
feet of water in the rotunda and the skylight had fallen in and the
servants’ annex been blown to pieces, and the place was crowded with
refugees who arrived from all points of the city in boats. Saturday
night there was little sleep, yet no one realized the extent of the
disaster.
“On Sunday morning one could walk on the higher streets, so quickly had
the water gone down. I took a walk along the beach, and the place was
one great litter of overturned houses, debris of all kinds and corpses.
I met one woman who burst into tears at sight of a small rocker, her
property, mixed in among the wreckage. She had lost all her family in
the flood. People were for the most part bereft of their senses from the
horror, and a single funeral would have seemed more terrible—more
solemn—than a pile of cremated bodies.
“The tales of looting are only too true, and as I passed northward in a
sailboat on Tuesday I heard the shots ring out which told that some
ghoul was paying the penalty. Galveston will rise again on the old site,
and without as much difficulty as is at present anticipated. Most of the
people will, however, try and live on the mainland.”
Miss Sarah E. Pilkington, a well-known young woman of Chester, Penna.,
was one of those who escaped the terrible storm which broke over
Galveston. Miss Pilkington left Houston just a few hours before the
dreadful storm broke, but she was sufficiently near its origin to hear
the rush and roar of the wind. “I distinctly remember,” said she, “the
approach of the hurricane. It sounded like two express trains, each
rumbling in opposite directions. Suddenly there was a loud report
similar to the noise of a big collision, and the tornado was separated,
one portion going in the direction of Galveston, the other wending its
way toward Houston. I was staying at Milliken.”
For some time after the hurricane Miss Pilkington could not be
communicated with, and it was thought for a week that she had perished
in the tornado.
NO TIME TO DIG GRAVES.
Galveston, Texas, Tuesday.—The work of digging bodies from the mass of
wreckage still continues. More than 400 bodies were taken out of the
debris which lines the beach front to-day. With all that has been done
to recover bodies buried beneath or pinned in the immense rift, the work
has hardly started. There is no time to dig graves, and the bodies,
beaten and bruised beyond identification, are hastily consigned to the
flames.
Volunteers for this work are coming in fast. Men who have heretofore
avoided the dead under ordinary conditions are now working with vigorous
will and energy in putting them away. Under one pile of wreckage this
afternoon twenty bodies were taken out and cremated. In another pile a
man pulled out the bodies of two children, and for a moment gazed upon
them and then mechanically cast them into the fire. They were his own
children. He watched them until they were consumed and then he resumed
his work, assisting in removing other bodies.
A large force of men are still engaged in removing the dead from Hurd’s
lane, about four miles west of the city. At this point the water ran to
a height of fourteen feet, and left in trees and fences the bodies of
men, women and children, which are now being collected and cremated.
On the mainland the search for and cremation of bodies is being
vigorously prosecuted. Reports received from Bolivar Peninsula, where
between 300 and 400 bodies were lying along the beach and inland, show
that the dead are being buried as rapidly as possible. The man bringing
the report says the force is inadequate and should be immediately
increased.
DISINFECTING THE CITY.
The manner of disposing of the wreckage and its mass of bodies in this
city has not as yet been definitely decided upon. Every energy is now
employed in getting rid of the dead, opening streets, cleaning alleys
and gutters and disinfecting the city. When this is done the removal of
the immense mass of debris will commence. Everything is in readiness to
turn on the current for the electric lights in the business district,
but because of the danger from hanging wires on the circuit, the
lighting has been indefinitely postponed. Three telephone wires are now
working between Galveston and Houston.
Chairman Davidson, of the Relief Committee, says the greatest sufferers
from the storm are those persons of limited means who owned homes near
the beach. There are hundreds of these, who owned lots, and by giving
liens upon them, had homes constructed by loan companies.
A. Holzman, representing Frederick G. Holzman, of Cincinnati, purchaser
of the sewerage bonds of the city of Galveston to the amount of
$300,000, arrived to-day and consulted with the city officials as to
whether it was proposed to accept a sewerage system in accordance with
plans adopted prior to the storm. He received assurances that the storm
would in no way affect the construction of the sewerage system, and as
soon as possible work would commence.
W. B. Groseclose, assistant general freight agent of the Missouri,
Kansas and Texas Railroad, reached Galveston this evening. He says the
road will commence to receive grain for shipment to Galveston on
September 22. A large force of men is engaged repairing one of the
railroad bridges across Galveston Bay.
A force of Deputy United States Marshals under Marshal Grant is guarding
the entrance to Galveston, at Texas City, and keeping away all persons
who can show no good cause for coming here. Crowds are daily leaving the
city, a majority being women and children. The city is still under
martial law, and will remain so indefinitely. Idlers and sightseers who
elude the guards on the mainland are upon their arrival here pressed
into the street service.
SOME ACCOUNT OF CLARA BARTON.
Galveston, Tex., September 18.—Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross
Society, who came here to distribute relief supplies, was stricken down
at her work to-day while ministering to the victims of the Galveston
storm. She succumbed, like a soldier, at her post. To-night she lies
seriously ill at the Tremont Hotel.
She was stricken at a conference in her rooms at the Tremont, with her
staff of nine gathered about her. She had just finished an outline of
her work, assigning each member of her staff to the particular part of
the work that one was to do. Suddenly she ceased speaking. Turning to
Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, Vice-President of the Red Cross, who sat at
her side, she whispered:
“Begin talking. I am going to faint. Don’t let them see.”
Miss Barton leaned back in her chair and Mrs. Mussey arose, and,
standing before her, began speaking. Without a sign to the others Mrs.
Mussey finished what she had to say and then dismissed the conference.
Galveston people arose with heavy hearts this morning. Thousands of them
were driven from their beds. Shortly after sunrise there came a downpour
of rain, the first since the storm. If there was a house in town that
had been sufficiently repaired to shed the rain it was a rare exception.
Cremation of the dead and clearing the streets have taxed the energies.
There has not been time to give attention to roofs. Such repairs as have
been made to buildings have been in the form of straightening and
strengthening them so that they might not fall down. Many, while still
standing, are leaning like the tower of Pisa or are partly off the
foundations.
FACES OVERSPREAD WITH SADNESS.
From this it will be understood that when the rain poured down it
entered the houses still called habitable and drenched the contents
again. The faces of the people showed the influence of the rain. They
were overspread with sadness. The hopefulness which had been lighting up
the features was gone. But it was only an hour of depression. Then the
shower, for that was all it proved to be, passed. The sun came out.
All Galveston went to work with renewed energy. Three or four horse cars
made their appearance and, drawn by mules, were operated over several
streets. At the wharves there was activity. The loading of wheat for
export was commenced. Cremation and cleaning went on. The finding and
burning of over 100 bodies in the day shows that the end of this duty is
not yet in sight.
In the southern and southwestern part of the city the great windrow of
wreckage still stands, concealing from sight but not from smell what is
underneath. Word was sent along the inner side of the windrow to
occupants of houses near that they must move back a block. The
impression is that this means the authorities have decided they will
apply the torch to the great heaps whenever a favorable wind from the
north will make burning safe for the rest of the city. This action has
been strongly advocated.
The tents have come and with board floors and fences separating them now
make a white city on the beach front where the houses were swept away.
They will be much safer and more healthy than many of the shattered
buildings which are still occupied by the poorer classes. There have
been till now some people finding shelter in the wooden cisterns which
the wind blew off their foundations and left lying about the streets and
parks. Others are in houses without roofs and windows and still others
in buildings the walls of which are far from perpendicular.
The following detailed account of the experience of the Rev. Judson S.
Palmer and his family, formerly of Sharon, Penna., in the disaster at
Galveston, was received at the former place in a letter. Mrs. Palmer and
her son were drowned.
ROOF BLOWN AWAY.
About four o’clock Dr. Cline, who was in charge of the Weather Bureau at
Galveston, the letter stated, passed, and Rev. Palmer asked him what
they had better do. He advised them to stay in the house, as he thought
it was perfectly safe. The storm increased and the water flowed into the
yard. Mr. Palmer went downstairs and found the wind had blown down the
front door and several windows.
About dark sections of the roof were blown off and all the persons in
the house went into Mr. Palmer’s room. There a prayer meeting was held,
all joining in prayer and singing. Little Lee’s prayer was: “Dear Jesus,
do make the water recede and give us a nice day to play to-morrow.”
After that all who could went into the bathroom. The water arose until
it came up to the necks of Mr. Palmer and his wife. They then stepped
upon the edge of the bathtub, Mr. Palmer holding Lee, with his little
arms clasping the father about the neck, Mrs. Palmer held to the
shower-bath fixtures overhead and passed her other arm around her
husband’s neck. Suddenly there was a grinding noise. The house upset.
There was a rush of water and all were engulfed in the flood.
Mr. Palmer and his family became separated and he never saw them again.
He went to the bottom as he was sure he was drowning. Suddenly he was
caught by a swift current and arose to the surface. He crawled upon what
he believed to be a bundle of shutters and drifted until his raft struck
a shed and it sank. After several hours he succeeded in getting on one
of the outbuildings of the Catholic convent, where he remained until the
water receded. Mrs. Palmer’s body and that of her son were not
recovered.
On September 20th a correspondent furnished the following facts: “Normal
conditions are being restored swiftly in Galveston. The work of clearing
the streets of debris continues unabated and all relief work is now
thoroughly systematized. Several human bodies were found to-day. No
attempt was made to identify them, and they were immediately cremated.
NECESSARY BUREAUS.
“A census bureau was placed in operation to-day. A mortuary bureau has
also been opened where relatives or friends are to make oath of the
known death of persons lost in the storm. Hanna & Leonard’s new elevator
began business to-night. The British steamer Endeavor went under the
spouts and is taking on a full cargo of wheat.
“At a meeting of the general relief committee to-day no one was found
who would undertake the job of removing the city’s debris on contract,
as all state it would be impossible to make a definite estimate. The
nearest estimate expert wreckers will make is that it will take 2000 men
ninety days to clear away the debris and get all of the bodies out, and
that this will cost $500,000. The board adopted a resolution stating
that it was its opinion that the best way to solve the problem of
clearing the debris was to let a contract to some one to do this work.
“Dr. George H. Lee, inspector of hospitals and dispensaries, made a
favorable report on the sanitary condition of the city. The losses to
the life insurance companies are estimated at $500,000. Most of those
who carried old line life policies escaped. The fraternal orders will
lose heavily.”
Governor Sayers, speaking of the situation at Galveston said:
“I look for the rebuilding of Galveston to be well under way by the
latter part of this week. The work of cleaning the city of unhealthful
refuse and burying the dead will have been completed by that time.
“The loss of life occasioned by the storm in Galveston and elsewhere on
the southern coast cannot be less than 12,000 lives, while the loss of
property will probably aggregate $20,000,000.
“If the laboring people of Galveston will only get to work in earnest,
prosperity will soon again smile on the city. The money and food
contributions coming from a generous people have been a great help to
the people of Galveston, as it has relieved them of the necessity of
spending their money to support the needy, and it can now be applied to
the improvements of their own property and putting again on foot their
business enterprises.
“The work of clearing the streets of debris is progressing rapidly under
the perfect organization instituted by military rule under
Adjutant-General Scurry. Over two thousand men are engaged on the work.
Ninety-eight bodies are reported as having been found in the wreckage
and removed to-day. Bodies found are buried or cremated and no
systematic record has been kept. The storm wrecked almost every vault in
the six cemeteries of the city, and many of the dead were washed to sea
in metal cases. So far only one casket has been found. It had been
carried three miles from the vault.
WORK PUSHED WITH VIGOR.
“The work under the direction of the health department is pushed with
vigor and rapidity. Over a carload of disinfectants was taken from the
wharves to-day and sent to the health department supply depot, and
almost as much was taken from that place and distributed over the city.
Much was done in the way of removing debris and disposing of animal
carcasses. The sick and wounded are receiving the best of treatment.
Besides the other hospitals and medical relief station already in
service, the marine hospital and refuge camp was opened this afternoon
and will accommodate a large number of patients. The outlook from a
health standpoint is very encouraging.
“Three pile drivers are at work closing up the breach in the Galveston
Bay bridge made by the steamship Roma. The rebuilding of the bridge is
progressing rapidly. A message from General Superintendent Nixon, of the
Santa Fe Railroad, to General Manager Polk this evening, said trains
will be able to cross on Thursday. Orders have been issued to allow
freight to proceed to Galveston. The tracks on Galveston Island will be
completed to the bridge to-morrow noon. Engines are again running into
the Union Depot, and are bringing freight to the ships in port.
“The water works system is being gradually restored and the mains are
now supplying the various hospitals. Miss Clara Barton, of Red Cross
Society, has opened a depot for supplies. She has sent orders for
medicine and surgical dressings, food for the sick and clothing and
shoes.
WANTS A BREAKWATER.
“Congressman Hawley advocates the building of a breakwater, beginning at
the south jetty and extending westward, parallelling the shore of
Galveston Island for a distance of about seven miles. With a base of
twenty-five feet and crown of eight feet, capped with heavy granite
blocks, he believes this would break the force of a tidal wave and
adequately protect Galveston.
“The people are still leaving the city in considerable numbers, but the
relief work locally has now been gotten down to such a fine point that
it is likely there will be a marked diminution of the exodus during the
next two or three days. Fears of an epidemic have been allayed by the
distribution of medicines and disinfectants, and a feature which would
undoubtedly have had the effect of causing many to seek succor elsewhere
has been eliminated from the situation.
“Supplies and money are now pouring in from all over the country, and at
least seven figures are needed to express the amount of cash so far
received. This is being used judiciously, and the good effects of the
presence of such a relief fund in the city are already apparent. An
order of the military government directed against idle negro women went
into operation to-day. It has been decided by the Central Relief
Committee to establish a camp in which these women will be held and kept
off the streets and out of the way of those who are burying the dead.”
To put Galveston on her feet will require $5,000,000. Such is the
opinion of Congressman Hawley, one of the representative business men.
This does not mean that the sum mentioned will come anywhere near
restoring the city to the condition before the storm. Far from it.
Mr. Hawley was simply asked: “What measure of relief will burn your
dead, clean and purify your streets and public places, feed and clothe
the living and place your people where they can be self-sustaining and
in a way to regain what has been lost?”
His reply was: “It will take $5,000,000 to relieve Galveston from the
distress of the storm. At least that sum will be needed to dispose of
the dead, to remove the ruins and to do what is right for the living.
SOME MEANS TO HELP PEOPLE.
“I think that we should not only feed and clothe, but that we ought to
have some means to help people who have lost everything to make a start
toward the restoration of their homes. To do this will require every
dollar of $5,000,000.”
There are now on the scene more nurses and physicians than are required.
The injured are rapidly recovering from their wounds, which are largely
superficial. Many men and women are suffering from severe nervous shock,
and find it impossible to sleep. Food is coming in by the boatload and
carload faster than it can be handled, in such generous quantities that
no further doubts are entertained about supplies. Relief headquarters in
each of the twelve wards deal out supplies to applicants in their
respective wards.
Estimates of the numbers dependent upon the relief committees vary.
Mayor Jones makes it about 8000, while other authorities put the number
as high as 15,000. In the business centre the streets have been cleaned
and opened. All buildings still show marks of wind and water, but goods
are displayed and business is being transacted. The city is gradually
assuming its bustling ante-flood appearance. Stenches no longer assail
the nostrils, except where much debris still remains untouched.
Cremation of the dead is being pushed, but it will be many days before
the working parties get out the last of the bodies. The whole twenty-two
miles of the island was submerged. The horrors of the western portion
beyond the city limits are just being learned. At San Luis 181 bodies
were burned to-day. Between twenty and thirty bodies were counted among
the piles of the railroad bridge between the island and Virginia Point.
In Kinkead’s addition about 100 were lost, eighteen in one house. There
were also losses at Nottingham, one of the Galveston island villages,
where nothing but wreckage remains.
One hundred bodies were buried in Galveston on Sunday. The further the
men work in the Denver reservoir section the more numerous do they find
the dead. Fires are burning every 300 feet on the beach and along many
of the streets. Mayor Walter C. Jones to-day, in response to a request,
made a statement of conditions and needs of Galveston people, basing his
conclusions on the most current information which has come to him. Mayor
Jones’ statement is as follows:
“WE ARE BROKE.”
“It is almost impossible to speak definitely as yet of the needs of our
people. We are broke, the majority of us. Galveston must have suffered,
in my estimation, based upon all of the reports I have to the extent of
$20,000,000. We now need money more than anything. From the advices I
have received I believe that the shipments of disinfectant and food
supplies now on the way will be sufficient to meet the immediate wants.
By the time these are used we shall have regained our tranquility.”
This is the ninth day after the storm and still the grewsome works goes
on of recovering the dead from the gigantic mass of debris that lines
the southside of what remains of the city. Among the scores of bodies
recovered and cremated yesterday was a mother with a suckling babe
tightly clasped to her breast.
The body of Major W. T. Levy United States Immigrant Inspector of this
district, was among the number. He had made a struggle to save his wife
and three children but all were lost. The bodies of the wife and
children have not been recovered, or if so they are still among the
uninterred dead.
The task of recovering the bodies that are beneath or jammed into this
immense rick of debris, extending from the eastern to the western limits
of the city, a distance of over three miles, is a herculean one, and the
most expeditious way of removing the whole from a sanitary point of
view, is by fire. This, however, in the crippled condition of the fire
department and water works, would endanger the remaining portion of the
city. As it now stands this immense mass of debris, strewn with dead
bodies, the carcasses of decaying animals, etc., is a sore menace to the
health of the city and is the most difficult problem the Board of Health
has to deal with.
OPENING UP THE STREETS.
The work of opening up the streets and disinfecting them is being
vigorously prosecuted. The debris and garbage is being removed, 250
vessels of every description carrying it out to a safe place, where it
is burned. In a few days all streets will be opened for the passage of
vehicles. It was decided at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee
that all the laborers employed in burying the dead, cleaning the
buildings and moving the debris from the streets and sidewalks shall
receive $1.50 per day and rations. Heretofore they have been working for
nothing, and if they refused were impressed by the military.
The work of relief of the sick and injured is well in hand and under the
direction of skilled physicians and nurses it is improved daily. Eleven
hundred tents were received by the Board of Health. All except 300,
retained for hospital purposes, will be distributed by the chairmen of
various ward sub-committees to shelter the homeless in their respective
wards.
Houston, Tex., September 17.—The day after the report of the storm at
Galveston had been published to the world the Houston representative of
a Northern journal received this “rush” telegram: “Get photographs of
Galveston storm scenes, no matter what the expense; rush them through.”
At that time no one had gone from the outside to Galveston, not even
newspaper men. Galveston was practically cut off from the outside world.
The scores of people hurrying to Houston with the desire of getting to
Galveston by the railroad and boats plying between there and that city
could not make the trip.
The representative endeavored to charter a tug to send a photographer
and some newspaper men through, but the captain refused to go.
CAPTAIN WOULD NOT RISK THE TRIP.
“I will sell you my boat,” he said, “but neither myself nor my men will
risk the trip.”
By putting several thousand men at work all day Monday and Monday night
one railroad line was put in condition for a train to go from Houston to
Texas City, six miles from Galveston, the island being across the bay.
This, the first train out of Houston, was to leave early Tuesday
morning. The news of its intended departure spread to all parts of the
country. Hundreds of grief-stricken, bewildered people, nearly crazed
with anxiety for relatives in the storm-swept country, stayed up all
night, with the hope of getting into Galveston. The railroad men let all
that they could possibly stow away in the coaches get on board, telling
them in advance, however, that no one would be able to get from Texas
City to Galveston.
Arriving there with the train was the special photographer of the
newspaper with his camera. When this crowd of men and women reached
Texas City they found no means of riding further.
The only possible way to make the perilous trip was to walk to Virginia
Point, two miles away, and this was across the marsh filled with debris
and bodies from the Galveston wreck. The photographer and the ten other
men attempted the task. They were nearly exhausted when the two miles
were finished. They had taken off their shoes and walked up to their
waists in water. Their feet were bruised. The photographer carefully
kept his camera from coming in contact with the water, however, and got
several graphic views when he reached the place.
The ten men found a skiff that was thrown up the bay by the rush of
water on that fateful Saturday night. They dragged it for many weary
yards, finally getting it into the water, and managed to row to
Huntington Wharf, Galveston, a distance of two miles. Worn out as they
were, they walked to the city, the man with the camera being the first
photographer in from the outside.
His troubles were not over, though. There were hundreds of terrible
scenes to photograph; at every turn there was a graphic picture; but the
people of Galveston, crazed with grief as they were, seemed to think it
a desecration that he was there, and that views of their wrecked town
and their dead should be thus recorded by the camera. They muttered and
they threatened.
The photographer moved from one place to another. He hid himself and
only took a snapshot when he knew he was safe from the scrutiny of the
men and women who thought his work was a mockery of their grief. To show
the real mind of the people it will only be necessary to state that many
newspaper men who have visited all parts of the world as special
correspondents, who have had ingress to courts and Parliament, who have
traveled everywhere there has been news to find, found it impossible to
get into Galveston.
GETTING OUT OF GALVESTON.
Getting out of Galveston, however, is comparatively easy. It was
Wednesday morning when the photographer finally reached Houston,
exhausted and nervous to a degree that made working a torture. He
managed to develop his pictures, and that evening that man rushed
forward the first photographs of actual storm scenes to leave the city.
One hundred and thirty bodies of storm victims were recovered and
cremated to-day (September 17), nine days after the hurricane, and still
there are hundreds more to be found. They lie for the most part under
the twisted heaps of debris that line the city for miles along its
southern side.
The problem of clearing away the wreckage in this part of the city,
where it is thickest, is still a very troublesome one despite all the
work that has been done. The quickest and best way would doubtless be by
fire, but the very mention of fire has a terror for Galvestonians now.
The city is practically without protection from fire, and if the flames
once get a good start, a holocaust might be the result, which would be
only second in horror to the hurricane.
The problem is all the more serious because the danger of an epidemic
caused by the many dead bodies of men and animals is still great.
Sickness of a malarial type is already prevalent. The debris and garbage
is being removed with the aid of 250 wagons to places where it can
safely be burned, but that is a very slow process. Men are still being
impressed for the work under the oversight of the soldiers, but
hereafter all the laborers will be paid $1.50 a day out of the relief
funds.
ABOUT 17,000 PEOPLE RECEIVING RELIEF.
Health Officer Wilkinson stated that 40 per cent. of the debris of every
description had been removed from the streets; that 95 per cent. of the
dead bodies had been disposed of, and that 95 per cent. of the carcasses
of animals had been removed from the city.
Among the bodies found was that of Major W. T. Levy, United States
emigrant inspector for Galveston. His wife and three children perished,
but their bodies have not been recovered. In one place the body of a
mother was found with a babe of a few months tightly clasped to her
breast.
About 17,000 people are now receiving relief each day, and the supplies
are sufficient for their immediate wants. This morning the first
supplies brought by the Chicago relief train arrived here by way of
Clinton. The train reached Houston at midnight Saturday, having made a
run of 270 miles from Fort Worth at an average speed of thirty-seven
miles an hour. Owing to a change in its schedule the people who had been
watching for its arrival failed to see it, and it was rushed over the
Southern Pacific Road to Clinton, where barges were waiting for the
supplies.
The Chicago train was the largest that has yet been sent to Galveston,
and many expressions of gratitude to Chicago are heard here. Mayor
Jones, for instance, said to-day: “Chicago people are the best kind of
friends to have when one is in trouble. We cannot express our thanks to
them. We will show by our future what their help has meant to us. Like
Chicago we will rise above all disaster and rebuild our city better than
it has ever been before.”
Eleven hundred tents were received to-day by the Board of Health. All
except 300, which were retained for the marine hospital on the beach,
have been distributed to the homeless in the different wards.
Miss Clara Barton is giving her time and attention to assisting in the
work of relief and ascertaining what supplies are necessary to meet the
exigencies of the situation.
NUMEROUS CASES OF INSANITY.
The city takes on more of the appearance of a business place each day.
To-day horse cars are running downtown, while there is both water and
electric service in limited portions of the city. Telephone
communication has been opened with Houston, and both of the telegraph
companies have greatly improved their service. All the railroad
companies announce they will have trains into the city inside of three
days, although at first only trains with construction material may risk
the trip across the repaired bridge. The Santa Fe Road expects its first
train on Thursday.
A systematic effort was begun this morning to obtain the names of the
dead, so that the information can be used for legal purposes and for
life insurance settlements. Sworn statements from witnesses of death are
being recorded, and communication with people with information who have
left the city is being opened.
There are numerous cases of insanity in Galveston as a result of the
terrible bereavements sustained by the survivors. Judge John J. Reagan,
a prominent lawyer, is at the Masonic relief station in a pitiable
condition. Judge Reagan lost every relative he had in Galveston. He sits
hour by hour in pathetic silence. Then he bursts out laughing, and his
laughter is followed by tears.
There are now about 200 soldiers in Galveston doing police duty, and
more have been called for. The Dallas Rough Riders, the Houston Light
Guards, the Galveston Sharpshooters, Battery D, of Houston and Cavalry
Troop A, Houston, are the commands.
The affiliated labor organization of this city, over 500 of its members
having lost everything, has issued an address appealing to every labor
organization throughout the country for assistance. It has appointed T.
W. Dee and James F. Grimes as agents to visit all large cities in behalf
of aid for their stricken members. Dee and Grimes have also received
credentials from Mayor Jones, and they left to-night on their mission.
Not a day goes by but new stories of almost miraculous escapes and of
prolonged suffering are told here. The conditions of the hurricane were
such that it was luck alone that permitted men to escape death.
ESCAPE OF REV. L. P. DAVIS AND FAMILY.
The escape of Rev. L. P. Davis, his wife and his five young children on
Bolivar Peninsula and their seven days of suffering before they reached
here is of a kind rarely to be equaled in the annals of disasters. This
has already been detailed in these pages. Mr. Davis started to drive his
family away from his home at Patton Beach when the water began to rise
high. He saw a neighbor’s family washed out of their wagon and rescued
them.
The party made their way to a grove, where the adults tied the children
and themselves in the branches of trees. They spent a fearful night. On
Sunday, when the waters went down, they made their way past many corpses
till they found a farmhouse not entirely destroyed. There they got a
little food and then set out on foot, living on the raw flesh of a steer
till they found an overturned sailboat and managed to reach Galveston.
From here they went to Houston, where they will be cared for.