Governor Sayres Revises His Estimate of Those Lost and Makes it 12,000—A
Multitude of the Destitute—Abundant Supplies and Vast Work of
Distribution.
Governor Sayres issued a statement September 19th, in which he said in
part: “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.
Notwithstanding this severe affliction, I have every confidence that the
stricken districts will rapidly revive, and that Galveston will, from
her present desolation and sorrow, arise with renewed strength and
vigor.”
Speaking further of the situation at Galveston, the Governor 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, and all the
available labor in the city can be applied to the rebuilding.
“If the laboring people of Galveston will only get to work in earnest,
prosperity will soon again smile on the city. Arrangements have been
made to pay all the laborers working under the direction of the military
authorities $1.50 and rations for every day they have worked or will
work. An account has been kept of all work done, and no laborer will
lose one day’s pay.
“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 improvement of their own property and putting
again on foot their business enterprises.
“Five dollars a day is being offered to the mechanics who will come to
Galveston, and with the assurance from reputable physicians that there
is no extraordinary danger of sickness, outside laborers will flock to
Galveston, and before many days a new city will rise on the storm-swept
island.
“The telegraph and telephone companies and railroads have been
exceedingly generous since the great calamity. They have not only given
money, but everything has been transported to that city free of charge,
while those desiring to get away from the harrowing scenes of Galveston
have been transported free. The people of Texas will long remember with
grateful hearts the kindness of these companies. It is now an assured
fact that trains will be running into Galveston this week, and, with
uninterrupted communication with the outside world, Galveston should
soon assume her normal condition.”
DISTRIBUTING $40,000 A DAY.
Twenty thousand people are being fed and cared for daily in Galveston
with the supplies which are pouring in from all parts of the country.
This will be cut at least one-half in ten days, is the statement of W.
A. McVitie, chairman of the central relief committee.
The estimated cost of the aid which is now being extended is $40,000 a
day. The great bulk of the aid is going to the 4,000 men who are at work
cleaning up the wreckage, digging for bodies and cleaning the streets.
Through them it goes to their families. No able-bodied laboring man is
allowed to escape the work, whether he needs aid or not, though most of
them do. The business men who are in position to resume are allowed to
attend to their stores, and their clerical forces are not interfered
with.
The debris-hunting and street-cleaning work will be put upon a cash
basis, the wages being $1.50. Time has been kept from the beginning,
though the records are not complete, and it is the expectation, if the
money which comes in from outside is adequate, that the men will be paid
for the full time they have worked. This will apply to those who had to
be made to work at the point of the bayonet, as well as those who
volunteered their services. This will not be given in cash, but in the
form of orders for tools for mechanics, lumber for those who have homes
they wish to repair, etc.
Heretofore practically every able-bodied man has been made to work, and
unless he worked he got no supplies. The first few days’ wages consisted
entirely of rations, which were given according to the number and needs
of the laborer’s family, regardless of the amount of work he
accomplished. Since other supplies have begun coming in they have been
added.
The work of distribution is being conducted systematically and with an
apparent minimum of imposition and fraud. There is a central committee,
of which W. A. McVitie, a prominent business man, is chairman. Then
there is a committee for each one of the twelve wards. As fast as goods
or provisions arrive from the mainland they are placed in the central
warehouse, from there the different ward chairmen requisition them, and
they are taken to supply depots in the different wards. All day long
there is a motley crowd around every one of these depots, negroes
predominating at least two to one. Every applicant passes in review
before the ward chairman.
ONLY THE DESTITUTE HELPED.
“Ah want a dress foh ma sistah,” says a big negress.
“You’re ’Manda Jones, and you haven’t any sister living here,” replied
the chairman.
“Foh de Lord, ah has; ah ain’t ’Mandy Jones at all; we done live on
Avenue N before de storm, and we los’ everything.”
“Go out with this woman and find out if she has a sister who needs a
dress,” says the chairman to a committeeman. In this way check is kept
on all the applicants for aid.
At the 5th ward distributing station clothing was being given away this
evening. A negro woman, who had been refused a supply, went outside and
by way of revenge pointed out different ones of her friends and
neighbors whom she alleged were similarly unentitled.
“Dat woman done los’ nothin’ at all,” she shrieked. “Ah did not los’
nuthin’ mahself and doan wan’ nuthin.”
“What’s the trouble?” asked a bystander. An old negress who was lined up
waiting her turn, replied: “Oh, she’s mad ’cause de white folks won’t
give her nuthin.” So far no woman has been required to work, but a
strong feeling is developing to compel negro women to work cleaning up
the houses. There are plenty of people who are willing to hire them, but
as long as free food and clothing can be secured it is hard to get
colored women to go in and clean up the partially ruined homes.
“Our supply of foodstuffs is adequate,” said Chairman McVitie, “but just
now we are a little short of clothing. This, however, may not be true
to-morrow. We have no idea of the contents of the cars on the road to
us. Frequently we don’t know anything is coming until the cars reach
Texas City. With the money which has been coming in we have been
augmenting our supplies by purchasing of local merchants in lines where
there was a shortage.
SAYS MONEY IS MOST NEEDED.
“What do we need worst? Money. If we have money we can order just what
we need and probably get better value than the people who are buying it.
Many people have made the mistake of sending money to Houston and Dallas
and asking committees there to buy for us. They do not know just what we
need, and if we had the money we could do better for ourselves. Money
should be sent to us.”
One of the most remarkable things attending the Galveston disaster is
the fortitude of the people. Their loss in relatives, friends and
property has been so overwhelming that it seems too much to be expressed
with outward grief.
Two men who had not seen each other since the disaster met in the
street. “How many did you lose?” they asked by common impulse.
“I lost all my property, but my wife and I came through all right.”
“I was not so fortunate. My wife and my little boy were both drowned.”
There was an expression of sympathy from the other, but nothing
approaching a tear from either.
“They are making good progress cleaning up,” remarked the one whose
losses were heaviest, with a pleasant smile. The other one makes light
answer and they pass on.
The people of Galveston have seen so much death that they are
temporarily hardened to it. The announcement of the loss of another
friend means little to a man who has seen the dead bodies of neighbors
and townspeople hauled to the wharf by the dray-load.
No services have been attempted for the dead. Neither has there been
memorial services. The Rev. J. M. K. Kerwin, priest in charge of St.
Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, said: “It was impossible. Priest and layman
had to join in the work of cleaning the city of dead bodies. I don’t
expect there will be memorial services for a month.”
STOOD THE STORM WELL.
Father Kerwin’s church is among the few which are comparatively little
damaged. He sets the value of Catholic property destroyed in the city at
$300,000. Included in this loss is the Ursula convent and academy, which
was badly damaged. It covered four blocks between Twenty-fifth and
Twenty-seventh streets and Avenues N and O. It was the finest in the
South.
The city is rapidly improving in its sanitary conditions. The smell from
the ooze and mud with which most of the streets are filled is stronger
than that which comes from the debris heaps containing undiscovered
bodies. When these heaps are being burned and the wind carries the smoke
over the city, the odor is very similar to that which afflicts Chicago
at night when refuse is being burned at the stockyards, and no worse.
Soon even the odor of the slime will be gone. Every dump-cart in the
city is at work.
Every Galveston business man talks confidently of the future of the
city, though many of the clerks announce their intention of going away
as soon as they can accumulate money enough. “I’m not afraid of another
storm,” said a clerk in one of the principal stores. “But I’m sick and
tired of the whole business.”
The Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Company, which is a branch of
the Erie system, will rebuild its telephone system here. “This will take
us three months, and in the meantime we will give no service save
long-distance,” said D. McReynolds, superintendent of construction. “We
will install a central emergency system the same as that in Chicago and
put all wires under ground. We will employ five hundred men if necessary
to do the work in ninety days. The company’s losses in Texas are
$300,000—$200,000 here, $60,000 at Houston and the rest at other
points.”
Residents here are greatly pleased at this announcement, as it shows the
confidence of a foreign company in the future of Galveston.
ONLY ONE WHO ESCAPED.
Cooped up in a house that collapsed after being carried along by a
deluge of water, John Elford, brother of A. B. Elford, Chicago, his wife
and little grandson, met death in the flood during the Galveston storm.
Milton, son of John Elford, was in the building with the family at the
time, and is the only one of the many occupants, including fifteen
women, that is known to have escaped.
A. B. Elford was dumbfounded when he received the first information of
the disaster, for he had no idea of his brother being in Texas. John
Elford was a retired farmer and merchant of Langdon, N. D. He recently
had taken his family on a trip to old and New Mexico. Mr. Elford
yesterday received the following letter from Langdon, N. D.:
“We have just received a letter from Milton. Father, mother, Dwight and
Milton went to Galveston from Mineral Springs, Texas, where they had
previously been stopping. They were so delighted with Galveston on
reaching there that they sold their return tickets and decided to remain
about two months. They were at first in a house near the beach, but
moved farther away and to a larger and stronger house when the water
began to rise.
“All at once the water came down the street, bringing houses and debris.
They started to build a raft, but before it could be got together the
house started to float. It had gone but a short distance when it went to
pieces. Milton was struck with something and knocked out into the water.
He came up, caught a timber and climbed to a roof, and thus managed to
make his escape.
“He saw no one escape from the building as it collapsed. We do not
believe the bodies have yet been recovered. We have wired for more
definite news regarding the bodies, but have heard nothing more.
“EDGAR ELFORD.”
William Guest, a Pullman car porter, returned to Chicago from the
storm-stricken district. He said:
“I left Harrisburg night before last, and things then in the
neighborhood were in a dreadful state. Galveston is about twenty miles
distant, and the refugees were pouring in the direction of Houston in
great numbers. Many well-to-do colored people have lost all they had.
The Rev. W. H. Cain, a colored Episcopal minister and his entire family
were killed, and it was reported to me that Mrs. Cuney, the widow of
Wright Cuney, was also lost, as well as a number of colored teachers
employed in the public schools. At Houston relief committees have been
organized.”
The Rev. Mr. Cain was well known in Chicago, having preached several
times from the pulpit of the St. Thomas Episcopal church in Dearborn
near 30th street.
The Quinn chapel congregation decided at a meeting that the church at
24th street and Wabash avenue should be opened in order that
contributions of clothing and food for the sufferers might be received.
KAISER MOURNS FOR GALVESTON.
Washington, D. C., Sept 17.—President McKinley has received the
following message of sympathy from Emperor William of Germany:
“Stettin, Sept. 13, 1900.—President of the United States of America,
Washington: I wish to convey to your excellency the expression of my
deep-felt sympathy with the misfortune that has befallen the town and
harbor of Galveston and many other ports of the coast, and I mourn with
you and the people of the United States over the terrible loss of life
and property caused by the hurricane, but the magnitude of the disaster
is equaled by the indomitable spirit of the citizens of the new world,
who, in their long and continued struggle with the adverse forces of
nature have proved themselves to be victorious.
“I sincerely hope that Galveston will rise again to new prosperity.
“WILLIAM, I. R.”
PRESIDENT THANKS THE KAISER.
The President’s reply was as follows:
“Executive Mansion, Sept. 14, 1900.—His Imperial and Royal Majesty,
William II., Stettin, Germany: Your majesty’s message of condolence and
sympathy is very grateful to the American government and people, and in
their name as well as on behalf of the many thousands who have suffered
bereavement and irreparable loss in the Galveston disaster, I thank you
most earnestly.
“WILLIAM MCKINLEY.”
W. B. McGown, a member of the Dallas Rough Riders, to-day arrived at
Dallas from Galveston on sick leave. He denies the reports that have
been current in Dallas and other Texas cities of trouble with soldiery
at Galveston or of any misconduct on the part of the militia. Mr. McGown
says more and fresh troops are needed at Galveston. One-half of the
Houston Light Guard have had to be relieved and placed on sick leave. A
number have died from malarial fever contracted at Galveston.
The Houston Cavalry, the Navasota Infantry, the Trezevant Rifles, of
Dallas, and the Rough Riders were the only troops on duty last night,
and a considerable part of these companies were unfit for duty. Two
infantry companies from Fort Worth, Claburn, and the Dallas Artillery
were expected to-day.
There were twenty-five fires kept burning to consume dead bodies in the
debris in a stretch of three miles. McGown says information was received
at the Dallas headquarters of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad
that construction trains with materials had already crossed the bay from
the mainland to Galveston Island. Local Santa Fe officials say supplies
and building materials will be rushed to the island rapidly from now on.
Galveston now has railroad, telegraph and telephone connection with the
outside world.
A special correspondent writing from Galveston on September 19th, said:
“The most serious problem which now confronts those in authority here is
the disposition of the dead and the removal of wreckage. This matter is
being attended to by a large force scattered through the city, but the
number is inadequate to meet the requirements.
EXHAUSTION THINS OUT THE WORKERS.
“At a meeting of the Auxiliary Health Board to-day a committee was
appointed to suggest to Adjutant General Scurry, in charge of city
forces, and the General Relief Committee, the advisability of having the
work done by contract and importing men to do it. Reports from various
wards where men have been engaged in this work show a decrease in
numerical strength, due to exhaustion and other causes. In some
instances men who are skilled mechanics and have assisted in the
disposition of the dead have obtained employment at their regular
trades.
“It was announced this evening that a contract will be let for the
removal of bodies and the huge mass of debris, which, in some parts of
the city, reaches a height of fifteen feet. To do this, about three
thousand men will be brought here from the interior. They will come with
their own cooks and rations and camp on the beach, and will be paid $2 a
day. It is estimated that it will require from twenty to thirty days to
remove the wreckage.
“Under one pile of debris to-day thirty bodies were found and cremated.
Bodies are still being washed ashore at Texas City, Bolivar Point,
Pelican Island and other coast points near Galveston. There is no time
to dig graves, and the bodies are hastily consigned to the flames.
“The city is still under martial law, and guards are patrolling the
streets day and night. An example was made of a man arrested for selling
liquor. The offender was marched to general headquarters, and, after a
severe reprimand, was put to work on the street gang, removing and
disposing of bodies. He will serve without pay for an indefinite period.
“All hospital relief stations and all points in the city are thoroughly
disinfected. Dr. Peckham, of the United States Marine Corps, has
established a camp for the injured and ill at Tremont and Beach avenues.
Directly opposite is a camp for refugees. Camps will be established on
the beach at the foot of Fifteenth street.
“Reports from Sealy Hospital, St. Mary’s Infirmary and other temporary
hospitals are that sanitary rules are strictly followed, and the
buildings are in fairly good shape. A great many patients from Sealy and
St. Mary’s have been sent to Houston.
SERIOUS CASES OF INJURY.
“In the vicinity of the hospitals there is a mass of debris containing
many bodies, and the Health Board has sent an urgent appeal to
headquarters to have this debris cleared.
“Emergency hospitals report wounds dressed on an average of 150 to 200 a
day. Many report serious cases.
“A census has been taken of St. Mary’s Catholic parish, embracing the
territory from Sixteenth to Twenty-seventh street. It shows a loss of
267 from this parish alone. A census of the city is now being taken,
which will embrace a list of the survivors, the dead and the amount of
personal and property losses.
“Death from a broken heart was the doctor’s verdict when Miss Clara
Olson died at an early hour this morning. When the storm was at its
height the little house Miss Olson occupied with her aged mother
collapsed. Mother and daughter found refuge on a floating housetop for
several hours. A floating timber driven with terrible force crushed Mrs.
Olson’s skull. The girl drifted to the Ursuline convent, where she was
cared for by the Sisters. She grieved constantly for her mother, and at
last died of a broken heart.”
Houston, Tex., Sept. 20.—Official reports of conditions of interior
towns have begun to come in from agents sent out by Governor Sayres.
Following are summaries of reports so far received showing the
conditions of half a dozen towns on the Santa Fe. There are probably
fifty small towns, which are in just as bad shape and from which reports
have not been received, but which are being supplied with provisions,
clothing, and drugs from Houston by the committees:
Pearland—Fifty families depending on Relief Committee; some supplies
received but assistance in other ways than provisions needed. Families
at Erin and Superior are to be supplied through Pearland.
Algoa—Twenty-five families to be supplied; enough provisions for the
present.
DESTRUCTION IN OUTLYING DISTRICTS.
Alvin—In the town of Alvin and vicinity there are probably six houses on
blocks out of a total of 1,000. The population of Alvin now to be fed is
about 1,500; Manvel, 250; Liverpool and Amsterdam, 250; Chocolate and
Austin Bayous, Chigger neighborhood, Dickinson Bayou, east and outside,
or the surrounding country, 2,500, making a total of 5,000 persons under
the supervision of the Alvin committee. The committee admits having a
sufficient amount of clothing. They have received a cash subscription of
about $2,000 and have spent $400. Have received two cars of flour from
Dallas, one car of meal from Dallas, one car of mixed goods from Tyler.
Along the bay shore, from Virginia Point to Liverpool, for a space of
six or eight miles from the bay front, there are many thousands of dead
cattle that should be immediately cremated or properly looked after.
Arcadia—In the town there are 300 destitute, and those in the immediate
vicinity will make the aggregate 500. Provisions already supplied
sufficient for immediate needs only.
Hitchcock—In this town and immediate vicinity are more than 500
destitute. Of about 300 houses, only about ten are standing. A wave of
salt water, from four to ten feet in depth, covered this section;
thirty-eight lives were lost, and, for the time being, it is feared that
the soil has been seriously damaged by the effect of salt water.
Supplies of provisions were sent yesterday. There are probably 10,000
dead cattle within a space of a few miles south and surrounding the
town, and every house should be supplied for at least ten days with
disinfectants. Fever is now settling in there, and Dr. J. T. Scott, of
Houston, went there yesterday. An idea of the velocity of the wind and
wave of salt water that swept over this immediate section may be
imagined when it is known that the Texas City dredge boat is now lying
high and dry in a garden at this place, a distance of eight miles or
more from its moorings.
HOUSES AND OTHER PROPERTY GONE.
Alta Loma—This committee reports about seventy-five families, or 300
persons, to be cared for. Have received 530 rations. People have no
money and their property destroyed. In the neighborhood of 100 houses
existed; forty destroyed and about twenty untenantable. There are about
four houses now on blocks. Two lives were lost. The population is mainly
of northern people. A shipment was made them of provisions and
medicines, but other things are needed at once.
Col. B. H. Belo, publisher of the “Galveston News,” said that Galveston
would be rebuilt at once.
“The storm and flood taught us several lessons,” said Col. Belo, in an
interview. “The loss of life would have been comparatively light if the
buildings had been of a more solid character. The Ursuline convent, for
instance, was surrounded by a brick wall, and there was no loss of life
there, although it stood right in the path of the flood and storm. There
were no lives lost in the ‘News’ office, and we would not have been
badly flooded had it not been for a building falling and battering in a
part of our wall.
“I believe that all buildings will be of a more solid and enduring
character than formerly. I think, too, that the streets along the water
front will be built higher than they were. The city must be rebuilt. It
is the only outlet worthy the name on the Gulf west of New Orleans. The
government spent $6,000,000 to make a thirty-foot harbor there, and the
shipping is so extensive that rebuilding the wrecked portions of the
city is imperative.”
A tale of self sacrifice comes from the western part of the city. A
young man by the name of Wash Masterson heard the cries of some people
outside. They were calling for a rope. He had no rope, but improvised
one from bed sheets, and started out to find the people who were
calling. The wind and water soon tore his rope to shreds and he had to
return to the house, where he made another and stronger rope.
THE CRIES OF THE PEOPLE.
The cries of the people still filled his ears. He went out a second time
and after being gone for what seemed an hour or more to those who were
waiting he returned with the people. They had clung to the branches of a
salt cedar tree. Mr. Masterson was not satisfied with that, but went out
for other people immediately, the water having begun to fall about that
time, and worked all night.
A little black dog stood barking over a sand hill in the west end beyond
Woollam’s lake. Those who endeavored to stop his barking by driving him
away did not succeed for he returned as soon as they ceased their
attempts. It was suggested that he was guarding a body, but others
scouted the idea.
Finally they dug beneath the spot where the dog stood, and there they
found the remains of a young girl whom they identified by the rings she
wore as Miss Lena Everhart, a popular little lady, well known both in
Galveston and Dallas. This whole family, with the exception of one son,
Elmer Everhart, and a daughter, Mrs. Robert Brown, who lives near
Dickinson and was there at the time, was lost. The father ran a dairy
just southwest of Woollam’s lake.
At Twelfth and Sealy avenue there lived a colored man and his wife.
There was a grocery on the corner and those who weathered the storm
report that he stood near the beer keg in the bar room of the grocery
drinking steadily until he was swept away, his idea evidently being to
destroy consciousness before the storm did it for him. His body was
picked out of a pile of debris between Twelfth and Thirteenth on Sealy
avenue.
The Catholic Orphans’ Home on the beach at the west end of the city went
some time after 5.30 o’clock Saturday evening. Mr. Harry Gray, who lived
in Kinkead subdivision, just beyond the city limits, was compelled to
leave his house at that hour and says the home was standing then. Now
not a vestige of it remains. Eight nuns and all but one of ninety-five
children were lost. This child, a little tot, was found on the north
side of the island in a tree. “I’se been ’seep,” he lisped. “My head was
in de water.”
MR. GRAY’S STORY.
Mr. Gray’s story is interesting. His house fell and he fought his way
out with a wife who was just out of a sick bed. He managed to get to the
next house with her. This was the home of Ed. Hunter. That house went
between 6.30 and 7, and the Hunter family was lost. Mr. Gray caught a
transom, put the arm of his wife through it, and soon found that the
transom belonged to the side of the house, about 20×20 feet in size. It
was nothing but the side of the house made of ordinary siding and
studding. He swung onto this and even now does not understand how it
stood up under them.
All the time he kept telling his wife to hold onto him, and this she
did. Along in the night the raft struck a tree and was swept from under
them. Gray caught a limb with his wife still clinging to him. By this
time he was almost completely exhausted but he managed by a hundred
successive efforts to get his wife into the tree.
A little later a colored man was seen coming through the water. Gray
called to him to take to the lower limbs and not come higher, for he was
afraid the tree with three people on it would be made top-heavy. When
daylight came he took his wife in his arms and told the negro to go
ahead for a house they saw in the distance, for had there been any holes
he wanted to be advised of it before he went into them with his wife,
for it was all he could do to push through the water in his exhausted
condition.
After walking until 10 o’clock he reached the high land in the Denver
resurvey and eventually got to town. Not until yesterday had he
sufficiently recovered from his exhaustion to come onto the streets. He
is cut and bruised in a dozen places. He says the water in Kinkead
addition was ten feet deep.
Robert Park and a party of men came in from Hitchcock Sunday, arriving
that evening. They started in a skiff, and finally reached a prairie,
over which they carried the boat. Finally they reached water again, and
along about noon went alongside the British steamer “Roma,” which was
dragged from her moorings in the roads between the jetties, about seven
miles up the channel and landed in the draw of the county bridge. They
report the steamer in good condition. They got water and food there and
came on across.
A GRUESOME SIGHT.
Mr. Park says twenty people arrived at Hitchcock on rafts from Galveston
before he left. These had been carried by the storm from Galveston to
Hitchcock, a distance of about eighteen miles. They also saw a pile
driven from the Huntington wharves high on the prairie far beyond
Virginia Point.
A gruesome sight passed along the street Monday afternoon. Workmen in
digging bodies from the debris found one of a handsome man with dark
hair and mustache and dressed in a light suit of clothes. He was on his
knees, his eyes were uplifted, and his clasped hands were extended as in
prayer. It was evident that the man had been praying when he was struck
and instantly killed. As a rule, the attitudes of those who were found
were with hands extended up as if endeavoring to save themselves.
The destruction of the Catholic Orphans’ Home and the loss of
seventy-five lives with it was told by one of three boys who came
through a terrible experience by dint of good Providence and nothing
else. It is a fact that three boys came into the city from there who had
passed through a terrible experience. With these three and one reported
on the bay shore but four out of a total of seventy-eight people lived
to tell the tale.
According to the story all the children were gathered with the Sisters
and the two workmen in the chapel on the ground floor in the west wing
of the building. The storm was raging terribly outside and they all
engaged in prayer. The east wing finally went down and they were driven
from the chapel to the floor above, the water coming in and threatening
to drown them. Some clambered out on the roof of the part remaining, but
not all. Finally along about 8 o’clock—they are not positive as to the
time by an hour—the remainder of the building went and the roof went
into the water.
DESTRUCTION OF CATHOLIC ORPHANS’ HOME.
What became of the others nobody can say. Campbell only knows that he
got out from the building somehow and caught a piece of drift, either a
part of the roof or something of the sort. The Murney boy broke through
a transom and got out. He drifted for some time and finally caught a
tree to which he clung and soon found that the two other boys had caught
the same tree. Prior to that they had been separated, but a strange fate
attracted them to the same place.
This tree, it developed later, had caught in the masts of the wreck of
the schooner “John S. Ames,” which lies almost south of the home. There
they remained all night. At one time Campbell was about to give up and
cried that he was drowning. The Murney boy caught him and lashed him to
the mast with a piece of rope that he found there. In that way was his
life saved.
When morning came they found that they were alone in the open Gulf on a
tree. The tree soon broke adrift from the mast, and, strange as it may
seem, brought them in shore. They finally landed and started west, not
knowing which direction to take. They finally brought up at a house
something like two miles from the place where the home had been but so
recently located. There they found their location, but were unable to
get anything to eat because the woman in the house had nothing herself.
So they came on toward the city, but it was a long, hard pull through
wet sand, and hungry and faint for the want of fresh water and food.
They brought up at a house that had gone through the storm, was partly
demolished and at the back of which was another house supporting it.
There they remained during Sunday night, and were afraid every minute
that the force of the little blow that came up during the night would
demolish the place of refuge. But it stood, and in the morning they
started on, reaching the home of young Murney during the day. There they
got food and dry clothes. The other two boys were taken to the
infirmary, where they are being cared for.
NEW FEATURES OF THE CALAMITY.
Another account is as follows and contains new pictures of the scene:
The elements, which had been cutting up didoes and blowing every which
way during the preceding twenty-four hours, got down to it in earnest
fashion Saturday morning, when a strong wind, accompanied by rain, which
first came in great splashing drops which one could almost dodge, but
afterwards became a hard, driving rain, began to get in its work.
Along the bay front the waves rose higher and higher and tossed about
the small craft anchored in the slips like cockle shells. Striking the
bulkheading of the wharves with mighty force the waves broke into clouds
of spray, which leaped over the wharves and drenched the men whom duty
or curiosity caused to be in that neighborhood.
Although the wind was in the north, a heavy sea was running and the
breakers rolled up the beach with angry roars. The little bath houses on
wheels scattered along the beach were picked up by the great waves and
dashed against the row of little, flimsy structures along the Midway and
piled up against them in uneven stacks. Early in the forenoon the Midway
presented a picture almost of desolation, filled as it was with debris
from the small platforms, stairways and landings along the beach front,
which had been carried away and washed up by the sea. At times the waves
would recede, leaving the beach almost bare of water, and then, as if
gathering force anew they would sweep in, rolling several feet high,
passing over the shelving beach, lapping over tracks of the street
railway and gushing the water into avenue R.
Early in the forenoon the waves were leaping at times over the trestle
work of the street railway along the beach front, making it impossible
to operate the cars around the belt, as the water would have burned out
the motors. The cars were therefore operated between town and the Gulf
on the double tracks of either side of the belt line. A little later in
the forenoon the waves undermined the track at Twenty-fourth street and
avenue R. They washed under the little Midway houses on the south side
of avenue R, which were built on piling, and in places carried away the
sidewalks in front of the buildings, which were not thus supported.
THE ANGER OF THE SEA.
The platform which supported the photograph gallery at the Pagoda bath
house was washed away. This was not a part of the original structure,
and was not as strongly built as the remainder of the bath house. The
bath house proper and its pier, extending out to sea, were not at that
time (Saturday noon) disturbed by the waves, although the high rollers
at times dashed so near the flooring of this and the other bath houses
that it looked like a rise of a few inches would punch up the flooring.
The scene at the beach was grand. The sea in its anger was a sight
beautiful, though awe-inspiring, to behold. Notwithstanding the wind and
the driving rain, thousands of people went to the beach to behold the
maddened sea, and the street cars were kept quite busy. Down town,
during the early morning, when the rain was not so heavy, there seemed
no apparent necessity for getting into rainy day garb to make this trip
to the beach, and many people went out in their best bibs and tuckers,
to their sorrow. Well dressed men and women disembarked from the cars at
the beach and picked their way amid swirling pools of water and the
spent waves to get into midway and to pass along to places where a good
view of the sea might be obtained.
For a few minutes they succeeded in keeping feet and bodies reasonably
dry, but using umbrellas counted for naught, and were soon turned wrong
side out or ripped into ribbons, and their owners getting partially wet,
abandoned themselves to the inevitable and went around seeing the
sights, caring not for the weather, nor worrying about their good duds.
Some people, with abundant foresight, appeared on the scene in bathing
suits, and, of course, they were right in it from the jump.
At Twenty-fifth street the big waves rolled up the shelving beach,
crossed the street railway tracks, leaving the water impounded behind
the embankment. These waters backed up in the ditches and the low places
of the street as far as avenue N, and the supply being ever replenished,
both from the sea and from the clouds, there was no opportunity for this
water to run off.
IMPOSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE.
The shell man and others of the Midway folk moved their stocks out
during the morning to be on the safe side, but others, who have long
been acquainted with the sea and who were less timorous, stayed by their
places and kept their goods and chattels there.
At that hour the water was on a level with the wharf at pier 23, and was
rapidly rising. Later it was almost impossible to navigate along the
wharf front on account of the deep water and the high wind. Of course,
it was wholly out of the question for any vessels to move for any
purpose, and equally impossible for steamers to make an entry into the
harbor. The pilot boat would not have been able to get alongside, and if
any vessel approached the harbor she would have to put to sea for fear
of grounding if she came too close. Several vessels are due.
No attempt at doing any business was made after noon, for it was equally
out of the question to load steamers as it was to move them. If damage
was done it was the result of pounding. Some cement stored on the pier
head was damaged by the water washing up under it in the morning, and as
it was not practicable to move it, it is a total loss.
While working with a gang of men clearing the wreckage of a large number
of houses on avenue O and Center street, Mr. John Vance found a live
prairie dog locked in the drawer of a bureau. It is impossible to
identify the house or the name of its former occupant, as several houses
were piled together in a mass of brick and timber. The bureau was pulled
out of the wreckage a few feet from the ground, where it had been buried
beneath about ten feet of debris. The little animal seemed none the
worse from its experience of four days locked up in a drawer beneath a
mountain of wreckage. It was taken home and fed by Mr. Vance, who will
hold the pet for its owner if the owner survived the storm.