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IN MEMORY OF THE DEAD AT GALVESTON
SEPT. 8TH 1900.
The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror.
Written by the Survivors.
Incidents of the awful Tornado, Flood and Cyclone Disaster; Personal
Experiences of Survivors; Horrible Looting of Dead Bodies and the
Robbing of Empty Homes; Pestilence from so many Decaying Bodies
Unburied; Barge Captains Compelled by Armed Men to Tow Dead Bodies
to Sea; Millions of Dollars raised to aid the Suffering Survivors;
President McKinley Orders Army Rations and Army Tents issued to
Survivors and orders U. S. Troops to protect the People and
Property; Tales of the Survivors from Galveston; Adrift all Night
on Rafts; Acts of Valor; United States Soldiers Drowned; Great
Heroism; Great Vandalism; Great Horror; A Second Johnstown Flood,
but worse: Hundreds of Men, Women and Children Drowned; No way of
Escape, only
Death! Death! Everywhere!
Edited by
John Coulter,
Formerly of the N. Y. Herald.
Fully Illustrated with Photographs.
UNITED PUBLISHERS OF AMERICA.
Copyright, 1900, by E. E. Sprague.
PREFACE.
In presenting to the people of this country and the world a chronicle of
the frightful visitation of hurricane and flood upon the beautiful and
enterprising City of Galveston, which unparalleled calamity occurred on
September 8, 1900, the Publishers wish to say that the utmost care has
been taken to make the record of the catastrophe complete in every
particular.
No expense has been spared to obtain the facts; the illustrations
contained in the work are from photographs taken by artists on the spot;
the experiences of survivors were obtained from the victims themselves,
their language being faithfully reported, while what they wrote is
reproduced without a single change being made.
The situation in the stricken City of Galveston is portrayed day by day
exactly as it existed, and is not the product of imaginings of writers who
put down what the conditions should have been; the storm has been followed
from its inception, just south of the island of San Domingo, to Galveston,
through Texas and then along its course until it disappeared in the broad
Atlantic off the Eastern coast; the horrors of the gale, the cruel killing
of thousands by the winds and waters, the wrecking of thousands of
buildings and the drowning of helpless men, women and children, are all
given in graphic and picturesque language.
The fearful mutilation of the dead by the ghouls and vandals who afterward
despoiled the corpses of their valuables and the swift vengeance which
followed these unutterable crimes when the troops shot the vampires and
harpies by the score, are told in the most vivid way; the disposal of the
dead by casting their bodies into the sea, burying them hastily in the
sands along the beach or cremating them by burning upon vast funeral pyres
erected in the principal streets of the city are painted in the ghastly
colors of truth; the wave of insanity which swept over the city and
claimed hundreds who had escaped the perils of the deluge and the
hurricane is set forth most graphically.
What caused the mighty elemental disturbance, the possibilities of its
recurrence and the danger which constantly hangs over other seacoast
cities are given in detail; the pestilential conditions set up in
Galveston by the catastrophe, the panic-stricken people flying from the
scene of death and desolation, the horrible spectacle of hundreds of dead
bodies floating in Galveston bay and the Gulf of Mexico, the generous
response of the people of the United States to the appeal for help--these
are pictured with minuteness.
Nothing is wanting to make this work reliable and correct; it contains a
full list of the identified dead, which is a feature no other publication
has been able to do; in short, it is the story, well and accurately told,
of a disaster which has not its like since the world began.
The Publishers are confident this volume will meet the approval of the
country.
THE PUBLISHERS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface 4
CHAPTER I.
West Indian Hurricane Descends Upon Galveston, Causing Immense
Losses of Life and Property--Catastrophe Unparalleled in the
History of the World--A Night of Horrors and Suffering 33
CHAPTER II.
Sad Scenes in All Parts of the Ruined City--Corpses Everywhere--
A Sombre, Solemn Sunday--People Apathetic, Dejected and
Heartbroken 51
CHAPTER III.
Crowds of Refugees at Houston--Fed and Housed in Tents--Regular
Soldiers Drowned--Government Property Lost--Fears for
Galveston's Future 64
CHAPTER IV.
Thrilling Experiences of People During the Great Storm--
Eighty-five Persons Perish by Being Blown from a Train--
Adventures of Survivors at Galveston 89
CHAPTER V.
Relief Sent from All Parts of the World as Soon as the True
Situation of Affairs Was Made Known--Millions of Dollars
Subscribed and Thousands of Carloads of Supplies Forwarded to
the Desolated City 117
CHAPTER VI.
Cremating Bodies by the Hundreds in the Streets of Galveston--
Negroes Faint While Handling the Decayed Corpses--How Some of
Those Rescued Escaped with Their Lives 133
CHAPTER VII.
Lives Lost and Property Damage Sustained Outside of Galveston--
One Thousand Victims and Millions of Value in Crops Swept
Away--Estimates Made 149
CHAPTER VIII.
Business Resumed at Galveston in a Small Way on the Sixth Day
After the Catastrophe--"Galveston Shall Rise Again"--How the
City Looked on Saturday, One Week After the Flood 159
CHAPTER IX.
Galveston Nine Days After--Great Changes Apparent--Life in a
Business Exhibited--Systematic Efforts to Obtain Names of the
Dead 172
CHAPTER X.
Magnitude of the Relief Necessary--Twenty Thousand Persons
to Be Clothed and Fed--System of Relief Organization--How the
Storm Effected Trade 180
CHAPTER XI.
Insanity Follows Frightful Sufferings of the Poor Victims--
Five Hundred Demented Ones--Indifferent to the Loss of
Relatives 188
CHAPTER XII.
Serious Danger from Fire--Scarcity of Boats to Carry People
to the Main Land--Laborers Imported into Galveston--Untold
Sufferings on Bolivar Island--Experience of a Chicago Man 196
CHAPTER XIII.
Two Women Tell How They Were Affected at Galveston--One
Arrived After the Catastrophe, While the Other Was in the
Storm from Beginning to End 206
CHAPTER XIV.
Twenty Thousand People Fed Every Day at a Cost of $40,000--
Incidents at the Relief Stations--Applicants and Their
Peculiarities--Great Mortality Among the Negroes 216
CHAPTER XV.
Total Dead and Missing at Galveston and Vicinity 8,661--Five
Million Dollars in Relief Necessary to Carry the Survivors
Through the Fall and Winter to Spring 246
CHAPTER XVI.
Galveston's Inhabitants Refuse to Heed the Lessons Taught by
Their Experiences--Carelessness in Failing to Provide Against
the Recurrence of Catastrophes 261
CHAPTER XVII.
Galveston's Storm Flies Over the United States and Does Great
Damage--Many Lives Lost--It Finally Disappears in the Atlantic
Ocean 267
CHAPTER XVIII.
The World Not So Heartless as Supposed--People Give Generously
to Aid the Suffering--A Social Phenomenon--Value of the United
States Weather Bureau 271
CHAPTER XIX.
Galveston Island Directly in the Path of Storms, With No Way of
Escape--What is the City's Future?--All Coast Cities in
Danger--New York Will Be Flooded--Hurricane Foretold--
Galveston's Settlement--Storm Will Recur 281
CHAPTER XX.
Comparisons Between the Galveston and Johnstown Disasters--The
Latter Not So Horrible in Its Features--Frightful Plight of the
Texas Victims 294
CHAPTER XXI.
Great Calamities Caused by Flood and Gale During Past Century--
Millions of Lives Lost Through the Fury of the Elements 299
CHAPTER XXII.
Overwhelming of Johnston, Pa., by the Waters from Conemaugh
Lake--One of the Most Peculiar Happenings in History--Actual
Number of Deaths Will Never Be Known--About Twenty-five
Hundred Bodies Found 321
CHAPTER XXIII.
Not More Than Half the Bodies of Victims Identified--Hundreds
of Corpses of the Unknown and Nameless Cast Into the Sea--
Others Buried in the Sand and Cremated--List of Identifications 361
[Illustration: THE GALVESTON STORM RAGING]
[Illustration: SISTERS OF MERCY FOUND TIED TO THE LITTLE CHILDREN WHOM
THEY TRIED TO SAVE]
[Illustration: BLOWN OUT INTO THE GULF]
[Illustration: WHEN THE WATERS REACHED THE ORPHAN ASYLUM]
[Illustration: A RACE WITH THE WIND AND TIDE AT GALVESTON]
[Illustration: SOME WERE SAVED IN THE GALVESTON DISASTER BY FLOATING ON
BOX CARS]
[Illustration: VANDALS ROBBING THE DEAD]
[Illustration: GATHERING THE KILLED AND INJURED AFTER THE STORM]
[Illustration: DROWNING OF GALVESTON SUFFERERS BY THE TIDAL WAVE]
[Illustration: DEATH ON THE GALVESTON SHORE AFTER THE STORM]
[Illustration: THE STORM DEALING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN ITS PATH]
[Illustration: FURY OF THE STORM AND DESPERATE PREDICAMENT OF RESIDENTS]
[Illustration: AT DEATH'S DOOR IN THE GALVESTON STORM]
[Illustration: SURVIVORS, NEARLY STARVED, RANSACKING A GROCERY STORE FOR
FOOD]
THE GALVESTON HORROR.
CHAPTER I.
West Indian Hurricane Descends Upon Galveston, Causing Immense Losses of
Life and Property--Catastrophe Unparalleled in the History of the World--A
Night of Horrors and Suffering.
The frightful West Indian hurricane which descended upon the beautiful,
prosperous and progressive, but ill-fated, city of Galveston, on Saturday,
September 8, 1900, causing the loss of many thousands of lives and the
destruction of millions of dollars' worth of property, and then ravaged
Central and Western Texas, killing several hundred people and inflicting
damage which cost millions to repair, has had no parallel in history.
When the gale approached the island upon which Galveston it situated, it
lashed the waves of the Gulf of Mexico into a tremendous fury, causing
them to rise to all but mountain height, and then it was that, combining
their forces, the wind and water pounced upon their prey.
In the short space of four hours the entire site of the city was covered
by angry waters, while the gale blew at the rate of one hundred miles an
hour; business houses, public buildings, churches, residences, charitable
institutions, and all other structures gave way before the pressure of the
wind and the fierce onslaught of the raging flood, and those which did not
crumble altogether were so injured, in the majority of cases, that they
were torn down.
Such a night of horror as the unfortunate inhabitants were compelled to
pass has fallen to the lot of few since the records of history were first
opened. In the early evening, when the water first began to invade
Galveston Island, the people residing along the beach and near it fled in
fear from their homes and sought the highest points in the city as places
of refuge, taking nothing but the smaller articles in their houses with
them. On and on crawled the flood, until darkness had set in, and then, as
though possessed of a fiendish vindictiveness, hastened its speed and
poured over the surface of the town, completely submerging it--covering
the most elevated ground to a depth of five feet and the lower portions
ten and twelve feet.
The hurricane was equally malignant, if not more fiendish and cruel, and
tore great buildings and beautiful homes to pieces with evident delight,
scattering the debris far and wide; telegraph and telephone lines were
thrown down, railway tracks and bridges--the latter connecting the island
and city with the mainland--torn up, and the mighty, tangled mass of
wires, bricks, sections of roofs, sidewalks, fences and other things
hurled into the main thoroughfares and cross streets, rendering it
impossible for pedestrians to make their way along for many days after the
waters and gale had subsided.
Forty thousand people--men, women and children--cowered in terror for
eight long hours, the intense blackness of the night, the swishing and
lapping of the waves, the demoniac howling and shrieking of the wind and
the indescribable and awful crashing, tearing and rending as the houses,
hundreds at a time, were wrecked and shattered, ever sounding in their
ears. Often, too, the friendly shelter where families had taken refuge
would be swept away, plunging scores and scores of helpless ones into the
mad current which flowed through every street of the town, and fathers and
mothers were compelled to undergo the agony of seeing their children
drown, with no possibility of rescue; husbands lost their wives and wives
their husbands, and the elements were only merciful when they destroyed
an entire family at once.
All during that fearful night of Saturday until the gray and gloomy dawn
of Sunday broke upon the sorrow-stricken city, the entire population of
Galveston stood face to face with grim death in its most horrible shapes;
they could not hope for anything more than the vengeance of the hurricane,
and as they realized that with every passing moment souls were being
hurried into eternity, is it at all wonderful that, after the strain was
over and all danger gone, reason should finally be unseated and men and
women break into the unmeaning gayety of the maniac?
Not one inhabitant of Galveston old enough to realize the situation had
any idea other than that death was to be the fate of all before another
day appeared, and when this long and weary suspense, to which was added
the chill of the night and the growing pangs of hunger, was at last broken
by the first gleams of the light of the Sabbath morn, the latter was not
entirely welcome, for the face of the sun was hidden by morose and ugly
clouds, from which dripped, at dreary intervals, cold and gusty showers.
Thousands were swallowed up during the darkness and their bodies either
mangled and mutilated by the wreckage which had been tossed everywhere,
left to decompose in the slimy ooze deposited by the flood or forced to
follow the waves in their sullen retirement to the waters of the gulf.
Dejection and despondency succeeded fright; the majority of the business
men of the city had suffered such losses that they were overcome by
apathy; nearly all the homes of the people were in ruins; the streets were
impassable, and the dead lay thickly on every side; all telegraph and
telephone wires were down, and as miles and miles of railroad track had
disappeared and the bridges carried away, there was absolutely no means of
communication with the outer world, except by boat. The strange spectacle
was then presented of the richest city of its size in the richest country
in the world lying prostrate, helpless and hopeless, a prey to ghouls,
vultures, harpies, thieves, thugs and outlaws of every sort; its people
starving, and the putrid bodies of its dead breeding pestilence.
SKETCH OF THE CITY OF GALVESTON.
The City of Galveston is situated on the extreme east end of the Island of
Galveston. It is six square miles in area, its present limits being the
limits of the original corporation and the boundaries of the land
purchased from the Republic of Texas by Colonel Menard in 1838 for the sum
of $50,000. Colonel Menard associated with himself several others, who
formed a town site company with a capital of $1,000,000. The City of
Galveston was platted on April 20, 1838, and seven days later the lots
were put on the market. The streets of Galveston are numbered from one to
fifty-seven across the island from north to south, and the avenues are
known by the letters of the alphabet, extending east and west lengthwise
of the island.
The founders of the city donated to the public every tenth block through
the center of the city from east to west for public parks. They also gave
three sites for public markets and set aside one entire block for a
college, three blocks for a girls' seminary, and gave to every Christian
denomination a valuable site for a church.
The growth of the city in population was slow until after the war of the
rebellion. It is a remarkable fact that for the population Galveston does
double the amount of business of any city in America. The population in
1890 was 30,000, showing an increase of over 400 per cent in thirty years.
At the time of the disaster the population was estimated at 40,000.
Galveston has over two miles of completed wharfs along the bay front and
others under construction, all of which are equipped with modern
appliances. The Galveston Wharf Company, which owns practically all the
wharfage, has expended millions during the last five years for
improvements in the way of elevators and facilities for handling grain and
cotton. During the cotton season, Sept. 1 to March 31 inclusive, large
ocean-going craft line the wharves, often thirty or more steamers and as
many large sailing vessels being accommodated at one time, besides the
numerous smaller vessels and sailing craft doing a coastwise trade.
Manufacturing is one of the chief supports of the city. In this branch of
industry Galveston leads any city in the State of Texas by 50 per cent in
number and more than 100 per cent in capital employed and product turned
out. Of factories the city has 306, employing a capital aggregating
$10,886,900, with an output of $12,000,000 a year.
The jetty construction forms one of the chief features of its commercial
advantages. The construction began in 1885, progressing slowly for five
years, when the desire of the citizens for a first-class harbor led to the
formation of a permanent committee, which succeeded in getting a bill
through Congress authorizing an expenditure of $6,200,000 on the harbor.
The bill provided that there should be two parallel stone jetties
extending nearly six miles out into the gulf, one from the east point of
Galveston Island, the other from the west point of Bolivar Peninsula. The
jetties are fifty feet wide at the bottom and slope gradually to five feet
above mean low tide, and are thirty-five feet wide at the top, with a
railroad track running their entire length, which railroad is the property
of the Federal Government. The immediate effect of early construction of
the jetties was to remove the inner bar, which formerly had thirteen feet
of water over it, and which now has over twenty-one feet of water.
The principal business street of Galveston is the Strand, which is of made
land 150 feet from the water of the bay, in the extreme northern end of
the city. Besides being the principal port of Texas, Galveston is the
financial center of the State, and some of the largest business houses in
Texas have their offices in the Strand. Among the business houses on this
street are the following:
Sealy, Hutchins & Co., bankers; most modern banking building in Texas;
four-story structure, in which is also located the office of the Mallory
steamship line, and also the offices of Congressman R. B. Hawley, one of
the Republican leaders in the State.
H. Kempner, cotton broker; four-story brick building.
First National Bank, J. Runge, President. Mr. Runge is also President of
the Cotton Exchange, President of the Galveston Cotton mills, and
President of the City Railway Company.
W. L. Moody & Co., bankers and cotton factors; four-story brick. Mr. Moody
is an intimate friend of W. J. Bryan and periodically entertains him at
Lake Surprise, a duck hunting ground fifteen miles inland from Galveston;
a famous hunting ground.
General offices Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway and the Galveston,
Henderson and Houston Railway, which is the gulf terminus of the
International and Great Northern Railway.
Adoue & Lobit, bankers; four-story brick.
Island City Savings Bank and Gulf City Trust Company, M. Lasker,
President; four-story brick.
Texas Loan and Trust Company and Flint & Rogers, cotton factors;
four-story brick building.
Mensing Bros., wholesale grocers; four-story brick.
Western Union Telegraph Company and Mexican Cable Company; four-story
brick building.
Galveston Dry Goods Company; four-story brick.
Hullman, Owen & Co., wholesale grocers; four-story brick building.
Wallace, Landis & Co., wholesale grocers; five-story brick.
L. W. Levy & Co., wholesale liquor dealers; four-story brick.
Schneider Bros., wholesale liquor dealers; four-story brick.
Beers, Kennison & Co., general insurance agents in Texas for several large
companies; four-story brick.
Concisely put and with no waste of words, the following facts comprise the
history of the unfortunate city:
1. It is the richest city of its size in the United States.
2. Is the largest and most extensively commercial city of Texas.
3. Is the gateway of an enormous trade, situated as it is between the
great West granaries and Europe.
4. Lies two miles from the northeast corner of the Island of Galveston.
5. Is a port of entry and the principal seaport of the State.
6. Its harbor is the best, not only on the coast line of Texas, but also
on the entire gulf coast from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Rio
Grande.
7. Is the nearest and most accessible first-class seaport for the States
of Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, the Indian Territory and the
Territory of Arizona and parts of the States and Territories adjoining
those just mentioned.
8. Is to-day the gulf terminus of most of the great railway systems
entering Texas.
9. Ranks third among the cotton ports of the United States.
10. Its port charges are as low as or lower than any other port in the
United States.
11. Is the only seaport on the gulf coast west of the Mississippi into
which a vessel drawing more than 10 feet of water can enter.
12. Has steamship lines to Liverpool, New York, New Orleans and the ports
of Texas as far as the Mexican boundary.
13. Has harbor area of 24 feet depth and over 1,300 acres; of 30 feet
depth and over 463 acres (the next largest harbor on the Texas coast has
only 100 acres of 24 feet depth of water).
14. Has the lowest maximum temperature of any city in Texas.
15. Has the finest beach in America and is a famous summer and winter
resort.
16. Has public free school system unexcelled in the United States.
17. Has never been visited by any epidemic disease since the yellow fever
scourge of 1867.
18. Has forty miles of street railways in operation.
19. Has electric lights throughout the city (plant owned by city).
20. It has millions invested in docks, warehouses, grain elevators,
flouring mills, marine ways, manufactories and mercantile houses.
THE MOST PROMISING TOWN IN THE SOUTH.
"Galveston was the most promising town in the South, so far as shipping is
concerned," said Thomas B. Bryan, the founder of North Galveston, the day
after the disaster occurred. "There has been persistent opposition to it
on the part of a railroad that wished the transportation of cotton and
other produce farther east, but finally the geographical position of
Galveston triumphed. Even Collis P. Huntington, the railroad magnate,
succumbed, and later he inaugurated improvements in Galveston on the most
colossal scale, involving an expenditure of many millions of dollars. One
of the last announcements Mr. Huntington made before his death was that
Galveston would become the greatest shipping port in America if money
could accomplish it. At the time I was in Galveston, a few weeks ago,
there was an army of workmen employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad
constructing great docks and wharves, which were to eclipse any on the
globe.
"Some conception of Galveston can be formed by supposing the business
district of Chicago--say from Lake to Twenty-second street--were to extend
out into the lake on a pier for a distance of three miles and at a height
above the water varying from three to seven, and possibly, in some places,
nine feet. My own observation of Galveston induced my taking hold of the
nearest eligible elevated locality for residences, which is North
Galveston, sixteen miles from the city proper. It has an elevation above
the water of fifteen to twenty feet more than Galveston, and is free from
inundation. No news has reached me from North Galveston, and, though
damage may have been done by wind, I am confident none can be done by
water or waves."
HOW THE HURRICANE ORIGINATED.
Storms which move with the velocity of that which swept Galveston and
which are common to the southern and southeastern coasts of the United
States invariably originate, according to Weather Forecaster H. J. Cox, of
the United States Weather Bureau at Chicago, in "the doldrums," or that
region in the ocean where calms abound. In this particular instance the
place was south of the West Indies and north of the equator. The region of
the doldrums varies in breadth from sixty to several hundred miles, and at
different seasons shifts its extreme limits between 5 degrees south and 15
degrees north. It is always overhung by a belt of clouds which is gathered
by opposing currents of the trade winds.
"The storm which swept Galveston and the surrounding country, I should
say, originated at a considerable distance south of the West Indies, in
this belt of calms," said Forecaster Cox the Monday night following the
catastrophe.
"It was caused by two strong currents meeting at an angle, and this caused
the whirling motion which finally spent its force on the coast of Texas.
It is seldom that a storm originating in the doldrums moves so far inland
as did this one, but it is not, however, unprecedented. The reason this
storm reached so far as Galveston was that the northwesterly wind moved
about twice as fast as it usually does before reaching land. Usually the
force of these winds are spent on the coast of Florida and sometimes they
reach as far north as North Carolina. When they strike the land at these
points they are given a northeasterly direction.
"This storm missed the eastern coast of the United States, and
consequently was deflected to the west. Thunderstorms are prevailing in
Kansas and all of the district just north of the course of the storm,
which is the natural result after such commotion of the elements. The
conditions of the land are such about Galveston that when the storm
reached that far it had no possible means of escape, and hence the dire
results. If there had been a chance for the wind to move further west
along the coast it would in all probability have passed Galveston, giving
the place no more than a severe shaking up. In this event the worst effect
would in all probability have been felt on the eastern coast of Mexico."
It was an absolute impossibility for anyone to form an idea of the extent
and magnitude of the disaster within a week of its occurrence. The morning
of Sunday, when the wind and the waves had subsided, the streets of the
city were found clogged with debris of all sorts. The people of Galveston
could not realize for several days what had happened. Four thousand houses
had been entirely demolished and hardly a building in the city was fit for
habitation.
The people were apathetic; they wandered around the streets in an aimless
sort of way, unable to do anything or make preparations to repair the
great damage done. The Monday following the catastrophe, Galveston was
practically in the hands of thieves, thugs, ghouls, vampires, and bandits,
some of them women, who robbed the dead, mutilated the corpses which were
lying everywhere, ransacked business houses and residences and created a
reign of terror, which lasted until the officers in command of the force
of regulars stationed at the beach barracks sent a company of men to
patrol the streets. The governor of the state ordered out all the
regiments of the National Guard and various associations of business men
also supplied men, who assisted the soldiers in doing patrol duty in the
city and suburbs.
The depredations of the lawless element were of an inconceivably brutal
character. Unprotected women, whether found upon the streets or in their
houses, were subjected to outrage or assault and robbed of their clothing
and jewelry. Pedestrians were held up on the public thoroughfare in broad
daylight and compelled to give up all valuables in their possession. The
bodies of the dead were despoiled of everything and in their haste to
secure valuables the ghouls would mutilate the corpses, cutting off
fingers to obtain the rings thereon and amputating the ears of the women
to get the earrings worn therein.
The majority of the thieves and vampires belonged in the city of Galveston
and were reinforced by desperadoes from outside towns, like Houston,
Austin, and New Orleans, who took advantage of the rush to the city
immediately after the disaster, obtaining free transportation on the
railroad and steamers upon a pretense that they were going to Galveston
for the purpose of working with relief parties and the gangs assigned for
burial of the dead. Their outrages became so flagrant and the people of
the city became so terrified in consequence of their depredations that the
city authorities unable to cope with them, most of the officers of the
police department having been victims of the flood, that an appeal was
made to the governor to send state troops and procure the preservation of
order. Captain Rafferty, commanding Battery O of the First Regiment of
Artillery, U. S. A., was also implored to lend his aid in putting down the
lawless bands, and he accordingly sent all the men in his command who had
not met death in the gale.
There was some delay in getting the state troops to Galveston because so
many miles of railroad had been washed away, the Adjutant General being
compelled to notify some companies of militia by courier, but Captain
Rafferty ordered his men on duty at once, with instructions to promptly
shoot all persons found despoiling the dead. Most of the vampires were
negroes, some of them, however, being white women, the latter being as
savage and merciless in their treatment of the dead as the most abandoned
of their male companions.
The regulars were put on duty on Tuesday night and before morning had shot
several of the thugs, who were executed on the spot when found in the act
of robbery. In every instance the pockets of the harpies slain by the
United States troops were found filled with jewelry and other valuables,
and in some cases, notably that of one negro, fingers were found in their
possession which had been cut from the hands of the dead, the vampires
being in such a hurry that they could not wait to tear the rings off. On
Wednesday evening the government troops came across a gang of fifty
desperadoes, who were despoiling the bodies of the dead found enmeshed in
the debris of a large apartment house. With commendable promptness the
regulars put the ghouls under arrest and finding the proceeds of their
robberies in their possession lined them up against a brick wall and
without ceremony shot every one of them. In cases where the villains were
not killed at the first fire, the sergeant administered coup de grace.
Many of the thugs begged piteously for mercy, but no attention was paid to
their feelings and they suffered the same stern fate as the rest.
When the state troops arrived in the city they took the same severe
measures and the result was that within forty-eight hours the city was as
safe as it had ever been. The police arrested every suspicious character
and the jail and cells at the police station were filled to overflowing.
These people were deported as soon as possible and notified that if they
returned they would be shot without warning. The temper of the citizens of
Galveston was such that they would not temporize in any case with those
who were neither criminals or inclined to work. Every able-bodied man in
town was impressed for duty in relief and burial parties and whenever an
individual refused to do the work required he was promptly shot. By
Thursday morning all the men required had been obtained and relief and
burial parties were filled to the quota deemed necessary and the work of
disposing of the bodies of the dead, administering to the wants of the
wounded and the clearing of the streets of the debris was proceeding
satisfactorily.
The dead lay in the streets and vacant places in hundreds and the heat of
the sun began to have its natural effect. Decomposition set in and the
stench became unbearable. At first an effort was made to identify the
corpses, but it was soon found that work could not be proceeded with, as
any delay imperilled the living. Fears entertained in regard to pestilence
were speedily verified and the people of the city were taken ill by
scores. It was difficult to obtain men to perform the duty of burying the
bloated corpses of the victims of the catastrophe and consequently the
city authorities ordered that the dead be loaded on barges, taken a few
miles out to sea, weighted and thrown into the water. The ground had
become so watersoaked that it was impossible to dig graves or trenches for
the reception of the bodies, although in many instances people buried
relatives and friends in their yards and the ground surrounding their
residence. Along the beach hundreds of corpses were buried in the sand,
but the majority of the burials were at sea. By Wednesday night 2,500
bodies had been cast into the water, while about 500 had been interred
within the city limits. Precautions were taken, however, to mark the
graves and when the ground had dried sufficiently the bodies were
disinterred and taken to the various cemeteries where, after burial,
suitable memorials were erected to mark their last resting place. No
attempts were made at identification after Wednesday, lists being simply
made of the number of victims. The graves of those buried in the sand were
marked by headboards with the inscriptions, "White man, aged forty;"
"White woman, aged twenty-five," and "male" or "female" child, as the case
might be.
So accustomed did the burial parties become to the handling of the dead
that they treated the bodies as though they were merely carcasses of
animals and not bodies of human beings and they were dumped into the
trenches prepared for their reception without ceremony of any kind. The
excavations were then filled up as hurriedly as possible, the sand being
packed down tightly. This might have seemed inhuman, unfeeling, and
brutal, but the exigencies of the situation demanded that the corpses be
put out of the way as speedily as possible. Great difficulty was
experienced in securing men to transport bodies to the wharves where the
barges lay, and it was practically an impossibility to get anyone to touch
the bodies of the negro victims, decomposition having set in earlier than
in the cases of the whites, and had it not been that the members of the
fire department volunteered their services the remains of the negroes
would have remained unburied for a longer time than they were. Finally,
however, patience ceased to be a virtue and orders were given the guards
to shoot any man who refused to do his duty under the circumstances. The
result of this was that the beginning of Wednesday there was less delay in
the matter of disposing of the dead.
However, in spite of the activity of the burial parties, the work of
clearing the streets of corpses was a most tedious one.
FORECAST OFFICIAL'S REPORT ON THE STORM.
The forecast official of the United States Weather Bureau at Galveston
made the following report, September 14, on the storm:
"The local office of the United States weather bureau received the first
message in regard to this storm at 4 p. m., September 4. It was then
moving northward over Cuba. Each day thereafter until the West India
hurricane struck Galveston bulletins were posted by the United States
weather bureau officials giving the progressive movements of the
disturbance.
"September 6 the tropical storm had moved up over southern Florida, thence
it changed its course and moved westward in the gulf and was central off
the Louisiana coast the morning of the 7th, when northwest storm warnings
were ordered up for Galveston. The morning of the 8th the storm had
increased in energy and was still moving westward, and at 10:10 a. m. the
northwest storm warnings were changed to northeast. Then was when the
entire island was in apparent danger. The telephone at the United States
weather bureau office was busy until the wires went down; many could not
get the use of the telephone on account of the line being busy. People
came to the office in droves inquiring about the weather. About the same
time the following information was given to all alike:
"'The tropical storm is now in the gulf, south or southwest of us; the
winds will shift to the northeast-east and probably to the southeast by
morning, increasing in energy. If you reside in low parts of the city,
move to higher grounds.'"
"Prepare for the worst, which is yet to come," were the only consoling
words of the weather bureau officials at Galveston from morning until
night of the 8th, when no information further could be given out.
The local forecast official and one observer stayed at the office
throughout the entire storm, although the building was wrecked. The
forecast official and one observer were out taking tide observations about
4 a. m., September 9. Another observer left after he had sent the last
telegram which could be gotten off, it being filed at Houston over the
telephone wires about 4 p. m. of the 8th. Over half the city was covered
with tide water by 3 p. m. One of the observers left for home at about 4
p. m., after he had done all he could, as telephone wires were then going
down. The entire city was then covered with water from one to five feet
deep. On his way home he saw hundreds of people and he informed all he
could that the worst was still to come, and people who could not hear his
voice on account of the distance he motioned them to go downtown.
The lowest barometer by observation was 28.53 inches at 8:10 p. m.,
September 8, but the barometer went slightly lower than this, according to
the barograph. The tide at about 8 p. m. stood from six to fifteen feet
deep throughout the city, with the wind blowing slightly over a hundred
miles an hour. The highest wind velocity by the anemometer was ninety-six
miles from the northeast at 5:15 p. m., and the extreme velocity was a
hundred miles an hour at about that time. The anemometer blew down at this
time and the wind was still higher later, when it shifted to the east and
southeast, when the observer estimated that it blew a gale of between 110
and 120 miles. There was an apparent tidal wave of from four to six feet
about 8 p. m., when the wind shifted to the east and southeast, that
carried off many houses which had stood the tide up to that time.
The observer believed from the records he managed to save that the
hurricane moved inland near Galveston, going up the Brazos Valley.
The warnings of the United States Weather Bureau were the means of
thousands of lives being saved through the hurricane. It was so severe,
however, that it was impossible to prepare for such destruction. The
observer of the United States Weather Bureau at Galveston, to relieve
apprehension, stated on September 14 that the barometer had gone up to
about the normal, and there were no indications of another storm
following.