Serious Danger from Fire--Scarcity of Boats to Carry People to the
Mainland--Laborers Imported into Galveston--Untold Sufferings on Bolivar
Island--Experience of a Chicago Man.
One of the serious dangers which Galveston faced for many days was fire.
Not a drop of rain had fallen during the two weeks succeeding the
hurricane, and the hot winds and blistering suns made the wrecked houses
and buildings so much tinder, piled mountain high in every direction. In
nearly all parts of the city the fire hydrants were buried fifty feet, in
some places a hundred feet deep under the wreckage, and as yet the water
supply at best was only of the most meager kind.
Galveston's fire department was small and badly crippled and would have
been utterly powerless to stay the flames should they once start. There
was no relief nearer than Houston, and that was hours away.
In view of all the then existing conditions it was no wonder that the cry
was: "Get the women and children to the mainland; anywhere off the
island," nor was it a wonder that with one small boat carrying only 300
passengers and making only two trips a day people fairly fought to be
taken aboard.
All during Sunday, September 16, fears were entertained by the authorities
that even this service would be cut off and Galveston left without any
means of getting to the mainland owing to the trouble with the owner of
the boat.
The sanitary conditions did not improve to any great extent. Dr.
Trueheart, chairman of the committee in charge of caring for the sick and
injured, was proceeding with dispatch. More physicians were needed, and
he requested that about thirty outside physicians come to Galveston and
work for at least a month, and, if needed, longer.
The city's electric light service was completely destroyed and the city
electrician said it would be sixty days before the business portion of the
city could be lighted.
A glorious and modern Galveston to be rebuilt in place of the old one, was
the cry raised by the citizens, but it seemed a task beyond human power to
ever remove the wreckage of the old city.
The total number of people fed in the ten wards Saturday was 16,144.
Sunday the number increased slightly. No accurate statement of the amount
of supplies could be obtained as they were put in the general stock as
soon as received.
GALVESTON SCARED BY A FIRE.
Galveston received another scare Sunday night, the 16th, when it became
rumored that Houston, where all the relief trains were side-tracked, was
burning with its precious supplies of food and clothing.
The scare grew out of a $400,000 fire in Houston, which destroyed the
Merchants and Planters' oil mill, the largest in the world. The fire broke
out at noon, but was not observable until nightfall, when the glow in the
sky could be seen for a great distance.
Galveston was reassured by telegraph that a second southern Texas calamity
was out of the question and that the relief supplies were safe.
One feature of the efforts to relieve the people of Galveston was the
delay in getting supplies to the island city. Trainload after trainload
was in Houston, which would have assisted materially in the work of
relief, but on account of the limited transportation facilities they could
not be hurried there. There was but one track and it was of light rails
and was used only for terminal business. Even if the supplies were at
Texas City they could not be moved fast, as there were not enough boats of
light draft at Galveston. Buffalo bayou could be used from Houston, but it
was impossible to get the boats for the purpose.
LABORERS IMPORTED INTO GALVESTON.
The general committee of public safety at Galveston decided, on September
17, to import laborers. This action was taken with the consent of the
local unions. Skilled mechanics had been busy burying the dead without
pay, but were relieved of this work and replaced by imported unskilled
labor.
According to Dr. William W. Meloy of Chicago, who has investigated the
health situation, there was no fever in Galveston September 17.
"The water supply has been adequate," he said, "and is not liable to
contamination. Nervous prostration, hysteria and mild dementia occur among
the wealthy class, due to shock, exhaustion and grief. Among the poorer
classes the use of spoiled food during the earlier part of the week has
led to intestinal troubles. Several cases of heat prostration have
occurred among the workmen. The danger from the unburied dead is mostly to
the people who handle them."
Major Frank M. Spencer arrived at Galveston on September 16 with $50,000
cash from Governor Sayers, to be expended in hastening the disposal of the
debris and the burial of bodies. Major Spencer arrived too late to bank
the money and for twenty-four hours it rested in the safe of the Tremont
House, guarded by soldiers.
Galveston passed the first Sunday following the disaster burying the dead
and clearing away debris. General Scurry's order that all men able to work
should labor to the limit of their strength was carried out to the letter.
"We're thankful," said Mayor Jones on Monday, when told of the arrival of
the Chicago relief train at Houston. "You can't make that statement too
strong to the people of Chicago. We are thankful and thankful again.
Chicago people are among the staunchest friends in the world in times like
these. Yes, we'll build Galveston up again, and, like Chicago, we'll make
it a better city than it was. We shall never forget the kindness of the
people of Chicago in coming so generously to our relief, and we all thank
them from the bottom of our hearts."
A HELP IN GETTING RELIEF SUPPLIES TO THE NEEDY.
Arrangements were completed by the Santa Fe road September 17 whereby it
established a barge line to Galveston from Virginia Point. This helped
somewhat in getting relief supplies from the mainland.
Clara Barton, head of the Red Cross league, arrived at Galveston that day.
Captain W. A. Hutchins, superintendent of the Galveston life-saving
station, returned from a trip along the island and reported that he saw a
great many bodies. He said the life-saving crew at San Luis had taken from
the beach 181 bodies and buried them at different points along the
island.
UNTOLD SUFFERINGS OF A FAMILY ON BOLIVAR ISLAND.
After suffering untold privations for over a week on Bolivar peninsula, an
isolated neck of land extending into Galveston bay a few miles from the
east end of Galveston island, the Rev. L. P. Davis, wife and five young
children reached Houston September 17 famished, penniless and nearly
naked, but overcome with amazement and joy at their miraculous delivery
from what seemed to them certain death. Wind and water wrecked their home,
annihilated their neighbors and destroyed every particle of food for miles
around, yet they passed through the terrible days and nights raising their
voices above the shriek of the wind in singing hymns and in prayer. And
through it all not one member of the family was injured to the extent of
even a scratch.
When the hurricane struck the Rev. Mr. Davis' home at Patton beach the
water rose so fast that it was pouring into the windows before the members
of the family realized their danger. Rushing out Mr. Davis hitched his
team and placing his wife and children into a wagon started for a place of
safety. Before they had left his yard another family of refugees drove up
to ask assistance, only to be upset by the waves before his very eyes.
With difficulty the party was saved from drowning, and when safe in the
Davis wagon were half floated, half drawn by the team to a grove.
With clotheslines Mr. Davis lashed his 12 and 14 year old boys in a tree.
One younger child he secured with the chain of his wagon, and lifting his
wife into another tree he climbed beside her.
While the hurricane raged above and a sea of water dashed wildly below,
Mrs. Davis clung to her 6-month-old babe with one arm, while with the
other she held fast to her precarious haven of refuge. The minister held a
baby of 18 months in the same manner, and while the little one cried for
food he prayed. In other trees the family he had rescued from drowning
found a precarious footing.
When the night had passed and the water receded, wreckage, dead animals
and the corpses of parishioners surrounded the devoted party. There was
nothing to eat, and, nearly dead with exhaustion, the preacher and his
little flock set out on foot to seek assistance. They were too weak to
continue far and sank down on the plain, while Mr. Davis pushed on alone.
Five miles away a farmhouse was found, partially intact, and securing a
team Davis returned for his half-dead party.
For two days they remained at the home of the hospitable farmer and then
set out afoot to find a hamlet or make their way over the desert-like
peninsula to Bolivar Point. In the heat of the burning sun they plodded on
along the water front, subsisting upon a steer which they killed and
devoured raw, until finally they came upon an abandoned and overturned
sailboat high on the beach.
With a united effort they succeeded in launching the boat and with
improvised distress signals displayed managed to sail to Galveston. There,
because of red tape, they were unable to secure clothing, although they
were given a little food and transportation to Houston. Clad in an old
pair of trousers, a tattered shirt and torn shoes, with his family in even
worse plight, the circuit rider of the Patton Beach, Johnston's Bethel,
Bolivar Point and High Island Methodist churches rode into Houston, dirty,
weak and half-starved. Here the family were sent to a hospital and cared
for.
They were sent to Dickinson, Tex., where they had relatives, who aided
them until the Methodist church came to their relief.
Bolivar reported that up to September 16, 220 bodies had been found and
buried and many were still lying on the sands. Assistance was needed. It
was a fact generally commented upon and merely emphasized by the
clergyman's experience, that while succor was being rushed to Galveston
other sufferers were neglected. The relief trains en route from Houston to
Galveston traversed a storm-swept section where famishing and nearly naked
survivors sat on the wrecks of their homes and hungrily watched tons of
provisions whirling past them while there was little prospect of aid
reaching them.
MAN HAD HIS BROKEN NECK SET.
One of the most difficult operations known to medical history, and a
rarity, was performed by Drs. Johnson, Lucas and Ryon Monday morning,
September 17, at a hospital in Houston.
F. H. Wigzell, of Alvin, a suburban town not far from Galveston, was blown
half a mile in his house and suffered dislocation of the cervical
vertebrae. His head fell forward on his chest and he had no power to raise
it. It was a plain case of broken neck and the physicians operated
successfully. They placed the neck in a plaster cast and the man will live
for years to come.
MOST TERRIBLE WEEK OF HIS LIFE.
L. F. Menage of Chicago, who returned from Galveston the Friday night
succeeding the disaster, reached the Tremont Hotel, Galveston, the Friday
evening before the terrible storm began. He said it had 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.
"One man would ask another how his family had come out," said Mr. Menage,
"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 had 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 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. At least 5,000 persons perished."
THE FLOOD HORRORS DROVE THEM CRAZY.
Three-fourths of the people who applied for relief were mentally dull. The
physicians said with proper care most of them might be cured.
A young girl was brought into the general relief station in Galveston on
Friday night. The relief corps found her huddled up in an empty freight
car, laughing and singing to amuse herself. The doctors said food and care
were all she needed to restore her to reason.
It was over a week after the flood before those from the outside really
began to find out what the awful calamity was to the people in the
desolated city.
The first shock was wearing off, the long lists of dead and missing were
getting to be an old story, and the sick and suffering were crawling into
places of refuge. Some of them had been sleeping on the open prairies ever
since the storm, most of them, in fact, men with broken arms and legs,
sick women and ailing children.
They would crawl out of the wreck of their homes and lie down on the bare
ground to die.
Relief parties found such as these every day and brought them into the
hospitals as fast as possible. One relief party found 5,000 people in the
vicinity of Galveston homeless, helpless, hopeless and tearless.
It was a sight to cause a stone statue to weep.
Monday, September 17, a man rode up to a hospital at Houston, and told the
doctors he had just come from the Brazos bottoms.
Said he: "The folks there are starving. There is not a pound of flour left
and the children are crying for milk. There are so many sick people there
that we don't know what to do. Can you send some one down?"
The physician in charge said he would go at once.
The man on horseback leaned over his saddle and tried to speak. Something
in his face frightened me. I called to two doctors. They ran out and
caught him. He was in a dead faint. When we had brought him to he laughed
sheepishly.
"I don't know what's the matter with me," he said. "Ain't never been taken
this way before."
The doctors looked at each other and smiled, but the nurses' eyes were
full of tears. The man had not tasted food for thirty-six hours, and he
had ridden fifty miles in the broiling Texas sun.
More troops were called for on September 17 by Governor Sayers of Texas to
relieve those on duty at Galveston who were worn out by their hard work.
The response was prompt and hearty.