Galveston, the horrors of a stricken city : Portraying by pen and picture the awful calamity that befell the queen city on the gulf and the terrible scenes that followed the disaster ..

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BANCROFT
LIBRARY

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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

MAJOR L. R. D. FAYLING,
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF CITY FORCES BEFORE GENL. SCURRY'S ARRIVAL.

GALVESTON:

THE HORRORS OF A STRICKEN GITY

PORTRAYING BY PEN AND PICTURE THE AWFUL CALAM-
ITY THAT BEFELL THE QUEEN CITY ON THE
GULF AND THE TERRIBLE SCENES THAT
FOLLOWED THE DISASTER.

INCLUDING THE COMING OF THE STORM, ITS FORCE AND HAVOC, PEOPLE KILLED AND PROPERTY

DESTROYED, HEROISM OF THE RESCUERS, STORIES OF THE SURVIVORS, THE RIFLE THE FATE

OF THE GHOULS, STORMS SCIENTIFICALLY CONSIDERED, THB TRACK OF THE STORM,

WORLD'S SYMPATHY AND AID, STORIES OF OTHER STORMS, CATASTROPHES

THAT ARE MEMORABLE, CITIES THAT HAVE BEEN WRECKED, STORY

OF THE CITY ON THE GULF, HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE

STATE, LESSON OF THE STORM, AND THE FUTURE

OF GALVESTON.

BY MURAT HALSTEAD,

AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST.

SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS OP THE CITY' BEFORE,
DURING, AND AFTER THE DISASTER.

C

AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION,
PUBLISHERS

r Ha

COPYRIGHT, 1900,

BY

H. L. BARBER,

-a. o 0/3

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

Texas is the giant of the States ; Galveston, the most im-
portant of her sea-ports. It has been pleasantly said of
Texas, with a great deal of truth in the compliment, that
the State is the France of America. Partially this com-
parison is due to the fact that the Gulf of Mexico has been
aptly called the American Mediterranean. The port of
France that corresponds in rank in that country to Galves-
ton, Texas, is Marseilles. The tides in the Gulf of Mexico
and in the Mediterranean Sea rise about to the same height,
a few inches more or less than two feet. There is this very
marked difference between the low flat shore of Texas and
that of France, that for nearly fifty miles into the country
from the Gulf Texas is remarkably level, while the coast
and the Southern Provinces of France are rugged. The
effect of the Alps, the Appenines and the Pyrennes and
the Jura mountains upon the French climate is quite de-
cided. Southern France has the advantage of the soft
airs of the Mediterranean and the sunny slopes that lead
up to the Alps. The Mediterranean is not visited by the
terrible tempests that are characteristic of the Gulf of
Mexico. The sea is rough, and there are prevailing winds
in France that are severe, but that country does not seem
to be in the path of tornadoes or hurricanes or the better
known class of storms that we call cyclones. The width of
the Gulf of Mexico from north to south is not far from

ii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

that of the Mediterranean, and a superficial supposition
would be that the excessive heats of Africa and the prox-
imity of the Sahara Desert would be productive of violent
winds gaining strength, increasing the sea on the way to
Europe. It is possible that the southern mountains of the
continent and of the islands of the Mediterranean guard
the countries west of Italy from the destructive storms
that are frequent and famous in North America.

The coast of Asia and the Sea of China, all the south-
western islands of the Pacific — the orient of Europe but
our Occident — including the Philippines and the Indian
Ocean, are subject to typhoons that bear a close resem-
blance to the hurricanes, as the whirling storms are ha-
bitually called in the West Indies. Many remarkable
escapes have been made by the ships of our Asiatic fleet
and the transports that have carried our troops across the
Pacific to the Philippines from the terrors of the typhoons,
so that the storms that rage in our far west have in some
degree lost their frightful reputation. It is, however, well
known that the typhoon is formidable as our cyclone and
not infrequently takes a direction parallel to the coast of
Asia, and changes the course eastward across the Pacific,
after the manner of the West India storm-winds on the
Atlantic. The terrific tempest at Samoa, where several
ships of war were wrecked, while Germany, England and
ourselves were jointly interested in that group of islands,
is familiar.

The great gales traveling from the East and the West
Indies usually occur about the equinoxial times, the months
especially distinguished in both oceans September and
October. It is a matter of interest touching which there
has often been conjecture and suggestions of special Di-

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. iii

vine Providence that though Columbus arrived in the West
Indies in his frail little ships in the month of October,
right in the hurricane season, and in the very region where
they are most destructive, as for example the recent tre-
mendously disastrous storm that swept over Porto Rico
before reaching that island, careering across the waters
where Columbus sailed on his first voyage, the great dis-
coverer having placid weather, so that his letters about the
beautiful waters and the shores that were so peaceful read
like poems. But when he set out to return to Spain he
encountered terrible tempests and nearly despaired of
riding them out, wrote some account of what he had
found and put it in a cake of beeswax enclosed in a keg
to be committed as a forlorn hope of carrying the news to
Europe of the discovery of America, if he should be lost
on the voyage.

The history of Texas is one of great interest, full of
dramatic situations, often of a startling character. During
the early days of the knowledge of Texas by Europeans
it was a contested land between the Spaniards from Cuba
and Mexico and the French from Canada. On both sides
they seem to have made long voyages in order to interfere
with each other, but the romantic stories — authentic his-
tory, too — of their rivalries and stratagems and combats
point to the fighting temper of the nations, and two hun-
dred years elapsed before it was settled to what nation
the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico belonged. In-
deed, there was a shifting of land titles between France
and Spain that never was quite settled until Napoleon sold
the French territory to Thomas Jefferson. There was a
strong and well grounded claim that Texas should have
been included in the Jefferson purchase, and the United

iv 'AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

States had been the proprietors of the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi Kiver only nine years when England undertook to
possess, along with the mouth of the river, the city of New
Orleans, and to make a commanding position of it, but
conspicuously failed.

The history of Texas since it became to a considerable
degree settled by Americans, who finally rebelled against
Mexico and made good their rebellion by sanguinary vic-
tories, is full of wars and rumors of wars. The Mexi-
cans were enabled to reinforce from the tribes of war-like
Indians numerous and adventurous on the headwaters of
the Texan Rivers. The most formidable tribe was the
Comanches. The Indian troubles in Texas lasted longer
and were more serious than in the case of any other State.
After the annexation of Texas the great field of operations
of the army of the United States was Texas. The wars
with the Indians were severe and protracted struggles,
so that there was ample occupation for our crack regiments
to a great extent in defending the settlers who pushed for-
ward with extraordinary hardihood and warred with the
Comanches and their allies.

The history of the war of the States as it involved Texas
is one of strange vicissitudes. The Texans generally gain-
ing advantages and the Trans-Mississippi department was
the last to become pacificated after Appomattox. The
growth of Texas since the war in population and develop-
ment of natural resources has been phenomenal. The
rapidity of the growth of the city of Galveston in popu-
lation and in commerce has been very striking, and rated
by percentages not surpassed by many cities in the world.
Once there was a great deal said of the character of the
people of Texas, implying that they were most hardy and

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. v

daring, and claimed an extraordinary share of belligerent
rights and an unusual range of personal libertv *.- carry
on war on personal account. It is only fair to say that
these characteristics never were peculiar to any State or
section of the United States, and that the general result
has been that Texas is, in the larger sense of the word,
Americanized, and is typically American with south-
western specialties, because the enormous increase of the
population of the State has been drawn from all of the
States in the Union, with the possible exception of those
of the extreme northwest.

After the Revolutionary war the first State to receive
the immigration of those who were seeking homes in new
lands was Ohio, and that State can sustain the boast that
she has the blood of all the original thirteen States. After
the great war of the States and the sections there were
two streams of emigration from the north and south west-
ward— many northern people moving south, largely into
Texas, many southern people going to the Missouri river
regions. The Trans-Mississippi railroads divided and dif-
fused these massive movements of humanity, and Texas
more than any other State has had the good fortune of
receiving immigrants from all the States east of the Mis-
sissippi. So extensive was this, that the increase of Texas
carried the center of population for one decennial period
across the Ohio river into Kentucky after it had been in
Ohio for a generation. It is now in Indiana, only a few
miles north of where it rested in Kentucky, moving slowly
westward almost in a direct line, according to the census
of ten years ago, but this center may soon reach and long
stay in Southern Illinois, and when it crosses the Missis-
sippi Texas will be populous as ITew York. This move-

vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

i

ment of the center of population testifies to the attraction
of the immensity of Texas in territory to the current
of humanity that flows to her continually, and so exten-
sively that it was the belief of the Texans for a time they
would surpass New York at the present census. Disap-
pointed in that, they will not abandon their great expec-
tations, for the State is so vast and so rich that it will
sustain a population equal to that of France or Germany.
The dire calamity that has befallen the principal seaport
of the State will have but a transitory influence in divert-
ing her commerce. Galveston would not have existed if it
had not been necessary for the State to have a seaport, and
the spot chosen was the most eligible, though the prodi-
gious forces of the Gulf tempests in destructive energy
were underrated. The city has been overwhelmed and
wrecked by the sea. It is an astounding and will be a
memorable disaster, one of the catastrophes that find a
permanent place in history, ranking among the most
desolating and most destructive of the misfortunes of
mankind. The city will rise from the waves of the Amer-
ican Mediterranean as Chicago arose from the ashes of her
burning, and her resurrection will be one of the marvels
illustrating the abounding capacity and the quenchless
courage of the American people. Galveston will be, and
deserves to be, as Chicago was, debtor to the world for the
splendid generosity that moves mankind with the spirit of
the progressing and ever still higher advance that marks
the age. We shall see, as Byron saw when he stood on the
Bridge of Sighs in Venice —

"I saw from out the wave vast structures rise?
Aa with the stroke of wi enchanter's wand,"

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. vii

and we may add that when "a thousand years their cloudy
wings expand" the scene will not be one of dying glories,
but of substantial splendors, built to stay and exceed the
earlier achievements. Galveston will remember the hurri-
cane as Lisbon recollects the earthquake and Chicago the
fire. MUKAT HALSTEAD.

Chicago, Sept. 13, 1900.

CONTENTS.

Author's Preface.

CHAPTER I.

The City of Galveston.

CHAPTER II.
The Gales of the Gulf.

CHAPTER III.
The Storm in the Stricken City.

CHAPTER IV.
The Dreadful Burden of the Dead.

CHAPTER V.
Scenes and Incidents in the Time of Terror.

CHAPTER VL
The Carnivals of Crime When Cities are Destroyed.

CHAPTER VII.

The Terrible Need of the Survivors.
CHAPTER VIII.
Incidents of the Great Terror.

CHAPTER IX.
The Awful Magnitude of the Misfortune.

CHAPTER X.
The Chicago Fire and the Galveston Flood.

CHAPTER XI.

The Most Grewsome Picture in the Book of Time.

viii

CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTEK XII.

Incidents that Make Up the History of Horrors.

CHAPTER XIII.
The Galveston Account of the Ruin Beyond Description.

CHAPTER XIY.

The First Steps of Reconstruction.

CHAPTER XV.

The New Galveston.

CHAPTER XVI.

Prehistoric Graveyard ISTear Galveston.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Giant of the States.

CHAPTER XVIII.
The Battle That Determined the Destiny of Texas.

CHAPTER XIX.
The Seven Flags of Texas.

CHAPTER XX.

Tempests That Are Historical.

CHAPTER XXL

The Great Storm in England.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Tragedy of the Alamo.

CHAPTER XXIII.
Disasters That Are Memorable.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Lighthouse, Galveston Harbor.

2. Texas City Dredge Ashore 1J Miles from Water.

3. Masonic Building Standing. The Adjoining Build-

ing Was Completely Wrecked.

4. The Jetty Further Out in the Gulf. The Building

in the Distance Is the U. S. Life-Saving Station.

5. First Duty of Stricken Galveston — Conscripting

Men to Bury the Dead.

6. Original Site of the City of Galveston.
T. Galveston Devastated. Tremont Street.

8. Wreck of a Building Occupied by Marx & Blum,

Wholesale Shoe and Hat House.

9. View of Avenue O, Looking North Toward City.

10. Crawford Street Inundated and Blocked with Poles.

11. Effect of Storm on Buildings — Wreck of Ursuline

Convent.

12. Ruins of Grain Elevator.

13. Presbyterian Church.

14. Sealy Hospital, Galveston.

15. Effect of Storm on Buildings — Wreck of Church.

16. G. C. & S. F. E. R. General Offices, Galveston.

17. Wrecked Street Railway Power House.

18. Elevator, Galveston.

19. Effect of Storm on Shipping — British Steamer

Aground in Front of Wrecked Wharf.

20. Electric Light Power House — Twenty-Five Buried

Here in Ruins.

21. Galveston Beach Hotel.

22. View of the Docks During Cotton Season. These

Tramp Steamers Carry Between Seven and Ten
Thousand Bales of Cotton Each.

23. Wreckage in West End.

ILLUSTRATIONS. xi

24. Ships at Foot of 18th Street. These Ships Were

Driven Through Wharf.

25. One of the Small Jetties on East Beach.

26. Chicago Kelief Train.

27. Ruins of the Baptist Church.

28. Galveston Beach, Looking East.

29. Virginia Point Wreckage, Showing Character of

Debris Along Shore.

30. A View of the Eastern Part of Galveston from the

Grain Elevator. View of the Bathers in the Surf
Taken from the Pier of the Pagoda Bath Com-
pany.

31. Water Works — Twenty-Five Bodies Here.

32. Disposal of the Dead. Burial by Eire.

33. Swept Away by the Great Storm. Cost over half a

Million.

34. Ruins of Galveston — Grain Elevator in the Back-

ground. Boats in the Foreground Are on Ground
Level with City.

35. Wreckage at 16th and M Streets.

36. Wreckage at the Cotton Piers.

37. Fifteenth Street and Tremont.

38. One of the Jetties Covered with Debris and Dead

Bodies of People and Animals.

39. Wreckage on the Beach Near Pier 18.

40. Mechanic Street — The Eirst to Be Cleared — Over

Six Hundred Bodies Removed.

41. View from Beach.

42. Wreck of Wharf at End of the Long Bridge.

43. Showing Wrecks of Railroad Tracks and Cars.

44. Boat Blown Inland and Left Six Miles from Shore.

45. The Arrival of the Ambulance at Relief Corps.

46. Children's Ward of Relief Corps.

47. The Kitchen of Relief Corps.

48. Major L. R. D. Fayling, Commander-in-Chief City

Forces Before General Scurry's Arrival.

49. Woman's Ward of Relief Corps.

50. Clara Barton, of the Red Cross.

CHAPTEK I.

THE CITY OF GALVESTON.

The city was named for Count Bernardo de Galvez, a
Spanish soldier and statesman, born in Malaga in 1746,
died in Mexico November 30, 1786. He served in France
and in the Algerian expedition, rose to the rank of colonel,
and was made Governor of Louisiana July 10, 1776. Dur-
ing the American revolution he gave the Americans aid for
operations at a distance from Louisiana, on the frontiers
of Virginia and Pennsylvania and on the northwest, but
did not permit them to operate against any of the English
posts near him. When Spain joined the war Galvez, in
1779, raised an army and took from the English Fort
Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Fort Panmure at Natchez.
In March, 1780, he took Mobile, and on March 8, 1781,
he appeared before Pensacola with Solano's fleet, bearing
an army of 5,000 men, and on May 10 compelled Gen.
Campbell to surrender. He was created a count, and in
1784 appointed captain-general of Cuba, Louisiana and
the two Floridas; but as his father's death, Matias de
Galvez, in 1784, left his post vacant, he was made Viceroy
of Mexico, retaining the captain-generalcy of Louisiana
and Florida. He was so regardless of stiff official Spanish
dignity that he gave offence to Spain, and his erection of
the palace of Chapultepec excited suspicion and led to such

83

34 THE CITY OF GALVESTON.

vexatious annoyances that he fell sick and died. Another
account says: Galvez y Gallardo, Bernardo: soldier and
administrator: Born in Macharaviaga, Spain, July 23,
1745. He entered service as a cadet, and in 1778 went to
Louisiana, where he became Governor in 1779. In June,
1785, he became Viceroy of Mexico, succeeding his father,
Matias de Galvez. Died in Tacubays, near Mexico, No-
vember 30, 1786.

Galveston is situated about 340 miles to the westward
of the mouth of the South Pass of the Mississippi River,
on the south side of the entrance into Galveston Bay, in
29° 18' N. lat. and 94° 47' long, west from Greenwich.
It is the principal port and largest city in the State, is the
seat of justice of Galveston county, and is located on the
inner shore of Galveston Island, about two miles from its
northeasterly point, known as Fort Point. The city,
therefore, faces the main Texas shore, being separated
from it by West Bay, lying between the island and the
mainland. The principal portion of the county lies on
the mainland fronting the two bays above named, its gen-
eral surface, like that of the island, being low and level,
and the soil sandy.

Galveston Island is a low sandy island, about 28 miles
long and 1J to 3J miles wide, stretching along the coast
of Texas in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction,
and forming the gulf coast-line throughout its entire
length. Its surface, which has an average height of 4 to 5
feet above tide level, is diversified by a number of fresh-
water ponds, and intersected by several creeks and small
bayous. The beach, on the gulf side, furnished a smooth
and pleasant drive during low-water stage, and excel-
lent surf -bathing.

MISS CLARA BARTON, PRESIDENT RED CROSS. WHO PERSONALLY
VISITED GALVESTON TO AID THE SUFFERERS.

THE CITY OF GALVE8TON. 37

The harbor of Galveston has the reputation of being
the best in the State, and the bay of the same name, includ-
ing certain outlying portions of it known severally as East
Bay, West Bay and Turtle Bay, covers an area of upwards
of 450 square miles of tidal water. At the head of the bay,
about 35 miles from the city in a northerly direction, it
receives Trinity Kiver, its largest tributary, while San
Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou enter it from the west 18
miles lower down.

The mean rise and fall of the tide at Galveston is 1 1-10
feet, but spring-tides occasionally rise more than three
feet above and fall nearly two feet below the plane of mean
low water, and fluctuations between much wider limits are
not uncommon under the influence of heavy winds. Dur-
ing a storm which occurred in October, 1867, the water
rose 6 6-10 feet above mean low-water stage, and in Sep-
tember, 1875, it rose in some portions of the bay 7 feet,
and in others 9J feet above the same level. Two years
later there was a rise of 5 2-10 feet, produced by an on-
shore wind which reached a maximum velocity of 60 miles
per hour. The lowest tide of which we have any record
fell 3 2-10 feet below mean low-water level, thus giving a
difference of 12 7-10 feet between the highest and the
lowest recorded tides.

A sand-bar, produced and maintained by the actien of
waves and currents, stretches across, bow-shaped, in front
of the entrance into the bay, the harbor between Fort Point
and Bolivar Point being about two miles.

The United States Government undertook the improve-
ment of this entrance by means of two jetties, one starting
from Fort Point and the other from Bolivar Point, having
an aggregate length of about 7 miles.

38 THE CITY OF GALVE8TON.

The peculiar mode of construction adopted for these
works by the superintending engineer, Major C. W. How-
ell, United States Corps of Engineers, merits notice. The
jetties are formed of large gabions, or basket work cylin-
ders, plastered inside and out with hydraulic cement, so
as to give a thickness of from 5 to 6 inches to the cylin-
drical wall. The gabions are either circular, with a diam-
eter of 6 feet, or of an oval cross section, with diameters
of 6 feet and 12 feet respectively. They are closed at the
bottom, and are also provided with a tight-fitting wooden
cover. After being sunk to their proper position in the
work, on their ends, arranged in a single or double row,
they are filled with sand pumped up from the bottom, and
passed in through a hole left in the gabion cover. At
first these gabions were placed directly on the bottom, but
the action of the sea and currents caused so much under-
scour and settlement that a foundation of fascines formed
into a matress and weighted with stones was resorted to.

Galveston was settled in 1837, with wide, straight
streets, and public squares, parks and gardens. The streets
running parallel to West Bay are known as avenues, and
are designated by the letters of the alphabet, beginning
at the bay, while those at right angles to the water are
numbered. Special names are assigned to some of the
streets. Avenue A, parallel and next to the wharf or chan-
nel front, is mostly occupied by wholesale houses. Next
comes Avenue B, or "The Strand," and then Avenue C,
or Mechanic street, both devoted largely to the wholesale
business. Avenue D, or Market street, for a distance of
seventeen squares, is occupied by retail stores, shops, res-
taurants, banks, hotels, etc. This is the main shopping
street. Avenues E and F are of the same character. The

THE CITY OF GALVESTON. 39

Postoffice and United States courthouse are at the intersec-
tion of Avenue F and Twentieth street, and the custom-
house is near by. Avenue J, or Broadway, is regarded
as the most desirable locality for residences. It is 150 feet
wide, including an esplanade 36 feet wide through the
middle, and a 16-foot sidewalk on either side. Bath ave-
nue, at right angles to Broadway, is 120 feet wide. Fre-
mont, or Twenty-third street, is the principal drive in the
city, and is maintained as a shell road from the Strand to
the Gulf beach. With the exceptions named the streets are
80 feet and the avenues 70 feet wide, including 16-feet
sidewalks, and the blocks or squares are uniformly 260
feet wide and 300 feet long, with an alley 20 feet wide
running lengthwise through the middle, along the rear
of the lots. The portion of the city built over extends
from about Sixth to Fortieth streets, and from Avenue A
south to within two or three blocks of the Gulf beach. The
streets are paved with blocks of heart cypress, avenues are
shelled from between Tenth to Thirty-second streets, or
thereabouts, with clam shells from 18 to 30 inches deep.
Trees were planted very generally on the outer edge of the
sidewalks, the oleander being the chief growth. It fre-
quently attains a height of 20 to 25 feet, and grows rap-
idly from slips with great luxuriance, blooming the year
round. The fig, orange, the black Hamburg and other
kinds of grape, and many varieties of evergreen shrubbery
thrive and nourish. Throughout the most thickly settled
portions of the city the sidewalks are paved with either
asphaltum, concrete, brick or German or English tiles.
The business portion of the city is built up mostly with
brick, and within certain defined fire limits the erection of
wooden buildings is prohibited.

40 THE CITY OF GALVESTON.

The county of Texas in which the city of Galveston
is situated, including the island containing the city, has
an area of 680 square miles, of which 274 square miles
are water. The population in 1870 was 15,290, of whom
3,236 were colored. The main portion of the county oc-
cupies the western shore of Galveston Bay, and is sepa-
rated from the island, lying in the Gulf of Mexico, by
West Bay. Northeast of the island and separated from
it by a channel one or two miles wide, is Bolivar pen-
insula, forming a part of the county, and lying between
the Gulf and East Bay, an arm of Galveston Bay.- The
surface is generally level, and the soil sandy. The chief
productions of the county in 1870 were 2,905 bushels of
Indian corn, 16,205 of sweet potatoes, and 213 tons of
hay. There were 390 horses, 717 milch cows, 6,140
other cattle, 586 sheep, and 719 swine on farms. The
number of manufacturing establishments was 91, employ-
ing 533 hands; capital invested, $710,950; value of prod-
ucts, $1,214,814.

The chief city of Texas in population and commerce,
the seat of justice of the county and port of entry is at
the northeast extremity of Galveston island, at the mouth
of the bay of the same name, the entrance of which is
through the channel between the city and the southwest
point of the peninsula of Bolivar, where a lighthouse has
been erected, 180 miles east by southeast of Austin, and
290 miles west by south of New Orleans; latitude 29
degrees, 46 minutes west. Population in 1850 was 4,177 ;
in 1860, 7,307; in 1870, 13,818, of whom 3,007 were
colored, and 3,614 foreigners. The population at the be-
ginning of 1874 was estimated by the local authorities at
from 25,000 to 30,000. The island is about 28 miles long

Ubfe

~f

THE CITY OF GALVE8TON. 43

and 1| to 3J miles wide, intersected by many small
bayous, diversified by several fresh-water ponds, and bor-
dered throughout its whole length by a smooth hard beach,
which forms a pleasant drive and promenade. The bay is
an irregular indentation, branching out into various arms,
and receiving Trinity and San Jacinto rivers and Buffalo
bayou. It extends 35 miles north from the city to the
mouth of Trinity river, and has a breadth of from 12 to
18 miles. The harbor is the best in the State, and has
13 feet of water over the bar at low tide. The city is
provided with good wharves, and large storehouses ad-
joining them. The chief business is the shipping of cotton.
The Southern Cotton Press Company owned 14 brick
warehouses, each occupying 2J acres, and the Texas Cot-
ton Press Company 3 more brick warehouses, covering
7£ acres. In 1883, 170,711 bales were shipped to Great
Britain, 6,100 to France, 32,584 to other European coun-
tries, 18,630 to ISTew Orleans, 67,038 to New York, 18,756
to Boston, and 14,794 to other coastwise ports. The re-
ceipts of hides were 460,854, shipments, 459,582 ; receipts
of wool, 3,873 bags, shipments, 3,760 bags. The value
of pine lumber received was $624,000 ; cypress, $480,000 ;
total, $1,104,000; head of cattle shipped, 50,699. The
total value of shipments was $35,333,747, including cotton
to the value of $32,423,806 ; of receipts, $29,811,831. The
number of immigrants during the year was 44,.614. The
number of vessels belonging to the port was 257, with
an aggregate tonnage of 23,462, including 198 sailing-
vessels of 13,813 tons, 35 steamers of 6,709 tons, and 24
barges of 2,900 tons; built during the year, 10 sailing
vessels of 165 tons, and one barge of 57 tons. The Gal-
veston, Houston and Henderson railroad connects the

44 TEE CITY OF GALVESTON.

city with Houston and the diverging railroads, crossing
West Bay on a bridge nearly two miles long. The depot
and warehouses cover 20 acres. The Galveston Wharf
railroad enabled the company to load its cars directly
from the vessels. A canal 10 miles long opens an avenue
for commerce to the Brazos river.

The -business of Galveston was extremely depressed
during the great war of the States, but when peace with
union and honor came the commercial, manufacturing and
maratime interests of the city took on new life, and before
the recent disaster a general feeling of confidence pre-
vailed, and the outlook for prosperity and stability was
brighter than ever in the history of the city. It had a
steady increase in population. The population (U. S.
Census) in 1870, 15,290; in 1880, 29,118; Directory
count, 1891, 56,000.

In 1890-1891, Galveston established a system of water
works, the supply coming from artesian wells.

From August 1, 1888, to August 1, 1889, 75 steam-
ers entered the harbor from foreign ports, and 192 en-
tered from coastwise ports, while 80 cleared for foreign
ports, and 174 for coastwise ports.

Ocean-going vessels which entered and cleared from
this port for seven months, ending March 31, 1899, were
as follows :

No. Tons.

Entered from foreign ports. 162 194,883

Entered from domestic ports 203 241,468

Cleared for foreign ports 176 246,613

Cleared for domestic ports 202 271,176

Total 743 954,140

Ocean-going vessels brought into and carried out of the

THE CITY OF GALVESTON. 45

port in twelve months, ending June 30, 1891 (May and
June estimated to equal previous year), merchandise and
products amounting in value to :

Imports, foreign and domestic $ 87,000,000

Exports, foreign and domestic 84,000,000

Total value $171,000,000

Imports consisted of miscellaneous merchandise, coal,
etc., mainly from New York and other Atlantic ports,
foreign imports being less than one-third of the total. Of
the exports, cotton amounted to ahout $50,000,000.

Ten years ago it was estimated that the annual busi-
ness of Galveston was very near $200,000,000, and there
were over 300 factories. Add the output of manufac-
tories and the total amount of business reached $250,-
000,000.

Mrs. Huston, an English lady, who was yachting in
the Gulf of Mexico when Henry Clay was running for
President in 1844, said of the prospects of the then inde-
pendent State of Texas, writing at Galveston :

"In considering the state of commerce here, there is
one truth plainly evident, that Texas will soon monopolize
the whole of the Mexican trade. This has hitherto been
conducted by trading parties from the United States,
who after traversing the entire extent of the great western
prairies, as far as the Rocky mountains, meet and trans-
act their negotiations with the Mexican traders at Santa
Fe. When it is considered that Santa Fe is only distant
from Galveston five hundred miles, one may form some
idea of the commercial advantages the Texans would
possess over the Americans. The latter have, for years,
found it worth their while to pay the enormous duties

46 TEE CITY OF GALVESTON.

charged for the admission of English cotton goods into
America. The merchandise has then heen transported
from Philadelphia or New York, upwards of four thou-
sand miles to Santa Fe, and great part of this distance
on the backs of beasts of burden. What a price the poor
Mexicans must have paid for their purchases, to allow these
enterprising traders a profit, and one good enough to sat-
isfy a Yankee calculator."

It might naturally have been expected that these signs
of the present, and visions of the future, would have
aroused the Government to exertion ; and induced them to
take some measures in order to render the entrance of
the harbor less dangerous. The city has an available wharf
frontage on Galveston channel of over 60,000 feet. Its
beach is said to be unsurpassed by any other on the Ameri-
can continent. It extends the whole length of the island
east and west, and almost as smooth as a floor. Mag-
nolia Grove Cemetery comprises 100 acres, and the City
Cemetery 10 acres. Four railroads run into the city of
Galveston. They are the Galveston, Houston & Hender-
son, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, the International and
Great Northern, and the Aransas Pass, — the latter run-
ning into the city via the track of the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe.

The people of Galveston have claimed and had ample
reason to believe that their city is "the most attractive,
coolest and healthiest city in the South. Constant Gulf
breeze, unsurpassed surf bathing and thirty miles of beach
for riding and driving, which is unequaled in the world."

The population of Galveston according to the census of
1900 was. 37,798. In 1890 it was 29,100. There are
two cities in Indiana in the same class as to population:
Tprr« Haute, 36,673; South Bend, 35,999.

TEE CITY OF GALVESTON. 47

EXPORTS AND IMPOETS OF GALYESTOK—
OFFICIAL.

Tear ending Exports.

June 30 — Domestic. Foreign. Total.

1885 $12,678,433 $ 721 $12,679,154

1886 16,960,514 6,337 16,966,851

1887 18,899,665 3,223 18,902,888

1888 15,700,984 2,163 15,703,147

1889 15,525,180 51,012 15,576,192

1890 24,326,760 120,071 24,446,831

1891 33,678,399 93,606 33,772,005

1892 35,102,289 283,967 35,386,256

1893 37,328,611 147,883 37,476,494

1894 34,886,931 124,857 35,011,788

1895 41,758,408 128,243 41,886,651

1896 36,325,451 71,640 36,397,091

1897 58,147,593 50,581 58,198,174

1898 67,931,962 498,659 68,428,621

1899 78,420,904 55,777 78,476,681

1900 85,657,524

Tear ending . Imports. Duty

June 30 — Free. Dutiable. Total. collected.

1885 ...$ 875,120 $282,250 $1,157,370 $144,413

1886 ... 580,219 176,914 757,133 93,353

1887 ... 381,537 323,772 705,309 148,929
1888.... 313,247 402,621 715,868 207,565
1889 .... 404,002 318,654 722,656 126,139
1890....- 94,156 321,636 415,792 109,175

1891 251,223 396,798 648,021 144,379

1892 925,701 391,299 1,317,000 121,301

1893.... 554,757 308,695 863,452 109,826

1894.... 516,173 164,544 680,717 63,750

1895.... 194,935 174,640 369,575 64,839

1896 212,152 390,618 602,770 144,096

1897.... 474,381 304,720 779,101 113,578

1898.... 828,432 337,748 1,166,180 133,038

1899 2,494,079 427,287 2,921,366 152,693

1900 1,453,545

48 THE CITY OF GALVESTON.

TONNAGE OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN VES-
SELS ENTERED AND CLEARED AT
GALVESTON, TEXAS.

Entered. Cleared.

Tons. Tons.

1873 74,015 89,758

1874 127,708 148,887

1875 91,913 127,579

1876 88,536 105,753

1877 99,386 103,291

1878 72,611 82,298

1879 135,500 128,399

1880 117,972 99,007

1881 215,311 183,349

1882 141,743 115,579

1883 153,614 166,459

1884 124,094 134,941

1885 95,563 89,536

1886 124,192 129,628

1887 117,102 136,861

1888 103,446 118,118

1889 99,548 109,329

1890 173,473 170,102

1891 168,058 202,184

1892 241,198 267,971

1893 236,118 282,111

1894 247,030 280,562

1895 367,738 399,891

1896 292,726 312,231

1897 550,652 566,200

1898. 760,087 811,215

1899 859,160 928.981

The quantity and value of domestic raw cotton exported
from Galveston, Texas, for the past ten years was as fol-
lows: 1890, 241,259,606 Ibs., valued at $22,820,784;

THE CITY OF GALVESTON. 49

1891, 326,776,311 Ibs., $32,567,703; 1892, 21,076,361
Ibs., $32,771,628 ; 1893, 411,441,087 Ibs., $33,712,076 ;
1894, 412,693,769 Ibs., $31,145,360; 1895, 717,840,930
Ibs., $38,949,296; 1896, 397,727,228 Ibs., $31,739,423;
1897, 652,631,527 Ibs., $47,486,467; 1898, 803,364,307
Ibs., $46,714,156; 1899, 1,076,523,562 Ibs., $57,670,423.

CHAPTER II.

THE GALES OF THE GULF.

A very quaint and interesting old book giving an account
of early days in Galveston is "Texas and the Gulf of Mex-
ico, or, Yachting in the New World," by Mrs. Houston,
published by John Murray in London in 1844. The yacht
wandered about the Gulf, appeared at New Orleans, and
sailed to Galveston, encountering a gale on the way. One
of the party gives this vivid story of it :

"The lightning was most vivid. The sky seemed to
open, and to have changed its ordinary hues for a covering
of flame, — while every moment, on this brilliant ground,
the red zig-zag forks darted out their angry tongues of fire
like some fierce and goaded animal. For hours I gazed
on this most magnificent sight; I could not make up my
mind to go below, though the rain began to pour in torrents.
No one who has not witnessed a storm of thunder and
lightning in tropical climates can form an idea of the
mingled beauty and terror of the effect. For all the world
I would not have missed the sight, terrific and awe-inspir-
ing as it was.

"Towards night the tempest was at its height, and the
sound of the contending elements, as if roaring for their
prey, deadened the voice of man. Suddenly a noise more
stunning than the rest struck upon the ear. It was the
electric fluid against the mainmast; the sound it made
was like that of two hands clapping, but five hundred times
as loud. Our mast was only saved from destruction, and
with it, doubtless, our lives, by the circumstance of the

50

GALES OF THE GULF. 53

rigging being wet, and acting as a conductor, by which
means the fluid was conveyed over the side into the sea.
One of the most remarkable occurrences during the storm
was one which affected my own person. At the same time
that the mast was struck I felt a warm and most peculiar
sensation down my hand, and immediately mentioned the
circumstance. For many hours afterwards a deep red
mark, about six inches in length and one in breadth, was
plainly to be seen in the place where I had felt the heat,
and what I should describe as almost pain. As I was stand-
ing in the direction in which the lightning passed, it is to
be supposed that I received at the same time the slightest
possible shock. The escape we all had from this worst of
dangers was great and providential indeed. In a small
vessel, once on fire, with a large quantity of gunpowder
on board, our destruction must have been inevitable, had
not the Power which had sustained us so long among the
dangers of the deep stretched forth a hand of deliverance
over us.

"During the night the gale continued with unabated
fury. To sleep was impossible, and as I lay in my cot,
rocked from side to side and longing for daylight, I heard
a strange and unaccustomed sound outside my cabin door.
On going out to ascertain from whence it proceeded, I
found some flying-fish, which had come down the com-
panion ladder with the wind and spray, flapping their
delicate wings on the oil-cloth. It was a strange situation
for flying-fish to find themselves in."

Mrs. Houston said of Galveston — this was sixty years
ago:

"The harbor of Galveston, if properly buoyed, would
be by no means a bad one. The entrance is perfectly safe

54 , GALES OF THE GULF.

for vessels drawing 10 feet of water, and there are times
when ships drawing 12, and even 14 feet, may venture in.
It is, without any question, the best harbor in the Gulf of
Mexico, and there is no doubt that no other port than that
of Galveston will ever be of any commercial importance
in Texas. In the present state, however, of this neglected
harbor no company, either in England or America, will
insure vessels bound for the port of Galveston."

This intelligent lady wrote of the character of the Gulf
storms :

"These northers being peculiar to the Gulf of Mexico, I
must endeavor to describe them. They most frequently
occur after a few days of damp, dull weather, and gener-
ally about once a fortnight. Their approach is known by
a dark bank rising on the horizon, and gradually over-
spreading the heavens. The storm bursts forth with won-
derful suddenness and tremendous violence, and generally
lasts forty-eight hours; the wind after that period veers
round to the east and southward, and the storm gradually
abates. During the continuance of a norther the cold is
intense, and the wind so penetrating it is almost impossible
to keep oneself warm. The weather is generally clear, and
frequently the northers are almost unaccompanied by rain.
The tremendous hurricane that occurred last September,
as it was described to us, is calculated to give one the im-
pression that on some future day the flourishing city of
Galveston may be swept away by the overwhelming in-
cursions of the sea. On the occasion I have alluded to,
such was the force of the winds and waves that many
houses were turned topsy-turvy, and some were floated
many hundred yards from their original position. The
greater part of the island was also under water for many

GALES OF THE GULF. 55

days, and boats were in request to go from one house to
another. Such a storm as this, however, has never oc-
curred before in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and
some fishermen who had been resident there more than
twenty years asserted that their previous experience pre-
sented no parallel for such a destructive hurricane. A
stronger argument in favor of the city never being entirely
submerged is the fact that the accumulation of sand,
which forms the island, continues increasing, while it is
proved beyond doubt that the land is everywhere encroach-
ing on the Gulf of Mexico. We saw an excellent old Span-
ish chart of the coast, which was made sixty or seventy
years ago, and on comparing it with our own we found it
on all important points remarkably accurate. The Island
of Galveston, however, is there represented as much smaller
than it is at present, and Pelican Island (a large sand bank
in the middle of the bay) is entirely omitted.

"The best period for entering the harbor at Galveston
is after a southerly wind has been blowing pretty fresh
for some days, and is then succeeded by a norther. Ad-
vantage should be taken, at the very commencement of
the gale, to pass the bar (as vessels may lay over the bar
with a northerly wind) or otherwise, one may almost say,
the whole of the available water is blown out of the bay,
and thus the depth on the bar is perhaps reduced to less
than nine feet. One of the evils arising from the hitherto
unsettled state of the country seems to be that the people,
instead of attending to their domestic affairs and agricul-
tural pursuits, have occupied themselves, for want of better
employment, in making a superabundance of laws and acts
of congress.

56 GALES OF THE GULF.

"The cold wind seemed to have been still more severely
felt here than it had been up the country, and one poor
man had actually died from its effects. This dismal death,
however, was not so much to be ascribed to the intensity
of the frost as to the extreme keenness and strength of the
wind. The crew were fortunately always prepared, by
the sudden falling of the glass, for these national northers ;
but if it happened that I myself had neglected to consult
this unerring guide, I have been quite astonished at their
arrival. I have known a calm, as still as death; not a
ripple on the water and not a murmur on the breeze ; when
suddenly a sailor has exclaimed, 'Here it comes!' and, in a
moment, literally in the twinkling of an eye, the wind was
roaring through the rigging, and the sea rising to a tre-
mendous height:

"Remoter waves came rolling on to see
The strange transforming mystery.

"On my last day at Galveston I passed near the burying
ground, and a sad sight indeed it was. I should not have
been aware of its proximity had I not perceived a human
skull under my horse's feet! On looking round I saw
many similar relics, and hurried from the spot with a
feeling of dismay and horror which it would be difficult
to describe. The reason for this desecration of the dead
is as follows : The sandy soil has so little depth that no
sooner are the dead deposited in the ground than they are
denuded of their light covering, and the sea, which washes
the limits of the burial ground, claims its share of these
neglected remains. The consequence is that the adjoining
land is actually strewn by human bones in every direction.

GALES OF THE GULF. 59

"I stood upon the place of graves !
There, where eternal ocean laves
The land bound shore. The wind's low moan
Through the long grass was heard alone ;
Save when at intervals the sea
Kippled in mournful melody.
I was alone. Meet spot for thought!
In that deep solitude, where naught
Reminded me of life ! Far off
The city's tumult, and the scoff
Of laughing crowds. They are forgot
Who lie in silence here, where not
A stone or mound is raised to show
Who are the dead that sleep below !
Whose are the bones that whitening lie
Sad relics of mortality,
Strew'd on the flowering herb, or prest
By heedless feet ? a heartless jest
To some ! — I look upon the sea !
Its waves are dancing in their glee
And sporting bright and merrily.
But mark ! Whose is the brainless skull,
That, like the wreck's and useless hull
Of some once stately ship floats on
Buoyant in its emptiness ? none,
None answer, and the lightsome wave
Sports with the outcast of the grave.
Now on the crescent foam it rides,
Now 'neath the dashing wave it hides ;
And now it slowly onward glides,
Say, busy man ! is this the end
Of all thy labor ? To descend

60 GALES OF THE GULF.

Into a nameless grave ; no tear
Shed on thy poor and lowly bier,
Forgotten in the busy strife
Of those who were thy friends in life.
What now thy country's cause to thee ?
Thou reck'st not that she now is free.
Boldly thou strove in freedom's cause;
High (at the murmuring applause
Of wondering nations) beat thy heart;
!Nbw low, and hush'd, and still, and part
Of that dear earth thou bleds't to free —
A lesson to posterity !"

A few years ago Lippincott's Magazine contained a
chapter about Florida storms, containing many rare and
curious, among them that when a gulf hurricane is abroad,
look out for another, for there will be a 2sTo. 2, if not in
three days, in three weeks. There was a storm September
29, 1896, that crossed Florida, killing 100 people, making
thousands homeless, and destroying 4,000,000 acres of
timber. It was like what the storm of 1880 might have
been with all the force in its three hundred miles of width
narrowed to forty miles ; and it stands unrivaled in con-
centration of fury. In the storm of 1880 the wind did
not blow continuously, but came in gusts, like heavy, irreg-
ular breathing. It would roar and howl for two or three
minutes, snapping off great pine trees and bending others
to the earth ; then, with sudden cessation, it would be per-
fectly still, as if gathering breath for harder effort, and in
another instant could be heard coming again like the rush
and rumble of a hundred railroad trains.

Lippincott's gives this superb sketch of the gulf as the

GALES OF THE GULF. 61

home of great gales, and states their peculiarities with a
masterly touch :

"The sea itself, wholly intertropical, is warm and bright
and famous for its gorgeous sunsets. Emerald isles in
irregular chain hem its northern and eastern bounds, and
from near the center the beautiful mountains of Jamaica
rise, decked with orange, coffee and pimento groves. But
in its depths lie mysteries. As over it great storms form,
under it awful earthquakes have origin. The first come
north, striking Florida occasionally; the latter go south,
shocking the Venezuelans frequently. The city of Caracas
was shaken down by one in 1812, burying ten thousand
people in half a minute. Of the two, Floridians prefer
hurricanes.

"Ocean currents may have something, possibly a great
deal, to do with the creation of storms ; at all events, there
seems to be some affinity between them. The Great Equa-
torial Current, coming from the Gulf of Guinea or there-
abouts, rushes across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean
Sea, forcing out a strong current by way of the Yucatan
Channel into the Gulf of Mexico. There, taking the name
of 'Gulf Stream/ it flows around, growing hotter and
stronger, until it sweeps down and out through the Florida
straits at a speed of five miles an hour. Thence it rushes
along the Atlantic seaboard to the banks of ISTewf oundland,
and from there crosses the Atlantic, modifying the climate
of Northern Europe.

"According to our information, hurricanes form most
frequently near the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea,
and in the beginning go west, impelled by what seems to
be a natural tendency. Young men, the Star of Empire,
the Trade Winds, the equatorial currents, all go west, and

62 GALE8 OF THE GULF.

no doubt the Gulf Stream would if it could ; possibly it can
when the Darien or Nicaraguan canal has been cut — a
contingency well worth considering when we come to sever
North and South America.

"Starting west, then, instead of forcing a passage
through the dense forests of Central America, the young
hurricane rides on the breast of the Gulf Stream into the
Gulf of Mexico. There it sometimes cuts loose from the
current, turns west again, and gets lost in the wilds of
Texas. But more often it stays with the Gulf Stream, fol-
lows it down through the Florida straits, and goes howling
up the Atlantic coast. Occasionally instead of this tor-
tuous course, one will take a short cut across North Flor-
ida, and join the Gulf Stream somewhere beyond Charles-
ton, Norfolk or Hatteras.

"They have two motions, progressive and whirling. It
is the whirl, which may be at the rate of a hundred miles
an hour, that gets away with things. The forward or pro-
gressive motion may go slow or fast, making the blow long
or short in duration without in any way affecting its vio-
lence. The whirl may be twenty-five or five hundred miles
in diameter, and be hours or days in passing a given point,
as the progressive movement is slow or fast. In the North-
ern hemisphere the whirl is always from right to left ; that
is, from east to west, growing in rapidity as the center is
approached, until in the very center there is a core or
axle of perfectly calm air, around which the great storm
wheel turns.

"There is no pyrotechnical accompaniment, no brilliant
flashing of lightning, no booming of heaven's artillery.
There is just a rush and roar, while dark clouds, low and

GALES OF THE GULF. 65

wet, pour down an ocean. Fifty-six inches of water fell
in one Florida storm.

"Whirling as they do from right to left, storms passing
east of Florida blow from the northeast ; on the other side
they come from the southwest."

The storm that smote Galveston gathered September 1,
latitude 15 south, longitude 70 west, or some calculate that
it was 67 west latitude, or south of Porto Rico, and the
movement was slowly west and slightly north. September
4 it was apparently central south of Cuba, in latitude 22
north, longitude 81 west. The pressure then began to
fall, and heavy tropical rains began in the West Indies.
On that day the direction of the storm changed to a more
northerly course, gathering force as it went.

Lafcadio Hearn, the romantic author, has written a
story of a storm — "Chita" — for the Harpers, that opens :

"A little more than forty years ago there came out of
the wonderful abysses of the Gulf of Mexico a storm. Far
in the south it had begun, a steady, grateful breeze that
blew coolness on the gem-blue swells, that drove the ships
along with merry sounds and made the sea-world most
beautiful." The first notice of the unusual was "one great
noon, when the blue abyss of day seemed to yawn over
the world more deeply than ever before, a sudden change
touched the quicksilver smoothness of the waters — the
swaying shadow of a vast motion. First the whole sea-
circle appeared to rise up bodily at the sky; the horizon-
curve lifted to a straight line; the line darkened and
approached — a monstrous wrinkle, an immeasurable fold
of green water, moving swift as a cloud-shadow." And
then the wind "blew in enormous sighs, dying away at reg-
ular intervals as if pausing to draw breath. All night it

66 GALES OF THE GULF.

blew; and in each pause could be heard the answwi*g
moan of the rising surf — as if the rhythm of the sea
molded itself after the rhythm of the air — as if the wav-
ing of the water responded precisely to the waving of
the wind — a billow for every puff, a surge for every sigh."

The gale grew, and "faster and faster overhead flew
the tatters of torn cloud. The gray morning of the 9th
wanly lighted a surf that appalled the best swimmers ; the
sea was one wild agony of foam, the gale was rending off
the heads of the waves and veiling the horizon with a fog
of salt spray. Shadowless and gray the day remained;
there were mad bursts of lashing rain. Evening brought
with it a sinister apparition, looming through a cloud-rent
in the west — a scarlet sun in a green sky. His sanguine
disk, appallingly magnified, seemed barred like the body
of a belted planet. A moment, and the crimson spectre
vanished ; and the moonless night came.

"Then the wind grew weird. It ceased behig a breath ;
it became a voice moaning across the world— hooting —
uttering nightmare sounds — Whoo! whoo! whoo! and
with each stupendous owl-cry the mooing of the waters
seemed to deapen, more and more abysmally, through all
the hours of darkness. From the northwest the breakers
of the bay began to roll high over the sandy slope, into the
salines ; the village bayou broadened to a bellowing flood.
So the tumult swelled and the turmoil heightened until
morning — a morning of gray gloom and whistling rain.
Earn of bursting clouds and rain of wind-blown brine
from the great spuming agony of the sea."

Into this awful scenery the author introduces a ship
and dancing party, and intense human interest.

The local office of the United States weather bureau re-

GALES OF THE GULF. 67

ceived the first message in regard to this storm 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 movement
of the disturbance. On the 6th 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 on the morning of the 7th, when
northwest storm warnings were ordered up for Galveston.
On 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 telephone on account of line being busy and
people came to the office in droves inquiring about the
weather. About the following information was given to all
alike: "The tropical storm is now in the gulf south or
southeast of us ; the winds will shift to the northeast, east
and probably to the southeast by morning, increasing in
energy. If you live in low parts of city move to high
grounds." Prepare for the worst, which is yet to come,
were the only consoling words of the weather bureau of-
ficials from morning until night, when no information
could be given out. The local forecast official and one
observer were out taking tide observations about 4 a. m.
of the 7th. One observer stayed at the office through the
entire storm. Another left after he had sent the last tele-
gram which could be gotten off, it being filed at Houston
over the telephone wires about 4 p. m. Over half the

68 GALES OF THE GULF.

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
yet to come, and people who could not hear his voice
on account of being quite a distance off he motioned for
them to go to town.

The lowest barometer by observation was 28.53 inches
at 8 :10 p. m., 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 at about this time.
The anemometer blew down at this time and the wind
was higher later, when it shifted to the east and south-
east, when the observer estimates 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.

CHAPTER III.

THE STORM IN THE STRICKEN CITY.

The first heard of the storm that overwhelmed the city
of Galveston was in the central south of the island of San
Domingo, and it was ten days reaching Oklahomo. The
weather bureau says, accompanying the official weather
map of the hurricane north, that it would have struck the
Carolina coast and passed north if it had not been for a
"low" area over Ohio, including the part of West Virginia
next Ohio, and the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. In.
other and official terms, "this storm was a deviation from
the normal which, would have curved backward." If it
had not been for the "deviation from the normal," owing to
the Ohio depression, Galveston would have escaped. The
disturbance, first detected September 1, struck Galveston
September 8, and was another week in disappearing, show-
ing in its course over the Great Lakes to St. Johns de-
structive energy.

However, there are differences of opinion about the
origin of the storm. Dr.' J. H. Ery, an observer of the
weather for fifteen years, has a theory that the storm which
visited Galveston originated in the vicinity of Port Eads,
and was not the hurricane which was reported on the Elor-
ida coast. On that day a storm was reported moving in a
westerly direction from Key West. It moved up the At-
lantic coast. The Mallory steamer Comal ran into it, and
reported a great number of wrecks. The supposition that
this was the same storm that reached Galveston by doubling
bask on its tracks, he thinks, is a mistake. The first knowl-
edge of the Galvestod storm was the report of a wind

69

70 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

velocity of forty-eight miles an hour at Port Eads on Satur*
day evening, September 8, and the full fury was not ex-
pended at Galveston until the next day. High winds were
also reported at Pass Christian. The Port Eads storm,
Dr. Fry thinks, was a distinct storm from that of Florida,
and was confined to the gulf.

There are two theories about the cause of the center
of the storm, one that it crossed Florida and the other that
after crossing Cuba, through the province of Havana, it
did not touch the continent until reaching Galveston.

Soon after the news was on the world of wires that the
city of Galveston was suffering severely from a Gulf
storm, and as other towns reported the astounding and
desolating force of the gale, Galveston became a silent city.
No communication of any kind being received for a long
day and night, the most authoritative and urgent messages
were sent as far as the wires would carry them, and the
tempest was crashing through the cities of Texas, north-
ward bound. But the city built on the sand by the sea was
entirely cut off. There was intense anxiety, and the mid-
night watchers heard that the coastward bridges were all
gone and a messenger had succeeded in crossing the bay in
a schooner. He gave out a story that seemed beyond belief
and exaggerated out of the resemblance to truth, but the
true tale of half the horrors had not been told. When the
extent of the disaster was approximately known it was cer-
tain that the desolation wrought included the destruction
of thousands of lives and millions of property, making the
disaster one of the most awful in the records of memorable
calamities, illustrating the appalling forces of nature, the
tremendous possibilities of the atmosphere that is the
breath of life, and the envelope of the planet we inhabit.

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 71

For a time, as the hurricane swept northward, there was
a vast area filled with apprehension, for the fact that Gal-
veston seemed to have been swallowed by the Gulf was
carried before all the wires were swept away, and the gale
as it advanced extinguished intelligence of its own progress,
and millions awaited the worst that might happen, while
the stricken could at best only themselves obey the in-
junction, "Peace, be still," for there was nothing to do for
the bravest but to be composed and wait. This dispatch
gives an idea of the deadly work of the hurricane and its
horror and mystery :

St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 9. — The office of the Western
Union Telegraph Company in this city is besieged with
thousands of inquiries as to the extent and result of the
terrible storm that cut off Galveston, Texas, from commu-
nication with the rest of the world. Rumors of the most
direful nature come from that part of Texas, some of them
even intimating that Galveston has been entirely wrecked
and that the bay is covered with the dead bodies of its resi-
dents.

For weeks the fate of the young men was not known.
It is remarkable that there were so many telegraphers
missing, but it is a part of their training of duty to hold
their positions, and they stay where their work is done
as long as there is a possibility of usefulness, whether as-
sailed by flood or fire.

Mr. Nixon, superintendent of the Gulf, Colorado and
Santa Fe Railroad, of which Galveston is a terminal, who
was in Chicago when the hurricane's death-shade swept the
south, and after lie heard the outline facts of the ruin
wrought, said :

"The first vessel to leave Galveston after the storm con-

72 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

tained a delegation to inform the outside world of the
catastrophe and to ask for help. It consisted of Lieuten-
ants J. J. Delaney, E. G. Cox, E. L. Porch and two
newspaper correspondents. Their boat was the steam
yacht Pherabe, owned by Colonel W. L. Moody, and the
crew was made up of volunteers, Lawrence V. Elder, su-
perintendent of the Galveston cotton mills, acting as engi-
neer, and all hands being stokers. The trip across the bay
was one of the most tempestuous imaginable. The engineer
declined to take the boat any further than Texas City,
declaring that she could not live in such a sea."

Mr. Nixon's telegrams referred mainly to the havoc
wrought on his road. These contained news that the last
passenger train left Galveston Saturday morning on the
Santa Fe system. Since then traffic had been entirely
stopped. Mr. Nixon was greatly worried that nothing had
been heard from passenger train No. 5, which was due in
Galveston on Saturday night at 9 o'clock. It was last re-
ported at a small station forty miles north on the main-
land, and nothing had been heard from it. He thought it
possible that his train was caught by the hurricane and
was wrecked, either on the mainland near the gulf or on
the bridge.

This incident strikingly shows the startling chances
railroad men were led to take in so broad a sweep of over-
whelming destruction. Mr. Nixon said while waiting for
news that he did not believe that the business portion of
the city suffered much, because most of the big blocks are
new, of brick and stone, and of the most modern archi-
tecture.

"I cannot understand that no more accurate news has
been received from Galveston. Even if all the railway

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 75

and telegraphic communication between Galveston Island
and the mainland has been interrupted, we have a cable
under the bay which runs to Yera Cruz and the City of
Mexico. There should be no difficulty in obtaining a full
account of events."

He could not see that it was possible the disaster was so
crushing. The gulf cable was all right, but the house
ashore was destroyed and the city wrecked by wind and
flooded. Sunday night the Chicago Chronicle had this in-
telligible account of the storm that gathered on the deep
and its characteristic course and phenomena: "Tele-
graphic communication with Galveston, Corpus Christi,
Palestine, Fort Worth and Amarilla, the five other obser-
vation stations in the storm-swept section of the State, is
out of question, as the heavy winds have leveled the wires
and played havoc with telegraph instruments. The wind
at Abilene was blowing from a northwesterly direction,
while the breezes swept over Vicksburg, Miss., at a twenty-
six mile rate. This, according to the weather observers,
tends to prove that the storm center has moved inland
from off the gulf coast."

All that could be said Monday morning was that the
storm had been slowly gathering force in the West Indies
for several days, and not until it had assumed the dignity
of a veritable West Indian hurricane did it venture north
in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. Its course had
been extraordinary and, in light of past events, the
weather bureau authorities were at a loss to account for
its strange behavior.

Instead of sweeping across the Caribbean Sea and into
the coast of Florida, then taking its course up the Atlantic
coast, as all its predecessors have done, the hurricane cut

76 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 1

out a path for itself. It did not swing off the Florida
coast on its way to the northeast, but drove directly across
the full length of the Gulf of Mexico, striking with full
force the coast of Texas.

The great majority of the tropical storms in the past
have struck the Florida coast and then lost themselves in
the Atlantic Ocean; others have kept their course on up
the coast, but the present storm did not follow the beaten
paths.

The force of the hurricane was abating, however. The
weather authorities believed that its strength was spent
and that within the next day or so reports would begin to
come in over the repaired telegraph wires. The direction
and mildness of the winds at places near to the path of the
storm indicated that the worst was over and that the hur-
ricane was losing intensity.

Richard Spillane, a well-known newspaper man of Gal-
veston, reached Houston September 10, after terrible ex-
periences, and gave this account of the Galveston dis-
aster :

"One of the most awful tragedies of modern times has
visited Galveston. The city is in ruins, and the dead will
number probably 10,000. I am just from the city, having
been commissioned by the Mayor and citizens' commit-
tee to get in touch with the outside world and appeal for
help. Houston was the nearest point at which working
telegraph instruments could be found, the wires, as well
as nearly all the buildings between here and the Gulf of
Mexico, being wrecked. When I left Galveston, shortly
before noon yesterday, the people were organizing for the
prompt burial of the dead, distribution of food, and all
necessary work after a period of disaster.

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 77

"The wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tem-
pest so terrible that no words can adequately describe its
intensity, and by a flood which turned the city into a
raging sea. The weather-bureau records show that the
wind attained a velocity of eighty-four miles an hour,
when the measuring instruments blew away, so it is impos-
sible to tell what was the maximum.

"The storm began at 2 o'clock Saturday morning. Pre-
vious to that a great storm had been raging in the gulf and
the tide was very high. The wind at first came from the
north, and was in direct opposition to the force from the
gulf. While the storm in the gulf piled the water upon
the beach side of the city, the north wind piled the water
from the bay on to the bay part of the city.

"About noon it became evident that the city was going
to be visited with disaster. Hundreds of residences along
the beach front were hurriedly abandoned, the families
fleeing to dwellings in higher portions of the city. Every
home was opened to the refugees, black or white. The
winds were rising constantly and it rained torrents. The
wind was so fierce that the rain cut like a knife.

"By 3 o'clock the waters of the gulf and bay met, and
by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of
the electric-light plant and the gas plants left the city in
darkness. To go into the streets was to court death. The
wind was then at cyclonic velocity, roofs, cisterns, por-
tions of buildings, telegraph poles and walls were falling
and the noise of the winds and the crashing of the build-
ings was terrifying in the extreme. The wind and waters
rose steadily from dark until 1 :45 o'clock Sunday morn-
ing. During all this time the people of Galveston were
like rats in traps. The highest portion of the city was

78 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

four to five feet under water, while in the great majority
of cases the streets were submerged to a depth of ten feet.
To leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court
death in the wreckage.

"Such a night of agony has seldom been equaled. With-
out apparent reason the waters suddenly began to subside
at 1 :45 a. m. Within twenty minutes they had gone down
two feet, and before daylight the streets were practically
freed of the flood waters. In the meantime the wind had
veered to the southeast. Very few, if any, buildings es-
caped injury. There is hardly a habitable dry house in
the city. WJien the people who had escaped death went
out at daylight to view the work of the tempest and the
floods they saw the most horrible sights imaginable. In
the three blocks from Avenue 1ST to Avenue P, in Tremont
street, I saw eight bodies. Four corpses were in one yard.
The whole of the business front for three blocks in from
the gulf was stripped of every vestige of habitation, the
dwellings, the great bathing establishments, the Olympia
and every structure having been either carried out to sea
or its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town, accord-
ing to the vagaries of the tempest."

An Associated Press dispatch of September 10 said:
The city of Galveston is wrapped in sackcloth and ashes.
She sits beside her unnumbered dead and refuses to be
comforted. Her sorrow and suffering are beyond descrip-
tion. Her grief is unspeakable.

Friday and Saturday, happy, buoyant with a bright
and prosperous season opening auspiciously; last night
stricken down and crushed by a misfortune that seldom
befalls any community and her inexpressible anguish ap-
peals for help to bury her beloved dead, feed her stricken

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 81

and hungry and afford temporary relief for those who,
almost in the twinkling of an eye, lost homes, loved ones
and the savings of a lifetime.

The city is dark, desolate and dreary. A pall has fallen
over the living. They meet, clasp hands tearfully, gaze
into each other's eyes and pass on. It is pitiful and pa-
thetic beyond expression.

The terrific cyclone that produced such a distressing
disaster was predicted hy the United States Weather Bu-
reau to strike Oalveston Friday night and created much
apprehension, but the night passed without the prediction
being verified. The conditions, however, were ominous,
the danger signal was displayed on the flagstaff of the
weather bureau, and shipping was warned. The south-
eastern sky was somber, the gulf, beat high on the beach
with that dismal thunder roar that pr-esages trouble, while
the air had that stillness that betokens a storm. From out
the north, in the middle watches of the night, the wind be-
gan to come in spiteful puffs, fitful at first, but increased
in volume as -the day dawned. By 10 o'clock Saturday
morning it was almost a gale ; at noon it had increased in
velocity and was driving the rain, whipping the pools and
tearing things up in a lively manner, yet no serious ap-
prehension was felt by residents remote from the encroach-
ments of the gulf. Residents near the beach were aroused
to the danger that threatened their homes. Stupendous
waves began to send their waters far inland, and the peo-
ple began a hasty exit to secure places in the city. Two
gigantic forces were at work.

The gulf force dro^e the waves high upon the beach and
the gale from the northeast pitched the waters against and
over the wharves, choking the sewers and flooding the city

*2 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

from that quarter. The streets rapidly began to fill with
water; communication became difficult and the helpless
people were caught between two powerful elements, while
the winds howled and rapidly increased in velocity.

Business suddenly came to a standstill, car traffic was
impossible and all those that had homes and could reach
them, either by conveyance or otherwise, hastily left their
places of business and offered fabulous prices for any
kind of a vehicle that would carry them to their loved
ones. Railroad communication was cut off soon after
noon, the track being washed out; wire facilities com-
pletely failed at 3 o'clock and Galveston was isolated
from the world. The wind momentarily increased in ve-
locity, while the waters rapidly rose and the night drew
on with dreaded apprehension depicted in the face of
every one. Already hundreds and thousands were bravely
struggling with their families against the mad waves and
fierce winds for places of refuge.

The public school buildings, court house, hotels, in fact,
any place that offered apparently a safe refuge from the
elements, became crowded to their utmost. Darkness set-
tled on the city like a pall, while the wind shrieked with
frightful velocity and the rain fell in torrents. Two min-
utes of 6 :30 p. m., just before the anemometer blew away,
the gale had reached the frightful velocity of 100 miles
an hour. Buildings that had hitherto stood, tumbled and
crashed, carrying death and destruction to hundreds.
Roofs whistled through the air, windows were driven in
with a crash or shattered by flying slate. Telegraph, tele-
phone and electric-light poles, with their masses of wires,
were snapped off like pipe stems. The streets became a

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 83

mass of wires; water communications were broken, mak-
ing water and food impossible to obtain.

What velocity the wind attained after the anemometer
blew off is purely a matter of speculation. The heavy de-
tonation of falling buildings and the piercing cries for
help broke the air and the roar of the elements. Dead
bodies floated in the streets. All this made a night that
will never be obliterated from the memories of the
searchers.

The lowest point touched by the barometer in the press
correspondent's office, which was filled with frightened
men and women, was 28.04^. This was about 7 :30 p. m.
It then began to rise very slowly and by 10 p. m. had
reached 28.09, the wind gradually subsiding, and by mid-
night the storm had passed.

The water, which had reached a depth of eight feet on
the Strand at 10 o'clock p. m., began to ebb and ran out
very rapidly, and by 5 a. m. the crown of the street was
free of water. Thus passed the most frightful and de-
structive storm which ever devastated the coast of Texas
in the memory of man.

The city was filled at night with bereft, destitute and
homeless, while a visit to the temporary morgue shows,
by the fitful glare of lanterns and candles, stretched rigid
in death, hundreds of all ages, nationalities and condi-
tions. Whole families are side by side, from the father
and mother to the innocent babe. Men on the verge of
despair are searching for their loved ones amid the slime
and waters in the streets, in alleys, by-ways and under
the debris of their recently happy homes. Mothers,
daughters and sons are also engaged in the grewsome
search for 3ost dear ones, while others are bordering on the

84 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

verge of insanity over the appalling bereavement that has
suddenly come upon them.

Samuel A. JSTolley, telegraph operator, despite all his
efforts to save them, lost his wife and three children and
does not know where their bodies are. When speaking of
the matter he trembled like an aspen leaf. Leon J. Lackey
is another telegraph operator whose wife and two children
and two sisters are lying in the morgue to-night. The only
member remaining of the family is Eva Lackey, who was
saved by remaining in the telegraph building.

Captain Peete's house was crushed in by another fall-
ing upon it, and he lost his wife and six children.

Jesse W. Toothacker, contractor and builder, lost wife
and daughter.

Joe B. Aguillo, chairman of the County Democratic
Executive Committee, with two children, was drowned.

Richard M. Peck, city engineer, drowned in an effort
to save his family.

And so the list could be continued. The city beach in
the southwestern part of the city was under ten feet of
water, and the barracks, located there, are destroyed, the
soldiers having a miraculous escape from drowning.
Many substantial residences in the western and south-
western part of the city were destroyed, and the death list
there large. A heavy mortality list was reported among
residents down the island and adjacent to the coast on the
mainland, as both were deeply flooded and the houses were
to a great extent insecure.

The heaviest losers by the storm will be the Galveston
Wharf Company, the Southern Pacific Railway and Gulf,
Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company, and the Texas
Lone Star Flouring Company. It will be days before

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 85

anything like an approximation of the loss of life and
property can be had. The loss in the first will be frightful
and the second enormous.

On September 11 news from the same source was : The
telegraph offices are in a plight. The wires were down in
every direction Sunday morning. There was only one
wire out of Houston Saturday night, and that was in use
by the Associated Press. It went down at 2 :30 o'clock.

Gangs of men were put out by both the Postal and
the Western Union Sunday afternoon, and the two com-
panies now have a force of fully 400 men at work straight-
ening up poles and stringing wires. Sunday night the
Western Union had three wires out by way of Dallas and
St. Louis. Ten thousand people tried to get telegrams out
to Galveston, and expressed themselves in various ways
when they found they could not. Monday night the con-
ditions had improved as to wires, and both companies
could move business north and west, but not east or south.
A number of Galveston newspaper men came up here on
a tug in the morning, and each of them had from twenty
to 200 messages in his pockets from people in Galveston
to those on the outside. Later a tug came up, and this
brought more than 2,000 messages. It looked as if half
the United States were trying to send messages into Hous-
ton, and as quick as a wire was reported in shape it was
"quaded," and men were put to work getting messages out
and receiving them.

The correspondents of outside newspapers were piling
matter up and at midnight the Postal refused to receive
any more "special." The Western Union continued to
handle them, subject to delay. At 4 o'clock this morning
seme of them were still hanging on the hooks.

86 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

At both offices extra clerks have been put on until there
is no room for them to work more. The messages continue
to pile up and some correspondents are already filing mat-
ter to be got out to-night. The wires are being put into
position with remarkable quickness and it is probable that
"specials" will be handled out to-night with greater ease.

Every person arriving from Galveston brings messages
to friends and relatives from those unable to get away.
Some of the messages are glad tidings, for they tell that
the senders are alive, but many of them tell of death.

The official news came slowly and more than confirmed
the wildest and most alarming first dispatches. Professor
Willis Moore, chief of the weather bureau, said Septem-
ber 10 that the West Indies storm which developed into a
hurricane after reaching the United States was central in
Oklahoma on that day and was rapidly losing its destruc-
tive character, the wind at Oklahoma City being reported
as blowing at thirty miles an hour. It probably will pass
into history as one of the most disastrous as well as pe-
culiar storms on record.

On the same day Chief Moore received the following
telegram from G. L. Vaughan, manager of the Western
Union Telegraph Company at Houston, Tex. :

First news from Galveston just received by train, which
could get no closer to the bay shore than six miles, where
prairie was strewn with debris and dead bodies. About
200 corpses counted from train. Large steamer stranded
two miles inland. Nothing could be seen of Galveston.
Loss of life and property undoubtedly most appalling.
Weather clear and bright here, with gentle southeast
winds. G. L. VAUGHAN.

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 87

"I fear," said Chief Moore, "that we have not yet begun
to get any idea of the loss of life, not only at Galveston,
but along the gulf coast generally."

The first loss of life reported at Galveston was that at
Rietter's restaurant, on the Strand, where three of the
most prominent citizens of the town lost their lives and
where many others were maimed and imprisoned. The
dead were Stanley G. Spencer, Charles Kellner and Eich-
ard Lord. These three were sitting at a table on the first
floor, making light of the danger, jocularly telling each
other that they would stay in the city. Suddenly the roof
caved in above them and came down with a crash into the
saloon, killing all of them. Those in the lower part of the
building escaped with their lives in a miraculous manner.
The falling roof and flooring were caught on the bar, the
people standing near it dodging and resting under the
debris. It required several hours of hard work to get them
out. The negro waiter, who was sent for a doctor, was
drowned at the corner of Strand and Twenty-first street
and his body was found a short time after.

On Avenue M several women were imprisoned in a resi-
dence by the water and debris. They were rescued by a
party headed by Captain M. Theriot. Several of them
were badly hurt, but they are still living.

Coming back to Tremont street, and going out to Ave-
nue P by climbing over the piles of lumber which had
once been residences, four bodies were observed in one
yard and seven in one room in another place, while as
many as sixty bodies were to be seen lying singly and in
groups in the space of one block.

Notable among the sufferers was Pat O'Keefe, who has
for years kept a popular resort on the beach, and who is

88 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

known to every visitor to Galveston. As the old man
came trudging along he was bemoaning the loss of his wife
and everything he had on earth. Where his resort stood
on the beach facing the gulf there is not a vestige of
building to be seen. The great bathing pavilion known as
the Pagoda, the big pleasure resort known as the Olympia,
and Murdoch's bathhouse are all swept away into the
gulf. There were few bodies on the beach. They had been
swept into the gulf or driven up into the rubbish by the
waves. Only half a dozen of them were in sight from
the site where the workers were.

The rain began to pour down in torrents and the party
went back down Tremont street toward the city. The mis-
ery of the poor people, all mangled and hurt, pressing to
the city for medical attention was greatly augmented by
this rain. Stopping at a small grocery store to avoid the
rain, the party found it packed with injured. The provis-
ions in the store had been ruined and there was nothing for
the numerous customers who came hungry and tired.
The place was a hospital, no longer a store.

Farther down the street a restaurant, which had been
submerged by water, was serving out soggy crackers and
cheese to the hungry crowd. That was all that was left.
They were soaked full of water and the people who were
fortunate enough to get those sandwiches were hungry and
made no complaint.

At 11 :30 Sunday morning the water had receded from
the higher portions of the city, but the streets near the bay
front still contained from two and one-half to three feet
of water. The station building had been selected as a
place of refuge by a large number of people. All win-
dows in the building and a portion of the wall at the top

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 89

were blown in and the occupants expected every moment
to be their last. But escape was impossible, for about the
building the water must have been fully twelve feet deep.
A couple of small shanties were floating about, but there
was no means of making a raft or getting a boat.

So far as can be learned up to 10 o'clock on the night
of September 11, approximately 800 bodies had been
picked up in what can properly be termed the Galveston
storm belt. Seven hundred of these bodies were gathered
up by railroad relief forces operating along the coast for a
distance of about twenty miles above and below Virginia
Point. These bodies were reported divided between Alvin,
Texas City, Seabrook, Dickinson, Virginia Point, Hitch-
cock and on up toward Houston. Bulletins received in
Dallas railroad headquarters stated that advance workers
of relief parties penetrated across the bay to Galveston
Island and sent couriers back to the mainland.

These couriers reported that sixty dead bodies were
found in one block on Tremont street and that 600 corpses
were at one place in the city and 400 in another. They
stated that the situation in Galveston as far as they had
been able to go was terrible beyond description. The
town appeared to be one vast pile of wreckage, except in
isolated spots, where morgues and hospitals were impro-
vised. Many of the persons who were injured in the hur-
ricane were dying for lack of care and for want of fresh
water. They stated that fresh water and medicines were
needed at once or the survivors of the storm would perish.

The statement was also made that there was little food
fit to eat, that everything was soaked with salt sea water
and that starvation threatened the storm victims who were
fortunate enough to escape alive. There was also danger

90 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

of looting, and Adjutant-General Scurry, who arrived on
the island by boat from Houston, called on the militia
companies of the state for men to do patrol duty. It was
understood that the island was to be placed under martial
law temporarily until order could be brought out of chaos.

The situation in Galveston September 12. was that all
attempts at burying the dead had been abandoned and
bodies were being disposed of in the swiftest manner pos-
sible. Scores of them were burned and hundreds were
taken out to sea and thrown overboard. The safety of the
living was the paramount question and nothing that would
tend to prevent an outbreak of an awful pestilence was
being neglected. It was found that large numbers of the
bodies which had been previously thrown into the bay were
washed back upon the shore and the situation was thus
rendered worse than before they were first taken in the
barges and thrown into the water. It will never be known
how many lost their lives.

Efforts were made to pick up the dead bodies that floated
in with the tide, having once been cast into the sea. This
was awful work, and few men were found with sufficient-
ly strong nerves to last at it more than thirty minutes at a
time.

All of the bodies were badly decomposed, swollen to
enormous proportions, and of so dark a hue that it was
impossible to tell except by the hair, when any hair was
visible, whether the corpses were those of white people or
of negroes.

Determined efforts by local authorities and military
were bringing about a semblance of order, although the
situation continued most discouraging. The work of dis-
posing of the dead progressed slowly, even with every

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 91

available man and horse engaged in hauling the bodies to
the gulf.

Mayor Jones repeated his assertion that the number of
victims would reach 5,000, and many estimates were as
high as 10,000.

It was learned that of seventy telegraph operators em-
ployed by both companies in the city only three escaped
death in the flood.

The stench from the decomposing human corpses and
carcasses of animals, as well as from the slime and filth
left in the streets by the receding waters, made the work
among the dead a fearful task. The men handling the
bodies were .changed every few hours, and many were
overcome while engaged in the grewsome task.

The poisoned air reaped a harvest of death, scores of
those injured or made sick by the effects of the storm suc-
cumbing as a result. Every effort was made to get the
women and children away from the town before a general
epidemic should break out.

Boat loads of lime and other disinfectants were brought
in and used where most needed. The lack of horses was
a serious feature of the situation, as better progress could
have been made in carting off the dead had more animals
to draw carts been available.

All attempts to identify the dead were abandoned. The
majority of the bodies were decomposed beyond recogni-
tion, so, except when some article in the pockets gave the
name, the body was thrown into the gulf unrecorded.

Fifty men caught robbing the dead were killed. It
was believed summary execution would put a stop to the
practice. The robbers had become bold, cutting off the

92 STORM IN STRICKEN CITY.

fingers and ears of the dead women to obtain jewels. One
man arrested had in his pockets twenty-three fingers
hacked from bodies, on each of which was a valuable ring.

A special session of the Legislature was asked to pro-
vide funds for the destitute. Contributions were coming
in rapidly, it being reported that over $100,000 already
was in the hands of the committees.

Quartermaster Baxter's report to headquarters at
Washington advised the abandoning of all government
works at Galveston. He said, in his opinion, Galveston
was destroyed beyond its ability to recover. This did not
dishearten local business men, however, for they declared
the city will be rebuilt in spite of its losses.

The sightseers and those who did not come to help were
refused admittance to Galveston, as there already were too
many persons there for the meager supply of food, and
half of those in the city were shelterless. The water sup-
ply had not been restored.

A new census was suggested as a means of learning the
actual loss in life and property. In no other way can any-
thing like an accurate estimate of the casualties be made.

Relief committees from the interior of the State com-
menced to arrive, and as usual they were much too large
in numbers and, to a certain extent, in the way of the peo-
ple of Galveston and an impediment to the prompt relief
which they themselves were so desirous of offering. Some
of the relief expeditions had committees large enough to
consume 10 per cent of the provisions which they brought.
The relief sent from Beaumont, Tex., arrived on the 12th
and was distributed as fast as possible. It consisted of
two carloads of ice and provisions, and came by way of
Port Arthur. The great trouble seemed to be that those

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 93

people who were in greatest need, through no fault of
those in charge of the distribution, were the last to receive
the aid. Many of them were so badly maimed and
wounded that they were unable to apply to the relief com-
mittees, and the committees were so overwhelmed by di-
rect applications that they were unable to send out mes-
sengers.

The wounded everywhere needed the attention of
physicians, and despite every effort it was feared a number
would die because of the sheer physical impossibility to
afford them the aid necessary to save their lives. Every
man in Galveston able to walk and work was engaged in
the work of relief with all the energy of which he was capa-
ble. But, despite their utmost endeavors, they could not
keep up with the increase of the miserable conditions
which surrounded them. Water could be obtained by able-
bodied men, but with great difficulty. Dr. Wallace Shaw,
of Houston, who was busily engaged in the relief work,
said there were 200 people at St. Mary's Infirmary with-
out water. They had been making coffee of salt water
and using that as their only beverage.

Sharp and painful contrasts in human nature were
brought out by the duties which devolved upon stricken
Galveston. John Sealy, of Hutchings, Sealy & Co., is the
richest young man in the South. Safford Wheeler is his
associate, a clubman, and a favorite in society. These two
men were among those who put lime and other disinfect-
ants upon themselves, went into the morgue, and worked
for hours in the most dangerous task of all — the handling
of the corpses. It was work from which the stoutest hearted
shrank. These young men volunteered for it.

The people of Galveston as a whole dealt heroically

94 STOBM IN STRICKEN CITY.

with their great emergency. Exceptions were not made.
Some exercise of force was deemed necessary in the hours
of confusion which followed the awakening. The city has
a considerable element of negroes. When the citizens or-
ganized for the burial of the dead some of the negroes held
back and refused to help. "We want you," a white man
said to a negro. "I don't have to work," was the reply.
A shot rang out. A little later the lesson was repeated.
After that everybody, when called upon, took up the duty
assigned to him.

At a meeting of the relief committee reports were re-
ceived from the various wards. The chairman called for
armed men to assist in getting labor to bury the dead and
clear the wreckage, and arrangements were made to supply
this demand. There were plenty of volunteers for this
service, but an insufficiency of arms. The committee re-
jected a proposition of trying to pay for work, letting
the laborers secure their own rations. It was decided to
go ahead impressing men into service, if necessary, issuing
orders for rations only to those who worked or were unable
to work.

People told of getting out of their houses just in the nick
of time. They told of seeing people struck by flying tim-
bers and crushed to death before their eyes. One man
was cut off from the members of his family just as he
thought he had them rescued, and saw them sink beneath
the water on the other side of a barrier. He turned in
and helped to rescue others who were in peril. One woman
carried her five months' old babe in her arms from her
house only to see a beam strike the child on the head, kill-
ing it instantly. She suffered a broken leg and bruised
body. Eighteen persons were caught in the Grothger gro-

STORM IN STRICKEN CITY. 95

eery store, and it is presumed that all were lost, as many
have been reported dead who were known to have been in
the building, which was swept away entirely. The fire-
men buried eight persons south of Avenue O. The graves
were marked with pieces of garments worn by the persons.

Will Love, a printer on the Houston Post, who formerly
lived in Galveston, swam the bay on Monday to reach his
family, whom he found to be alive in Galveston. He
swam from pier to pier on the railroad bridges and at each
he rested.

In the Bolivar lighthouse, which stands 130 feet high
on Bolivar Point, across the bay from Galveston, about
125 persons sought refuge from the storm on Saturday
evening. Many were those whose homes had been swept
away by the hurricane and others were residents of Gal-
veston who had come to the bay shore in their endeavors
to reach Galveston and their families. Among the latter
was County Road Superintendent Kelso. Mr. Kelso
stated, when he reached Galveston on Monday afternoon,
that the 100 or more refugees spent an awful night in
the lighthouse on Saturday night. The supply of fresh
water was soon exhausted and an effort was made to secure
water by catching the rain water in buckets suspended at
the top of the lighthouse. The experiment was a success
in a way, but it demonstrated a remarkable incident to the
force of the wind. The bucket was soon filled with water,
but it was salty and could not be used. Several attempts
finally resulted in a fresh water supply to quench the thirst
of the excited refugees. The salt water spray was shot
skyward over 130 feet, and mingled with the rain water
that fell into the buckets.

CHAPTER IV.

THE DREADFUL BURDEN OF THE DEAD.

In Galveston, two days after the hurricane struck the
city, the bright moonlight enabled the rescuing party to
continue by night their work of relieving the injured and
recovering the bodies of the dead. ~No reliable estimate
as to the number of killed and drowned could be made.
Estimates of the missing range all the way from 1,500 to
10,000 persons in Galveston alone. Many bodies were car-
ried out to sea by the receding waters, never to be recov-
ered.

While the search along the devastated mainland, which
was swept by the waters of the bay for a distance of six
miles inland, was kept up, it will never be known how
many were lost, owing to the fact that there is such a large
territory of shore line and storm-swept country to be gone
over. All night long searching parties walked the shore
in search for dead bodies and many were recovered, but
not identified.

September 11 a dispatch was sent from Galveston, via
Houston, containing this shocking information :

Ten ghouls — eight negroes and two whites — were
caught after robbing bodies. Their pockets were filled
with fingers and ears, cut from corpses. These pieces of
flesh bore rings and jewels. The negroes were shot down.

In all about fifty ghouls, despoilers of the dead, have
been shot down, and a negro who attacked a woman has
been killed. Martial law reigns here. Mends who, like

96

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BURDEN OF THE DEAD. 99

buzzards, thrive at such times as this, are shown no mercy ;
are given no trial. The orders are to shoot them down
and these orders are obeyed.

A horde of negro rowdies attacked a squad of soldiers
guarding St. Mary's Hospital Monday night. Hundreds
of shots were fired and sixteen negroes were killed. Every
hour during the night other shootings of negro thieves
were reported at headquarters. Tuesday morning, a negro
attacked a white woman and murdered her in the most
cold-blooded manner. The soldiers caught him and blew
his head off. Reports of many similar cases have reached
headquarters. The public is used to terrible crimes. It is
almost unmoved by these reports.

Eight marauders caught looting the bodies and wrecking
stores Tuesday night were killed by the soldiers. The pil-
lagers have become bold, cutting off fingers to secure dia-
mond rings.

September 12th this was dispatched from the scene of
horror :

The ghouls were holding an orgie over the dead. The
majority of these men were negroes, but there were also
whites, who took part in the desecration of the dead.
Some of them were natives and some had been allowed to
go over from the mainland under the guise of "relief"
work. "Not only did they rob the dead, but they muti-
lated bodies in order to secure their ghoulish booty. A
party of ten negroes was returning from a looting expedi-
tion. They had stripped corpses of all valuables, and the
pockets of some of the looters were fairly bulging out with
fingers of the dead, which had been cut off because they
were so swollen the rings could not be removed. Incensed
at this desecration and mutilation of the dead the looters

100 BURDEN OF THE DEAD.

were shot down and it has been determined that all found
in the act of robbing the dead shall be summarily shot.

During the robbing of the dead not only were fingers
cut off, but ears were stripped from the head in order to
secure jewels of value. A few government troops who sur-
vived have been assisting in patroling the city. Private
citizens have also endeavored to prevent the robbing of the
dead and on several occasions have killed the offenders.
It is said that at one time eight were killed and at another
time four. Among the many incidents Sunday night was
the besieging of the squad guarding St. Mary's Hospital.
They were surrounded by a horde of armed negro thieves.
Several hundred shots were exchanged. Sergeant Camp
killed four negroes with his rifle, and about ten or twelve
were killed by the squad. Every hour during the night a
fresh negro shooting was reported at headquarters. It
became evident yesterday that burying the dead would
have to be abandoned. The heat was so intense that bod-
ies decomposed before they could be taken from the debris.

Torches instead of shovels became the order, and wher-
ever bodies could be seen in ruins the ruins were lighted
and the flames licked up the dead.

One hundred people at present are at this point, some
waiting for transportation over to Galveston, some for day
to break so as to permit of the burial of corpses, of which
there are many scattered up and down the beach and all
over the prairie for a radius of ten miles. Others are
waiting for a first chance to get as far away as possible
from this terrible scene. Men who will work are very
scarce. Those willing have a desire to boss, which does
not facilitate matters in the least. An organized force of
considerable proportion should be sent here at once.

BURDEN OF THE DEAD. 101

Thieves have been robbing the bodies as they come
ashore. One man was caught last night and will be taken
to Galveston to-day. When searched a baby's finger was
found with a ring on it. He afterwards gave the hiding
place of articles and money and much jewelry was found.
A cry of "lynch him" met with little favor ; enough death
is here.

From lamp-posts dangle the bullet-riddled bodies of
fiends who rifled the bodies of the storm's dead. On P
street lies a row of bodies of whites and negroes, shot while
robbing the dead of money and valuables. Mayor Fay-
ling's committee of vigilantes caught the fiends at work.
They were stood up on the curbstone and executed. There
the bodies lie, festering in the hot sun, for there are no
provisions for burying this class of dead.

One negro was caught cutting the ring finger from the
body of a young girl near St. Mary's Hospital. He was
strung up to the steps of a broken telephone pole by a rope.
The six men in a squad of vigilantes pumped him full of
Winchester bullets. On Virginia Beach, across from Gal-
veston, where the bodies of the storm's victims went ashore,
is the harvest field of the ghouls. Whatever is of value
is taken. There is nobody to stay the awful work of van-
dalism, as the authorities have all they can do over in the
city. There are two hundred of these bodies washed up
on the beach. Some are naked and these are despoiled of
whatever valuables they have in the shape of rings. No
effort is made to take the jewelry off, the fingers are cut
and the rings slipped off the stumps. There is no color
line in this work of desecration. The white fiend works
alongside of his black brother.

Fever is appearing among the survivors and the med-

102 BURDEN OF THE DEAD.

ical staff is unable to cope with it. What little water there
is is polluted with disease germs and the pestilence is
spreading. Nothing can stop it but the arrival of doctors
and supplies.

Parents are warned to keep away from the dead wagons
in which their children have been tumbled, and long bar-
reled rifles back up the warning. This is done in a Chris-
tian spirit and not to be brutal. The safety of the 35,000
living necessitates this course, for the hot sun is already
breeding disease and pestilence from the hundreds of de-
caying bodies. The city is a vast charnel house. The
dead wagons hurry, from place to place, filling with the
awful cargo and then speed away to the docks, where
the bodies are dumped into scows and towed out into the
Gulf. The waters of the Gulf float the bodies for a few
minutes, then swallow them up. There are no services,
no prayers, no tears — just a "splash," "splash," as the
corpses are thrown to their last resting place. Then the
funeral cortege of scows returns to the docks for another
load.

The Winchesters quell the resentment which rises in
the breasts of heart-broken relatives as other bodies are
chucked into the dead wagons. It is all done by the order
of Mayor Jones, who said : "The living must be protected
from pestilence."

It is a harvest for ghouls. In the ruins of stores and
houses are thousands of dollars7 worth of goods which can
be carried away by the individual. These human vultures
loot when they can and the staring eyes of the dead have
no terrors for them.

A business man of excellent standing and intelligence
told a newspaper man on the boat to Galveston, Wednes-

BURDEN OF THE DEAD. 103

day after the disaster, that the banks paid out sums of $25
only. He had been in and out several times and was on
the relief committees. He had no reason to tell an un-
truth, nor did he have the intent to tell one. Yet his
statement was without basis. The banks of Galveston had
paid depositors in full if they wanted the money. So
with hundreds of thousands of stories. The disposition to
jump at conclusions, to repeat rumors as facts, is a com-
mon failing. So enormous was the calamity that no story
of escape or tale of horror seemed impossible.

When the newspaper men reached the city the thing was
too vast to attempt the investigation of each story, the
features of each wrecked building and every separate
happening of ten thousand happenings. They were forced
to use their judgment about whatever man was ready to
tell. Indeed, every prolix person they interviewed was
a loss of time. They asked hurried questions, they did not
have time to compare one man's story with another's. The
result was that the buildings were reported wrecked which
were unharmed. Persons were said to be dead who were
saved. Shooting affrays that never happened were ac-
cepted as truthful. Supplementing this exaggeration by
men of high degree, by officials, by militia officers and
the reports of persons who believed neighbors were dead
because they had not seen them, came the constitutional
liar. The calamity at Galveston was the turning loose of
this liar; he burst his chains, as it is said the devil will
do in the last days, and for several days ran riot in the
stricken city.

Yet the most fantastic efforts of the spinners of yarns
could not beat the truth. It was simply a lying about de-
tails while the general facts were almost beyond exaggera-

104: BURDEN OF THE DEAD.

tion except by a Houston hotel clerk, who repeated to
anxious inquirers on Wednesday night in monotonous tone
this information:

"Galveston is wiped out; 14,000 people were killed.
Nobody can go there. The survivors are being huddled on
the mainland. All must leave day after to-morrow; the
city will be burned up."

Curiously enough the stories of horror are the chief
delight of the exaggerators. He did not tell joyfully that
everybody in a cyclone building had been saved, but that
they were all buried in the ruins and that a little black dog,
the only survivor, howled over the mass of wreckage. One
man went about the worst places and babbled to the sol-
diers, so they said, that he was a war correspondent by
profession who happened to stop in Galveston on pri-
vate business, saw the storm, had formed a corps of four-
teen reporters and was cabling 49,000 words to the London
Times, and had already compiled a list of 14,000 identi-
fied. It is most probable that this liar told the soldiers
that he was cabling 19,000 words and had a list of 9,000
names of the killed.

When it came to the stories of ghouls robbing the dead
the favorite yarn was that a well dressed stranger had been
caught with a valise full of fingers with rings on them,
and that a negro had been seen tearing off fingers. In
each instance a soldier with unerring aim shot the wretch
to death. These stories were believed by all who repeated
them. Nobody ever found the soldiers in question.

At the same time men did loot, and looters were shot,
but the real stories of how, or when, were lost in the stupen-
dous background of death and destruction. Illustrating
the human weakness for exaggeration, the man who in-

BURDEN OF TEE DEAD. 105

sisted that the dead numbered 20,000 was the very man
who asserted that in three years Galveston would have
100,000 inhabitants, through the quickening effect of
calamity.

Six days after the desolation came this news: The
burial of the dead goes steadily on. All the corpses in
the open, along the shores or near the wreckage, have been
sunk in the gulf or burned in the streets. The labor of
clearing away the debris in search of bodies began at
Thirtieth street and avenue 0, one of the worst wrecked
parts of town. Two hundred men were put to work, and
in thirty minutes fifty corpses were found within a space
thirty yards square. Whole families lay dead piled in in-
describable confusion.

Old and young, crushed by the falling timbers, were one
by one dragged from debris six to twenty feet deep.
Aged fathers were clinging to more robust forms; chil-
dren clinging to mothers' skirts; young girls with their
arms around brothers; mothers clasping babes to their
bosoms. These were the melancholy sights seen by those
digging among the ruins. In dozens and scores the bodies
were turned up by pick and shovel, rake and ax. Away
to the left the wreckage stretched two miles to Seventh
street ; to the right, a mile to Fortieth street down town.

Popular sentiment insists that the west end be burned,
but the military authorities have hesitated to give the
order.

Six days have wrought surprising changes in conditions
at Galveston. Each day has been a chapter in itself.
Sunday was paralysis. On Monday came the beginning
of realization. Tuesday might be called the crisis period.
And the crisis was passed safely. What has been ae-

106 BURDEN OF TEE DEAD.

complished since the turning point on Tuesday is amazing.
It is almost as incredible as some of the effects of this
visitation are without precedent.

On Sunday the people did little but go about dazed
and bewildered, gathering a few hundred of the bodies
which were in their way. On Monday the born leaders
who are usually not discovered in a community until some
great emergency arises began to forge in front. They were
not men from one rank in point of wealth or intelligence.
They came from all classes. For example, there was
Hughes, the 'longshoreman.

On Monday after the disaster came this message:

'"All Galveston is now at work and the contributions
which we are receiving from the sympathizing nation are
going to pay for the most urgent work the storm imposed
on us."

Bodies which lay exposed in the streets and which were
necessary to remove somewhere lest they be stepped on
were carried into a temporary morgue until 500 lay in
rows on the floor. Then a problem in mortality, such as
no other American community ever faced, was presented.
Pestilence, which stalked forth by Monday, seemed about
to take possession of what the storm had left. Immediate
disposition of those bodies was absolutely necessary to
save the living. Then it was that Lowe and McVittie and
Sealy and the others, who by common impulse had come
together to deal with the problem, found Hughes. The
'longshoreman took up the most grewsome task ever seen
away from a battlefield. He had to have helpers. Some
volunteered, others were pressed into the service at the
point of the bayonet. Wliisky by the bucketful was car-
ried to these men and they were drenched with it. The

BURDEN OF THE DEAD. 107

stimulant was kept at hand and applied continuously.
Only in this way was it possible for the stoutest hearted
to work in such surroundings. Under the directions of
Hughes these hundreds of bodies already collected and
others brought from the central part of the city — those
which were quickest found — were loaded on to an ocean
barge and taken far off into the gulf to be cast into the sea.

A Chronicle letter from the stricken city, dated Sep-
tember 17, said:

"A systematic effort has begun to obtain the names of the
dead, so that the information can be used for legal pur-
poses and for life insurance and settlements. Charles E.
Doherty is stationed at the headquarters of the central
relief committee to receive and file sworn statements in
the absence of the usual coroner's certificate.

"A census is being taken by wards to obtain some ap-
proximate idea of the total death list. Partial figures
from eleven out of twelve wards, allowing four persons
to a family, make the number of victims 15,000. This is
regarded as the outside estimate. The destruction in the
twelfth ward is appalling. Of 547 houses but twenty-
eight are left standing.

"The work of clearing the streets of the accumulated
debris is proceeding rapidly, although a wide area remains
untouched. Eight thousand men are wielding pick and
shovel. Included in this number are several hundred
Chinese who have volunteered their services. Many whites
and negroes who came into the city as sightseers before
strict regulations were put in force have been compelled to
work at the point of the bayonet. Bodies are being un-
earthed constantly and it is estimated that at least 2,50,0
victims still lie beneath the ruins. Fully a month must

108 BURDEN OF THE DEAD.

elapse before the city can be cleaned. The city, especially
in the business district, is beginning to look like itself
again.

"Horse cars are in operation in the business part of the
city and the electric line and water service have been par-
tially resumed. The progress being made under the cir-
cumstances is little short of remarkable. It must not
be by any means understood that the remaining portion
of the city has been put in anything like its normal condi-
tion, but so very great a change has been wrought, so
much order and system now prevail where formerly chaos
reigned, that Galveston and the people who have been
giving her such noble assistance have good reason to be
satisfied with what has been accomplished in the face of
such fearful odds. And, according to statements made by
General Scurry, Mayor Jones, Alderman Perry and
others, there is equally good reason to believe that the prog-
ress of the work during the next week or so will be even
more satisfactory."

CHAPTEK V.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS OF THE TIME OF TERROR.

The experience of Miss Alice Pixley of Elgin, who was
in Galveston when the city was wrecked, is most interest-
ing. She was visiting Miss Lulu George, who lived in
Thirty-fifth street, between N" street and BT and One-half
street. "The storm started early on Saturday morning,"
said Miss Pixley, "and by 1 :30 o'clock in the afternoon it
had become furious. We left the house where I was visit-
ing and went to a frame house of two stories and a base-
ment at the corner of Thirty-fifth and N" streets. In order
to get there I had to be carried through the water by a man
named Youngblood, who later learned that his brother and
his brother's wife and child had been lost.

"We stayed in the basement of this house until the
water became too high, it having risen five feet in an hour.
Then we went to the second floor and stayed there until
Sunday morning, when we returned to the other house
through five feet of water. Mr. Darley, who was six feet
tall, carried me on his shoulders, my feet being in the
water. I have since learned that Mr. Darley lost his father,
mother and sister.

"The scenes of desolation were awful. Eor three miles,
in a district which had been thickly settled, not a house
was standing except one or two. Masses of timbers were
piled up everywhere, and hundreds of dead bodies were to
be seen.

"On Monday morning the water was only two feet deep

109

110 SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

and we walked to town to get something to eat. The same
utter desolation existed everywhere. If we met any one
and asked how they were they would cry out: 'We have
lost everything.'

"We walked down to the beach on Tuesday, ana south
of avenue P dead bodies were piled up everywhere. We
counted over 200 lying on the beach as we walked along.
We left for Houston on the boat on Thursday morning and
arrived there at 7 :35 in the evening. I immediately took
a Santa Fe train for home."

Up to the time Miss Pixley left Galveston 2,800 bodies
had been buried in the Gulf with weights fastened to them.

Angela's Ursuline Convent and Academy proved a
haven of refuge for nearly 1,000 homeless and storm
driven unfortunates.

The convent, with its many buildings, colleges, etc., oc-
cupies four blocks, extending from avenue N to avenue O,
and Rosenburg avenue to Twenty-seventh street. The
grounds were surrounded by a ten-foot brick wall, that had
withstood the severest storms in Galveston's history up to
the occurrence of the recent hurricane. This wall is now
a crumbled mass of brick, with the exception of a few small
seotions, which stand like marking pillars to show where
the property line should be.

No one was refused admittance to the convent on the
night of the storm. Negroes and whites were taken in
without question, and the asylum was thrown open to all
who sought its protecting wings. The sisters went among
the sufferers, whispering words of cheer, offering what
scant clothing could be found in the place, and calmly
admonishing the terror-stricken refugees to have faith in
God.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS. Ill

The hundred or more negroes grew wild, however, as
the storm raged, an'd they shouted and sang until the nerves
of the other refugees were shattered and a panic was im-
minent. Mother Superior Joseph rang the chapel bell and
when quiet had been restored she told the negroes it was
neither the time nor place for such scenes. If they wanted
to pray, she said, they should do so from their hearts, and
God would hear their petitions above the roar of the hurri-
cane.

The negroes listened attentively, and when Mother Su-
perior Joseph asked who of them wished to be baptized or
resign themselves to God nearly every one asked that the
sacrament be administered.

The excitement had been caused by the fall of the north
wall of that section of the building in which the negroes
had sought refuge.

The academy was to have opened for the fall session on
Tuesday, and forty-two scholars from all parts of the State
had arrived at the convent. There were forty nuns in the
convent.

When the refugees began to reach the convent, and ask
for protection an attempt was made to keep a register of
their names. This register reached nearly a hundred
names, and then the storm-driven citizens began to arrive
in crowds of twenty and thirty, and there was no time to
ask their names. Some were taken in through windows
and some were dragged through five feet of water into the
basement, which had been abandoned on account of the in-
vasion of the flood. Others were rescued by ropes from
treetops or snatched from roofs and other wreckage, as it
was hurled in the rushing torrent through the convent
grounds.

112 SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

Four babies came into the world while their mothers
were being cared for by the nuns. No one expected to live
to see the light of day, and it was decided that the little
ones should not leave the world they had just entered with-
out baptism, and the sisters administered the rite.

Mrs. William Henry Heideman was one of the mothers,
and her babe was christened William Henry. Mrs. Heide-
man had been separated from her family when their home
went down. She was carried away on the roof of the cot-
tage. The roof struck some obstruction, and Mrs. Heide-
man was thrown off.

The poor woman was tossed by the flood upon a trunk,
and, clinging to this frail support, she was thrown against
the convent walls and was pulled into the building. The
little babe was born a few hours later.

While the sisters and other women were caring for the
mother and child a young brother of Mrs. Heideman bat-
tled with the wind and waters while clinging to a limb of
a tree just outside the convent. He heard the cry of a child
nearby. Reaching out with one hand, he caught hold of
the dress of a little child, who cried out, "Me simming"
not realizing its peril. The child was Mrs. Heideinan's
little son.

A rescuing party sent out from the convent in re-
sponse to cries for help found the young man and his
nephew and carried them safely to the convent.

Mr. and Mrs. James Irwin were swept from their home,
at Twenty-fourth street and avenue P One-half, and be-
came separated.

Mr. Irwin was rescued and taken to the convent. His
only covering was an old corn sack, which one of the work-
men about the convent gave him. The only dry garment to

SCENES AND INCIDENTS. 113

be found in the convent was a nun's garb. Mr. Irwin put
this on, and during the long hours of the night went about
the building doing what he could to assist his fellow-suf-
ferers.

It was in the convent that Dr. Judson B. Palmer, gen-
eral secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association,
found a refuge. His home, in avenue P One-half, in which
were seventeen persons, was destroyed, and all except three
of the inmates lost their lives. Dr. Palmer was carried on
the drift to the convent and was hauled in through a win-
dow. He was badly hurt, and now lies in the home of a
friend, having lost his wife and only child.

On Sunday after the storm Galveston was stupefied.
Men were wanted, of course, to stand guard, to protect
property and bury the dead. And such a turning loose
as there was of officious persons who would rather be bosses
than eat.

The women of Galveston engaged in a work which was
perhaps without precedent in relief effort. They made
many little bags into which they placed two or three lumps
of camphor. The bags had strings by which they could be
fastened at the head so that they rested on the lip just
under the nose. They were to be worn by the men engaged
in the search for and cremation of bodies.

It was proposed to all people whose houses were stand-
ing that whenever they located a corpse or carcass in their
vicinity the position be indicated by a flag of some kind.
On the beach and the western part of the city there were
100 or more pyres where human bodies and the carcasses
of dead animals were disposed of by fire. Separate pyres
were designated for human bodies and animal carcasses,
and the work progressed rapidly.

114 SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

Ninety-five per cent of the bodies recovered were naked.
The storm stripped the victims of all vestige of clothing
or articles that might lead to identification. Another re-
markable fact, which showed the force of the storm in
packing the wreckage and debris in high mounds, was seen
in the amount of water held by the wreckage. Six days of
sunshine and seven nights of cool Gulf breezes failed to
draw the water held by the wreckage which, jammed into
water-tight ridges, formed tanks to hold the salt water
which inundated the city. While the ground all around
these ridges was dry and hard, the removal of the top
ridge disclosed several feet of water.

A correspondent tells the News :

"It is easy to see, as awful as the calamity has been, a
few hours' delay would have more than doubled the loss in
human lives. A cheap rate of excursion was on and twelve
hours' delay would have landed 10,000 excursionists in
Galveston with little experience to battle with the condi-
tion which swept so many into eternity. Another lesson
should be impressed upon the minds of people everywhere
— not to be over-confident of their security, for those who
little reck may in the years to come be succored by the mag-
nanimity of a redeemed and restored Galveston."

The following story of one man's experience and that of
his family on the fateful night in Galveston is a wonder-
ful picture of the scene.:

"Galveston, Sept. 18.— To the News: Allow me to
hand you my experience during the recent storm, and I
certainly feel very fortunate to be alive to tell the tale. It
was about 3:30. I was pacing up and down the hall of
my home on 2008 Avenue P, with my wife and boy, 6
years old, and a Mrs. Tom Shepherd and her young baby,

G. C. & S. F. R. R. GENERAL OFFICES, GALVESTON.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

on a visit to us from Cedar Bayou. As I heard the roof
cracking from the falling bricks, I looked up and saw the
rain was soaking the ceiling paper. A thousand thoughts
passed through my mind, for I saw the danger that had
surrounded us and knew as I looked towards the gulf that
if the storm kept up its fury my home would soon go to
pieces and we would all perish beneath it. About 5 o'clock
the rain came flooding in through the ceiling all over the
house, in every room. The only chance of saving our
lives now was to desert the place and take our chances on
the drifting wreckage which was piling up afloat under
my front gallery, with the water about 14 feet deep I had
no time to lose. It was getting furious. I told my wife
and Mrs. Shepherd to stand ready for me to place them
on the floating debris. As I opened my front door we
were all nearly swept off our feet by the water which came
rushing in. As I opened the door the sight before me was
fearful. Sticking up, pointing in every direction, were
the floating timbers. I got the women and children safely
seated, and climbing up myself we floated off with the
drifting wreck. After a severe struggle three of us came
out alive. I spied a big door floating and we all got on it.
As I stood up to look over the pile which surrounded us I
was struck with a piece of slate on the face, cutting my
right cheek wide open. The blood poured from the wound.
Very soon I sank down exhausted and faint from the loss
of blood. With this gash laid open to the heavy wind
and rain I felt my end was near. I eaid good-bye to my
wife and boy and begged them not to give up, but try and
live the storm through. I knew nothing for some time
after this, when I found enough strength to raise my head.
I had to think for a moment when I saw my wife, who was

118 SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

crying most bitterly. I felt new courage, but when my
wife told me poor Mrs. Shepherd and her baby had gone,
I began to think it would soon be all over with us, but I
said no; I must not give up. From then on we made a
desperate struggle to save our lives. We could hardly see
anything for the blinding rain. As we were being driven
on, God only knows where, a piece of timber struck my
wife and fractured her shoulder, but even though both of
us were crippled, we were determined then not to give up.
After being tossed from one place to another we finally
drifted under a window of a house and seeing we did not
float from this spot, the house looking solid, I got in the
window and found myself in a room with the furniture
floating around. After getting my wife and boy in, cold,
wet and exhausted, we heard voices, and my wife called
aloud for help. A gentleman came to the door of the
room we were in, and after seeing our condition he guided
us up into the attic and did everything possible to make
us feel safe and comfortable. The water had now gone
down. It was 5 o'clock. I take great pleasure in extend-
ing my sincere thanks to this gentleman, Mr. Jim Comp-
ton, Twenty-fourth and Avenue O, who gave us shelter
from the storm and helped to save my little boy from
dying of cold. I feel very grateful to both him and his
family, and even though we have lost our home, clothes and
everything else, I feel fortunate to be alive, and thank God
I saved my wife and boy. J. G. Smith."

The terrible destruction of the enraged gulf, encour-
aged by the fatal hurricane, did not confine its path to
tke city of the living, but invaded the cities of the dead
on the island. No respecter of persons, places or things of

SCENES AND INCIDENTS. 119

the memories sacred to the living, the waves of death and
winds of destruction tore the dead from their graves and
the overground vaults which marked the last resting place
of all that was mortal of those who had gone before.

The six cemeteries of Galveston present heart-bleeding
pictures of the astounding and ghoulish work of the storm.
Graves were robbed of their dead and vaults built of stone,
concrete and iron were crushed, crumbled and scattered
about the white cities. Metal caskets containing the mortal
remains of precious ones were swept from their tombs and
fed to the greedy sea.

Lake View and the new Catholic cemeteries suffered the
greatest in the destruction of vaults, some of which were
magnificent structures built to stand for ages. These
burying grounds were near the beach and were the first to
engage the gulf and storm gods in their furious work.
Only three vaults withstood the storm in these two ceme-
teries.

In all of the cemeteries tombstones and monuments,
many of them having withstood the storms of many years,
were swept from their foundations ; some were demolished,
others broken and some even carried a distance of 100 feet.
In fact, the tombstones in each of the cemeteries are sorry
wrecks.

Of all the metal caskets with their sacred dead that were
disentombed but three have been reported found. Two
were found yesterday and identified. Others, it is ex-
pected, will be heard from later. The metallic caskets fell
easy prey to the raging gulf in its wild race after once
released from the tombs, as the metallic boxes float read-
ily. Many of them are covered with wood and to the casual
eye resemble wooden caskets.

120 SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

In some instances old graves were washed out and the
peaceful rest of the dead disturbed. The graves were
robbed and the dead cast to the sea. One vault, where
nine members of a family had been laid to rest, was found
open, and but three caskets remained.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CARNIVALS OF CRIME WHEN CITIES ARE DESTROYED

It will remain forever as a startling study of human na-
ture that ravaging hordes of criminals infested the smoul-
dering ruins of Chicago, just as the same class appeared
like beasts of prey when the waves yielded possession of
the havoc made at Galveston. We quote the historian :

"The genus thief was meantime plying busily his nimble
art of picking pockets, and the genus shark, in human
form, was equally busy taking advantage of the desperate
straits of the homeless people by charging exorbitant
sums for carrying saved goods and baggage, or conveying
persons to places of shelter and safety. The sharkish team-
sters and baggage-carriers fought among themselves over
sought-f or plunder and prizes as starving hyenas might be
expected to fight over a choice carcass, or as buzzards with
whetted appetites might wrangle over carrion. These quar-
reling and fighting rascals made the air smell of hell-fire
by the impious oaths and shocking imprecations they yelled
out through their clinched teeth. Weeping women clung
to unhelping and helpless men ; and little children, many
of them the sons and daughters of wealth and refinement,
but most of them in dirt and rags, screamed and moaned
and petitioned in the agony of terror and broken-hearted-
ness."

Another writer, telling of the frenzy of criminality in
the city of Chicago during the fire, says :

"I could see up Dearborn street as far as the Portland

121

122 CARNIVALS OF CRIME.

block, and it was full of people all the distance, swaying
and surging under the reign of fire. Around on Lake
street the tumult was worse. Here for the first time I be-
held scenes of violence that made my blood boil. In front
of Shay's magnificent dry goods store a man loaded a store
truck with silks in defiance of the employes of the place.
When he had piled all he could on the truck, some one with
a revolver shouted to him not to drive away or he would
fire at him, to which he replied, Tire, and be damned!'
and the man put the pistol in his pocket again. Just east
of this store there was at least a ton of fancy goods thrown
into the street, over which people and vehicles passed with
utter indifference until they took fire. I saw, myself, a
ragamuffin on the Clark street bridge, who had been killed
by a marble slab thrown from a window, with white kid
gloves on his hands, and whose pockets were stuffed with
gold-plated sleeve-buttons, and on that same bridge I saw
a woman leading a goat that was big with young, by one
arm, while under the other she carried a piece of silk.

"Lake street was rich with treasure, and hordes of
thieves forced their way into the stores and flung out the
merchandise to their fellows in the street, who received it
without disguise and fought over it openly. I went through
the street to Wabash avenue, and here the thoroughfare
was utterly choked with all manner of goods and people.
Everybody who had been forced from the other end of the
town by the advancing flames had brought some article
with them, and, as further progress was delayed, if not
completely stopped by the river — the bridges of which were
also choked — most of them, in their panic, abandoned their
burdens, so that the street and sidewalks presented the most
astonishing wreck. Valuable oil-paintings, books, pet ani-
mals, musical instruments, toys, mirrors, and bedding were

CARNIVALS OF CRIME. 123

trampled under foot. Added to this, the goods from the
stores had been hauled out and had taken fire, and the
crowd, breaking into a liquor establishment, were yelling
with the fury of demons, as they brandished champagne
and brandy bottles. The brutality and horror of the scene
made it sickening. A fellow standing on a piano declared
that the fire was the friend of the poor man. He wanted
everybody to help themselves to the best liquor he could
get, and continued to yell from the piano until some one,
as drunk as himself, flung a bottle at him and knocked him
off. In this chaos were hundreds of children, wailing and
crying for their parents. One little girl, in particular, I
saw, whose golden hair was loose down her back and caught
fire. She ran screaming past me, and somebody threw a
glass of liquor upon her, which flared up and covered her
with a blue flame."

The Chicago Times-Herald says of the criminality that
appears in association with disaster:

The worst specimens of human nature are seen at their
wickedest in cities just after some terrible calamity has
befallen, as in Galveston. Innocent people involved in the
calamity, but who still live, are for the time not them-
selves, and some go mad or are made helpless in their de-
spair. Criminal people are as much affected in their
minds, but instead of themselves being overcome and ren-
dered inactive by terror, they are then more active and
desperate than before — they become in very fact, probably,
insane criminals. At Galveston this peculiar indulgence
in criminality, in the presence of the awful, was marked as
it never was before in this country, and many citizens are
reminded by it of criminal occurrences here while the city
was in smoking ruins in 1871.

124 CARNIVALS OF CRIME.

Criminals here labored, in one way, under a disad-
vantage for the reason that the track of the great fire was
too hot for them. They could not possibly begin their
work of plunder immediately after the fire had passed, but
after the ruins had taken a few days for partial cooling
those bent on highway robbery possessed every advantage.
The burned streets were mostly impassable to teams, and
foot passengers did not easily find their way along them.
Robbers, who were possible assassins, lurked amid the
heaps of stones and bricks of fallen buildings for easy
prey. Some hold-up case was reported every hour and
rumors of assassinations were rife, though mostly un-
founded. Panic seized on the people. There was the same
kind of mental distress felt here that agonized the people
of Galveston. There was less cause for it in Chicago than
there was in the awfully stricken Gulf city, but still there
was cause. Men, and women, too, who had business were
obliged to go to and from the burnt district, many times
taking, as they supposed, their lives in their hands. Hun-
dreds of collapsed stores still had unburnt goods buried in
the ruins, and a thousand safes, all thought to contain
treasure, had not been opened since their closing the night
before the fire, and criminals by digging down to them
might perhaps work in security. Guards in most cases
were placed over the safes by the proprietors, but some of
these were attacked by robbers, or so constant rumor had it,
and so the revived newspapers printed it. Yes, there was
cause enough for panic fear of criminals in Chicago after
the great fire of 1871.

The happening which, more than any other, alarmed the
timid among the inhabitants was the opening of the prison
cells in the courthouse and letting the criminals of all de-

CARNIVALS OF CRIME. 125

grees — some murderers — loose into the streets. Captain
Hickey was in charge of the police quarters at the time ;
the same Captain Hickey who was afterward chief of po-
lice, and who died only recently. His account of
what occurred there in that awful time was that the fire
had communicated with the roof and dome several times,
only to be extinguished. Finally it caught such a hold
that the tower had to be abandoned. The great bell, which
had been clanging fitfully all night, kept up an incessant
rattle, the machinery having been set by the keeper as he
descended. The buildings on all sides were in flames and
the streets filled with ruins of fallen walls. The prisoners
in the county jail, almost suffocated with smoke, ran to
the doors of their cells and shook the iron bars with the
strength of frenzy, uttering fearful yells and impreca-
tions as a horrid fear that they were to be burned alive
possessed them. Seeing that there was no hope of saving
the building the captain ordered the cells to be unlocked,
and in a moment the released prisoners, all bareheaded,
many barefooted, rushed into the street yelling like
demons. But they were not many seconds without cloth-
ing. A large truck loaded with ready-made clothing was
passing at the time, and in an instant the ex-prisoners
swarmed upon it, emptied it of its contents and fled to
remote alleys and dark passages, where they disguised
themselves as well-to-do citizens.

Even when the owners of goods succeeded in hiring ex-
pressmen to convey them to a place of safety there was no
certainty that they would be hauled far, though as high as
$50 a load was paid for the service. The wagons were fol-
lowed by howling crowds, who snatched the goods and
made away with them. In a number of instances the

126 CARNIVALS OF CRIME.

thieves got possession of the wagons and drove off with
rich loads of dry goods, jewelry or other merchandise to
out-of-the-way places. This was but a beginning and was
in the early part of Sunday night. Before daybreak the
thieving horror had culminated in scenes of daring rob-
bery. A few hours earlier the thieves had seemed to try
to evade observation to some extent, but now, as the terrors
aggregated into an intensity of misery, the thieves of all
grades dropped all pretense at concealment and plied their
calling boldly. They would storm into stores, smash away
at the safes, and, if, as happily was most always the case,
they failed to effect an opening, they would turn their at-
tention to securing all of value from the stock that they
could possibly carry away; when other thieves would
slouch in after further booty. The promise of a share in
the spoils gave them the assistance of some express drivers,
who stood with wagons at the doors of stores and waited
as composedly for a load of stolen property to be piled in
as if they were honestly receiving goods from the rear of
stores where they might be employed daily. The wagons,
once heaped up with the loads, were driven pell-mell
through the city and out into the country. Remonstrances
on the part of the owners availed nothing. They were
obliged to stand quietly aside and see their establishments
cleaned out by the thieves and then laid in ashes by the
flames. The instances of robbery were not confined to the
sacking of stores. Burglars would raid into private dwell-
ings that lay in the track of the coming destruction and
snatch from cupboard, bureau, trunk or mantel anything
of value. Interference was useless. The scoundrels
hunted in squads, were inflamed with drink and flourished
deadly weapons. In some instances women and children

CARNIVALS OF GRIME. J27

and even men were stopped as they were bearing from their
homes objects of especial worth and the articles torn from
their grasp by unresisted gangs.

The wickedest actions of the wicked took place just after
the extinguishment of the great fire. They would have a
renewal of it and cases of incendiarism were frequent.
Men, women, and even children, carried the incendiary
torch. Not one was shot, but many were arrested. Several
of these were women. A boy was detected by a fireman
in the setting fire to a building in Thirty-second street,
and immediately shot dead. A negro watchman shot and
killed a man who was firing a house in State street below
Twenty-second street. A woman was taken in the act and
threatened with instant hanging, but she was let go. Two
men were caught while attempting to fire a Jesuit church
on the west side, and both were shot on the spot. Half
a dozen more incendiaries were killed in that section of the
city. On Fourth avenue, near to Fourteenth street, a man
was discovered in the basement of a house with a torch
in his hand, and, alarm being given, he escaped into the
street and ran for his life. A crowd followed him, and,
coming near, stoned him to death. The spirit of outlawry
continued for several days and was only arrested by the
coming to the city of an increase to the military. General
P. II. Sheridan had but a small force at his headquarters,
but that he caused to be used to good advantage. He lent
a squad to the postmaster of the day, who required it to
defend the improvised postoffice in Eighteenth street. But
more troops were needed, and so the Fifth infantry at
Leavenworth, commanded by Colonel Nelson A. Miles, was
ordered hither by the commander of the department. Upon

128 CARNIVALS OF CRIME.

their arrival there was great joy among all the good people
of the city.

It should be added that during all this time of trouble
and panic fear Mayor Mason and all who were in au-
thority as city officers did their whole duty toward pre-
serving the peace.

CHAPTEE VII.

THE TERRIBLE NEED OF THE SURVIVORS.

Two days were required for full realization of the pro-
portions and pitiful awful horrors of the Galveston terror.
Hopes that the first stories of the death of thousands of
persons and the destruction of thousands of houses faded
out, and the world was aghast, and from all quarters came
aid by wire and railroad as far as they would carry infor-
mation and transportation. Money was received, relief
trains were hurried for Galveston, for there was famine
there, no water, no light at night, and the thousands of
dead were so fearful a mass that pestilence was threatened
at the same time; a swarm of criminals descended upon
the enormous wreck and there were many demoralized
who appeared to think the end of the world was at hand,
and robheries and nameless outrages made up a surpassing
horror. The nation was aroused. September 10 the fol-
lowing telegrams passed between the White House and
Texas :

"Houston, Texas. — William McKinley, President
of the United States, Washington, D. C. : I have
been deputized by the Mayor and citizens' commit-
tee of Galveston to inform you that the city of
Galveston is in ruins and certainly many hundreds,
if not thousands, are dead. The tragedy is one of
the most frightful in recent times. Help must be given by
the State and Nation or the suffering will be appalling.
Food, clothing and money will be needed at once. The

whole south side of the city for three blocks in front of the

129

130 NEED OF SURVIVORS.

gulf is swept clear of every building; the whole whar*
front is a wreck and but few houses in the city are really
habitable. The water supply is cut off and the food stock
damaged by salt water. All bridges are washed away
and stranded steamers litter the bay. When I left this
morning the search for bodies had begun. Corpses were
everywhere. Tempest blew eighty-four miles an hour and
then carried government instruments away ; at same time
waters of gulf were over the whole city, having risen' twelve
feet. Water has now subsided and the survivors are left
helpless among the wreckage, cut off from the world en
cept by boat. EICHAED SPILLAGE."

"Washington, D. C. — The Hon. J. D. Sayers, Governor
of Texas, Austin, Tex. : The reports of the great calamity
which has befallen Gal^eston and other points on the coast
of Texas excite my profound sympathy for the sufferers,
as they will stir the hearts of the whole country. What-
ever help it is possible to give shall be gladly extended.
Have directed the Secretary of War to supply rations and
tents upon your request. WILLIAM McKINLEY."

"Austin, Tex.— The President, Washington, D. C.:
Very many thanks for your telegram. Your action will be
greatly appreciated and gratefully remembered by the
people of Texas. I have this day requested the Secretary
of War to forward rations and tents to Galveston.

"JOSEPH D. SAYERS,

"Governor of Texas."

President McKinley's telegram to Gov. Sayers was sent
also to the Mayor of Galveston.

Miss Clara Barton issued the following appeal :

"The National Red Cross at Washington, D. C., is ap

NEED OF SURVIVORS. 131

ipeaied to on all sides for help, and for the privilege to
lielp in the terrible disaster which has befallen southern
and central Texas. It remembers the floods of Ohio and
Mississippi, of Johnstown and of Port Royal, with their
thousands of dead and months of suffering and needed
relief, and turns confidently to the people of the United
States, whose sympathy has never failed to help provide
the relief that is asked of it now. Nineteen years of ex-
perience on nearly as many fields renders the obligations
of the Red Cross all the greater. The people have long
learned its work, and it must again open its accustomed
avenues for their charities. It does not beseech them to
give, for their sympathies are as deep and their humanity
as great as its own, but it pledges to them faithful, old-
time Red Cross relief work among the stricken victims of
these terrible fields of suffering and death. He gives twice
who gives quickly.

"Contributions may be wired or sent by mail to our treas-
urer, William J. Flather, assistant cashier of the Riggs
National bank, Washington, D, C. ; also to the local Red
Cross committees of the Red Cross India famine fund at
156 Fifth avenue, New York city, and the Louisiana Red
Cross Society of New Orleans, both of which will report
all donations for immediate acknowledgment by us.

"CLARA BARTON,
"President American National Red Cross."

The following statement of conditions at Galveston and
appeal for aid was issued by the local relief committee :

"Galveston, Tex., Sept. 11. — A conservative estimate
of the loss of life is that it will reach 3,000. At least 5,000
families are shelterless and wholly destitute. The entire

132 NEED OF SURVIVORS.

remainder of the population is suffering in greater or
less degree. Not a single church, school or charitable in-
stitution, of which Galveston had so many, is left intact.
Not a building escaped damage and half the whole num-
ber were entirely obliterated. There is immediate need
for food, clothing and household goods of all kinds. If
nearby cities will open asylums for women and children
the situation will be greatly relieved. Coast cities should
send us water as well as provisions, including kerosene
oil, gasoline and candles.

"W. C. JONES, Mayor.
"M. LASKER,
"President Island City Savings Bank.

"J. D. SKINNER,
"President Cotton Exchange.

"C. H. McMASTER,
"For Chamber of Commerce.
"R. G. LOWE,
"Manager Galveston News.
"CLARENCE OWSLEY,
"Manager Galveston Tribune."

The Mayor of Chicago issued a proclamation in answer
to an appeal from the Mayor of Houston :

"Chicago, Sept. 10, 1900.— To the Citizens of the City
of Chicago : I am in receipt of a telegram from the Mayor
of Houston, Tex., as follows : 'Galveston cut off from all
communication. Great suffering and loss of life known to
exist there; damage beyond description. Aid should be
sent* to Houston, which is the nearest base of supplies and
for furnishing help. Have good organization effected/

"From this telegram it is apparent that the sufferers
of the recent windstorm which proved so disastrous to life

NEED OF SURVIVORS. 135

and property in Galveston and other Texas towns are in
need of immediate assistance, and I would request that all
citizens respond as liberally and promptly as possible to the
call for relief.

"All contributions sent to this office will be forwarded
by me to the relief committee at Houston, Tex.

"CARTER H. HARBISON, Mayor."

Governor Sayers of Texas applied to the War Depart-
ment for 10,000 tents and 50,000 rations for immediate
use for the sufferers from Saturday's storm. Acting Sec-
retary Meiklejohn issued an order granting the request.
The Mayor of Houston, Texas, made this appeal :
"Our sister city of Galveston has been visited by a
frightful hurricane, and is still cut off from all rail and
wire communication with the outside world. Refugees
bring alarming reports of great loss of lif ~ and property.
The newspapers will give extended accounts of this awful
calamity which place it among the most disastrous of mod-
ern times. The people of many towns and villages are
now in sore distress, and as further reports come in the
death list grows and the damage to property increases. The
stock is killed and the crops are ruined. We urgently
ask your liberal and immediate assistance. Houston was
in the track of the storm, but will take care of her in-
jured and help those more seriously affected. Contribu-
tions sent to either of the undersigned will be grate-
fully received and judiciously expended.

"S. H. BRASHEAR,

"Mayor.

"B. A. REISNER,
"Chairman Relief Committee."

136 NEED OF SURVIVORS.

Archbishop Feehan forwarded $1,000 to the relief fund,
and issued the following notice to all pastors in his dio-
cese:

"Rev. and Dear Sir: An appalling calamity has hap-
pened in Galveston, Texas; one that appeals to the sym-
pathy and charity of all the people. Will you kindly have
a collection made at the masses in your church on Sunday,
16th inst., in aid of this great distress. The returns should
be sent to the Chancellor without delay, as the needs are
pressing. I remain, Rev. and Dear Sir, yours faithfully
in Christ, P. A. FEEHAN,

"Archbishop of Chicago.

"F. J. BARRY, Chancellor."

The Mayor of New York sent the following telegram to
Mayor Brashear of Houston, Texas :

"Hon. S. E. Brashear, Mayor, Houston, Tex. : In re-
sponse to your telegram I have issued a call to the people
of the city of New York to contribute to the relief of those
afflicted by the disaster at Galveston. Please express to the
Mayor of Galveston the profound sympathy of the people
of New York for the people of Galveston in this hour of
their distress. ROBERT A. VAN WYCK,

"Mayor."

Cablegrams were exchanged by Emperor William of
Germany and President McKinley, the Emperor's mes-
sage being as follows :

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

NEED OF SURVIVORS. 137

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 in-
domitable 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.

The President's reply was:

Executive Mansion, Sept. 14, 1900. — His Imperial and
Royal Majesty, Wilhelm 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 Gal-
veston disaster I thank you most earnestly.

WILLIAM M'KINLEY.

It was a week after the storm that the people of Gal-
veston seemed to realize their troubles. A most touching
account of this was written by the correspondent of the
Kansas City Star. We quote :

"When death comes into a man's home he feels awed
and subdued. He bows his head, the tears flow silently, or
he goes dry-eyed and decently about the duties of the hour
of affliction. He publishes a death notice, sends telegrams
to his relatives, selects a coffin, names the pall bearers, com-
forts the other members of the family and tries to control
himself as he listens to the burial service and follows the
hearse to the cemetery to see the earth heaped upon the
coffin.

138 NEED OF SURVIVORS.

"On the way back lie still feels chastened. The sounds
of the streets, the streaming sunset, all seem to be outside
of the inner world of his thoughts. Days, blank days, pass
over him. Then comes a moment when he wakes from
sleep by the sunshine of broad daylight flooding his cham-
ber. He is confused for a moment. He remembers his
loss and thinks : Have I just awakened from a bad dream ?
He goes to the window and looks out. The day is beau-
tiful, and peaceful and quiet. The noises of traffic are
stilled, although the sun is far up in the heavens.

"The man realizes that, wearied to his very heart and
soul, he has slept twelve or fourteen hours. He sees a group
going to church. The children in smart white frocks, the
old people carrying Bibles and hymn-books. It is Sunday.
A wave of desolation sweeps over him. Gone ; gone never
to come back. Then the man realizes that the loved face,
the smile, are no more. The man feels the fountain of his
tears give way. He flings himself face downward upon
the bed and the family treads softly outside as they hear
his sobs through the quiet house.

"So it was with Galveston. It had looked death in the
face. The curtain of the forms of well-ordered life had
been torn away from the weakness and the corruption of
the human flesh. Galveston had seen the death agony
and had looked into the grave after the burial. It had
seen death, yet it had borne itself with fortitude, had tried
to perform the duties of the hour of affliction calmly and
had looked dry-eyed upon the dull red fires on the beach
that burst up every hour or so and diminished only to
blaze up again. Galveston had tried to appear composed
and brave.

"Sunday in Galveston was beautiful. The sky was un-

NEED OF SURVIVORS. 139

speakably serene and smiling. The air was mild and
gentle. Galveston had deeply and profoundly slept and
awoke with a start. It looked out of the window upon what
it remembered as a beautiful city with impressive institu-
tions and homes set amid Chinaberry and salt cedar and
live oak and cottonwood trees and shrubbery of oleander.
But the scene Galveston looked upon on Sunday morning
was one of chaos. Shattered buildings, gaping walls,
fallen trees, lying brown and dead, amid masses of tim-
bers, as if a maelstrom had twisted them together. All
this Galveston saw in the streaming sunshine and then
came the realization. Face to face with death is awesome,
seeing what this human flesh is like after the spark is both
awesome and horrible.

"The saying 'she was beautiful in death' was shown to
be a mockery, a delusion, a mere saying, for beauty
lasts only a few hours after death, except through the ef-
forts of art. This was both awesome and horrible, but it
was not sorrow. That is another emotion.

"To realize what has happened, after it is over, is sor-
row, and at Galveston many wept. To-day the people are
heart-broken.

"Religious services were held in some of the churches
that remained and in private houses. But the people could
not bear it. The hymns stopped for weeping. The sound
of praise made them turn about and put their hands to
their faces and go away. At Grace Episcopal church, at
Thirty-sixth street and Avenue L, the people came to the
church door and paused. Then walked on.

"The most pitiful thing in Galveston was the distress
of persons who were fairly well off, but did not have
money in the bank, and whose homes and sources of in-

140 NEED OF SURVIVORS.

come are gone. An example was that of an official of
Galveston county, a big, brawny man who went about
tearfully trying to sell the tombstone of his child to get
enough money to clothe his family and send them out of
the city. This man had put all his money into a fine home,
except $3,000 for an elegant monument over the grave
of a child who died some years ago. He put the heavy
monument over the child's tomb so that it could not be
washed away. The soil of Galveston does not permit dig-
ging more than four feet. Then there is salt water. This
man was bitter in soul. He would not go to the ward
relief stations and stand in line with negroes for rations.
His home was destroyed and his wife and children were
without clothes fit for going out. He went about offering
the monument in the cemetery for sale, but in vain. The
poor have all the food and ice they can use, but those who
were not poor are suffering.

"While the stores of Galveston were open and the res-
taurants did business soon after the storm, there was great
difficulty to get anyone to do any special work, such as
print a sign or some cards. It was still harder to hire
anybody by the day. The small boy had lost his interest
in pieces of money that would otherwise have caused his
eyes to bulge out. Employes of various stores did their
regular work or cleaned the stores of wreck and water or
strewed goods in the street, but to get boys to post placards
or distribute dodgers was seemingly hopeless. The corre-
spondent for the Star had to print the signs himself to
announce that registration of names of survivors from
Kansas City territory had been opened, and then had to
tack them up about the wrecked town.

"An advertisement was placed in the Galveston News

NEED OF SURVIVORS. 141

as soon as the paper felt like accepting business. The Gal-
veston Tribune, an afternoon paper, was reduced to the
size of a four-page handbill, but kindly printed the Star's
advertisement, which read :

" 'Names of survivors, originally or recently from Mis-
souri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Indian territory or
Arkansas will be wired at once for publication in the
Kansas City Star if registered at the Tremont hotel cigar
stand/

" 'If we lived in New York we can't register?' asked
a woman wistfully, gazing at the sign. 'Can't a poor old
Louisianan, who has lost all but his life, sign the reg-
ister ?' asked another."

CHAPTEK VIIL

INCIDENTS OF THE GBEAT TERROR.

A letter that tells the story of the Galveston stroke of
fate was that of Miss Nellie Carey, a stenographer in
Galveston, whose parents reside at 5408 Lake avenue,
Chicago. She had just returned to her Galveston situa-
tion when the storm struck the city. She wrote at Gal-
vestion, Wednesday, September 12, to her parents :

"Have not had a minute to write and cannot collect
my thoughts to tell you of the horrible disaster down here.
Thousands of dead in the streets — the gulf and bay streWn
with dead bodies. The whole island demolished. Not
a drop of water — food scarce. If help does not reach us
soon there will be great starvation for everybody.

"The dead are not being identified at all — they throw
them on drays and take them to barges, where they are
loaded like cordwood, and taken out to sea to be cast into
the waves, now peaceful, which were so hungry for them
in their anger.

"I was at the wharf this morning for a short time and
saw three barges loaded with their grewsome freight. The
bodies are frightful, every one nearly nude. God alone
knows who they are.

"The bay is full of dead cattle and horses, together
with human corpses, blistering in the hot sun. It will be
impossible to remove the dead from the debris for weeks —
the whole island is frightful. I saw thirty-eight bodies
taken from one house. Every one is striving to get the
bodies buried for fear of the plague.

142

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 143

"I never expected to get out alive, but thank God, not
one of us was killed. We were driven back to the stairs,
and up, stair by stair, by the great waves. The wind was
blowing over a hundred miles an hour, and the rain fell
in torrents. Never shall I forget the sight as darkness
settled upon us. I thought of you, papa and mamma, and
prayed that you might be comforted. Our roof is now
gone, the walls have fallen around us, but we still have
a floor and 1 can't tell you, it is too horrible.

"I was nearly drowned getting home from the office at
4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Whitman is almost
crazy and is in a dangerous condition. I have lost every-
thing ; am now wearing clothes borrowed from those who
were more fortunate. The stench is terrible.

"Thousands of horses and cattle without owners are
in the most pitiable condition imaginable; not a drop of
water for them to drink since Saturday morning. And
the people — I wonder that everybody is not mad at the
horrors. No account can exaggerate it. It is absolutely
necessary that everybody in the United States do what
they can.

"Nearly all our help at Clarke & Courts are drowned
— Mr. Hansinger, his whole family, our other bookkeeper
and a number of the girls. The town is under martial
law to protect it from the mob. Last night a negro was
arrested with ten fingers in his pockets, with valuable
rings on them. Mr. Fayling, at our house, is in command
of the protective force. They have had to shoot many
to keep the horrible ghouls in control. Eddie Rogers is
next in command, and is doing noble work. I have done
what I could to help the dying and wounded.

"We were on the highest point of ground in Galveston.

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

That is all that saved us. Eor blocks and blocks, reach-
ing into miles, not a house remains ; not a building but is
completely demolished — houses just torn board from
board and piled up. I have climbed over wreckage forty
feet high in the streets to get to places. I think we were
more fortunate than any one else in town. I think not
one was killed, though our escape was narrow. With
the exception of Mrs. Whitman all were calm, though I
reckon everybody quaked inside — I know I did.

"Thursday. — Am well. Had something to eat this
morning, and a little rainwater. Coffee is plenty, but
water scarce. To-day the flesh slips off the bodies as they
take hold to drag them from the ruins. They are piling
them in great heaps now and burning them. The horrors
multiply. I have seen men shot down in the streets by the
soldiers. The stench is untold. Last night the awful smell
kept us awake although we were utterly exhausted. It
fills your throat and mouth, and makes your head ache so.

"The horrible experiences it will take years to tell and
more than a lifetime to forget. If you could be here you
would feel that your anxiety was nothing. It is so pitiable
to see husbands, with a look of despair in their eyes,
searching for their wives and children; wives for their
loved ones ; and, most pitiable of all, the comparatively few
children — although they are enough, God knows, to be
left orphans and homeless — looking into every one's face
with frightened, appealing eyes. It is heartrending.

"Now I am much better off. I am safe, so please don't
worry. I hope to hear from you soon.

"Best love and kisses to both, from

"NELLIE."

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 145

We quote notes from a stricken city from the Kansas
City Star, saying :

"The accounts of the catastrophe at Galveston, written
in the midst of the wreck, were like photographs which
failed to develop.

" 'Boys, I can't write this thing !' said one of a group ;>f
newspaper writers at Galveston.

" 'My mind is benumbed,' said another. 'I have miser-
ably failed to tell the story.'

" 'I expect to be dismissed by wire,' exclaimed a third.

"These men were not joking. They were all skillful,
experienced newspaper men, who had hastened to the
scene of catastrophe to describe what they saw to the wait-
ing world. But when they saw what had happened they
felt their utter inability to write an adequate picture of it.
The stupefaction of many thousands of persons seemed
to be infectious. There were thousands of narrow escapes,
thousands of deeds of heroism, thousands of instances
of helping others and thousands of pitiful deaths, but
all belonged to the one element of tempest, flood, dark-
ness, death. The newspaper men floundered in an endless
ocean of material."

There were conflicting stories and theories about the
disaster. One of them was that the wind from the north
had driven the waters of the gulf out to sea. It was said
that a man could wade across the bayou at Houston on
Saturday. This tortuous bayou permits traffic in light
draft boats and barges between Houston and Galveston. It
is called, simply, the Bayou.

For years the people of Galveston have schooled them-
selves to believe that the day when a great tempest blew
seaward a long time, driving out the tide, and then, sud-

146 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

denly letting the waters go, would never come. There was
also a theory that the position of Galveston prevented it
from ever being seized in the teeth of a West Indian hur-
ricane, blowing the waters inland in a great wave.

Storms have come and the waters have covered the
town and Galveston still stood. A man in the flush of
health and strength knows that he must die, some day,
but this knowledge does not worry him. He enjoys life.
Just so, Galveston was not worried. Although it knew
that the gulf was treacherous, it enjoyed life, for Galves-
ton was rich and beautiful. If the combination of the
elements ever came it might be centuries hence, and then
Galveston, a great metropolis, would be protected by a
sea wall, one of the wonders of the world.

But, as some men worry beforehand about their time to
die, so some built against the danger. One very rich man
who loved to live near the beach and see the faraway dip
of the undulating, glistening waters of the treacherous
gulf, the sail on the horizon and the breaker that rolled
to and fro forever, built against the evil day. He erected
a terrace of masonry and «arth and put his home on the
top and built a strong wall around it all and the people
called his home "The Fort." But it was too near the
beach. When the gulf leaped it blotted out the rich man's
citadel and the poor man's cottage.

The Gulf of Mexico has been likened to the sleeping
tiger. A better simile would be that of a tame tiger that
glistens in the sunlight, that blinks in a friendly way and
purrs along the frail shore. But when the tiger grows
restless and draws back into the cage he is getting ready
to leap.

Galveston was rich and beautiful. Earth had been

INCIDENTS OF TEE TERROR.

brought even from the West Indies and strange trees and
shrubs had been trained to grow on what was a barren
sand island years ago. The Garden Verein, a club house
in a bower of tropical foliage, was where youth and beauty
assembled in the evenings, where the music had the under
note of the murmur of the gulf and where the breezes of
the sea cooled the brow of the dancers.

Galveston was remarkable, too, for the many schools,
asylums and hospitals reared by its wealthy citizens and
called by their names. These apparently massive as well
as stately structures gave an air of security to the city.
They were an evidence of confidence, wealth, goodness and
peace. These great stone and brick structures contrasted
quaintly with the light wooden dwellings of the city.

The town was distinctly American in its appearance,
yet semi-tropical in its architecture. The houses stood
upon slender brick piers or wooden pins, but the lattice
work and the beautiful plants hid this suggestion of a
preparation for flood. The people said this was to keep
the houses cool. As a matter of fact, never, within the
memory of man, had Galveston island been engulfed —
there had been inundations, but they were nothing. Gal-
veston differentiated between inundation and wave. Inun-
dation might come — the wave was another thing.

When the weight of the atmosphere does not hold up the
thin column of mercury there is danger ahead. The
heavier atmosphere, backed up somewhere, must inevita-
bly rush into the area of lighter air. Would the great
wind sweep around and drive the waters out and then roll
them back ? The people said to each other that it would
not.

The gale of Saturday morning became a howling tern-

148 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

pest at 1 o'clock. While the hurricane was tearing the
town to pieces, while roofs were swept off and verandas
were torn away and walls cracked, the awful question
arose if it was the time when, in the course of centuries,
the tiger would leap ?

Schooled for years to decry fear of the great catastrophe,
hundreds of men remained in the business part of the city
and did not go home to their families. Others, most
anxious about their goods, remained to protect them from
the water. Thus it came to pass that some men who went
home to their families were lost in their homes, while
others, who remained to look after their worldly goods,
were saved.

The people of Galveston were all acquainted with cer-
tain higher ground, which a stranger cannot see, for the
whole place looks as flat as a table. In the early afternoon
on Saturday files of men, women and children were seen
making their way to the "ridges," as they called the
ground a few feet higher than the general level of the
island. They were taken in by those who lived there until
many houses contained thirty to fifty persons. Some went
in carriages and some rode in the one-mule trucks which
are a feature of the cotton regions. These trucks are
heavy frames set on two wheels. The driver stands up,
holding to an upright pin set in the frame, or sits down
sideways close to the shafts. The people stood up, holding
to the pins and to each other. All the way from one foot
to three feet of water covered the streets at this time. It
ran through the streets like mill races. Debris flew about
in the air, telegraph and telephone poles crashed down and
the slates from slate roofs whistled by with a menace as
great as a bombardment. Big wooden cisterns, which stood

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 149

on pins, were blown off and rolled through the streets,
the people dodged these great, rolling objects. The trees
had no tap roots and were uprooted in every direction.
Still thousands said to thousands : "Let us be glad we
are not in the West, where they have cyclones."

The side of Galveston toward Galveston Bay contained
the wharves, railway yards and the business district. The
side of Galveston toward the Gulf of Mexico was a pretty
residence district called the Beach side. Along towards
dusk the people who lived on the gulf side of Galveston,
that is to say, in the residence district along the beach,
were engulfed by a great wave. It was exactly the same
thing as an ordinary wave rolling upon the shore, only
of awful and devastating magnitude. In a short time
the water rose twenty feet high. Those who had fled to the
business district, or as much as six or eight blocks away
from the beach, were chiefly endangered by the wind, not
by the water, which was not deep enough there to drown
an uninjured man. But those who remained on the beach
side, within four blocks of the gulf in the East end, and
a much greater distance in the West end, had little show
for their lives. They had believed against doubt until too
late. At this awful moment, as black darkness descended,
and the houses began to rise and tip and float in the swell-
ing tide, the people emerged, to swim for their lives. The
stronger could seize timbers and try to float to safety, but,
burdened with the weaker, they sought to use pieces of
frame houses, roofs and floating sections of flooring as
rafts, tying themselves together with ropes and sheets.

The houses were nearly all frame, many of them large
two-story buildings of ornamental architecture. The
great waves swept one against the other and over the other.

150 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

The entire beach front district was pushed back, house
against house. Meeting this resistance, the waters spun
around in whirlpools. Hundreds of victims were caught
between the houses and crushed and drowned. Hundreds
of yards the waters pushed the wrecks of houses until a
great wall formed, twenty to thirty feet high, and rested
against houses that stood. Several hundred yards of
houses were compressed, twisted, pounded into a break-
water 100 feet thick. The labor of thousands of men for
many days could not have built a structure so strong and
compact. It was stouter than masonry, for it could not
crack or crumble.

But this great bulwark saved the rest of the city. The
gulf sought its level and the people who were in the saved
districts — saved by the destruction of the beach district —
said to each other : "See, the waters recede. I knew that
Galveston could not be engulfed 1"

Sunday morning, after the storm, the people who lived
emerged from their places of shelter and found the city
shattered in every direction. The wind had torn the
main part of the town like the hurricane tore St. Louis,
like the great hurricanes have torn other towns and cities.
Worn out by the terror and the hard work to keep windows
and doors fastened and the water out of their houses, many
persons in the more fortunate neighborhoods pottered
about without knowledge of the calamity that had stricken
Galveston. Some did not know for twenty-four hours.

Men who had remained in the business district until
the storm grew too great to venture homewards — as hap-
pens in cities when great storms rage — upon setting out
in the morning were horror struck, first by the destruction
done by the wind, then by the sight of naked dead upon

EFFECT OF STORM ON BUILDINGS -WRECK OF CHURCH.

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 153

the streets. Pallid with dread and numb with remorse
because they had not gone home at any hazard, they rushed
over the rubbish toward their homes, only to find them
gone, or with great relief to greet their dazed families.

In the main part of the city buildings had been un-
roofed, walls had fallen, houses had blown bodily many
feet, but the sea-water had not done damage except to
stocks of goods near the floor, or to household furniture
in houses that had fallen from their pins. The rain
through the broken roofs and walls had done the drench-
ing.

But when the explorers neared the beach front they
came to a great wall of wreckage. Those explorers who
pushed through the wreck laden streets, the slimy streets,
to the beach, were unprepared for what they saw. They
climbed upon the wall of debris and beheld a sight that
stunned them. Beyond, where they were accustomed to
see avenues and homes, was nothing but a bleak, level
desert, with here and there a little pile of bricks, and, here
and there, regular lines of dead and leafless shrubbery.

Beyond that were the breakers of the gulf and the
swelling, undulating dip of waters, tossing and leaping in
the last throes of their wild work.

In a week the relief expeditions with surgeons and
nurses, which had been sent to Galveston from !New York,
Philadelphia and Chicago, became so numerous that they
had to drum up patients. On last Tuesday's boat from
Galveston to the railway connection with Houston at Texas
City two robust and red cheeked nurses and two doctors
buzzed about a sick woman on a stretcher, evidently quite
proud that they had a real patient.

On© expedition with a complete hospital outfit, was

154 INCIDENTS OF TEE TERROR.

refused admission to Galveston and was established at
Houston.

"O, we are getting quite a number of people, now," said
the surgeon in charge cheerily.

For a day or two he had been afraid that there were not
enough sick and injured to go around and his fears were
happily at rest, for he had rather the best of the others in
the competition.

When the surgeons and nurses were sent it was be-
lieved that they were needed. If they had not started
with such a flourish of trumpets they could have quietly
folded their tents and gone home, but the great publicity
given to their going would not permit this. They simply
had to stay and make a fight to do good.

The first that came were well received. Then, as the
young doctors in white duck, and the trim, red cheeked
nurses in smart professional costumes, began to pour into
Houston and Galveston, the local people changed their
attitude. They regarded them as notoriety seekers and
the local physicians complained that the young doctors
had come to grab the good surgical cases for the experi-
ence. So much did this feeling grow that when Miss
Clara Barton's party arrived at Texas City, opposite Gal-
veston, they had to remain there all night, for aught the
authorities at Galveston would do to bring them over that
night. The aged heroine of the Red Cross was cheerful,
although she had to spend the damp night in a musty day
coach and the men of her party slept out on the wet prairie
on car cushions.

These stories were told by a casual group of three men
who paused a moment to discuss the disaster :

A white man floated along on a raft with two negro

INCIDENTS OF THE TEREOE. 155

children, whom he had picked up, and handed them
through a window. The raft tipped as he tried to climb
in himself and he fell in the water. He reappeared,
clinging to the house, but was evidently hurt and dazed.
One of the men in the house descended, holding to a sheet,
and brought the man to the window and he was rescued,
but the rescuer, in turn, lost his hold and was swept under
the house and drowned.

A man who lived in the West end suburbs in a big
house swam out to the barn to release his horse, two cows
and a calf, and give them a chance for life. The horse
came out immediately and swam after the man to the back
steps, which held, and walked right into the kitchen.
The two cows and the calf followed directly after the horse
into the kitchen.

A family horse not only came into the house when the
door was opened, but, as the water rose, went up the stairs
to the second story, where, at last accounts, he was still
lodged, afraid to come down.

Another man said his cow managed to get upon the
veranda. During the storm the veranda gave way, except
one section about eighteen inches wide, whereon the cow
contrived to stand all night and was found there, ten feet
above the ground, in the morning.

Many people turned their horses and cows loose on the
streets and they turned up all right afterwards. One of
the pitiful sights was dogs wandering about over the wreck-
age, looking for their homes which had been swept away.
A man picked up three dogs from the wreckage. They
gladly changed from the rafts they stood upon to the raft
whereon there was a man.

The estimated cost of the aid extended was $40,000 a

156 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

day, the great bulk of the aid going to the 4,000 men at
work cleaning up the wreckage, digging for bodies and
cleaning the streets — through them to their families. E"o
able-bodied laboring man was allowed to escape the work,
whether he needed aid or not, though most of them did.
The business men who were in position to resume were
allowed to attend to their stores, and their clerical forces
were not interfered with. After eight days the debris-
hunting and street-cleaning were put upon a cash basis,
the wages being $1.50. Time was kept from the begin-
ning, though the records are not complete, and it is the ex-
pectation, if the money which comes in from outside is
adequate, that the men be paid for the full time they
worked. This applies to those who had to be made to work
at the point of a bayonet as well as those who volunteered
their services. This was not given in cash, but in the form
of orders for tools for mechanics, lumber for those who
have homes they wish to repair, etc. Practically every
able-bodied man was made to work, and unless he worked
he got no supplies. The first few days wages consisted en-
tirely of rations, given according to the number and needs
of the laborer's family, regardless of the amount of work
he accomplished.

The work of distribution was conducted systematically
and with an apparent minimum of imposition and fraud.
There was a central committee, of which W. A. McVitie,
a prominent business man, was chairman. Then there
was a committee for each one of the twelve wards. As
fast as goods or provisions arrived from the mainland they
were placed, in the central warehouse, from there the differ-
ent ward chairmen requisitioned them, and they were
taken to supply depots in the different wards. All day

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 157

long there was a motley crowd around every one of these
depots, negroes predominating at least two to one. Every
applicant passed in review before the ward chairman.

"Ah want a dress foil ma sistah," said a big negress.

"You're 'Manda Jones, and you haven't any sister liv-
ing here/7 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," said the chairman to a coin-
mitteeman. In this way check was kept on all the appli-
cants for aid.

At the 5th ward distributing station a negro woman,
who had been refused a supply, went outside and by way of
revenge pointed out different ones of her friends and neigh-
bors whom she alleged were similarly unentitled.

"Dat woman done los' nuthin' at all," she shrieked. "Ah
did not los' nuthin' mahself and doan wan' nuthin'."

"What's the trouble ?" asked a bystander. An old ne-
gress who was lined up waiting her turn replied: "Oh,
she's mad 'cause de white folks won't give her nuthin'."

"Our supply of foodstuffs is adequate," said Chairman
"McVitie, "but just now we are a little short of clothing.
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 pur-
chasing of local merchants in lines where there was a short-
age. What do we need worst ? Money. If we have money
we can order just what we need."

The refugees, on the 17th, were crowding all the trains

158 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR.

and boats leaving Galveston, and at the same date the
supplies forwarded were arriving.

The big train sent out by the citizens of Chicago for the
relief of stricken Galveston is being unloaded on barges
of the Direct Navigation Company at Clinton, the South-
ern Pacific shipping point on the bayou. Owing to the
fact that the train came unannounced and was run as an
extra every newspaper man in Houston lost it. The train
dispatchers of the different roads were besieged, but were
unable to give any information. The Rock Island turned
the sixteen loaded cars over to the Houston and Texas
Central at Fort Worth and orders were issued to put the
train on passenger time and give it right of way over
everything, which was done, the run of 270 miles from
Fort Worth to Houston being made at an average speed of
thirty-seven miles an hour. On arrival at Houston the
dispatchers carried out their orders to the letter, and the
train was turned over to the Southern Pacific with rush
orders, and rushed it was. Before daylight the train had
been sent to Clinton, barges hurried there to meet it, and
the work of unloading began without delay. There were
not sufficient barges at once available to hold the great
amount of relief stores which had been sent.

Sunday afternoon the first cargo was started for Gal-
veston and arrived there at an early hour this morning.
The unloading was accomplished quietly and the barge
started immediately on the return trip to Clinton for an-
other load.

One of the most remarkable things attending the Gal-
veston disaster was the fortitude of the people. Their loss
in relatives, friends and property was so overwhelming
that it seemed too much to be expressed with outward grief.

INCIDENTS OF THE TERROR. 159

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 ara making good progress cleaning up," remarks
the one whose losses were heaviest, with a pleasant smile.
The other one makes light answer and they pass on.

A graphic description of the storm is that given by K.
L. Johnson. He said:

"I reached home after wading in water to my neck and
made immediate preparations to take my wife and three
children where I felt their safety would be assured. The
water began to rise so rapidly that in fifteen minutes we
were driven to the second floor, and it was then impossible
to leave the house. At this time neighbor Kell's house,
adjoining mine, went down with husband, wife and chil-
dren. Then down Avenue S came two small cottages,
which struck a telegraph pole and stopped directly in front
of my house. I heard children crying and women scream-
ing. The words, 'O God, save me/ I can still hear ringing
in my ears.

"Another cottage came sweeping by and carried away
the gallery of my house. The Artigan, Henman, and Pen-
nings houses, carrying eighteen persons, floated by, and I
could see the struggling forms in the water.

"I was expecting it was our turn next. I kissed my
wife and children good-by, and as I did so my oldest boy,

160 INCIDENTS OF THE TERROE.

a lad of 15, said : 'Father, it is not our time to die.' Then
came the piercing scream of a woman, followed by a crash,
and another house turned over on its side and was driven
past by the wind and flood.

aThe current was running like a mill race. The water
was already on our second floor, and the waves kept knock-
ing us about until we were completely exhausted. Then
the wind went and the water began to fall. I looked about
and could not see 'a house for two blocks ; there was nothing
but a flood of water in every direction. In the morning we
found our house had been moved about ten feet and de-
posited upon the sand."

CHAPTER IX.

THE AWFUL MAGNITUDE OF THE- MISFORTUNE.

Congressman Hawley, one of the business men of Gal-
veston, representing the strongest interests of the city, said
September 17 that five million dollars would be required
to put Galveston on her feet, but this was merely to clear
the wreck. He was asked :

"What measure of relief will burn your dead, clean and
purify your streets and public places, feed and clothe the
living, and place your people where they can be self-sus-
taining and on the way to regain what has been lost ?"

His reply was : "It will take $5,000,000 to relieve Gal-
veston from the distress of the storm. At least that sum
will be needed to dispose of the dead, to remove the ruins,
and to do what is right for the living. I think that we
should not only feed and clothe, but that we ought to have
some means to help people who have lost everything to
make a start toward the restoration of their homes. To do
this will require every dollar of $5,000,000."

One week after the storm the report was : The injured
are recovering rapidly from, their hurts, which are largely
superficial. Many men and women are suffering from
severe nervous shock and find it impossible to sleep. Food
is coming in by boatload and carload faster than it can be
handled, in such generous quantities that no further doubts
are entertained about supplies.

The estimates of the number of persons dependent on
relief committees varied from 8,000 to 15,000. The date
of the information following was the 17th of September.

In the business center the streets have been cleaned and
opened. All buildings still show marks of wind and water,
but goods are displayed and business is being transacted.

161

162 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

The city is gradually assuming the bustling ante-flood
appearance. The principal streets are now electrically
lighted. Stenches no longer assail the nostrils, except in
the outside circle of destruction, where much debris still
remains untouched. Cremation of the dead is being
pushed, but it will be many days before the working par-
ties get out the last of the bodies.

The whole twenty-two miles' length of the island was
submerged. The horrors of the western portion beyond
the city limits are just being learned at San Luis. One
hundred and eighty-one bodies were buried to-day. Be-
tween twenty and thirty bodies were counted among the
piles of the railroad bridge between the island and Vir-
ginia Point. In Kinkead's addition about 100 were lost,
eighteen in one house.

The farther the men work in the Denver reservoir sec-
tion the more numerous are the dead. Fires are burning
every 300 feet on the beach and along many of the streets.

Mayor Jones said a week from the date of the storm :

"We are broke, the majority of us. Galveston must
have suffered, in my estimation, based upon all of the
reports I have, $20,000,000. Shipments of disinfectants
and food supplies now on the way will be sufficient to meet
the immediate wants. By the time these are used we shall
have regained our transportation facilities and stocks of
everything, so that we can use money more advantageously.
We have between 1,500 and 3,000 men at work searching
for bodies, clearing the streets, and burning debris. Of
this work, which ought to be done as fast as possible in
the interest of the living, there is enough to keep 3,000
employed for forty days, although I believe we shall have
the principal streets clear in ten days or two weeks.

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 163

"I hesitate to say how much it will take to put Gal-
veston where her people can care for themselves. Cer-
tainly $5,000,000 will be a moderate estimate. There is
not a building but is damaged, not a house of those left
standing but will have to be reroofed, and few that will
not need to be straightened on their foundations. If Gal-
veston could get $10,000,000 it would be used judiciously
to enable the people to become self-sustaining.

"It is true Galveston is represented as being one of the
wealthiest cities of the country. But our rich people had
everything here and are crippled. The people of moderate
means, who had homes and worked on salaries are, with
scarcely an exception, ruined. The class dependent upon
labor must be furnished something to do for wages or must
suffer.

"Dr. Lord and others, who have been among the people
more than I have, say there are 8,000 helpless who must
be fed and clothed and carried along for some time.

"There is no contagious disease and we do not anticipate
any. But many are suffering from shock and exposure
and from injuries received among the ruins. The City of
Galveston, I am convinced, lost fully 5,000 persons. Down
the island, outside of the city limits, were scattered be-
tween 2,000 and 3,000 persons. From the reports slowly
coming in it appears that most of these people lost their
lives. The island in the sparsely settled parts seems to
have been swept clean."

Battery O came out of the storm with a loss of 27 men
out of 190 men, a loss seldom sustained in battle. One
of these regulars floated fifty-two miles on a door, another
was carried on an outhouse across the island and then
across Galveston Bay. The survivors were barracked in a

164: MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

shattered church until they could leave for San Antonio
to be outfitted and armed. The officers and men lost every-
thing and had to get clothes to cover them.

James Stewart of St. Louis undertook to see that Cap-
tain Benton Kennedy's boys did not suffer. The grain
men of St. Louis took a personal interest in this case.
Captain Kennedy came to Galveston from St. Louis, Mo.,
where he is well known. He was superintendent of Ele-
vator A. His family consisted of his wife, three boys and
two girls. A month ago Captain Kennedy bought a nice
home and moved into it. When the storm made the house
no longer safe he placed Henry and Edwin, little fellows
of 15 and 9, on a raft at the door and went back for the
others. The raft was carried half a mile and the boys were
rescued. Captain Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy and the
sisters and one brother were lost.

The number of persons who fled from Galveston during
the first week after the wreck was 8,000. The latest list of
dead at that time accounted for 4,078 persons. On Sep-
tember 19th this information was wired from Galveston :
The heaviest of all the losers here is the municipality of
Galveston. As estimated by officers of the various depart-
ments of the city government the loss is divided as follows :

Thirty miles of street paving $900,000

Schools and furniture 300,000

City hall and market place 150,000

Water works power plant. 100,000

Depreciation of wharf stock 100,000

Depreciation of street-railway stock held by

the city 5,000

Damage to parks and squares 30,000

Total $1,585,000

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 165

"To look at it now," said Mayor Jones, "it would seem
that we are utterly ruined financially, but it must be that
there is a way out. I expect to call a meeting of the
council with the city attorney in a few days to consider this
matter. Until then I will not discuss the situation
further."

Galveston's position is a bad one. Before the storm the
city had a total assessed valuation of $26,777,338, on a
basis of 70 per cent real cash value. On this there was a
total net indebtedness of $2,767,086. Various citizens es-
timate that the loss has been at least 50 per cent of the
real value. On the old valuation Galveston had not yet
reached the legal limit of bonded indebtedness, but under
present conditions is beyond it. The city was already in a
bad way financially, being five months behind in salaries.
The problem now is how to float more bonds when the as-
sets which made former issues good have been so fearfully
depreciated.

September 19 the Governor of Texas wired this :

"The situation to-night in all parts of the stricken dis-
trict, so far as known to me, is improved, and will, I be-
lieve, should we have fair weather, continue to improve.
The method of distributing the benefactions of the people
has become systemized and has been reduced to the lowest
expenses possible, and in this I have had the hearty and
voluntary assistance of the railway, express, telegraph and
telephone companies, all of whom have promptly and with-
out charge transmitted supplies and messages, besides con-
tributing to the relief of the sufferers. Galveston is being
managed by its own municipal authorities, supplemented
by the assistance of a committee composed of its best citi-
zens and also by the aid of General Scurry.

166 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

"There need be no apprehension but that each and every
afflicted community will at the earliest moment practicable
receive an abundant supply of provisions. I have supplied
Galveston with sufficient money to pay reasonable wages
to all laborers who will assist in cleaning the city and re-
moving the debris. As soon as I am able I shall give to
the publie a complete itemized statement of all moneys re-
ceived by me and how they have been distributed.

"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 aggre-
gate $20,000,000."

There are many surprises and much instruction in what
the general ruin has done in equalizing conditions. It was
told that those who tended counters where women's cloth-
ing was distributed, were society women, clerks and school-
teachers. All responded to a call for volunteers without a
thought of remuneration for their services. They will,
however, be paid if the funds are sufficient.

Dr. Jacobs, a young physician, who lost all property in
the flood, five houses and the rest of his possessions, applied
for work to avoid having to go on the streets and dig
bodies. In the crowds outside were many who were in
comfortable circumstances. Those who were wealthy were
jostled in the throng with blacks and whites who have
always been penniless.

This information was given out September 19 :

"The most reliable information obtainable places the
dead between 5,000 and 5,500. A census bureau was es-
tablished and placed in operation to-day. A mortuary
bureau has also been opened, where relatives or friends
are to make oath of the known death of persons lost in the

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 167

storm. These bureaus will materially assist in a more ac-
curate record of ttie dead. At a meeting of the general
relief committee to-day no one was found who would un-
dertake the job of removing the city's debris on contract,
as all state it would be impossible to make a definite es-
timate. The nearest estimate expert wreckers will make
is that it will take 2,000 men ninety days to clear away
the debris and get all of the bodies out, and that this will
cost $500,000. The board adopted a resolution stating
that it was the opinion of the board that the best way to
solve the problem of clearing away the debris was to let a
contract to some one to do the work."

The loss, by the city, on the wharf stock may be only
temporary if Galveston maintains its former prestige as a
port and when the docks are repaired. The company that
owns every foot of the dockage in Galveston exacts toll
from all freight entering or leaving either by rail or boat.
It is one of the most profitable of all Southern stocks. Last
year the city received $37,000 in dividends on stock valued
at $622,200. The city obtained this valuable asset in pay-
ment for streets vacated along the harbor front. The city
also holds nominally $30,000 in street railway stock.

The Associated Press, June 18, reported the killed
accounted for to be 4,437. Adjutant-General Thomas
Scurry said :

"In my opinion the situation is rapidly growing better ;
the people found themselves dazed and shattered as a re-
sult of the storm. While there was an abundance of en-
ergy remaining, as might have been naturally expected,
a vast amount of it was not concentrated. It has been the
policy of this office to concentrate energies. These efforts

168 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

have been most gratifying. We have a large number of
men, possibly 2,000, at work.

"What is most needed for Galveston now is money.
Thousands of persons who owned their little homes have
Lad them destroyed. They are now dependent upon the
generosity of the outside world and upon the relief com-
mittee to prepare for the rigors of winter and to refurnish
their homes with necessities. No man who has not been
an eyewitness to the desolation which has swept over this
city can have the faintest conception of what it means.

"Galveston lies on an island about a mile wide from
north to south, the city covering about six miles of this
east and west. Along the southern side for a distance of
two to five blocks every house has been absolutely de-
molished. Such of these unfortunates as were not
drowned are now penniless."

On September 15 came this information : The depopula-
tion of Galveston still continues, but many families refuse
to leave. Scores of persons are living in their wrecked
homes here. Many of these houses are without floors and
devoid of all sanitary provisions. A serious outbreak of
sickness among these is feared.

The foul stench from the carcasses makes sleep almost
impossible at night, and strangers who come here do not
remain long on account of the terrible odor. The lime
which was ordered a few days ago for disinfection pur-
poses has not yet arrived. An increase of sickness is
already noted and a general outbreak must occur unless
something is done at once to get the city in a sanitary con-
dition.

The St. Mary's convent contains over 600 sick and in-
jured men, women and children. They are being cared

M O

cc d

H CC

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 171

for by Catholic priests. Many deaths have occurred at this
and other hospitals. Some of these victims are uniden-
tified, but a record is being kept of them for purposes of
identification in the future. There is no lack of medicine
and medical aid in Galveston, but it is the suffering and
sick people of Velasco, Alvin and other smaller towns on
the mainland who are badly in need of medicines and phy-
sicians. Appeals from these places have reached here,
asking that any surplus of help here be sent them.

The work of burning the decaying human bodies and
other carcasses which are to be found under almost every
pile of wreckage continues. In some of these ruins great
piles of bodies are frequently found. No attempt at keep-
ing count of the number is made, and it will never be
known how many were destroyed in this manner.

The waters of the gulf are giving up dead bodies con-
stantly and the shore of the mainland and the beach of the
island are strewn with them.

"There are only ten houses in a habitable condition
south of High island," says H. S. Spangier, general man-
ager of the Gulf & Interstate Railway Company, who re-
turned to-day from a tour of inspection of the property of
his company. "There were thousands of bodies of dead
animals and about 350 bodies of human beings found
there. The latter have been partially buried, but the
hands and feet are protruding from the earth in many
places and there are not enough people left in that section
to bury the dead."

Writing from Galveston, September 18, the Chicago
Record's correspondent said:

"Galveston has been struck three times with floods and
hurricanes, but even this experience is not enough to con-

172 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

vince the residents that it will ever happen again. Only
a few more cautious have any idea of taking steps to pre-
vent a repetition of the recent disaster. Asked if there
will be anything done to make future floods impossible,
they will quote the old saw: 'Lightning never strikes in
the same place twice.' '

"No," said E. M. Hartrick, assistant United States
engineer, "the people of Galveston will go on living in
fancied security just as they did before. The plan to put
a dike around the city is perfectly feasible and so is a
series of jetties. I think the good old Holland plan is the
best. The city doesn't need to be raised. I was six years
city engineer of Galveston, and following the storm of
1886 drew plans for a dike ten feet high and extending
all around the island except on the north side. There the
wharves were to be raised and form the dike.

"Galveston gave this plan consideration, and there is a
map of the city in existence which shows it with a dike
surrounding it. The legislature gave authority to bond
the city, but it was some months after the flood when this
had been secured, and the people said, 'Oh, we'll never get
another one/ and they didn't build."

The construction by the government of two jetties, one
eight miles long extending out southeast for the purpose of
making a narrower and deeper channel for boats coming
into Galveston harbor, made the necessity of remedial
work more apparent, but nothing was done. In last week's
storm the southwesterly one of the jetties pocketed the
water and carried it up over the southeastern end of the
island. This is the place where whole blocks of buildings
were literally washed away, leaving hardly enough of the
foundations to indicate that buildings ever stood there.

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 173

In this part of the city the water rose to a depth of fifteen
feet in the streets. Had the houses that were demolished
by the waves and swept away by wind not formed into a
great jam similar to a log jam, but extending along the
south shore of the island fo'r seven miles, this enormous
body of water would have swept over the entire island and
the number of dead would have been quadrupled.

"It formed a dike," said Engineer Hartrick, in calling
attention to this feature of the flood, "and had it not been
for that dike we might not any of us be here now."

According to Mr. Hartrick, Galveston has the wrong
style of architecture for a gulf town. Its newer buildings
are built on the northern plan with balloon frames, and
are poorly adapted to stand a blow.

"This storm was a hurricane," he says ; "just such as
they have in the West Indies every summer, but which we
have here perhaps once in a hundred years. Still we never
know when one may come again, and we should build our
houses accordingly.

"What we want is not to keep all the water out. We
want the waves to break their force before they rise on to
the island. It was the force of the great waves which
wrecked the houses."

Prof. Otto Tittmann of the coast and geodetic survey
attributes the damage of the Galveston storm in part to
the removal of the sand dunes, which originally protected
the eastern end of the low, flat island on which the city is
located. In the regular course of the improvements these
were leveled off, and there is now no break for a violent
wind coming from the east.

The coast survey maps show another contributing cause.
It is seen by the recorded soundings that there is a long,

174 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

shallow bar of sand extending for nearly three miles off the
east coast; the average depth of the water is less than 12
feet ; then the bottom drops off into the deeper waters of
the gulf. A wind from the southeast would have a ten-
dency to drive the waters of the gulf before it, and when
they reached the sandy shallows they would be piled up,
and surge over it, rather than break and recede, as they
would if the shore was precipitous. The bay also is
formed so as to make a pocket. The opening is narrow
and obstructed by sandbars, which permit the water to
come over them, and to back up in the 30-mile stretch of
deeper water beyond.

The work of extracting bodies from the mass of wreck-
age still continues. To-day, September 18, over 400
bodies were taken out of the debris which lines the beach
front. With all that has been done to recover bodies
buried beneath or pinned to the immense drift, the work
has scarcely started. There is no time to dig graves and
the putrefying flesh, beaten and bruised beyond identifica-
tion, is consigned to the flames. Volunteers for this grew-
some work are coming in fast. Men who have heretofore
avoided the dead under ordinary conditions are now work-
ing with a vigorous will and energy in putting them away.

Under one pile of wreckage this afternoon twenty bodies
were taken and cremated. In another pile a man pulled
out the remains of two children and for a moment gazed
upon them, then mechanically cast them into the fire. They
were his own flesh and blood. As they slowly burned he
watched them until they were consumed.

A large force of men is still engaged in removing the
dead from Hurd's lane, located about four miles west of
the city. At this point the water ran to a height of four-

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 175

teen feet, and hung up in trees and fences are the bodies
of men, women and children, which are being collected and
cremated as fast as possible.

On the mainland the searching for and cremating of
bodies that either perished or found lodgment there, is be-
ing prosecuted vigorously.

A lady whose house was not overthrown, though
mangled, tells this of her escape:

"About ten o'clock the water began to recede and we
could see the heap of debris in the courtyard. It was then
we had our first gleam of hope.

"As the water fell, dreading the fall of the tottering
walls, we clambered out of the rear window to the piles of
brick outside, where we sat exposed to the fierce wind and
rain until four o'clock, when two brave men, Ford Smith
and Shirley, came and said it was possible to get away and
find shelter. These two men knew we had taken refuge in
what was known to be one of the strongest buildings on the
island. They came through all the danger to learn our
fate.

"The gladdest sound I ever heard was that of their
voices. They hastened us off, fearing the return of the
tide.

"Such a sight as met us as we left our nook behind and
looked upon the street ! Not a house was left standing be-
tween Fourteenth street and the Gulf. Through Four-
teenth street we waded in water up to our waists, some-
times losing ourselves in holes, to be pulled out by the
others.

"Then we came to the drifts, over which we climbed at
risk of life and limb. Four of these we encountered before
we came to a house, where we found shelter. Later we

176 MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE.

secured a patrol wagon, which brought us down to the
grocery store of Mrs. Thome's relatives. We went in the
store, where we waded around in the slush, making coffee
and getting what food we could.

"Mrs. Baker was fortunate enough to secure some
awfully bad rooms over a stable on Twenty-second street
that had not been flooded, where we spent yesterday.

"The desolation is something indescribable. The water
stood eight feet deep in front of the Cathedral, the highest
point on the island. There is not a sound building in the
city."

This paragraph is remarkable for the information con-
tained: "Galveston lies on an island about a mile wide
from north to south, the city covering about six miles of
this east and west. Along the southern side for a distance
of two to five blocks every house has been absolutely de-
molished. Such of these unfortunates as were not drowned
are penniless."

J. IsT. Griswold, division freight agent of the Gulf,
Colorado & Santa Fe, said, on returning from Galveston
to Dallas, September 11 :

"Ears and fingers bearing diamonds were hacked off
with pocket knives, and the members placed in the pockets
of vandals. The bodies of women who wore fine clothes
have been stripped of the last thread and left to fester in
the sun. The residences left standing have been broken
1 into and jewelry and silver plate stolen. I saw a negro
woman carrying a large basket of silverware that was
not hers.

"At Texas City I saw an old man considerably under
the influence of liquor. From his pocket protruded a roll

MAGNITUDE OF MISFORTUNE. 177

of bills as big as my arm, which he claimed to have found
on the bay shore.

"Upon all hands this horrible work is going on. The
offenders are generally negroes. As soon as the storm sub-
sided the negroes stole all the liquor they could get, and,
beastly drunk, proceeded with their campaign of vandal-
ism. Troops are needed at once."

The hiding place of three ghouls was discovered in a
beached dredge, formerly used by the Southern Pacific
Eailroad Company. Three satchels, filled with jewelry
and money, were seized. The men, who were whites, were
supposed to have been shot, but no official report of the
shooting has been made.

CHAPTEK X.

THE CHICAGO FIRE AND THE GALVESTOtf FLOOD.

One of the most inspiring and splendid chapters of his-
tory is the story of the rise of Chicago from ashes, the swift
coming courage that rose above all discouragements, using
among other things the very debris of the old city to make
more land for the new and greater city.

The record of the resurrection of* the city is one of in-
tense interest, in association with the woeful losses of Gal-
veston, and there are many encouraging inferences to be
drawn. In "Chicago and the Great Conflagration," by
Colbert and Chamberlain, in 1871, there is an account of
the first note of good cheer. It was from the press, and
this is the incident :

"The Tribune building had not ceased to blaze, or rather
to melt, for there was not much about it to make a blaze
of, before Joseph Medill, one of the chief stockholders,
(since elected mayor of the city) had sought out a job-
office on Canal street — a locality where nobody had
dreamed there was anything of the sort — and bought it
out, type, presses and lease of three spacious floors ; so that
on the morrow the force of the Tribune was at work, pro-
ducing a broadside sheet for Wednesday morning. That
issue sounded out like a tocsin which called every man in
Chicago to his duty. It gave a twelve column account of
the great calamity. It was headed ' Chicago Destroyed ;'but
this was merely a rhetorical flourish of the younger Medill,
for the editorial columns abounded in ringing, cheering

178

FIRE AND FLOOD. 179

utterances. We cannot forbear quoting the principal of
these :

" 'CHEEK UP.

" ' In the midst of a calamity without parallel in the
world's history, looking upon the ashes of thirty years' ac-
cumulations, the people of this once beautiful city have
resolved that CHICAGO SHALL KISE AGAIN!

" 'With, woe on every hand, with death in many strange
places, with two or three hundred millions of our hard-
earned property swept away in a few hours, the hearts
of our men and women are still brave and they look into
the future with undaunted hearts. As there has never
been such a calamity, so has there never been such cheerful
fortitude in the face of desolation and ruin.

" 'Thanks to the blessed charity of the good people of
the United States, we shall not suffer from hunger or
nakedness in this trying time. Hundreds of- train-loads
of provisions are coming forward to us with all speed from
every quarter, from Maine to Omaha. Some have already
arrived — more will reach us before these words are
printed. Three-fourths of our inhabited area is still saved.
The water supply will be speedily renewed. Steam fire-
engines from a dozen neighboring cities have already ar-
rived, and more are on the way. It seems impossible that
any further progress should be made by the flames, or that
any new fire should break out that would not be instantly
extinguished.

" 'Already contracts have been made for rebuilding some
of the burned blocks, and the clearing away of the debris
will commence to-day, if the heat is so far subdued that
the charred material can be handled. Field, Leiter & Co.

180 FIRE AND FLOOD.

and John V. Farwell & Co. will recommence business to-
day. The money and securities in all the banks are safe.
The railroads are working with all their energies to bring
us out of our affliction. The three hundred millions of
capital invested in these roads is bound to see us through.
They have been built with special reference to a great com-
mercial mart at this plkce, and they cannot fail to sustain
us. CHICAGO MUST KISE AGAIN.

" 'We do not belittle the calamity that has befallen us.
The world has probably never seen the like of it — certainly
not since Moscow burned. But the forces of nature, no less
than the forces of reason require that the exchanges of a
great region should be conducted here. Ten, twenty years
may be required to reconstruct our fair city, but the capital
to rebuild it fireproof will be forthcoming. The losses we
have suffered must be borne; but the place, the time and
the men are here, to commence at the bottom and work up
again ; not at the bottom, either, for we have credit in every
land, and the experience of one upbuilding of Chicago will
help us. Let us all cheer up, save what is yet left, and we
shall come out right. The Christian world is coming to
our relief. The worst is already over. In a few days more
all the danger will be past, and we can resume the battle
of life with Christian faith and western grit. Let us all
cheer up.'

"This bugle-call had an electrical effect upon the spirits
of the people."

The same spirit has been shown in Galveston, though
there were discouragements there more serious even than
those of Chicago. There was no job-office that escaped in
Galveston. We resume the narrative :

"Tuesday, the 10th of October, may be called a day of

FIRE AND FLOOD. 181

transition from chaos to order ; though it looked upon the
surface like chaos merely. The mayor and city govern-
ment were busy providing for the re-establishment of quiet
and confidence, and the Board of Trade and other author-
ities in business were organizing for the resurrection of
Chicago ; but little of this was apparent to the general ob-
server. The visitor to Chicago (that is the unburnt part
of it), Tuesday morning, saw, perhaps, first of all, an
occasional puff of smoke, curling upwards from chimney-
tops of houses, and yet not many; for the Mayor's order
of the previous night had prohibited all kitchen fires, and
only the very reckless or very hungry made bold to con-
strue the shower of the previous night as a contravention
of the order. He saw an occasional face show itself on the
street, haggard and red-eyed, from the effects of the previ-
ous twenty-four hours' experience. He saw water-carts
moving through the streets and being surrounded by men
in dressing gowns and women in their meanest wear, bear-
ing buckets and pitchers, to buy, at a shilling a pailful, the
fluid which had suddenly become so precious. He saw
wagons drive up to church-doors, carrying sick or wounded
or burnt victims of the flames, now first furnished with
shelter. He saw fire-engines, probably from abroad, get-
ting into position to play upon the blazing coal-heaps along
the river; their occasional sharp whistle was almost the
only sound to break the solemn stillness of the morning.
By and by, however, the people began to stir, and then
suddenly all became a Babel of confusion. Wagons of
every description, and in numbers no one thought the city
could boast, were plying hither and thither with reckless
speed."

This was a revival of energy, the resumption of trained

182 FIRE AND FLOOD.

labors, a protest against further loss of time. We follow
the writer just quoted a few lines further :

"Chicago has fastened upon the trade of the great North-
west with chains that cannot be unbound, and will there-
fore grow with that rapidly developing country, and
without any serious hindrance from what has happened.
Individual fortunes have been in some cases irretriev-
ably lost, though the way in which these men rebound, even
from out the slough of despair, is something wonderful;
but the city must still go marching on. The West must
have her for uses which no other locality can subserve, and
which no other city, even if it had the advantage of loca-
tion, could prepare itself to subserve in thrice the time it
will take Chicago to recuperate. The produce of the West
and the capital of the East are alike interested in keeping
Chicago the metropolis of the Northwest — an empire al-
ready vaster, and much more rapidly growing, than that of
Great Britain at the time London was destroyed.

"People who come to Chicago and take a survey of her
present apparent desolation are shocked by it, and go away
saying that Chicago cannot be rebuilt in less than a gener-
ation. They forget that Chicago was a generation in at-
taining her late magnificence, simply because the West was
for that length of time in growing to its present pro-
portions; and that the question of how long it will take
to rebuild Chicago — the West being still intact around
her — is simply a question of how long it will require for
the country to produce the bricks and the stone to lay up
her walls withal. It is estimated by those competent to
judge of this that three years will be adequate to the work ;
in other words that as soon as the grand buildings of the
railway corporations, the city, and the United States Gov-

FIRE AND FLOOD. 183

ernment can be completed in a solid manner they will
already be surrounded by a complete city, equal in its
capacity for the accommodation of business to that which
fell in the Great Conflagration."

There need be only the change of a few words to apply
this forcibly and accurately to Galveston. The word West
is to be changed to South, and it fits the situation on the
Gulf. Again :

"The writer, wandering among the mournful ruins of
the North Division, on the day after that quarter was de-
stroyed, met an acquaintance whom he accosted with the
usual salutation: 'How did you come out?' The answer
was : 'Yesterday morning I had a warehouse over there
with $30,000 worth of wool in it, I had a fine house, well
furnished, for my home, and two others to help out my
income. To-day, I've got what I have on my back; my
wife the same — that is all.' 'Are you going to give up ?'
we asked. 'NO SIR,' he answered. A fortnight later we
encountered the same friend dashing down the street at
great speed. He had got track of a man who would, he
thought, put up a building for him, and was going to have
the contract made before night. He was buoyant and en-
thusiastic.

"Probably the reader of this history who visits Chicago
five years hence will find this man in full blast in his new
warehouse, not with thirty, but with sixty or ninety thous-
and dollars' worth of wool in store, and not with two but
four houses to rent ; for it is such pluck as this that wins
in the West.

"The visitor will see, besides the twenty railroads which
already converge at Chicago, the six important lines now
projected, also entering the heart of the city, probably by

184 FIRE AND FLOOD.

sunk tracks, and through viaducts at every street-crossing.'7

The echo of these words expressing individual tenacity
of purpose, never giving up, comes on every breeze from
the South. The first hours of despair after the incalcu-
lable calamity are described in "Scenes, Incidents and Les-
sons of the Great Chicago Fire," by Sewell, 1872, in these
words :

"Every street, alley, doorway and court was occupied by
trembling, exhausted human beings, pale with fear and
desperate with uncertainty. 'What shall we do ?' 'What
will become of us ?' were the anxious queries of the hetero-
geneous multitude as they stood or sat in the streets, or as
they lay prostrate in despair on the steps of houses or on
the boards and planks of the lumber yards on the river
docks."

On the anniversary night of the burning of the city of
Chicago, October 9, occurred in 1899 the Peace Jubilee
Banquet at the Auditorium Hotel. There were present
the President of the United States, the Vice-President of
Mexico, and the Premier of Canada, and the latter, in a
most graceful and strong speech, made a memorable utter-
ance grateful to the Chicago business men who heard or
read it, and it will be pleasing and uplifting to the business
men of Galveston, for it appeals to the chivalry of com-
merce and the nobility of humanity. Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
Premier of Canada, said :

"As a rule, nations and cities celebrate the day of their
foundation, or some great victory, or some national tri-
umph, in all cases some event which, when it occurred, was
a cause of universal joy and rejoicing. Not so, however, of
the city of Chicago. In this, as in everything else, it does
not tread in beaten paths, and the day which it celebrates

FIRE AND FLOOD. 185

is not the day of its foundation, when hunters and fur
traders unconsciously laid down what was to develop into
a gigantic city. Neither does1 it celebrate some great ac-
tion in which American history abounds, nor does it com-
memorate a deed selected from the life of some of the
great men whom the state has given to the nation, though
Illinois can claim the proud privilege of having given to
the nation one as great as Washington.

"The day which Chicago celebrates is the day of its
direst calamity — the day when it was swept out of exist-
ence by fire, and I recall the energy, the courage, the faith,
the enthusiasm with which its citizens met and faced and
conquered an appalling calamity.

"For my part, well do I remember the awful day, for
as you will know, its terrors were reverberated far beyond
the limits of your country, but of all the things which I
most remember — I was a young man — of all the acts of
courage and heroism which were brought forward, the one
thing that struck me most was an appeal issued by the busi-
ness men of Chicago on the smoking ruins of the city.
They appealed to their fellow-citizens. They appealed
not for alms or charity of any kind, but in most noble
language they appealed to their fellow-citizens, especially
those who had business connections with Chicago, and
whose enterprise and energy had conferred honor on the
American name, to sustain them in their business in that
time of their trial. Mark the language — the only thing
they asked was to be SUSTAINED IN THEIK BUSI-
NESS, and if sustained in their business they were ready
to face and meet the awful calamity which had befallen
their city. In my estimation, in my judgment, this was

186 FIRE AND FLOOD.

courage of the highest order. Wherever you meet courage,
you are sure to meet justice and generosity."

The way in which Chicago found and appropriated re-
sources is prominent in this paragraph of a publication
that soon followed the fire :

"It was estimated that the value of the land made out of
the rubbish filling the border of the lake was worth $1,000
a day. It was further estimated that in course of time —
the year was '72 — 'the accretions made in the manner de-
scribed, the land may be sold (the needed authorization
having of course been obtained) for a sum equal to the
city debt, which is now, in round numbers, $13,000,000.' "

EFFECT OF STORM ON BUILDINGS

URSILINE CONVENT.

CHAPTER XL

THE MOST GREWSOME PICTURE IN THE BOOK OF TIME.

(From the Galveston News, September 13, 1900.)
Galveston, Wednesday. — The story of Galveston's
tragedy can never be written as it is. Since the cata-
clysm of Saturday night a force of faithful men have
been struggling to convey to humanity from time to time
some of the particulars of the tragedy. They have told
much, but it was impossible for them to tell all, and the
world, at best, can never know all, for the thousands of
tragedies written by the storm must forever remain mys-
teries until eternity shall reveal all. Perhaps it were best
that it should be so, for the horror and anguish of those
fatal and fateful hours were mercifully lost in the scream-
ing tempest and buried forever beneath the raging billows.
Only God knows, and for the rest let it remain forever in
the boundlessness of His omniscience. But in the realm
of finity, the weak and staggered senses of mankind may
gather fragments of the disaster, and may strive with in-
evitable incompleteness to convey the merest impression
of the saddest story which ever engaged the efforts of a
reporter.

Galveston ! The mournful dirges of the breakers which
lash the beach can not in the remaining centuries of the
world give expression to the sorrow and woe which throbs
here to-day ; and if the sobbing waves and sighing winds,
God's great funeral choir, fail, how can the weak pen and
appalled imaginations of men perform the task? The

189

190 MOST GREWSOME PICTURE.

human heart can merely feel what language will never
be able to express. And in the case of Galveston, the heart
must break before it can begin to feel.

I struggled all day Tuesday to reach this isle of desola-
tion. With General McKibben, General Scurry, General
Stoddard and several who had relatives here about whom
they were anxious, I spent five hours on the bay in a row
boat, kindly loaned by the captain of the Kendel Castle,
a British steamship hopelessly stranded at Texas City,
but finally we landed on the island just as the stars were
coming out.

The very atmosphere smelt of death, and we walked
through the quiet streets to the Tremont hotel. Long be-
fore we landed we had seen the naked forms of men,
women and children floating in the bay and were depressed
until the entire party was heartsick.

Men were grouped about the streets talking in quiet
tones. Sad and hopeless women could be seen in dis-
mantled houses, destitute children were about the streets,
and all about them was nothing but wreck and ruin.
Night had drawn a gray pall over the city and for awhile
the autumn moon covered her face with dark clouds to
hide the place with shadows. The town was under mar-
tial law, every saloon was closed, and passers-by were re-
quired to give an account of themselves before being al-
lowed to proceed. The fact, however, that the streets
were almost impassable on account of the debris kept us
reminded that we were in the midst of unprecedented
desolation.

Wednesday the sun drew aside the curtains of dark-
ness and revealed a scene that is impossible of descrip-
tion. I spent hours driving or riding about the city and

MOST GREWSOME PICTURE. 191

witnessed the saddest spectacles ever seen by human eyes.
What were once Galveston's splendid business thorough-
fares were wrecked and crumbled. The Strand, known
to every business man of the State, was lined on both sides
with crumbling walls and wrenched buildings, and the
street was a mass of debris, such as metal roofs rolled
up like a scroll, splintered timbers, iron pillars, broken
stone and bricks; the same was true of Mechanic, and
Market, and Tremont, and Twenty-first and Twenty-sec-
ond and every other street of the great business heart of
Galveston. The stores were ruined and deserted and the
blight of destruction was visible as far as the eye could
reach. As horrible as all this was, it was as nothing to
the hopeless faces of the miserable men, women and chil-
dren in the streets. I will not undertake to describe
them, but as long as I live I will never forget them. Many
I knew personally, and these gave greeting, but God, it
was nothing but a handshake and tears. It seems that
everybody I had ever known here had lost somebody.
The tears in their eyes, the quiver of their voices, the
trembling of lips! The brand of agony was upon their
faces and despair was written across their hearts. I would
plunge a dagger through my heart before I would endure
this experience again.

The readers of the News must pardon the personal
nature of this narrative. It is impossible to write with-
out becoming a part of the story this time. I met Elma
Everhart, formerly a Dallas boy. I had known him from
childhood, and all his people. Indeed, I had once been
an inmate of their home in OakclifF. I hardly knew him
when he stopped me, he had grown so much. He said:
"Katy and her baby are at Dickinson. That town was

192 MOST GREWSOME PICTURE.

destroyed, but they are alive. I am going there and leave
Galveston forever."

I knew he had woe in his heart and I queried.

"I am the only one left," he answered. "Papa, mamma.
Lena and Guy — they are all gone."

I remember the last time I saw this family before they
left Dallas. I remember Lena, one of the most beautiful
children I ever saw. I recall her beautiful eyes and long
dark curls, and I remember when she kissed me good-bye
and joyously told me she was coming to Galveston to live !
And this was her fate.

With all my old fondness for the ocean, recalling how I
have lain upon the sand hour after hour looking at its
distant sails and listening to its mysterious voices, re-
calling happy moments too sacred for expression, when I
think of that sweet child as one of its victims, I shall hate
the sea forever.

And yet, what can this grief of mine amount to in the
presence of the agony of the thousands who loved the
5,000 souls who took leave of life amid the wild surging
waters and pitiless tempest of last Saturday night ?

After surveying the dismantled business section of the
city, a cabman made his tortuous way through the resi-
dence sections. It was a slow journey, for the streets
were jammed with houses, furniture, cooking utensils,
bedding, clothing, carpets, window frames, and everything
imaginable, to say nothing of the numerous carcasses of
the poor horses, cows and other domestic animals. Some
of the houses were completely capsized, some were flat
upon the ground with not one timber remaining upon an-
other, others were unroofed, some were twisted into the
most fantastic shapes, and there were still others with

MOST GREWSOME PICTURE. 193

walls intact, but which had been stripped of everything
in the way of furniture. It is not an uncommon thing
for the wind at high velocity to perform miraculous things,
but this blast which came at the rate of 120 miles an
hour, repeated all the tricks the wind has ever enacted
and gave countless new manifestations of its mysterious
power. It were idle to undertake to tell the curious things
to be seen in the desolate residence streets, how the trees
were uprooted and driven through houses, how telegraph
poles were driven under car tracks, how pianos were trans-
ferred from one house to another.

More ominous than all this were the vast piles of debris
from which emanated odors which told of dead victims
beneath, men, women and children, whose silent lips will
never reveal the agony from which death alone released
them.

More sorrowful still the tear-stained faces of the women,
half -clad, who looked listlessly from the windows, haunted
by memories from which they can never escape — the loss
of babies torn from their breasts and hurled into a mael-
strom of destruction to be seen no more forever.

What were those dismantled homes to the dismantled
hearts within ? How can it be described ? Will the world
ever know the real dimensions of the disaster which
crushed Galveston and left her broken and disconsolate
like a wounded bird fluttering on the white sands of the
ocean ?

And the beach? That once beautiful beach with its
long stretches of white sand — what had become of that?
Misshapen, distorted, blotched and drabbled and crim-
soned, it spread away to the horizons of the east and west,
its ugly scars rendered more hideous by the. glinting rays

194 MOST GREWSOME PICTURE.

of the sun. Part of it had disappeared under the purling
waters. Far out here and there could be seen the piling
where once rested the places of amusement. The waves
were lashing the lawns which once stretched before palatial
homes. And the pools along the shore were stinking with
the remains of ill-fated dogs, cats, chickens, birds, horses,
cows and fish. Shoreward as far as the eye could reach
were massive piles of houses and timbers, all shattered
and torn.

A cloud of smoke was noticed and driving to the scene
we found a large number of men feeding the flames with
the timbers of the wrecked homes which once gave such
a charm to Galveston beach.

And why the fire?

The men were burning 1,000 human bodies cast up by
the sea and the fuel was the timber of the homes which the
poor victims once occupied ! And yet this awful spectacle
was but a fragment of the murderous work of the greatest
storm which has swept the ocean's shore for a century !

There were dozens of piles of sand in every direction
along that mutilated shore. And men were noticed in the
distance shoveling these uncanny mounds.

We saw what they were doing. The bodies brought in
by the tide were being buried deep in the sand. Driving
beyond the grave diggers we saw prostrate on the sand
the stark and swollen forms of women and children, and
floating further out in the tide were other bodies soon to
be brought in to be buried. The waves were but the
hearses bringing in the dead to be buried in the sand along
the shore. It is the contemplation of such scenes as these
that stagger consciousness and sting the human soul.

They told me with sad humor that what I had seen was

MOST GREWSOME PICTURE. 195

as nothing to what I could have seen had I been here
Sunday and Monday mornings. - 1 am glad, then, that I
did not come sooner, and I am sorry that I ever came at
all. What I have seen has been sufficient to make me mis-
erable to the longest day of my life, and what I have
heard that I could not see and could not have seen had I
been in the storm will haunt me by night and day as long
as my senses remain. I am telling an incident repeated
to me by one of the most prominent and distinguished
citizens of Galveston. On Monday seven hundred bodies
had been gathered in one house near the bay shore. Kecog-
nition of a single one was impossible. The bodies were
swollen and decomposition was setting in rapidly. In-
deed, the odor of death was on the air for blocks. What
disposition should be made of this horrifying mass of
human flesh was an imminent problem. While the matter
was under discussion, the committee was informed that
there was no time to waste in deliberation, that some of
the bodies were already bursting. It was impossible to
bury them, and they could not be incinerated in that por-
tion of the city without endangering more life and more
property, as there was no water to extinguish a fire once
started. It was decided to load the bodies on a barge, tow
it out to sea and sink them with weights. That was the
only thing to be done.

Men were called for to perform this awful duty, but
they quailed at the task. And who could blame them?
They were told that quick action was necessary, or a pes-
tilence might come and sweep off the balance of the living.
Still they were immovable. It was no time for dallying.

A company of men with rifles at fixed bayonets were
brought to the scene and a force of men were compelled

196 MOST GREW SOME PICTURE.

at the point of the bayonet to perform this sad, sad duty.
One by one the dead were removed to the barge, every
body as naked as it had come into the world — men, women
and children, black and white, all classes of society and
station and condition were represented in that putrid
mass. The unwilling men who were performing this
awful task were compelled to bind cloths about their nos-
trils while they were at work and occasionally citizens
passed whisky among them to nerve them to their duty.

Who can conceive of the horror of this ?

After a while the seven hundred dead were piled upon
the barge and a tug pulled them slowly out to sea. Eigh-
teen miles out, where the sea was rolling high, amid
the soughing white caps, with God's benediction breathed
in the moaning winds, all that was mortal of these seven
hundred was consigned to the mystic caves of the deep.

And yet, this was but another incident of the sad tragedy
of which we write.

George H. Walker, of San Antonio, known well in
theatrical circles, was a member of the party who struggled
all day Tuesday to get to Galveston, and he landed late at
night. It was an anxious day for him, for this was the
city of his birth and before the storm he had six brothers
and five sisters living here, in addition to his son, an aunt
and his mother-in-law.

He found his son safe and many other members of his
family. They told him how the boy, Earl, a lad of 15, had
at the height of the tempest placed his grandmother, Mrs.
C. S. Johnson, on the roof of the house after it was floating
in the current, and had made a second trip to bring his
aunt to the roof. When the lad returned the grandmother
was gone, finding in the raging current her final peace.

MOST GREWSOME PICTURE. 19T

The boy and his aunt, another Mrs. Johnson, clung to the
roof throughout and successfully weathered the gale.

George Walker found later on, however, that his brother
Joe and his stepbrother, Nick Donley, had been swept away
to feed the fury of the storm.

I met W. K. Knight, of Dallas, who arrived yesterday
at noon. He told me that he had found his mother, two
unmarried sisters and a married sister, Mrs. E. Webster,
safe. But he, too, had his sorrow. A sister, Mrs. Ida
Toothaker, and her daughter Etta, were lost, and his
brother-in-law, E. Webster, Sr., and five children, Charley,
George, Kenneth, Julia and Sarah, had joined the other
two loved ones on the bosom of the unresting sea.

How many stories of sorrow like this that remain to be
told can not now be numbered. The anxious people who
have been straggling into Galveston from a distance have
usually found some dear relative or many of them miss-
ing and numbered among the thousands who became in a
few brief hours the victims of the remorseless furies.

It is with reluctance that I relate one case that came
under my own observation. It was so horrible that per-
haps it ought not to be told at all, but only such instances
can convey a faint idea of the horror of the Galveston dis-
aster. While rowing near the Huntington wharves the
naked body of a woman was observed floating in the
water, with a half -born infant plainly in view.

Mr. L. H. Lewis, of Dallas, arrived yesterday looking
for his son, George Cabell Lewis, who was found alive
and well. Mr. Lewis said : "I helped to bury sixteen at
Texas City last (Tuesday) night — all Galveston victims.
They buried fifty-eight there Tuesday. Coming down
Buffalo bayou I saw numberless legs and arms, mostly of

198 MOST GREWSOME PICTURE.

women and children, protruding from the muck. I be-
lieve there are hundreds of women and children near the
meuth of the bayou. As soon as men can be found to do
the work these poor victims should be looked after. Un-
questionably most of them were from Galveston island.
Among other things I saw were tombstones with inscrip-
tions in German and rusty caskets which had been beached
by the waves."

One going to Galveston four days after the storm tells
the terrible tale in this succession of pictures :

Against a barbed wire fence the bloated carcasses of
cattle had floated — their swollen limbs stiff towards the
sky — and yet others browsed around in the meadow now
which was a roaring sea but four days ago. This sight
was the first we saw of death and every man in the car,
as if to avoid the fear that arose in the mind of each, began
to express wonder how this could be — that is, that some
of these poor brutes were dead and others living. It was
an idiotic talk, but a beautiful one to me. For it showed
that the arguments had fear for their foundation and that
fear had sympathy for its foundation. The men who
talked and talked, who advanced most foolish opinions,
had hearts then and there under an eclipse of fear for
their fellow man. It was hoping against hope. That was
apparent to every man of us. Yet why not hope ? Why
not, even if it was ridiculous. The scrubby trees were
denuded of leaves. Could a man or woman live in that ?
Yet here and there a house, even now tottering, could be
seen, and some distressed human being be seen looking
out over the devastation of his or her all. And so they
could live and hope would take on a new life.

Then the pampa began to show what the storm fiend

MOST GREW SOME PICTURE. 199

could do. The grass was laid low in its track. It was
trod heavily, brutally here. It was angry at this spot
beyond a doubt. The train went on. As it went it seemed
to puff in a more quiet way. It might have been imagina-
tion, but if it was imagination it was not confined to any
man. The talk ceased. The machine that pulled us did
not make a noise. Hope had gone with the sight of the
prairie grass laid low. Every man knew he was within
the land that this demon had lately ruled. The train,
merely because of the track, went slow. This added to
the effect. It was like invading the territory of the awful.
It was a funeral cortege.

Over this prairie the train crept. Debris of all kinds
covered the prairie. It was from Galveston, because it
could be from no other place. Every ant hill was covered
with the remnants of homes in the city six miles away.
There were lace curtains, furniture of all kinds, but mostly
of the cheap kind. There were toys, ladies' toilet articles,
bed clothes, and in fact everything that goes to make up a
home. This point was Texas City, six miles away from
Galveston across the bay. The town had suffered badly.
Human lives were lost there, and the agony of it was great,
but above all was the idea : What of across the way ? It
was six miles dead across, and a schooner was in waiting
to take us over. But before it landed there was a chance
of observation of the bay line, on which the waters now
gently lisped. For the bay was as gentle as a country
pond. It lapped and kissed the few blades of grass that
grew down where the rise and fall of the tide was natural.
It did not moan like the sea. It merely gurgled. But
every little wave threw up and agitated the dead. The
bloated horses, the cows which provident housekeepers in

200 MOST GREWSOME PICTURE.

the city across the way had owned and petted were there.
Chickens, rats, dogs, cats, and everything, it seemed, that
breathed, was there, dead and swollen and making the air
nauseous. But by their sides were people. The worn-
out people of the district, having saved their own lives
and buried their own dead, were quick to respond to nat-
ural instincts and do right by their kind. I saw them
take swollen women, and swollen men and swollen chil-
dren and with quick shrift place them in two feet graves.
It was terrible, but what could they do? There were
no burial services. The men who did the work were sim-
ply doing what they could to relieve the air of them. They
were not gentle, but how could they be gentle when they
lay there with their black faces, their terribly swollen
tongues and the odor of decomposition threatening those
that lived ?

It may strike the mind with horror. But it was the
only solution. There were fifty-eight bodies buried in
the bleak sands that day — buried as best those poor un-
fortunates could bury them — with the idea wholly that
they should be placed where their relatives could after-
wards find them and to protect themselves against the fur-
ther exposition to the element.

In the debris from Galveston was everything. I walked
about it and was impressed with the idea that this truly
must have impressed the people that the world was at
an end. For twenty-five miles on the land — into the in-
terior— this disorderly element raged. It destroyed and
it marched — and when it ceased really the sea hkd given
up its dead and the secrets of life were revealed. For
walking among the debris I found a truth. It had been
broken over by the violence of the waves. Letters, blurred

MOST GREWSOMR PICTURE. 201

by the waters were drying on the shingles and weather-
boarding of Galveston homes. I picked up one and it be-
gan, "My Darling Little Wife." And I closed it there and
threw it among its fellows on the drift. She was dead.
She had kept his letters.

No man has been busier comforting the grief-stricken
people of Galveston than Dr. E. C. Buckner, of the Buck-
ner orphan home, in Dallas county. He leaves Thursday
morning for his institution with the homeless orphans of
the Galveston orphans' home, which was wrecked by the
storm. He has others besides these, and altogether he will
take one hundred home with him.

What a grand old man Dr. Buckner is ! I will take off
my hat to him any day in the week. I have known him
for years and there is not a nobler character alive. I saw
him at Sherman when that city was ravished by a cyclone
several years ago. He was there looking for orphans, and
I know that he has always been quick to reach the scene of
disaster and death. He got here Tuesday afternoon and
lost no time in reaching his part of the work, and heaven
knows there was none more important than that to which
he assigned himself. But the people of Texas ought to
know what he has done. They have always loved the
Buckner home. They know what it has done in the way
of rescuing destitute children. They know that hundreds
of good men and women of the State have come from that
institution — men and women who have become successful
in life and who honor the State and the home by their
useful and upright lives. But Texas will have greater
cause than ever to love and revere Dr. Buckner and his
institution when it is known that he has added to his fam-
ily a hundred hapless victims of the Galveston storm,
making in all 400 in his entire family.

CHAPTEE XII.

INCIDENTS THAT MAKE UP THE HISTORY OF HORRORS.

Mr. Gray's 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 20x20
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 hun-
dred 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 to come higher, for he was afraid the tree with
three people on it would be made top-heavy. When day-
light 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 working until 10 o'clock he reached the high land
in the Denver resurvey and eventually got to town. Not

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 203

until yesterday had he sufficiently recovered from his ex-
haustion to come onto the streets.

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 in-
stantly killed. As a rule the attitudes of those who were
found were with hands extended up as if endeavoring to
save themselves.

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 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' 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

204 INCIDENTS OF HORROR.

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 barroom 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.

Wednesday. — While working with a gang of men clear-
ing the wreckage of a large number of houses on ave-
nue O and Center street to-day, 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 ani-
mal seemed none the worse from his experience of four
days locked up in a drawer beneath a mountain of wreck-

Wednesday. — The destruction of the Catholic orphans'
home and the loss of 75 lives with it was told by one of
three boys who came through a terrible experience by flint
of good Providence.

The three boys who came through with scratches and

\

\

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 207

cuts and bruises and their lives are Albert Campbell,
aged 13; Francis Bolenick, aged 14, and Will Murney,
aged 13. Murney is much the larger boy of the three,
the other two being rather undersized. He went to a
sister living on Twenty-sixth and Market streets and was
not seen. The other two were taken to St. Mary's in-
firmary, where their wounds were dressed and they were
seen yesterday by a reporter for the News. The Bolenick
boy can not speak much English, so it devolved entirely
upon the Campbell boy to tell the tale.

According to the story of this boy 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 build-
ing. 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. 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 sepa-
rated, 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 al-
most to the south of the home. There they remained all

208 INCIDENTS OF HORROR.

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
inshore. They finally landed and started west, not know-
ing 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.

It is the local account that during the day before the
hurricane broke upon Galveston, the weather "had been
cutting up didoes and blowing every which way." This
was Friday and the storm center was deflected west and
north, going out of the usual way to strike Galveston. On
Saturday the gale increased, and then came a hard driving

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 209

rain. The waves were continually rising, striking the
bulk heading of the wharves with mighty force and burst-
ing clouds of spray. The breakers with angry woes called
up the beach. 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 the 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-second street.

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

210 INCIDENTS OF HORROR.

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 the 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 sooned turned wrong side
out or ripped into ribbons, and their owners getting par-
tially 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 shelv-
ing 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 1ST, and the supply being ever replenished
both from the sea and from the clouds, there was no op-
portunity for this water to run off.

Milton Elford, the son of John Elford, who, together
with his wife and little grandson, Dwight, was drowned
in the disastrous flood at Galveston, and who himself was
at Galveston through the terrible catastrophe, has written
to his brothers, George and Edgar Elford, merchants of
Langdon, "N. D., the story of his experiences. A copy of
this letter has been transmitted to A. B. Elford, another
brother, residing at No. 269 South Lincoln street, and
Mrs. A. E. Me Wood, a cousin, residing at No. 928 West
Fifty-ninth street, this city, and is given below:

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 211

"Galveston, September 14, 1900.— Dear Brothers:
This is Thursday. Five days we have put in since the
storm and tidal wave; and they have been days of awful
suspense to me. It seems that I have been dazed. I have
not been able to collect my thoughts until to-day. I have
not found any of the remains yet, but expect to find them
to-morrow. I will either find them in about two days or
not at all, for they will have all the debris overturned
in the locality, and, if they are not there, then they have
drifted out to sea, which I think is very unlikely.

'•'The city is under martial law, and soldiers are patrol-
ling every street day and night. Every man has got to
work, if able and can leave his own business. They have
orders to burn all the dead bodies as fast as they find
them, but I have a permit from the General not to be
interfered with, and to bury or take the corpses. I have
an undertaker, with metallic coffins, who will take charge
on a minute's notice. I have been helping clear away the
debris, that is, where we are most likely to find them.
There are hundreds of men working there, but the work
moves on slowly; it is so twisted and wedged in as to be
almost impossible to get it out. It is an awful sight.
Every few minutes, somewhere within a block of us, they
find dead bodies, and often where there is one there are
more. Yesterday we took out twelve from one spot. It-
was a large house, and they had gathered there for safety,
and all died together, wedged in between ceiling and fioor.

"There are hundreds of houses in one heap, and you
can scarcely recognize a single piece. Eor three to five
blocks wide and for about four miles, solid blocks of
dwellings and hotels and the residence part of the city,
there is not a vestige left — not a board. It is all swept

212 INCIDENTS OF HORROR.

clean and banked up in a pile reaching all around from
bay to beach.

"They have got the names now of over 2,900, and that
is not half that have been drowned. I do not think that
more than 200 have been buried in coffins. Hundreds
were taken to sea and put overboard, and hundreds more
are being burned every day, and hundreds are yet to be
dug out of the debris.

"The Catholic Orphans' home collapsed with about 200
— all the children and several neighbors that gathered for
safety. The street car works went down, with about forty
employes, and hundreds of houses went down with from
one to fifty people. A great many must have been killed,
after getting on rafts, by flying boards. I came very
near it.

"I keep thinking how we might have averted it by acting
differently, but I suppose there is no use of thinking about
that now. We left our house about 4 o'clock, thinking we
would be safer in a larger house, not dreaming that even
that house would be washed away. We went across the
street to a fine, large house, built on a brick foundation
high off the ground. About 5 it grew worse and began to
break up the fence, and the wreckage of other houses
was coming against us. We had it arranged that if the
house showed signs of breaking up I would take the lead,
and pa would come next, with Dwight and ma next. In
this way I could make a safe place to walk, as we would
have to depend on floating debris for rafts. There were
about fifteen or sixteen in the house besides ourselves.
They were confident the house would stand anything; if
not for that we would probably have left on rafts before
the house went down. We all gathered in one room; all

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 213

at once the house went from its foundation and the water
came in waist-deep, and we all made a break for the door,
but could not get it open. We then smashed out the win-
dow and I led the way.

"I had only got part way out when the house fell on us.
I was hit on the head with something and it knocked me
out and into the water head first. I do not know how long
I was down, as I must have been stunned. I came up and
got hold of some wreckage on the other side of the house.
I could see one man on some wreckage to my left and an-
other on my right. I went back to the door that we could
not open. It was broken in, and I could go part way in,
as one side of the ceiling was not within four or five feet,
I think, of the water. There was not a thing in sight. I
went back and got on the other side, but no one ever came
up that I could see. We must have all gone down the same
time, but I cannot tell why they did not come up, unless
it is that when the house broke the wall loosened from the
floor, and with the lurch they were thrown through the
crevice and held down by the floor, or floor of the veranda
outside. There was a large man there, with his wife and
family ; he was over six feet, and I do not think the water
was over that on the floor when I went back. It was a
wonder I did not get killed when I returned, as I just
got out again as it all went flat. I then started to leave
by partly running and swimming from one lot of debris to
another. The street was full of tops and sides of houses,
and the air was full of flying boards. I think I gained
about a block on the debris in this way, and got in the
shelter of some buildings, but they were fast going down,
and I was afraid of getting buried.

"Just then the part that I was on started down the

214 INCIDENTS OF HORROR.

street, and I stuck my head and shoulders in an old tool
chest that was lying in the debris that I was on. I could
hardly hold this down on its side from being blown away,
but that is what saved my life again. When the water
went down at about 3 a. m. I was about five blocks from
where I started. My head was bruised and legs and hands
cut a little, which I did not find out until Monday, and
then I could hardly get my hat on. I saved what I had on
— pants, shirts, shoes, and one suit of underwear, and a
five-dollar bill.

"As soon as it was light enough I went back to the lo-
cation of the house, and not a sign of it could be found, and
not a sign of any house within two blocks, where before
there was scarcely a vacant lot. I then went to the city
hall to see the chief of police, to get some help to recover
the corpses, thinking, I guess, that I was the only one
in that fix. The firemen and others started before noon
to bring in corpses ; they brought them in in wagon loads
of about a dozen at a time, laid them in rows to be identi-
fied, and the next day they were badly decomposed, and
were loaded on boats and taken to sea, only to wash back
on the beach. They then started to bury them wherever
they were found, but yesterday (Wednesday) the corpses
were ordered burned. Men started removing the debris
and burning it, and when they come to a corpse it is just
thrown on the pile.

"Pa had $400 to his credit at a bank, but of course I
could not get it ; they would not talk to me at all, but after
I telegraphed to you for money I was able to get identi-
fied, and they have agreed to let me use it for any ex-
penses connected with this.

"It is the most awful thing of the kind that has ever

INCIDENTS OF HORROR. 215

happened in history. Hundreds of families have gone
down, and not a sign of anything left of them. It seemed
they were all cool to the very last. Pa had Dwight in
his arms, and ma was right by his side, just ready to step
out of the window; we all went down the same
instant. It seemed that the house fell in an instant. If I
had not been hit on the head by something I might not
have got out either. It seemed all the way through that
they were to go and I was to be saved. The last few min-
utes was a terrible time ; some were on their knees ; others
were wild with fright. I had kept telling ma that we were
safe, and about the last words she said were that God
would take care of us anyway. Pa was perfectly cool, and
so was Dwight, when we all at once went waist deep in
water.

"I cannot begin to tell you what an awful suspense that
was, shut in and the water rising, and we unable to get
the door open. But it seemed when the crash came it was
all over in a second. I am satisfied they did not fear
death in the least, and I do not believe they suffered.

"If I do not find anything in two days I will have to
give it up, I think, but we can do them no good now. I
am getting along all right now, but for two or three days
the food and water question was a problem.

"MILTOK"

CHAPTER XIII.

THE GALVESTOJST ACCOUNT OF THE KUIN BEYOND DESCRIP-
TION.

Galveston journalism has for some time been recognized
by all acquainted with the progressive development of
American journalism — the Southern part of it in many
respects notable and commendable — as of honorable dis-
tinction. The growth of the dignity and the prosperity
of the Southern press has, since the days of the recon-
struction after the big war, been more rapid than that
of any other section of the Union. Texas abounded in
strong journals, and the press of New Orleans, Memphis,
Nashville, Louisville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Mobile,
SavannaH, Charlestown, and Richmond has taken high
rank.

The work of the Galveston News in the history of
the ever memorable hurricane that wrecked the city, is,
considering all the surroundings, a wonderful achieve-
ment, and one that will be regarded by the members of
the press throughout the world as of extraordinary merit
— the one thing that was equal to the occasion — worthy
the opportunity of the occasion. Doubtless the success
of the News is largely due the curious dual character
of the News of Galveston and the News of Dallas. The
resources of the office not in the sweep of the terrific
devastation, were available. It was the feeling of the
special correspondents, though much extremely good
work was done, that they had not been equal to the task,
for it was, as the Galveston News says in a head line,

216

GALVESTON ACCOUNT. 217

"Beyond Description." The gap — though the special cor-
respondence was most faithfully and competently written
— is filled by the local paper in issues that will be famous.
We quote the opening paragraphs :

"Galveston, Wednesday. — Galveston has been the scene
of one of the greatest catastrophes in the world's his-
tory. The story of the great storm of Saturday, Sep-
tember 8, 1900, will never be told. Words are too weak
to express the horror, the awfulness, of the storm itself;
to even faintly picture the scene of devastation, wreck and
ruin, misery, suffering and grief. Even those who were
miraculously saved after terrible experiences, who were
spared to learn that their families and property had been
swept away, spared to witness scenes as horrible as the
eye of man ever looked upon — even those can not tell the
story. There are stories of horrible deaths, thousands of
stories of individual heroism, stories of wonderful rescues
and escapes, each of which at another time would be a
marvel in itself and would command the interest of the
world. But in a time like this, when a storm so intense in
its fury, so prolonged in its work of destruction, so wide
in its scope, and so infinitely terrible in its consequences
has swept an entire city and neighboring towns for many
miles on either side, the human mind can not comprehend
all of the horror, can not learn or know all of the dreadful
particulars. One stands speechless and powerless to re-
late even that which he has felt and knows.

"Gifted writers have told of storms at sea, of the wreck-
ing of vessels, where hundreds of lives were at stake and
lost. That task pales into insignificance when compared
with the task of telling of a storm which threatened the
lives of perhaps 60,000 people, sent to their death per-

218 &ALVEST&N ACCOUNT.

haps 5,000 people, and left other thousands wounded,
homeless and destitute, and still others to cope with grave
responsibilities to relieve the stricken, to grapple with and
prevent anarchy's reign, to clear the water-sodden land of
putrefying bodies and rotting carcasses, to perform tasks
that try men's souls and sicken their hearts. The storm
at sea is terrible, but there are no such dreadful conse-
quences as those which have followed the storm on this sea-
coast. And it is men who passed through the terrors of the
storm, who faced death for hours, men ruined in property
and bereft of families, who took up the herculean and well
nigh impossible task of bringing order out of chaos, of
caring for the living and getting the dead away before
they made life impossible here.

"The storm came not without warning, but the danger
which threatened was not realized, not even when the
storm was upon the city. Friday night the sea was angry.
Saturday morning it had grown in fury and the wrecking
of the beach resorts began. The waters of the gulf pushed
inland. The wind came at a terrific rate from the north.
Still men went to their business and about their work,
while hundreds went to the beach to witness the grand
spectacle which the raging sea presented. As the hours
rolled on the wind gained in velocity and the waters crept
higher and higher. The wind changed from the north to
the northeast, and the water came in from the bay, filling
the streets and running like a mill race. Still the great
danger was not realized. Men attempted to reach their
homes in carriages, wagons, boats, afoot, in any way pos-
sible. Others went out in the storm for a lark. As the
day wore on the water increased in depth, and the wind
tore more madly over the island. Men who had delayed

GALVESTON ACCOUNT. 219

starting for home, hoping for an abatement of the storm,
concluded that the storm would grow worse, and went out
in that howling, raging, furious storm, wading through
water almost to their necks, dodging flying missiles swept
by a wind blowing 100 miles an hour.

"Still the wind increased in velocity, even after it
seemed impossible that it should be more swift. It
changed from east to southeast, veering constantly, calm-
ing for a second, and then coming with awful, terrific
jerks, so terrible in their power that no building could
withstand them, and none wholly escaped injury. The
maximum velocity of the wind will never be known. The
gauge at the weather bureau registered 100 miles an hour
and blew away at 5 :10 o'clock. But the storm at that
hour was as nothing when compared with what followed
and the maximum velocity must have been as great as
120 miles an hour. The most intense period and the
most anxious time was between 8 :30 and 9 o'clock. With
a raging sea rolling around them, with a wind so terrific
that none could hope to escape its fury, with roofs being
torn away and buildings crashing all around them, men,
women and children were huddled in buildings, caught
like rats, expecting to be crushed to death or drowned in
the sea, yet cut off from escape. Buildings were torn
down, burying their hundreds, and were swept inland,
piling up great heaps of wreckage. Hundreds of people
were thrown into the water in the height of the storm,
some to meet instant death, others to struggle for a time
in vain, and thousands of others to escape death in most
miraculous and marvelous ways. Hundreds of the dead
were washed across the island and the bay, many miles
inland. Hundreds of bodies were buried in the wreck-

220 GALVESTON ACCOUNT.

age. Many who escaped were in the water for hours,
clinging to drift wood, and were landed, bruised and bat-
tered and torn, on the mainland. Others were picked up
at sea.

"And all during the terrible storm acts of the greatest
heroism were performed. Hundreds and hundreds of
brave men, as brave as the world ever knew, buffeted with
the waves and rescued hundreds and hundreds of their
fellow men. Hundreds of them went to their death — the
death that they knew they must inevitably meet in their
efforts; hundreds of them perished after saving others —
heroes, martyrs, men who exemplified that supreme degree
of love of which the Master spoke :

" 'Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down
his life for his friend.'

"Many of the men who laid down their lives in this
storm did so in efforts to save their families, many to save
friends, many more to save people of whom they had never
heard ; they simply knew that human beings were in dan-
ger, and they counted their own lives as naught.

"It is the irony of fate that many of those who left
their own homes to seek seeming safety in other buildings
perished beneath ruins or in the water, while their own
homes remained standing. Scores and scores of people
took refuge in the homes that had been deserted by their
owners and were lost. Some who remained in seemingly
insecure buildings, in structures long since deemed un-
safe, escaped unhurt.

"As the great danger of the storm was not realized in
advance, neither was it realized by many even during its
progress. Many slept while it was intense. And even the
horror and extent of the storm was not realized when it

GALVE8TON ACCOUNT. 221

had passed. As the days grow on the awfulness of the
catastrophe is being ascertained and appreciated."

The heroism of sacrifice is portrayed in this paragraph
from the Galveston News of September 21 :

"The News can not commend too highly the work done
by the army of volunteer laborers since the hurricane of
September 8. The great catastrophe through which Gal-
veston is passing has brought out the fact more strongly
than it has perhaps ever been demonstrated in any com-
munity that there is more good in man than evil. The
world is not half so bad as pessimists try to make out. It
is safe to say that fully half, perhaps two-thirds, of the
lives lost at Galveston were lost in the determination to
save others. Strong men and strong women refused to flee
and leave more helpless members of their families to die.
They made up their minds to save the weaker ones or per-
ish with them, and alas ! in many cases it was perish with
them. As soon as Galveston realized the herculean task
before her in burying the dead, it was hardly necessary to
call for volunteers. It was a rare exception to see an able-
bodied man loafing about the streets. During the trying
period which has followed the hurricane, nearly every
man, black and white, who has been able to do a good day's
work has been at work, and there have been few cases
where it was necessary to impress these men into service.
Galveston's awful catastrophe has demonstrated to the
world the manhood of her splendid citizenship. In making
this notice it is particularly cheering to be able to say that
these words, in a general way, apply to the black man as
well as the white. On the night of the storm many and
many a black man risked his own life to save the lives of
white people. In this perilous work the black man was

222 GALVESTON ACCOUNT.

better equipped than many white men because in the ma-
jority of cases he is in better physical condition and is more
of an athlete. The News has heard of a great many cases
where white people owe their lives to negroes and the News
has heard of few cases where the negroes have gone about
the streets boasting of the acts of heroism they have per-
formed. The days following the hurricane would have
been black indeed but for the ray of light shed by the army
of volunteer laborers which went to work with heart and
soul to bury the dead and open some of the streets so that
communication could be had with different parts of the
city. Now that the balance of this gigantic task is about
to be turned over to others under contract the News can
not refrain from this meed of praise to the volunteer
laborer.

"Shall Galveston be rebuilt larger and better than ever ?
Ask the miners of the West, ask the harvesters of Kansas
and our own Panhandle. Ask all the country pouring into
Galveston' s lap its export wealth and see what the answer
be. 'As long as a necessity exists for your city from a
commercial point of view it must be rebuilt and continue
to grow/ As well may Canute of old beat back the waves
as that any Canute of modern times say that the tide of
commerce will be rolled back and held in abeyance by the
winds or waves of an occasional storm. When there is no
longer a need for a local mining town it soon ceases to exist.
Should we abandon Galveston to her fate and turn our
backs on her; other and worthier men would come here,
making it their domicile and carry out the work we shortly
must begin. But what of the building? When the He-
brews of old began to rebuild their beloved Jerusalem they
carried the sword in one hand. So must we, not literally

CRAWFORD STREET INUNDATED AND BLOCKED WITH POLES.

GALVESTON ACCOUNT. 225

as now under martial law, but figuratively. When Cap-
tain James B. Eads said we must raise Galveston island
eight feet and build a sea wall, spoke he more wisely than
we know. I see our congressman proposes to call the at-
tention of congress to it and estimates that it will cost in
the neighborhood of a million dollars for a sea wall. Pos-
sibly ten millions would be closer to it. But why count the
cost ? Is there any man in this city, in our broad state,
or in the entire Union who questions that if built before
this flood it would have been a grand undertaking and a
judicious investment of money on the part of our national
government ? Saying that the 5,000 lives lost were viewed
only as value producers, would it not have been great econ-
omy ?"

CHAPTEK XIV.

THE FIRST STEPS OF RECONSTBUCTION.

Galveston, when her great trial came, when she was
wrecked and at sea, cut off from the world and over-
whelmed, thousands of her people killed, all her property
damaged except the harbor, which was deepened, and the
survivors walked amid indescribable horrors as if in fever
dreams, and beheld infernos such as Dante never imagined
or Dore painted, was fortunate in the possession of an.
energetic press, and her newspapers were of the first of her
interests to show the inspiration of reconstruction. Col.
II. H. Belo, publisher of the Galveston News, said that
Galveston will be rebuilt at once, and that the new build-
ings will be stronger than those which were swept away
by the disaster. Colonel Belo was not in Galveston at the
time, but he has been in daily communication with his
business associates ever since the calamity.

"The storm and flood taught us a number of signifi-
cant things," said Colonel Belo in an interview. "It has
demonstrated rather clearly that the loss of life would
have been comparatively light if the buildings had
been of a more solid character. I don't mean to inti-
mate that there would have been no loss of life and no
property damage. There was no escape from great dam-
age. There was no escape from great loss of life and prop-
erty, but we should have suffered less if the buildings had
been more substantially built. The Ursuline convent was
surrounded by a brick wall, for instance — a light brick
fence, and there was no loss of life there, although it stood

226

RECONSTRUCTION. 227

right in the path of the flood and storm. Light as the
wall was, it served to protect the buildings. There were
no lives lost in the News office, and we should not have
been badly flooded had it not been for a building falling
against our office and battering in a part of our wall.

"I think, too, that the streets along the water front will
be built higher than they were. The city must needs be
rebuilt. It is the only outlet worthy the name on the gulf
west of New Orleans. The government spent six million
dollars to make a 3 0-foot harbor there and the shippingis so
extensive that rebuilding the wrecked portions of the city
is imperative."

This is an expression worthy to be remembered with the
brave words of Medill of the Chicago Tribune, when he
struck the key-note that Chicago should rise again.

The following telegram was sent out September 20, by
P. H. Goodwin, general freight agent of the Gulf, Colo-
rado & Santa Fe:

"I am issuing instructions to all our agents that the
Santa Fe will be open for Galveston business on the 21st,
at which time our bridge over the bay will be completed.
All roads have been combined for work on the Santa Fe
bridge and the officials express the utmost confidence that
the Santa Fe, the International & Great Northern, the
Southern Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas will
be able to handle freight and passengers in and out. The
relief supplies are carried in by barges and the special ship-
ments from Texas and other towns have gone in that way.
The Southern Pacific has called from its extension all the
men working there, at North Texas, and has put them to
work on the line between Beaumont and Sabine to get it
in working order and open that port."

228 RECONSTRUCTION.

Official reports from interior towns, a few days after
the disaster, told of extensive desolation.

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, about
2,500, making a total of 5,000 persons, under the super-
vision of the Alvin committee. The committee has a suf-
ficient amount of clothing. They have received a cash sub-
scription of about $2,000 and have spent $400. Have
received two cars of flour from Dallas, one car of meat
from Dallas, one car of mixed goods from Tyler. Along
the bay shore from \7irginia Point to Liverpool, for six
or eight miles from the bay front, there are many thousand
dead cattle that should be immediately cremated.

Arcadia — In the town there are 300 destitute persons
and those in the immediate vicinity will make the aggre-
gate 500. Provisions supplied sufficient for immediate
needs only.

Hitchcock — In this town and immediate vicinity are
more than 500 people 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 the soil has
been seriously damaged by the effect of the salt water.
There are probably 10,000 dead cattle within a space of a
few miles surrounding the town, and every house should be
supplied for at least ten days with disinfectants. Fever
is now setting in. An idea of the velocity of the wind and
wave of salt water that swept over this immediate seetion

RECONSTRUCTION. 229

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.

Alta Loma — This committee reports about seventy-five
families, or 300 persons, to be cared for. People have no
money and their property is destroyed. In the neighbor-
hood 100 houses existed, forty of which were destroyed.
There are about four houses now on blocks. Two lives
were lost. The population is mainly of Northerners. A
shipment was made them of provisions and medicine, but
other things are needed.

September 17. Up and down the International and
Great Northern, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the
Santa Fe, and their connections the wires are carrying the
official information that Galveston will be a terminal, a
sure enough port, as soon as the traffic can reach here. The
welcome official announcement was in these terms : "Issue
bills of lading to Galveston and through Galveston to other
points." The Vice-Presidents and General-Managers and
general agents have mastered the railroad wreck, they have
set the time for the running of the first train into Galves-
ton, and that time is Friday, September 21. By that date,
according to the engineers, the temporary bridge will be
ready for use.

The news that the roads had declared readiness to accept
freight for Galveston and through Galveston was circu-
lated late this evening, and was received by business men
as tidings of great joy. It added greatly to the improve-
ment of spirit. For several days after the storm the
prediction was that no trains would enter Galveston under
thirty days and that the time might be sixty days.

Equally exhilarating with the action of the railroad men

230 RECONSTRUCTION.

was the action to-night by Secretary Bailey of tfo Wharf
company that exportation of wheat would be resumed to-
morrow morning. The machinery of elevator A was
started up and was successful. This afternoon the wharf
was cleared. A steamship was brought under the spout
and loading will begin early in the morning. James
Stewart, Mr. Orthwein, and other St. Louis grain men who
are here believe that almost the entire stock of wheat
caught here by the storm will be saved.

The work of repairing roofs goes ahead steadily, but
rebuilding has not begun. In this evening's paper a loan
agency advertises that it has money to loan to those who
will rebuild. The agency claims to have $300,000 now
and that it will increase the amount to $500,000 in a few
days. This is the first instance since the flood when people
not already holders of property have shown a willingness
to invest anything in Galveston in real estate.

Clothing has been coming in by the carload every day
for a week, but there are still people in Galveston who have
hardly enough to cover their nakedness. There are hun-
dreds of children who have not had enough clothes to go
out on the street since the storm. At the central relief
station, 20th street and Strand, unfortunates begin to
gather early in the day.

September 18, Governor Sayers, speaking of the Gal-
veston situation, said:

"I look to 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 its rebuilding.

"If the laboring people of Galveston will only get to

RECONSTRUCTION. 231

work in earnest, prosperity will soon again smile on the
city. Arrangements have been made to pay all laborers
working under the military authorities $1.50 and rations
for every day they have worked or will work. An ac-
count has been kept of all work done and no laborer will
lose even one day's pay.

"The money and food contributions coming from a
generous people have been a great help to the people of
Galveston. Much of the money can now be applied to the
improvement of property and to again putting on foot
the city's business enterprises. Five dollars a day is being
offered to the mechanics who will go to Galveston, with the
assurance from reputable physicians that there is not ex-
traordinary danger of sickness. Before many days a new
city will rise on the storm-swept ruins.

"It is now an assured fact that trains will be running
into Galveston this week. Colonel L. J. Polk, of the Santa
Fe, received a very encouraging message from the head-
quarters of his road, declaring confidence in Galveston,
and urging the business community to push forward the
work of reconstruction. Colonel Polk said in an inter-
view:

"The railroad interests have decided to combine their
forces in order to rebuild as quickly as possible a bridge
from Virginia Point to Galveston. A large number of
men will go to work with this end in view. You may say
to the country that in six days a bridge will have been
built and trains running over it. I have had a consulta-
tion with the wharf interests and they have promised us
that they will be prepared to handle ingoing and outgoing
shipments by the time the bridge is finished. The bridge
we shall build will be substantial, but of temporary char-

232 RECONSTRUCTION.

acter. We shall subsequently replace it with a more en-
during structure. There is no reason why Galveston ought
not to resume normal commercial conditions in ten days."

Colonel Prather, president of the Board of Regents of
the Medical College, and Colonel Breckinridge, a mem-
ber of the Board, are among the recent arrivals. They
found the building of the institution badly shattered, but
on their return it was announced that the college would
be immediately reconstructed by private beneficence if
the State was unable to bear the cost.

Five days after the flood this was written :

"The sound of the hammer is heard everywhere. Ama-
teur carpenters are patching and strengthening homes,
which in the better spirit that prevails they now hope to
save. It is now quite possible for teams to travel the
streets in the business part of the city and to some extent
the residence section. To be sure, there are places where
passage through the debris has been cleared only enough
to let one vehicle get by at a time. But the condition im-
proves hourly.

"Passing along Tremont and looking up and down the
cross-streets, one sees hundreds of wagons and carts loaded
high with the fragments of building material. As quickly
as the refuse can be taken up it is hauled to vacant spaces
and added to the bonfires, which burn continuously.

"Galveston is going through a kind of purification by
fire. One of the strongest impressions that are gained of
the work of restoration is from the sites in front of the
stores. Merchants and clerks are overhauling stocks.
Where the articles are such that it can be done they are
carried out in front of the stores and spread in the sun
to dry. Tons of dry goods, clothing, hats and caps, boots

RECONSTRUCTION. 233

and <shoes are spread in the streets and on the pavements,
so in places it is difficult to get past. In these stores the
watermark on the walls and shelves varies from waist to
shoulder high. Everything below these levels was sat-
urated. The loss of stock affected by water is great. But
the disposition of the storekeepers to make the best of it
and to save something, even if badly damaged, is cheering.
The men who have taken the lead in this crisis are full of
confidence.''

Eight days passed without rain in Galveston after the
hurricane, and there was hardly a house in the city that
had a sound roof. Cremation of the dead and clearing
of the streets had taxed the energies of the people. There
had not yet been time to give attention to roofs. Such
repairs as had been made to buildings had been in the form
of straightening and strengthening them so that they
might not fall down. Many, while still standing, are
leaning like the tower of Pisa, or are partly off the founda-
tions. When the rain poured down it entered the houses,
still called habitable, and drenched the contents again.

The faces of the people showed the influence of the
rain. They were overspread with sadness. The hopeful-
ness, which had been lighting up their features, was gone.
But it was only an hour of depression. Then the shower,
for that was all it proved to be, passed. The sun came
out. All Galveston went to work with renewed energy.
Three or four horse cars made their appearance, and,
drawn by mules, were operated over several streets. At
the wharves there was activity. The loading of wheat for
export was commenced.

Cremation and cleaning went on. The finding and

234 RECONSTRUCTION.

burning of over 100 bodies in a day shows that the end of
this duty is not yet in sight.

In the southern and southwestern parts of the city, the
great windrow of wreckage still stood, concealing from
sight, but not from smell, what was underneath.

An order of the military government, directed against
idle negro women, went into operation the 18th. E"egro
men had been working — most of them voluntarily, the
others by impressment — ever since the storm. Many
negro women had also been industrious. But it came to
the knowledge of the authorities that a certain element
was depending on relief supplies and was refusing to do
laundry work, or house cleaning, or anything else for fair
wages. These women had been standing about the doors
of the ward relief stations all day long, with baskets. The
order which was put into effect was as follows :

TO IDLEKS.

aln view of the fact that a number of idle women are
wandering about the streets and refusing to work, it has
been decided by the central relief committee to establish
a camp, in which these women will be held and kept off
the streets and out of the way of those who are performing
the herculean task of cleaning this city and burying the
dead. Warning is hereby given that all these idlers will
be required to stay at their homes or be taken to camp.

"This order is not to be construed as aimed at females
who are transacting business in the city, but is designed
to correct the evil brought about by the vicious and idle
class."

On the eighth day after the storm this message came
from the stricken city:

RECONSTRUCTION. J35

"The tents have come, and, with board floors and fences
separating them, now make a white city on the beach front
where the houses were swept away. They will be much
safer and healthier than many of the shattered buildings
whi*h are yet occupied by the poorer classes. There have
been, until now, some people finding shelter in the wooden
cisterns which the wind blew off their foundations and left
lying about the streets and parks. Others are in houses
without roofs and windows, and still others are in build-
ings the walls of which are far from perpendicular."

It is a fact of much interest that while the storm re-
duced the grades of the streets two feet to a great extent,
the harbor was deepened about as much. A Galveston
business man said :

"We have the grandest harbor here. Why, our channel,
instead of being filled by the storm carrying sand into
it, was scoured two feet deeper than it was before. We
had then twenty-eight to twenty-nine feet of water. We
have now thirty feet for the first time in the port's history.

"Talk about Galveston giving up," continued Mr. Rob-
inson; "this great wharf property is worth $18,000,000.
It sustained a loss of less than $500,000. The company
has 1,000 men at work on the repairs. I stared eternity
in the face on Saturday night and was ready to go. To-
day I have more energy and ambition than I ever had."

J. S. Mize, of a St. Louis grain exporting house, has
been here several days, having come with special reference
to his stock of wheat, which was at first supposed to be
lost. He confirmed from his own investigation the state-
ment of Mr. Robinson that with continued good weather
the wheat would be saved.

236 RECONSTRUCTION.

"We are open and doing business as usual. Our com-
press will be in operation within a week/' he said.

It is worthy of notice that the same hopefulness was
manifested on the part of the Galveston business men as
was shown by those who suffered from the terrible fire
in Chicago.

It was on the third day after the Chicago fire had
failed that the people in general recovered from their
paralysis, and General Sheridan took the superintendence
of the city for the preservation of order under his own
charge. He had already dispatched orders for the im-
mediate transfer to Chicago of a regiment of soldiers from
Omaha, and these arrived on that day with arms, equip-
ments and tents. Soon the civil authorities resumed their
functions.

A writer in 18Y2 said in a calm survey of the wonders
wrought after the desolation :

aThe entire history of the world contains no record,
that we remember or know of, of such a spontaneous and
general uprising of a great people in a work of sympathy
or charity, as that which immediately followed the news
of this grievous and appalling disaster. In less than
twelve hours after the commencement of the conflagration
— long before it had ended — the whole country, shocked
and excited by Chicago's calamity, was alive with move-
ments for her relief. Money without limit, and food and
clothing without measure, were promptly offered and sent,
first by the towns and cities in the immediate region round
about, and soon afterward by every town and city and
community — we had almost said every individual and
corporation — throughout the land. Words of inquiry and
sympathy and cheer were telegraphed to the Chicago

RECONSTRUCTION. 237

city authorities and to well-known residents from all direc-
tions by men who were anxious to help us in the terrible
hour of need. City and village governments appropriated
hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands from their
treasuries for the relief of Chicago sufferers. Societies
and corporations contributed and forwarded liberal con-
tributions. Carloads of food, clothing, fuel and other
needful articles were sent from the East, the South, the
West and the North. The women of distant towns em-
ployed their busy hands, days and nights, in the making
up of clothing ; and in various ways and by various means,
funds and other contributions were raised for unfortu-
nate Chicago. And, thanks to these noble acts of generous
and munificent liberality, Chicago's unfortunates were
spared from having the still more grievous calamity of
starvation added to their overwhelming disaster."

Goodspeed says the citizens of Chicago, whose homes
had escaped, "were at once upon their feet, offering hos-
pitality and sympathy to the sufferers, to their own dis-
comfort, inconvenience and loss; cheering and helping
one another by brave words, kindly offices and lenient
treatment, insomuch that there never was such a calamity
accompanied by less actual suffering, or followed by such
ample relief. The immensity of the loss was met by
prompt and efficient assistance, unexpected and unparal-
leled in history.

"The offers of pecuniary aid to men crippled in busi-
ness were on the largest scale, as if men rose to the height
of the emergency under the inspiration of the Almighty.
The alabaster box was full of costly ointment, and when it
was broken upon us, the fragrance filled the world, and
will perfume the age. Its sweetness ought to possess man-

238 RECONSTRUCTION.

kind with a sense of brotherhood, and draw them into
closer fellowship."

A great city, the center of a prosperous country, com-
mensurate with it in greatness, survives fires, floods and
plagues, as in the cases of London and New York and
Chicago, and the word comes clear from Galveston, that
the seaport city of the South on the Gulf, like the great
city of the Great Lakes of the North, shall rise again, and
rise triumphant and glorious.

The News had a bureau of information. The following
is a part of one day's correspondence (September 21) :

Galveston, Tex., Sept. 20. — To the News: Any one
knowing anything about Mrs. D. Beaudion, who resided at
Twenty-eighth and Avenue P, will kindly favor by re-
porting to Masonic Temple.

Information is wanted about Lewis Harris, lost in the
storm. Please address M. C. Harris, City.

Lampasas, Tex., Sept. 17. — Can you kindly furnish me
information of my relatives, who, I am afraid, were lost
in the storm. My father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Linnett, lived a mile from Clear Creek postomce. My
sisters, Alderman Schrieber and wife and eight children,
lived on Avenue H and Eighth street. Mr. Lewis Cook,
wife and seven children, lived on Sixth street, between
H and I. Mrs. Jake Childers.

Any one knowing the fate or present whereabouts of
Mrs. Etta Bartlett's children will please address her at
Roswell, N. M. If either Mr. H. T. or Lizzie Steck, who
lived at 1415 Avenue M, are alive, Mrs. Bartlett would
like to hear from them.

RECONSTRUCTION. 239

Austin, Tex., Sept. 15. — Will you kindly inform me
whether or not Mr. Charles Wegener and family of your
city are still alive or lost. It is impossible for me to find
out from other people. Mr. Charles Wegener has been a
carpenter by trade and was living, if I am not mistaken,
west of the depot. H. A. Herzog.

Jennings, La., Sept. 17. — To the News : Any informa-
tion regarding the whereabouts or probable fate of Mr. and
Mrs. B. E. Sukenbell, who lived on Avenue O, No. 1615,
before the storm ; also John Fredwell, and made known at
511 Fifteenth street, or at or between Fourteenth and Fif-
teenth streets to Fred Plain, will be very much appreciated
by an anxious friend. The last I heard of John Fredwell
he had gone to San Antonio. Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Suken-
bell are a sister and brother-in-law of mine.

J. C. Bucklin.

Pittsburg, Kan., Sept. 17". — To the News : I have writ-
ten, also sent a dispatch, to the mayor of Galveston. After
three days the reply came, "Not reported lost." I hardly
know what to infer. I would come and investigate for
myself but means forbid, and trust to the people of your
city even in their own trouble to help me. My son was 33
years old, something over six feet high, was well propor-
tioned, dark hair, dark sandy mustache, blue eyes; was
married to Mary F. Chittenden. The union was blessed
with three sweet little girls, Mary Frances, Katie Beatrice,
third, only two months old, named Jennie Cecil. I give
the names so that if any one finds the little ones they tell
their names if still living. He was a member of the 'long-

240 RECONSTRUCTION.

shoremen's union, lived at 3619 Postoffice street; name,
Edward P. McG-owen. Any information most thankfully
received by his mother. Jane S. Anshutz,

802 East Twenty-third Street.

Eureka, Mo., Sept. IT. — To the News: Please assist
me in finding information about my relatives in Galveston,
if they are living or dead. Names are : Mr. John Young,
wife and two daughters and one son, Mr. T. D. Eichardson
and wife. Address was, before the storm, 3324. Avenue L.

Mrs. F. Byrne.

New Orleans, La., Sept. 18. — To the News : If any of
my people of the Nolan, Laf ranee and Hussey families are
still alive, I would like to hear from them. I have tried to
reach them by mail and wire, but my efforts have proven
fruitless. A telegram here to E. O. Zatarain from Mrs.
Erank Jones stated that her own family and my^brother-
in-law, James Lafrance, were saved, but that my mother
and brother, John, were lost. Eurther I have been unable
to learn. James Nolan,

518 Natchez Street.

Robert Quinn, who formerly resided in Colorado addi-
tion, wishes to let his friends know that he is at Houston,
in the St. Joseph infirmary. He expects to be out in a
couple of weeks.

Los Angeles, Cal., gept. 16. — To the News : Could you
give us any information or any advice how to find out the
whereabouts of the family of O. J. Seibel, consisting of
father, mother and two children, Henry, aged 18, and
Lesa, aged 10 We would be very grateful to you if you

RECONSTR UCTION. 241

would please let us know as soon as possible, as they are
dear friends. They have been living at their own home at
2521 Avenue Q, between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth
streets, for the past eighteen years. C. C. Kriewald,
909 Avenue 37, Los Angeles, Cal.

Vernon, Tex., Sept. 16. — To the News: I have reasons
to believe that Mr. John Butterfield's name should be
added to the death list. I left him the day before the dis-
aster in your city, he arranging to meet me the day after at
Forth Worth. He represented an eastern gents' furnish-
ing concern. Have not been able to hear of him since.

A. M. Phelps.

Eochester, N. Y., Sept. 16.— To the News: Will you
kindly inquire if Harry Jacobs, employed by Ikelheimer's
dry goods and notion house, is safe. Mrs. V. Booth,

15 Kent Street.

New Orleans, La., Sept. 17. — To the News : Will you
kindly give me information of Mr. and Mrs. George Bro-
cious and family. They resided at 1809 Thirty-first street.
Mr. Brocious is the proprietor of the Galveston art, glass
and mirror works. Also his partner, Mr. G. L. Enen. By
doing so you will oblige. M. Heidingsf elder,

No. 2222 Cleveland Avenue.

Orange, Tex., Sept. 18. — To the News: Information
wanted of Thomas J. Hawley and wife, Nellie, Gas L.
Turner, all of K, 1118 and 11, by

Mrs. Hammond Starks.

Beaumont, Tex., Sept. 18.— To the News: Would like
to know the whereabouts of L. C. Ramakers and wife.

T. J. Lamb.

242 RECONSTRUCTION.

Glidden, Tex., Sept. 18.— To the News : Are Ben Wil-
son and wife, residing at Avenue Q and Thirty-seventh,

Mrs. C. M. Cody.

Glidden, Tex., Sept. 18. — To the News : Can you give
me any information about Mrs. Ella Bridges (colored) ?
Her address, Avenue K, between Thirty-second and Thirty-
third, No. 3218. Any information concerning her will be
thankfully received. Mrs. Margaret Hill.

Wolfe City, Tex., Sept. 18.— To the News: We hap-
pened to get one of your papers to-day, and I saw where, if
any one had relatives lost in the awful storm there, that
you would help them find them. Now I had a sister and
her four sons there. Since the storm we can not hear
from them. Have written and telegraphed and done all
in our power, but can not hear from them. Her name is
Mrs. Mary E. Edmonds, Willie Edmonds, eldest son ; Lon-
nie Edmonds, Lee Edmonds and Freddie Edmonds. They
lived at 1923 Avenue O-J. In heaven's name help me
find some trace of them and receive my grateful thanks.

Mrs. Lou Holton.

New Orleans, La., Sept. 17. — To the News: In the
published list of the storm victims I find the name of Al-
bert Ludwig, printer. I have a son of this name. His
whereabouts are unknown to me. He is not a printer by
trade, but has followed several trades. He is 26 years of
age, fair complexion, well built, 5 feet 8 inches, and good
looking. He left Cincinnati about January this year. I
hope the unlucky man is not my son, but please relieve his
anxious family. Chas. Ludwig,

2031 Magazine Street.

RECON8TR UCTION. 243

Acola Farm, near Terry, Miss., Sept. 16. — To the News :
Please inform me, if you know, what has become of John
Holt and Dennis Atchison. They are my nephews. Since
reading about your dreadful storm, I would like to know
if they are safe. John Holt and Atchison were engaged
in some business in Galveston the last I heard from them.

James W. Holt.

Galveston, Sept. 19. — To the News : In reply to inquiry
as to myself and family of A. R. Miller, Houston, Tex.,
please state that my family and self, as well as all relatives,
are among the saved and living. A. R. Wolfram.

Welcome, Tex.— E. W. Gruss: Rev. J. C. Roehrn's
people are all safe, same address ; also Rev. Engelke.

Ernest Titze.

Galveston, Sept. 19. — To the News: Henry Jackson,
Colmesneil, Tex. : Mrs. Jane Jones and Pattie Jones are
in Dallas, Tex. Address to cotton mills of Dallas, Tex.

Ernest Titze.

J. Chancie Kernole, Bryan, Tex. : Boatright family all
saved, except the old lady. Brown and his wife safe;
everything lost.

E. A. Lovell, Apartado 413, El Oro, Mexico, wants in-
formation regarding Mrs. Wenona M. Nogle.

Information is wanted of Meless Garza, student at
Smith's business college ; Ben Staskins, railroad workman ;
Max Wongeman, lived on I, between Thirtieth and Thirty-
first. Leave word at Geo. Schneider & Co., Strand and
Tremont.

244 RECONSTRUCTION.

Winchester, Tex., Sept. 18. — To the News: Can any
one give me any information as to the whereabouts of Jas.
A. Dabney; former home Thirty-second and Winnie
streets ? W. F. Brieger.

Lampasas, Tex., Sept. 18. — Please inform me of the
fate of Pete Schreiber's family, as I do not see their names
among the living or dead, and oblige, yours truly,

L. P.. Shaw.

Pasadena, Tex., Sept. 17. — To the News: Can you
give me any information concerning Rev. W. H. Ohmstead,
wife and daughter? His friends here have tried many
means to hear from him in vain. Mrs. J. J. Otis.

Galveston, Sept. 19. — To the News : Anyone knowing
anything about Mrs. A. C. Hagman, who resided at 1411
Mechanic street, please report at Masonic Temple.

Devine, Tex., Sept. 19. — To the News: Please let me
know if the following persons are among the rescued : Mrs.
Maggie Thompson, widow of Chas. E. Thompson ; Edward
E. Thompson, son of above; Geo. W. Grover and wife,
Mrs. Lulu Pettibone, Walter Ansel and family, Win.
Schadt and family, Jno. M. Neil, Nora Neil, Wm. Neil,
children of late Dennis Neil. Leslie Thompson.

Humbolt, 111., Sept. 17. — To the News : I have a sister,
or did have before this terrible calamity in Galveston. Her
residence was 1112 Ninth street, between K and L; her
name, Mrs. Hannah Huhn. Was the property all de-
stroyed in that part of the city ? Can you tell me if she is
dead or living ? Can you tell me anything of John Her-

TR U CTION. 245

rington and family \ He was a contractor. He lived at
the corner of Avenue K and Seventh street.

Mrs. Dollie Terry.

Columbia, Tex., Sept. 18, — To the News: I have a
son, Alonzo McNeil, colored, residing at Galveston, on
Seventeenth, between N and NJ, house No. 1513. I am
afraid he has been lost. Please advise me if he is living or
dead and I will always appreciate your kindness.

Promise McNeil.

Mrs. Geo. Sealey said :

"The storm has been terrible; the loss of life and the
damage to property great. But we must look to the future
and all pull together. The entire nation has generously
responded to the appeal for help, and Galveston must and
will prove herself worthy the sympathy and confidence of
the people of this country.

"It is highly improbable that such another storm will
strike again in this exact spot within the next thousand
years, and there is no reason why we should not go ahead,
rebuild our city and live and do business at the old stand.

"The fact that many of our buildings withstood the
storm and came out without injury proves that we can
build a city that will stand. Much of the loss of life and
property was due to improper construction. We must and
will build better houses.

"The wharves are not much damaged, and they are ready
for business. They will be restored to good repair just as
rapidly as it is possible to do the work. In a month from
now the business district of the city will carry no evidences
that there has been a storm, and in a year from now the

246 RECONSTRUCTION.

city will be rebuilt and will be a better and bigger city than
before.'7

The construction of the bridge across Galveston bay has
been a marvel of hustling, and the dispatch with which it
has been done reflects the indomitable energy, good judg-
ment and skill of the men who had it in charge. The work
was not started on the bridge until Thursday of last week,
because the material could not be gotten to the place, but
when it was started Vice President Barr and General Su-
perintendent Nixon said : "We will run trains into Gal-
veston next Thursday." Not many people expected that
they could make good the promise, and almost everybody
said they would be satisfied if the trains came within a
fortnight. But the men who directed the work said that
trains would cross on Thursday, and they stuck to it.

No work was ever beset by such difficulties as the work
of restoring the tracks on the island and the mainland and
the building of the bridge. The men on the track had to
bury dead humans and animals, strewn by the hundreds
over the prairies. They toiled in mud and water under a
blazing sun. They had to remove hundreds of wrecked
cars and twisted and tangled steel rails. They worked in
the stench of dead flesh and the horrible odor of rotting
grain and other wreckage. They built the track over a
wreck-strewn prairie torn by the angry sea. It was diffi-
cult to get supplies to them and difficult also to get ma-
terial.

The men who rebuilt the bridge worked the first day
without dinner. It was difficult to get boats light enough
in draft to bring provisions or materials or pile drivers to
Virginia Point. When the boarding camp was pitched it
stood in a new-made cemetery, where hundreds of victims

RECONSTRUCTION. 247

of the storm lay unidentified, unshrouded and uncoflined.

For the first four days after construction was com-
menced, the bridge timbers were rafted down Highland
bayou and West bay, a distance of seven miles, to Virginia
Point. When the track on the mainland had been restored
to Virginia Point, the delivery of material by rail began.
The storm swept away most of the pile drivers around Gal-
veston. One marine driver was sent out and put to work
on Sunday closing the gaps aggregating about 1,000 feet
of trestlework, where the piling had been carried away.
The next day another marine driver was sent out, and
Assistant Engineer Boschke of the Southern Pacific built
two skid drivers and sent them out to the work.

When a reporter for the News was at the island end of
the bridge at 9 :30 o'clock yesterday morning the Santa Fe
track to the island had just been completed. The steel-
laying gang on the bridge was about a mile from shore,
with the stringer gangs about half that distance away. The
caps were laid up all the way to the shore. The Santa Fe
has some pretty rough tracks for a short distance this side
of the bridge, but the track through the west yards is in
good condition and in fair condition the rest of the way in.

Advertisements are official in their nature. They are
written for personal purposes, and are wonderful for con-
densation. We select a few from the Galveston News of
September 21 :

Wanted — Carpenters, laborers, tinners and bricklayers ;
No. 26 Builders' Exchange. J. E. Toothaker.

Wanted — Bricklayers and laborers; will pay good
wages. Apply Ed Ringh, Contractor, 4208 Broadway.

Wanted — A good cook, man or woman, German pre-

248 RECONSTRUCTION.

ferred. A steady position to right party. Mrs. J. H.
Kurth, Keltys, Tex.

Wanted — Twenty-five first-class tinners, cornice-makers
and slaters ; good wages. Peightal & Booth., 2916 Avenue
H, Galveston.

Wanted — Young men to learn telegraphy for railroad
positions; situations secured or money refunded. Dallas
Telegraph College, Dallas, Tex.

If you want to sell any kind of damaged goods, ship or
write Austin, Spencer & Co., San Angelo, Tex. We can
get bigger prices than any house in Texas and can sell any-
thing. Reference, A. J. Baker, hanker, San Angelo, Tex.

Wanted — A reliable white woman for cooking and
housework. Apply at 2215 Avenue L.

Wanted — White woman to do general housework (flood
sufferer preferred). Apply at "N. E. corner Twenty-first
and Avenue O.

Found — Trunk, September 9, 1900, belonging to N. G.
Gullett. Owner can have by applying corner Sixteenth
and Broadway. Delia Spann.

Lost — Valuable papers in desk made of yellow pine,
rails of panels Mexican cedar. Reward if returned to
Fred Zickler, Lott Bros., K and Twenty-first.

Lost or Strayed — One large black mare mule ; also one
large dark brown mare mule ; also one sorrel mare horse,
with white tail and mane. Finder please return same to
Texas Lamp & Oil Co. and receive reward.

Lost — During late storm, a large 3-story chicken coop,
made of iron spokes and wood; coop shaped half circle.
Finder please return to C. D. Holmes, Market street, be-
tween Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth.

Lost — During storm, jewelry of my mother, marked

RECONSTRUCTION. 249

Jane F. Brown. With other jewelry was in possession of
Mrs. M. P. Hennessy. Suitable reward for recovery or in-
formation concerning same. Address George P. Brown,
Houston, Tex.

Anyone finding the following articles will be rewarded
by returning to Mrs. Joe Aguilo, care S. P. Howland, 2615
Main street, Houston : A large tin box filled with silver,
some marked T, some A, some L. A. T. and some A. and
J. A. ; two silver cups, one marked "Rodney," the other
"Joe, 1896" ; also a small trunk containing clothing, three
children's banks and a covered silver dish with some pieces
of silver in it ; also other silver and jewelry, and a leather
valise, containing one change of gentleman's clothing.

If Robert M. Johnston or Juanita Dean of Dallas are
in Galveston please call at the Odd Fellows' relief commit-
tee, Tremont hotel.

V. C. Hart of 2119 Avenue K, is anxious to see Mr. Jeff
McLeash, the painter who recently contracted to paint the
chapel car "Good Will."

Wanted for Adoption — Send names of any children or-
phaned by the storm and who are for adoption, together
with present residence, age, sex and other description, to
Box H, care News office.

Information Wanted — Is there a survivor of the family
of H. L. Briggs, who lived at 715 Mechanic ? Address K.
of P. relief committee, Galveston or Houston, or J. Ernest
Breda, ISFatchitoches, La.

Mr. C. D. Holmes, Sr., who had the misfortune to re-
ceive a severe gash in his leg during the late storm and
which has confined him since, is improving rapidly and ex-
pects to be up and out again within a few days.

Can anyone give information as to the whereabouts of

250 RECONSTRUCTION.

John or Frank Jackowick ? They were sent to St. Mary's
orphan asylum in 1882, ages 6 and 4 respectively. Their
sister wants to find them. Notify Steve Dudjiack, Ham-
mond, Tex.

Wanted — Information as to what disposition was made
of the remains of Major W. T. Levy's three children. He
resided at 3614 Avenue P and his body was found in a
northwesterly direction from his residence. Any grips,
books, papers or articles belonging to this family would be
cheerfully paid for. Please notify J. H. Hawley, I. & G.
!N~. R. R. office, corner Tremont and Mechanic streets.

Information wanted concerning the following children
of Jos. B. Aguilo : Frances, 9 years, tall for her age, slen-
der, dark hair, blue-gray eyes ; wore a dark blue cashmere
dress with three very large buttons across front, a string of
blue beads and an agate was around her neck ; also a rosary
of brown beads linked with silver, to which was attached a
black wooden crucifix bound with silver ; on her arm she
wore a gold bracelet. Baby Joe, aged 4 years, large for his
age ; big, dark eyes, lightish hair down to his neck, clipped
across forehead ; wore dark knee pants with buckles at the
knee ; shirt with a pink floriated stripe and a little frieze
reefer overcoat with a hood sailor coat. Any reliable in-
formation will be rewarded. Address S. P. Howland,
Wells-Fargo Express Co., Houston, Tex.

CITY PROPERTY.

Notice to the World — J. R. Davies & Co. are now ready
for business. We are cast down but not destroyed. We
have lost almost everything except our hope and courage.
Galveston must and shall be rebuilt— a greater, grander

RECONSTRUCTION. 251

and more glorious city than the old. Push, pluck and per-
sistency will do it. Our precious dead, lost in the "whelm-
ing flood," are safe ; let us honor their memory by our loy-
alty to the living. Now for business. We have for sale : A
six-room raised cottage, full lot, stable, south front, close
in; will sacrifice for $1,600; will rent for $25 per month;
owner going away. Eight-room raised cottage, nearly new,
a little south of O on Tremont; $5,000 before the flood,
will take $2,500 now; big speculation. Other houses and
lots almost to give away. J. R. Davies & Co., 510 Tre-
mont street.

If you have Galveston city property, with a good title,
for sale very cheap, write full particulars to Box 4, News
office.

Wanted — To buy for cash, Galveston real estate at a
sacrifice. State price and description of property. Ad-
dress Box 19, News.

I have several customers who want to buy Galveston Iocs
and pay cash for same if offered at a sacrifice. John A.
Caplen, 211 Tremont street.

Thompson Building — Two well-lighted offices, northeast
corner, for rent. Rooms in flat. Apply F. B. French,
Thompson building.

For Rent — House, six rooms, bath, artesian water ; also
large south room. Apply E. D. Hamner, 1902 Church
street.

For Rent — To responsible parties, high raised cottage,
furnished, $40. Box 14, News.

For Rent — Furnished rooms at No. 1910 Avenue H,
next to court house. No children.

Furnished rooms for light housekeeping ; also rooms for
gentlemen. 2128 Winnie, corner Twenty-second.

252 RECONSTRUCTION,

For Kent — For gentlemen only, fine furnished rooms.
Privilege of bathroom. William A. Hogan, 1724 Postoffice.

For Kent — Furnished south front room, for one or two
gentlemen. Mrs. Kate Cherry, corner Sixteenth and
Church streets.

To gentlemen only, three splendidly furnished rooms in
new private residence, uninjured by storm; all modern
conveniences; references exchanged. Box 2, News.

W. A. Hawkins is filling all orders as usual at 214 Tre-
mont street, Galveston, Tex. ; also has a branch house at
Dallas, Tex., where wire workers' orders for shells will
have our prompt attention.

We are now ready to take care of all electrical work.
Have your electrical motors overhauled at once. Nichols,
McGraw & Nichols, Electricians, 2406 Market street.

Ice Cream — You can buy pretty fair ice cream in lots
of places — really good ice cream in very few. This is one
of the really good places. We choose our materials with
the utmost care. Nothing can be too good for our ice
cream. Our methods are the best known. The result is
pure, delicious, wholesome cream. Let us have an order
from you. Kahn's, phone 40.

Wanted — A man with from $2,500 to $5,000 cash to
take an interest in a well established business, nursery, seed
and cut flower business. C., box 173, Fort Worth, Tex.

For Sale — The Paul Wheeler dairy, 300 selected, high-
grade cows, cold storage (in Galveston), horses, wagons
and bottles; best handling outfit in America; reason for
selling, wreck of Gulf and Interstate Railway on Bolivar
peninsula. Dairies supplying Galveston (except this)
practically all lost in storm. H. C. Wheeler, 113 Twen-
tieth street.

RECONSTRUCTION. 253

R. Ivey, tlie upholsterer, and family, are safe. Will be
ready for business in a few days. Upholstering and mat-
tress work. Send orders to factory, Twenty-first and
Avenue M.

Frank H. Jones and family are safe, but buildings and
factory demolished by the storm. Will rebuild in a few
days. Send orders for carpet cleaning and mattress work
to Thirty-third and M One-half, old site, after Monday,
the 24th.

To Our Friends and Patrons — We have fortunately sur-
vived the late storm and flood. We are ready to turn our
attention to business with a large stock of new merchan-
dise in our various lines. Orders solicited. Island City
Mfg. Co., Galveston, Tex.

Storm-Tossed, but Survived — West End Laundry —
Leave orders to call at Morris Block's news stand, Tremont
and Postoffice streets.

Until Tuesday, September 25, the Galveston Brewing
Company will pay 25 cents for each of their empty kegs
delivered at the brewery.

We Are Ready to Help You Rebuild Galveston — Shin-
gles and lumber ; no advance in prices at 'this yard ; Thir-
tieth and Mechanic streets. Darlington-Miller Lumber
Company.

D. M. Wilson & Co., Thirty-fifth and N— Lumber. We
are prepared to deliver to any part of the city, with no in-
crease in prices.

These advertisements mean business, and are an infalli-
ble indication of the state of the city and the spirit of the
people.

It was an event September 17 at Galveston when the
regular trips of steamers between Texas City and Galves-

254 BECONSTRUCTION.

ton were resumed. There were loads of travelers. The
News said :

"People were transferred as usual by the steamer Law-
rence from Pier 21 to Texas City yesterday. The Lawrence
on the 9 o'clock trip was loaded down to the full capacity
and more people stood about on the wharf. Chairman
Henderson of the Transportation Committee, assisted by
Captain Warren and Captain Clarke, got a tug and a barge
around to the wharf and he told the people that there had
been secured a fine Pullman palace barge for those who
desired to go, the cabin being reserved for the ladies. The
most of the crowd held their noses up in the air, but about
fifty took advantage of the offer and went to Texas City
on her."

Extraordinary efforts were made to hasten the railroad
communication restoration, connecting Galveston with the
rest of the world. The Santa Fe system concentrated
nearly all its best bridge and track men on the work of re-
storing communication with Galveston. The entire system
was drawn upon, and some divisions were completely
robbed of bridgemen for this work.

This vivid sketch for the News gives an idea of the re-
construction of the bridge and the difficulties to overcome :

"Mr. Nixon went to Virginia Point on Thursday morn-
ing with a force of men and began to work on the bridge,
using such material as they could pick up there. They
were without any provisions that day and worked without
their dinners. At night they had secured some bacon and
they cooked this in camp fires without cooking utensils and
ate it without dishes, getting water in jars they had picked
up on their way to the point from the Alta Loma supply
pipe. Friday morning they breakfasted in the same way,

RECONSTRUCTION. 255

but also had coffee, a supply having been obtained during
the night from the track builders' camp further up the
line. After that provisions and camp facilities began to
arrive, and yesterday the men were well supplied so far
as food is concerned, and as well treated otherwise as one
could expect under the circumstances. The camp is pitched
near the end of the Santa Fe bridge. There are newly
made graves all around — one partly within the commissary
and dining tent and one partly within the general office
tent. With but few exceptions the men were going about
their work willingly, with evident appreciation of its im-
portance, and they ate their meals with relish, declaring
that the soup and the bacon, the stew and the rice, coffee,
etc., were ' mighty good.'

"Everything was push and hustle around the camp and
at the various places where the work was going on. The
officials spent little time in the office tent, where an operator
received and sent telegrams over a bum wire, using a box
relay, and where stenographers took down telegrams and
orders. The forces are well organized and each man on
the work is being used to advantage. The officials direct-
ing the work are everywhere — out in skiffs and boats and
launches, through the water, climbing bridges and hurry-
ing along the trestles, ascertaining the needs here and there
and making arrangements to supply them."

These cheerful words were in the News of the 17th:
"Now that the waterworks are running, some of the streets
lighted, many of the streets pretty well cleared of debris
and telegraph communication with the outside world re-
established, the people of Galveston are anxiously looking
forward to the re-establishment of rail communication.
They will not have to wait long, for the work of relaying

256 RECONSTRUCTION.

the tracks and rebuilding a bridge across the bay is being
pushed with all the energy that devoted men are capable
of. The officials in charge of the work believe that they
will be able to run trains into the Galveston union depot on
Thursday. The work thus far done has been truly remark-
able, and has been accomplished under the greatest imag-
inable difficulties. It was the first steps that counted most
as they were made with the greatest difficulty."

September 18 over 1,000 wounds were dressed at the
different hospitals, ward dispensaries and other medical
relief stations. Most of these wounds were slight, and not
dangerous, but would become so if not properly dressed and
treated. The bulk of the work of caring for the sick and
injured was confined to the dressing of small wounds re-
ceived during the storm and minor surgical operations.
There were very few cases of sickness other than wounded ;
in fact, sickness not resulting from wounds was very scarce,
and, if anything, below the normal. People with slight
wounds went to the different medical relief stations and
had them dressed and went away, and did not. come back
until the wounds needed redressing. There were, however,
several hundred patients so severely wounded as to need
constant treatment, at least for several days. Such as these
were kept at the hospitals, where they were fed with
strength-giving food, and carefully nursed until able to be
up and about.

The News of the 19th was enabled to say : "Slowly but
surely the streets are assuming a decent appearance, and in
a few days all evidence of the storm on the streets of the
business district will have been removed. A large force
of men are working systematically, and the beneficial re-
sult is shown in every quarter. The greatest amount of

RECONSTRUCTION. 257

wreckage is piled high along the beach and for several
blocks inland, where hundreds of homes fell victims to the
rush of waters and devastating hurricane that swept that
portion of the city bare."

The telegram shows that the natural resources of Texas
are not called for in vain :

Corsicana, Tex., Sept. 17. — One hundred farmers held a
mass meeting to-day and sent three representatives to
South Texas to get cotton pickers. Negroes here have re-
fused to work for less than $1,10 per 100 pounds, whereas
farmers will pay only 70 cents. The demand for pickers
is so great that farmers have bailed prisoners from jail
to pick cotton.

A question much discussed in Texas is whether there
were two cyclones. A scientific writer said in a letter to
the Galveston News, "that the late cyclonic hurricane
started at Port Eads, but that it was first heard of as
being off Port Eads and with a velocity of forty-eight miles
an hour, and was a distinct storm from the one that the
Comal encountered off the east Florida coast. Dr. Cline
bears me out in this theory, but says the bureau had warn-
ing of it before it reached Port Eads further south. He
also says that there was really a smaller third one in the
wake of this Galveston special, all, as it were, within touch
of each other almost, the last being a small affair and ex-
pending its force quickly."

Perhaps the habit of cyclones in starting out in pairs
has its influence in causing these controversies. The same
writer here quoted says of the sea wall question :

"As regards a sea wall being practicable there arose in
the writer's mind these dangers. If one could be con-
structed that would keep out the sea the extent of its

258 RECONSTRUCTION.

length, the waters would enter at its extremities and back
up into the city. Eut it would break the force of the waves
in their battering strokes and weight against buildings.
Another danger would depend on the height of the sea and
the volume of waters thrown into the bay and on the main-
land, and whether the winds might veer around far enough,
say to the northwest, to force this water in volume back
into the city, where this wall would dam it up and perhaps
cause great loss of life from drowning. Yet it is a fact
that in the cyclone of 1875, as to which the writer made
careful inquiry at the time, that the winds shifted no fur-
ther around than southeast, which was the exact point to
which it shifted in this storm, and from which point in an
exceedingly short time the sea rushed into the city and
caused our greatest destruction and loss of life. The pre-
vailing and longest continued direction of all the gulf
cyclonic disturbances or blows is from the northeast, driv-
ing a great volume of gulf water along our shores here in a
southwest course, but I never apprehend an exceeding deep
sea covering the island from the northeast. But when this
high sea has been brought about and a sudden and rapid
shifting of the wind to the southeast, as in this instance,
forces this enormous volume of water bodily upon us like a
tidal wave, we have this combination alluded to in the old
article of "Wind and Wave," which must do its terrible
work of destruction. Seventy miles an hour will not bring
this result, except in comparative miniature, as in 1875
and 1886, but 100 becomes seriously alarming and will
cause great loss, while 120 has in this instance combined
with the right wind, southeast, and Galveston is now a
prostrate and moaning victim of that, this writer has long
feared. Can engineering skill and science discover and

RECONSTRUCTION. 259

apply a power to break that force of the combination of the
laws of nature as here manifested ?

"I do not believe that our jetties played any part or were
at all a factor in producing the great wave which rolled
over this city, for it extended much further down the island
than the jetties could have had any influence, and if pos-
sibly any one observed it, we would greatly wish to know
the result when these seas struck and broke against our
jetties, for from this may possibly be drawn important con-
clusions as to the effects on breakwater walls, which would
be the same as a jetty in protecting the city."

CHAPTEK XV.

THE NEW GALVESTON.

One week after the hurricane spent its mightiest energy;
at Galveston, beating down strong houses with sheer force
of the gale which blew not less than 100 miles an hour,
and rolling monstrous waves upon the streets lined with
shattered structures, the people so sorely smitten and hor-
ror haunted experienced a renewal of hope and a return
of energy, felt the strong, firm hands of friendship
stretched forth to aid in the work of restoration. -The dead
were removed, the wounded were succored, the hungry
were fed, the sick were nursed, the outbreak of ruffian
robbery and stealthy crime was suppressed, and there was
kindled ambition and considered enterprise to rise up and
go forward from the foundation of the knowledge that the
worst had happened and that Galveston should rise again.
The building of houses on the sand is, notwithstanding the
Scriptural warning, if the foundation can be made firm, an
excellent thing to do, for there is a purity in sand that has
sanitary results most desirable. The cities that are built on
sand are more wholesome than those that rest on rocks or
driven piles. Galveston has the best port in five hundred
miles of the gulf coast, and is in the line of American
development. With the warning her people have had they
can make themselves secure and resume their cause with
durable betterments. There were those who fled from
Chicago when she passed away in a cloud of fire, but the
winds blow here as ever. The level lands spread out around
her as vast and as fertile as when the prairies were un-

261

THE NEW GALVESTON. 261

plowed, and the winds are as high, but there has been care
in the erection of solid buildings, and to prevent modern
cities and lumber yards from being joined and ready with
towns of undue and great aggregations of resinous
woods — ready for a broken lamp to cause the confla-
gration in the loss of property of the value of $200,000,-
000 ; but the water marks are not under wooden roofs and
there are gigantic blocks, each with the population and the
business equal to a stirring town, and as indestructible as
any works of human hands; and there is no dwelling in
dread of fire here, rather a sense of security that as the
greatest fire the world has seen occurred on this spot, it
will not happen again. The business men of Chicago cele-
brate the anniversary of the fire, not in a spirit of levity
and recklessness, but with a consciousness that the scene of
a prodigious disaster has seen a victory won by hope, cour-
age, perseverance, enlightenment and an unfaltering spirit,
and with this there is reverent thanksgiving for merciful
preservation for the blessings that abound, the grandeur
accomplished, the glory won ; and there is gratitude, too,
for the immense humanity there was in the generous help
extended to Chicago when she was desolate — a helpful-
ness that aided those who gave and enriched the givers —
while those to whom hands were extended that Chicago
might stand have paid their obligations as only the debts of
gratitude can be paid by squaring the account of benefi-
cence by benefactions bestowed where misfortunes befal.
They will build skyscrapers in Galvestoii as Chicago has
built them, on foundations that will stand the shock of
storms, and the errors of construction in the past, already
seen, will be attuned. A feature article in the Chicago
Tribune says:

262 THE NEW GALVE8TON.

Galveston, like the house in the Bible parable, wa&
built upon the sand. It is a waste in consequence. If it
is rebuilt it is likely that the advice of Professor Willis
L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau,
will be followed, and a surer, stabler foundation, higher
above the tide level, will be raised.

According to Professor Moore, not only Galveston was
insecurely built upon the flat sands of the island, but other
cities on the gulf and Atlantic coasts, lying at tide, are
subject to the same dangers. The West Indian hurricane
may strike almost anywhere from the southern line of
North Carolina, on down the coast, around the peninsula
of Florida, and anywhere within the great arc described
by the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico. These
storms, perhaps 600 miles wide, have a vortex of twenty
to thirty miles in diameter. It is in this vortex that the
land is laid waste.

It is this fact that will lead more strongly than any
other to the rebuilding of Galveston. With an export
business of $100,000,000 annually, the great West will
bring pressure to bear upon the maintenance of the port.
There is an island type of man in its population that
will not be driven from that little ridge of sand three miles
out in the gulf. There are 1,500 miles of gulf coast on
which the vortex of such a storm may waste itself without
touching Galveston, and both conservatism and commer-
cialism will take the risk that a score of other cities at the
tide level are taking.

At the same time there are those who see for Galveston
only a commercial existence. It never can grow as it has
grown ; it never can be the home of people whose fortunes
are not tied up in the island.

THE NEW GALVESTON. 263

For fourteen years the city has had to contend with the
fears of the incomer. The growth between 1890 and 1900
shows that these fears had been allayed in great measure,
following the destruction in 1886. But years will not
wipe out the black record of the last week. Hundreds will
leave the island as a place of residence; thousands have
been killed there and cremated in the sands or buried in
the treacherous sea. A death rate of 200 in a population
of 1,000 drove Indianola from the map of Texas. Five
thousand or more deaths of the 35,000 population of Gal-
veston must have its influence upon the living.

For with the assurances of the United States Weather
Bureau, it is recognized that in natural phenomena there
are cycle periods in which extremes are repeated from na-
ture's great laboratory. Observation has put this period
of repetition at twenty years. According to this, in the
case of hurricanes, the range of maximum and minimum
will be within such a period. Without question Galveston
is in the track of a certain abnormal but not infrequent
West Indian hurricane which fails to be deflected from the
Georgia and Florida coasts. It keeps to its northwestward
course and strikes the Louisiana, Texas, or Mexico coasts,
according to its impulse. In the Galveston storm a new
maximum seems to have been established, yet its repeti-
tion may be looked for within the next twenty-year period.
As a matter of fact, indeed, the average period between
the recurrence of these maximum storms has been less
than fifteen years.

Lyman E. Cooley, one of the original engineers in
marking the route of the drainage canal, is an observer of
periodic natural phenomept, and his theory holds in great

264 THE NEW. GALVESTON.

measure with observations of the United States weather
service.

"It is a general proposition," said Mr. Cooley. "It
means just this much : Suppose that Chicago has a snow-
storm on June 15. Within a twenty-year period we may
expect another phenomenon of the kind in the same calen-
dar month. It may not snow in Chicago itself ; the storm
may be ten, twenty, or thirty miles away, on any side of it.
But in the same general territory, about the same time of
the phenomenon, it will be repeated.

"Suppose a terrible rain or windstorm develops, its repe-
tition may be looked for in the same period. So with ex-
tremes of temperature, influences on lake levels, and all
the other phenomena of nature's forces. They have their
cycles, and the twenty-year period covers most of them."

But in the case of Galveston, one of its great hurricanes
was experienced in 1875, another in 1886, and the last
only fourteen years later. These historic facts tend to
confirm Mr. Cooley's observations.

Galveston's destruction and that of other towns simi-
larly situated had been predicted. Writing in the Arena
in 1890, Professor Joseph Rodes Buchanan said:

"Every seaboard city south of New England that is not
more than fifty feet above the sea level of the Atlantic coast
is destined to a destructive convulsion. Galveston, New
Orleans, Mobile, St. Augustine, Savannah, and Charleston
are doomed. Richmond, Baltimore, Washington, Phila-
delphia, Newark, Jersey City, and "New York will suffer
in various degrees in proportion as they approximate the
sea level. Brooklyn will suffer less, but the destruction
at New York and Jersey City will be the grandest horror.

"The convulsion will probably begin on the Pacifio

t
THE NEW GALVESTON. 265

coast, and perhaps extend in the Pacific toward the Sand-
wich Islands. The shock will be terrible with great loss
of life, extending from British Columbia down along the
coast of Mexico, but the conformation of the Pacific coast
will make its grand tidal wave far less destructive than on
the Atlantic shore. Nevertheless, it will be calamitous.
Lower California will suffer severely along the coast. San
Diego and Coronado will suffer severely, especially the
latter.

"It may seem rash to anticipate the limits of the de-
structive force of a foreseen earthquake, but there is no
harm in testing the prophetic power of science in the com-
plex relations of nature and man.

"The destruction of cities which I anticipate will bo
twenty-four years ahead — it may be twenty-three. It will
be sudden and brief — all within an hour and not far from
noon. Starting from the Pacific coast, as already described,
it will strike southward — a mighty tidal wave and earth-
quake shock that will develop in the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean Sea. It will strike the western coast of Cuba
and severely injure Havana. Our sister republic, Vene-
zuela, bound to us in destiny, by the law of periodicity,
will be assailed by the encroaching waves and terribly
shaken by the earthquake. The destruction of her chief
city, Caracas, will be greater than in 1812, when 12,000
were said to be destroyed. The coming shock will be near
total destruction."

Galveston Island, with a stretch of thirty-five miles,
rises only five feet above the level of high tide. To the
south, is an unbroken sweep of sea for 800 miles. Twelve
hundred miles away is the nesting place of storms — storms
that rise out of the dead calm of the doldrums and sweep

266 THE NEW GALVESTON.

northward, sometimes with a fury that nothing can with-
stand. Most of these storms describe a parabola, with the
westward arch touching the Atlantic coast, after which the
track is northeastward, finally disappearing with the storm
itself in the North Atlantic.

But every little while one of these West Indian hurri-
canes starts northwestward from its island nest, moving
steadily on its course and entering the gulf itself.

September and October are the months of these storms,
and of the two months September is worse. In the ten
years between 1878 and 1887, inclusive, fifty-seven hurri-
canes arose in the warm, moist conditions of the West In-
dian doldrums. Most of these passed out to sea and to the
St. Lawrence River country, where they disappeared. But
the hurricane of Oct. 11, 1887, came ashore at New Or-
leans on Oct. 17, and wrought havoc as it passed up the
Eastern States to New Brunswick. The storm of Oct. 8,
1886, reached Louisiana on the 12th, curving again to-
ward Galveston on the Texas coast. It was in this storm
that Galveston was flooded, with loss of life and property,
while Indianola was destroyed beyond recovery.

With these non-recurring storms two conditions favor
their passage into the gulf. A high barometric area lies
over the Atlantic coast States, while a trough of low pres-
sure leads into the gulf and northward into the region
of the Dakotas. The hurricane takes the path of least
resistance always, and it must pass far northward before
it can work its natural way around the tardy high area
that hangs over the central coast States. It was this condi-
tion exactly which diverted the recent storm to Galveston
and the Texas coast.

The origin of a hurricane is not fully settled. Its ac-

THE NEW GALVE8TON. 267

companying phenomena, however, are significant to even
the casual observer. A long swell on the ocean usually
precedes it. This swell may be forced to great distance in
advance of the storm and be observed two or three days
before the storm strikes. A faint rise in the barometer
may be noticed before the sharp fall follows. Wisps of
thin, cirrus cloud float for 200 miles around the storm
center. The air is calm and sultry until a gentle breeze
springs from the southeast. This breeze becomes a wind,
a gale, and, finally, a tempest.

This is in scientific form, but made fascinating by the
brilliant element of speculation.

One of the best known residents of Galveston is Eustace
Taylor. He is a cotton buyer, known to the trade in all
parts of the country. In the course of an ordinary season
Mr. Taylor handles from 100,000 to 150,000 bales. His
act on Monday, when the citizens of Galveston were begin-
ning to realize the full import of the disaster, was typical
of the fine spirit shown by leading men. Mr. Taylor stood
on the Strand and said :

"Bring to me any man who needs money and I will give
him until I go broke."

Mr. Taylor was asked to-day for an opinion as to the
future of Galveston.

"I think," he said, "that what we have done here in the
four days which have passed since the storm has been
wonderful. It will take us two weeks before we can ascer-
tain the actual commercial loss. But we are going to
straighten out everything. We are going to stay here and
work it out. We will have a temporary wharf in thirty
days, and witb that we can resume business and handle

268 THE NEW GALVESTON.

the traffic through Galveston. I think that within thirty
days business will be carried on here in large volumes.

"I am going to stand right up to Galveston," continued
Mr. Taylor, "if it costs me the last cent. With our tem-
porary wharf we shall put from 1,000 to 2,000 men to
work loading vessels. While we are waiting for the rail-
road to restore bridges and terminals on the island we shall
bring business by barges from Virginia Point and load in
mid-stream. In this way we shall not only resume our
commercial relations quickly but we shall be able to put
the labor of the city at work."

Mr. Taylor and other leading business men of Galves-
ton emphasize a point which has escaped general attention
until this time. They are exceedingly anxious that com-
mercial bodies, steamship owners, brokers, and those in-
terested in the commerce of Galveston shall be as consider-
ate as possible in their treatment of the city, that is to
say, there shall be liberality in the commercial relations.
These men urge that the extent of the calamity shall be
taken into account when adjustment of contracts takes
place and in all business relations until the city can regain
its footing. Charters provide by special mention for "Vis-
itations of providence," for the "Acts of God."

The Galveston business men hope that their business
connections will apply a like spirit to all commerce af-
fected by the storm. If Galveston can receive from the
world such consideration financially and commercially in
the next sixty days the recuperation will be rapid and in-
directly the losses will be minimized.

Galveston was just entering upon the busy season. There
are now from 200 to 300 ships under .sailing contracts
with this port for the months of September, November

THE NEW GALVE8TON. 269

and December. Some of these ships are now on the high
seas. Even a temporary paralysis of thirty days will
mean much loss and the derangement of many contracts.

It is a time which calls for the generous policy, not
for strict enforcements of the letter of agreements. Gal-
veston only asks what her business men feel is just, thereby
the shock to commerce may be mitigated.

Like suggestions were made by the Chicago business
men after the great fire, and the response from other busi-
ness centers was most cordial and hearty ; and the tone of
the Chicago community in making the suggestions that it
would be the form of assistance they would like best to
have a continuance of confidence in them that they were
going on — and in the city that it would rise from the
ashes. This business grasp of the hand, and self-restraint
and high-toned sense of power did much to give Chicago
the general judgment of the business men of the world
that she was designed for great fortunes, and even a mis-
fortune of appalling magnitude would be overcome and be
the inspiration and the stability of a greater Chicago. That
which Mr. Taylor of Galveston says is of the same temper
and fiber, and will meet a like response.

The Dallas News and the Galveston News are under the
same management. The Dallas News of September 14
said :

"As an exchange says, 'The elements seem to have been
wreaking vengeance on Texas this year.7 In April the Col-
orado and Brazos valleys were swept by floods, entailing
great loss of life and property. Austin suffered severely.
This flood followed a more disastrous one of last year,
which laid waste some of the best farms in the State,

270 TEE NEW GALVESTON.

destroyed crops too late for replanting, drowned thousands
of cattle, horses, mules and hogs, and many people.

"With all these recent disasters, Texas is in a more pros-
perous condition than the State has ever been in before,
taking the whole country over. While certain of the river
valleys have been swept by flood, the rich uplands, partic-
ularly those of North Texas, the orchards and garden lands
of East Texas, and of the coast country, and the small
grain and pasture lands of the west, have brought forth
abundant crops, and, speaking generally, the people are
in a good way.

"The high prices for wheat, corn, cotton, and other
products of the field or ranch have told a hopeful story,
and a wise change from the old-time one-crop habit has
done much to help along. In spite of the disasters of this
and of last year, barring the victims of the floods alluded
to, the people of the State are in a good condition and
ready to do all in their power to help along their less fortu-
nate fellow citizens.

"Texas is a vast State, and this fact might make it ap-
pear that more storms or other direful visitations fell to
the lot of this people than residents of other parts of the
country find it necessary to endure. The fact is that many
States have been visited by floods this season, and in some
places floods are feared year after year. So it is of other
destructive visitations. They must be expected now and
then anywhere from Maine to California, or, for that mat-
ter, at any place the world around. There is only one
thing to do about it. People must prepare in advance
for such troubles as far as possible, and must stand ready
to take the consequences and make the best of them. So
it is now. So it will continue to be here and elsewhere.

THE NEW GALVESTON. 271

"It is gratifying to note that even thus early the strong
and courageous men of Galveston have begun to see the
matter in this light. Even while their weaker brothers
are still dazed and speechless, they begin to cast about
them with a show of old-time determination and vigor.
No one can read of their undaunted determination to clear
away the evidences of the recent disaster and to restore
the island city without a feeling of genuine admiration for
the men who are strong enough to hope when others are
hopeless, great enough to begin on plans for the future
ere the roar and crash of the storm have died away."

"Galveston must rise again," says the Galveston News
in an editorial Sept. 13.

"At the first meeting of Galveston citizens Sunday
afternoon after the great hurricane, for the purpose of
bringing order out of chaos, the only sentiment expressed/'
the editorial says, "was that Galveston had received an aw-
ful blow. The loss of life and property is appalling — so
great that it required several days to form anything like
a correct estimate. With sad and aching hearts, but with
resolute faces, the sentiment of the meeting was that out
of the awful chaos of wrecked homes and wrecked busi-
ness Galveston must rise again.

"The sentiment was not that of bury the dead and give
up the ship ; but, rather, bury the dead, succor the needy,
appeal for aid from a charitable world, and then start reso-
lutely to work to mend the broken chains. In many cases
the work of upbuilding must begin over. In other cases
the destruction is only partial.

"The sentiment was, Galveston will, Galveston must,
survive, and fulfill her glorious destiny. Galveston shall
rise again. * * *

272 THE NEW GALVESTON.

"If we have lost all else, we still have life and the
future, and it is toward the future that we must devote
the energies of our lives. We can never forget what we
have suffered; we cannot forget the thousands of our
friends and loved ones who found in the angry billows
that destroyed them a final resting place. But tears and
grief must not make us forget our present duties. The
blight and ruin which have destroyed Galveston are not
beyond repair ; we must not for a moment think Galveston
is to be abandoned because of one disaster, however hor-
rible that disaster has been.

"It is a time for courage of the highest order. It is
a time when men and women show the stuff that is in
them, and we can make no loftier acknowledgment of the
material sympathy which the world is extending to us than
to answer back that after we shall have buried our dead,
relieved the sufferings of the sick and destitute, we will
bravely undertake the vast work of restoration and recu-
peration which lies before us in a manner which shall con-
vince the world that we have spirit to overcome misfor-
tune and rebuild our homes."

That which the September storm has proven for Gal-
veston is that the site of the city may be and must be
maintained, that it is within the elemental conditions that
Galveston can be restored, that the courage is already
apparent and the capital within sight to do it, and thai
the tremendous tempest has told how it should be done
to endure. There have been far greater obstacles than
those at Galveston overcome in securing the foundations
of a city. Venice, for instance, is a city in the sea, and
stands an ancient and solid one. It was built of piles
driven deep into the sandy mud and backed with rock

THE NEW GALVESTON.

filling. It might be that the underpinning of Venice
has cost nearly or altogether as much as the stately struc-
tures that have stood firm so long. There were a hundred
islands in the lagoon to begin with. Even New York has
had to overcome difficulties that would have daunted less
capital and energy than are gathered there. A small part
of the city was built on marshes, and there are quick-
sands that absorb an enormous mass of material before on
it edifices are reared, but a more troublesome foe of the
builders is found in a rock so hard and obstinate that there
are square miles of the city where the cellars have cost
as much as the houses. 'New Orleans stands on ground
made by the Mississippi and the mighty river has re-
peatedly made stupendous efforts to regain the ground be-
side which she rolls her frightful floods. A tenth part
of the money and work at Galveston that have been in-
vested in the security of New Orleans would make the
gulf city safe forever. Chicago is not menaced by the
lake in storms, but the land upon which her wonderful
sky-scrapers stand was originally very largely a swamp,
and it has been a vast task to convert the fundamental
mud into sure and steadfast standing room. The site of
the land of the city as it was when Fort Dearborn was
built is elevated eight feet, a prodigious accomplishment so
complete at least that it can. hardly be realized. Ex-
traordinary it certainly is, and a most familiar fact, that
though the Chicago fire swept away 18,000 houses and
property of the value at conservative estimates, of $200,-
000,000, there was an incalculable compensation in the
clearing of the ground by the fire, and the material the
ruins afforded for elevation of the general level, though

274 THE NEW GALVESTON.

the wonderful heat of the conflagration melted many
bricks, while much stone crumbled to sand.

Galveston will come out of the stormy flood as Chi-
cago from the tempest of fire, but she has had a lesson
that will be ruinous at last, if it is not heeded now.
There will be great storms hereafter. Hurricanes will
continue to rise in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean
Sea and strike the coast with terrific force. The building
of the Galveston that was can not in the aggregate be com-
mended. Thousands of the houses were not strong. They
were built rather to welcome a breeze than resist a
storm. It was not a tidal wave that burst upon Gal-
veston. It was a horrible commotion of the air. The
wind waves, not the tidal flows, burst upon the shores
of the American Mediterranean. There is nothing un-
known or miraculous about them. There is no reason
that they should excite superstition, or quell enterprise
with apprehension. The people of Texas know all the
facts, and they know Galveston is a necessity, and that
there is no better place to be than where it was. It must
be restored. Some of the modern improvements of the
city were careless. The winds and waves had provided
protection in sand hills that were removed. Nature must
now be assisted. It is practical to make permanent barri-
cades. The thin brick wall around the great convent where
the storm was intensest saved a thousand lives. There
should be many brick walls deeply grounded, and the
bricks cemented. Heavy stone walls would be better.
There is an abundance of available rock. The Galves-
tonians might well make a study of the way Chicago is
barricaded against the aggressions of eastern storms. Line
upon line has been added after experience had crystallized

THE NEW GALVE8TON. 275

precept. It is to be regretted that many circumstances
compelled the burning of so much of the wreckage, for that
itself in the later stages of the storm was a defense. Na-
ture at last fights with man for him, if he woos her wisely.
There will develop a thousand forces for the reconstruc-
tion of Galveston. Her good points have been made known
to the whole world, her delicious climate, her almost in-
comparable, sea bathing, her supremacy as a gulf port, her
system of railroads that centralize an enormous domain
in her port as the gate to Europe, and the highway to all
the oceans. Even the terrible tempest deepened the harbor
and the nation and the State and the great and good peo-
ple all will deal out to the stricken city justice with a
measure that will have celebrity as generosity. The Gulf
of Mexico will rapidly become of greater consequence
than ever. It is on the line of the grand current of com-
merce that soon will be sweeping around the world, pass-
ing through the Suez Canal that is, and the Darien Canal
that is to be ; and the increasing American and world-wide
interest in the Pacific Ocean will have an influence that
will whiten the «hores of the Mediterranean of this
hemisphere as that of the one famous of old as the central
sea of the earth — central to one hemisphere — and the
shores of our central sea will be peopled as are those
of the ancient waters beside which the cities grew that
ruled the world ; and among them the new Galveston will
be of the proudest, before time has made her walls and her
halls venerable.

CHAPTEE XVI.

PREHISTORIC GRAVEYARD NEAR GALVESTON.

Eelics of a prehistoric race were discovered in Galves-
ton, Texas, just previous to the storm that flooded the
city. Nearly 2,000 human skeletons were found, and
scientists who examined the excavations had just given
the opinion that an ancient city had been submerged by
a tidal wave that drowned all the inhabitants, when the
calamity of centuries ago was repeated.

The bones were discovered in a search for relics for
the archaeological exhibit at the Pan-American exposi-
tion, which is to be held in Buffalo, N. Y., next summer.
The skeletons are beyond a doubt several thousand years
old, and the character of the people who occupied the
coast of the gulf at this period is an interesting subject
for speculation. Whoever they may have been and when-
ever they may have lived, the remains found show beyond
a question that some terrible outbreak of nature caused
the sudden death of thousands of these ancient people and
their burial in the strata where by chance they were ex-
humed by the people of a far-distant age.

It was but a short time ago that the excavations were
begun which resulted in these singular and extraordinary
discoveries. The finding of the remains in the first place
was quite accidental. H. J. Simmons, superintendent of
the Arizona and New Mexico railway, was making excava-
tions along the lines of the railroad near Clear Creek, Gal-
veston county, when bones were found in the earth re-
moved. On examination of the contents of the steam •

276

GRAVEYARD NEAR GALVESTON. 277

shovel, skulls and human teeth were noticed, and further
search led to the discovery of skeletons of whole families,
together with ivory beads and other objects of human
handiwork.

Kealizing the valuable and scientific character of the
discovery, a systematic search of the strata in the vicinity
was made. Geologists say that the whole section of the
State was once covered by the Gulf of Mexico. The idea at
once came ta Mr. Simmons that in far distant ages a
tidal wave had occurred at the time, the gulf covered more
of that part of the country than at present and that these
bones were the remains of the thousands of human beings
who had been drowned in the overflow of the waters of the
gulf. His theory was later upheld by leading scientists.

Evidently these people were not mere barbarians, liv-
ing in temporary abodes and having no permanent abiding
places. The number of the skeletons and their close prox-
imity to one another indicates that there existed here a
populous community and that in some far away age a peo-
ple devoted to the pursuits of industry and more or less
skilled in the arts were here living in a city having its
institutions of government and social customs and some
degree of civilization. This could not have been simply
the site of a cemetery, for the positions in which the skele-
tons were found proves conclusively that the persons were
not buried after a natural death, but were drowned and
afterward buried beneath the debris of the convulsion, or
hurriedly and in wholesale by their survivors, as was done
recently at Galveston. While all the skeletons were lying
down, some were face up, others face down, and many on
the side. There was no regularity in their burial at all.
It was the exception to find one skeleton by itself. Usually

278 GRAVEYARD NEAR GALVESTON.

two, and sometimes three and four were found together,
in some instances as many as fourteen being piled in a
heap, as if a whole family had gathered to meet death,
and perished in one another's arms.

Some of the skulls of these prehistoric Texans were
of enormous size, and the majority of them had rather
low foreheads. A singular fact observed was that while
all of the teeth were considerably worn, showing the use
of hard food and age of the persons, there was in no case
the slightest indication of decay, a quite different situa-
tion from that observed in relics of more modern but still
prehistoric Indians, among whom dental caries is com-
paratively common. Several thousand skeletons were re-
moved in the process of excavation. Fifteen hundred were
actually counted in the first part of the excavation, and
doubtless several thousand more were removed. As a
rule they were soft and damp when first uncovered, but
many became fairly hard after being exposed a while to
the sun. No bones of children were found, and this was
accounted for by the supposition that they had all de-
cayed.

The situation of this remarkable archaeological dis-
covery was a deposit of shell, gravel, and sand in a bank
consisting of about thirty acres nearly surrounded by the
Clear creek. This deposit consists of seven distinct strata,
each about three feet thick, and between each stratum there
is a deposit of silt or earth from a quarter of an inch to
an inch in thickness. On the top of the bank the soil is
about eight inches deep, and large live oak trees grow
thickly over it. It is one of the last places to which one
would go in looking for the remains of a prehistoric race.
~No two of the strata arpy exactly alike, some having a larger

'GRAVEYARD NEAR GALVESTON. 279

percentage of gravel than others, and the shells also vary.
Some are much larger than others, some are oyster shells,
and some are clam. On the average the deposit consists of
about 10 per cent shell, 40 per cent gravel, and 20 per cent
coarse sand. In the second layer from the top the bones
were found in great abundance, and in the bottom layer,
just at water level, and about twenty-one feet below the
top of the bank, large quantities of the bones were de-
posited.

Just how to explain this phase of the situation has
taxed the antiquarians. Some suggest the possibility of
two successive tidal waves, one perhaps far removed from
the other in point of time. The ivory beads found were
about a quarter of an inch in diameter and an inch and a
half to two inches long, with a hole cut lengthwise and a
diagonal groove cut on the outside0

The exhibit of these bonos in the ethnology building of
the Pan-American exposition at Buffalo will be a most
valuable one, in view of the wide interest excited by the
fate of thousands who perished recently in this same part
of the country in the same way.

Science does not wholly discard the imagination, but
on the contrary accepts its suggestions and constructs
whole histories, as is said may be done in producing a
complete skeleton on the production of one bone. The
logic of a single fact moral or material has before and
behind it, traceable centuries. It is, however, not proven
that the prehistoric bones near Galveston Bay were those
of the victims of a tidal wave on the gulf, or even shown
that there was a horrible tempest ages ago in which a city
perished with all its people. The recent experience of
Galveston would seem to show that there would not be

280 GRAVEYARD NEAR GALVESTON.

immense collections of the bones of the victims of a great
storm found on or near the spot. The prehistoric people
of America, as many ruins abundantly testify, must have
advanced in civilization, beyond any tribes Or kingdoms
discovered when the Spaniards began their adventurous
colonization. It is a question whether the Peruvians and
Mexicans were capable of the cities whose ruins in Cen-
tral America invite conjectujre to task credulity, and
romance to fill tEe vast gaps in history. Upon the plains
t)f Texas near ifbe sea there may have been great com-
munities of a gentler race than those either north or south
of the northern shores of the Ocean we call the Gulf, and
they may have been conquered and massacred by the fierce
red savages who peopled the land where our states are
established. The coincidence of the discovery of the
city of skeletons so close in time and place to the catas-
trophe of Galveston is certainly most curious, but is con-
vincing of nothing*

CHAPTEE XVII.

THE GIANT OF THE STATES.

Q-eorge Washington, writing as a young explorer, said
of the Ohio country, to which he had been sent by the Gov-
ernor of Virginia to warn the French to depart from the
land that belonged to the King of England, that the claim
of the French of the territory for the King of France was
that the country had bem discovered by La Salle, who
was a most adventurous, energetic and intelligent man.
He penetrated the country of which Texas is a part in
1680. King's Handbook of the United States says:

"The first European settlement in Texas was made by
Sieur de la Salle, who in 1685 erected Fort St. Louis, on
the Lavaca, near Matagorda Bay, The French garrison
was destroyed by the Indians ; and five years later Captain
De Leon and 110 Spanish soldiers and monks founded on
the same site the mission of San Francisco. rAfter a
gloomy period of Indian hostilities and failing crops, gov-
ernor and garrisons and colonists abandoned the country
altogether. In 1714 St. Denis was sent to occupy Texas
for France, but having been captured by Spanish troops
on the Eio Grande, he aided in establishing in Texas divers
Spanish missions, San Antonio, Dolores, San Agostino,
and RTacogdoches. The domain bore the name of the
"New Philippines, and the Marquis De Aguayo became its
Governor-General. For over a century Franciscan mis-
sionaries and clergy worked among the Indians, convert-
ing them to Christianity and semi-civilization. Their de-
cline began in 1758, after the dreadful massacre of the

281

282 GIANT OF THE STATES.

pastors, fl6ck and garrison of San Saba, and the workmen
in the silver mines near that place. The Conception, San
Jose de Aguayo, San Juan Capistrano, San Francisco de
la Espada and San Fernando missions still stand in and
near San Antonio, most of them picturesque ruins. The
mission of San Antonio de Valero, after being secularized
by the Spanish government, in 1793 became a military
garrison, and received a deathless renown under the name
of Alamo.

Of the Spanish, Alonzo de Leon made the first attempt
to settle Texas, and in 1691 a governor and troops were
sent here by Spain. La Salle called the country Louisiana,
for Louis XIV. The Spaniards named it New Philip-
pines, in honor of Philip V. San Antonio, the oldest
European settlement in Texas, was founded in 1693 ;
Goliad and Nacogdoches in 1717. The foundation of the
Alamo was laid in 1744, and it was denominated a mission.
Prior to 1820 Texas was ruled by governors. In 1823
Stephen F. Austin arrived with colonists, when the Mex-
ican States of Coahuila and Texas constituted one govern-
ment, with their capital at Saltillo.

"Texas contains 274,356 square miles, exclusive of bays
and lakes. It extends from the 26th parallel of north
latitude to 36£ north latitude and from the 16th to the
13th meridian of longitude west from Washington."

The giant of the States is a little more than equal in
area to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and Indiana com-
bined. There is more land in Texas than any country in
Europe, excepting Russia. Van Nostran's "Texarkana
Gateway to Texas and the Southwest" says that if the

GIANT OF THE STATES. 283

State was as densely populated as New York, it would
contain 28,000,000 inhabitants; or if as populous as
France, it would contain 45,000,000 ; or if as populous as
Japan, it would contain 65,000,000 ; or if as populous as
Belgium, it would contain 133,000,000. With a sea coast
line of five hundred miles, it has many localities for ad-
mirable harbors, and which will some day serve as out-
lets for the enormous trade that must now to a market
from Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and other rapidly de-
veloping States of the West, into Mexico and the Central
and South American countries, and for the entry ports of
the return commodities, worth annually many hundred
millions of dollars.

Deep water on the coast of Texas is now receiving mer-
ited attention. At Galveston a depth of 24 feet has al-
ready been attained. The channel is rapidly deepening.
Eour other points on the coast, viz. : Aransas Pass, Cor-
pus Christi, Sabine Pass, and Velasco, mouth of the
Brazos river, are engaged in channel improvements, and
will, doubtless in the near future, be deep water ports. A
new and even more prosperous era in the history of Texas
will then be inaugurated, and the State will present an
almost unlimited field for safe and profitable investment
in numberless and varied enterprises and occupations.

On the same authority: "The coast range along the
Gulf of Mexico is a level prairie, extending fifty miles
into the interior, intersected by the large rivers, but
nearly destitute of timber, if we except the small ever-
green mesquite tree — a species of the acacia — which, en-
cumbered in all its branches with the mistletoe, springs
in every conceivable locality. Many cool springs and
beautiful fresh and salt water lakes are met with in this

284 GIANT OF TEE STATES.

prairie, and many wild flowers, which, in their wealth of
fragrance, compensate the lack of names, bloom in pro-
fusion during nearly the whole year."

The enormous scope of the State, north and south being
ten and one-half degrees, and in part having great eleva-
tions, gives remarkable variety and purity of climate. The
"northers" are periodical winds occurring between the
months of September and March, formed by the descent of
cool air, which, upon reaching the plains, hurries forward
to the current of the trade-winds ; and during the warmer
months, moist breezes from the ocean supply the place of
the heated air ascending from the prairie, and of much
needed summer rains, until far to the westward they have,
in climbing the Cordilleras ranges, lost all their moisture.
These changing winds prevail as far westward as the
northeastern portion of the staked plains, to the mouth
of the Peeos, and along the Sierra Madre to the sea. Mr.
Thorpe, in his account of the Broca Chica and the Brazos
Santiago, remarks as to these restless winds along the
coast, that "there seems ever to b© some troubled spirit
in the waters and the air, that throws about the voyager's
craft, and makes him cautious in his movements. It is
indeed the most difficult and hazardous coast with which
I am acquainted." Such are some of the general char-
acteristics of Texas; deficient in large navigable rivers
and in safe and capacious harbors.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BATTLE THAT DETERMINED THE DESTINY OP

TEXAS.

As early as 1830 as many as 20,000 American farmers
had invaded Texas with their plows, and were settled in
American colonies. In 1833 they wanted admission as a
State into the Mexican Union, but Austin, whom they sent
to conduct negotiations, was thrown into prison, and troops
marched from Mexico to disarm the Texans and arrest
their civic officials. The officials of Cohuila, of which
Texas was a part dependency, also annoyed the pioneers,
and the policy of Santa Anna threatened to obliterate their
freedom. The United States made two attempts to buy
Texas, in 1827 and 1829. At last the American colonists
rose in armed revolution in 1835, and inflicted serious
defeats on the Mexicans at Gonzales and Goliad, and
stormed San Antonio. The Texans proclaimed their coun-
try to be a free and independent republic. Santa Anna,
the president of Mexico, led 7,500 troops across the Rio
Grande, and in 1836 massacred the Texan command at
Goliad. Marching upon San Antonio, "the Napoleon of
the West" bombarded and stormed Alamo, and after a
bitter fight, in which he lost 1,500 men, he slew all its de-
fenders, Travis and Crockett and Bowie, and 170 other
Texan heroes. It has been grandly said, "Thermopylae
had her messenger of death : the Alamo had none." Gen.
Houston, a Fabian leader, retreated far into the country,
and when the pursuing army got where he wanted it to be,
at San Jacinto, he annihilated it, and captured Santa
Anna. But the war was long drawn out, and as late as

285

286 TEXAS' DESTINY DETERMINED.

1842 successive armies under Vasquez and Woll captured
San Antonio ; and Gen. Ampuida and the Yucatan regi-
ment overwhelmed Fisher's Texans at Mier.

The story of the battle of San Jacinto was told in a
manner worthy the thrilling fight by the Hon. John M.
Niles, 1843. He relates that Houston, though his force
was greatly outnumbered by that of Santa Anna, resolved
to give him battle, and finding the point where they would
meet the enemy, *pressed forward, to be the first to occupy
the ground. This secured them not a victory, but a battle,
and that was the object of their present movement, that
began April 18, 1836. The Texans had determined to
hazard all upon a blow, which, if ineffectual, they well
knew must be fatal to their country and themselves, since
Texas had no other army.

Santa Anna having crossed -the Brazos at Fort Bend,
thirty miles below San Felipe, had directed his march
upon Harrisburg, as Houston had anticipated; but the
movement had taken place earlier than was expected.
Houston, after having gained intelligence of this move-
ment of his enemy, through the capture of his courier on
the evening of the 18th, and learning also his intention to
return to Lynch's Ferry, near the mouth of Buffalo Bayou,
in order to cross the San Jacinto on his way to Anahuac,
pressed forward with his army for the point indicated,
which he reached on the 20th; and before his army had
time to prepare refreshments the Mexican army appeared
in view. Santa Anna had drawn up in battle array, and
made some show of attacking Houston in his position. A
cannonading was opened for a short time on both sides, and
some skirmishing took place between the opposing cavalry,
and also between detached parties of infantry. The Mexi-

TEXAS' DESTINY DETERMINED. 287

cans, however, soon retired, and took a position three-
fourths of a mile distant from the Texan camp. Houston
had not declined the offered battle, but willingly drew off
his men when the enemy retired, desirous of invigorating
them with sleep and refreshments, for they had marched
two days and nights, and they heard of the presence of
the Mexican army while engaged in slaughtering beeves.
Houston says:

"About nine o'clock on the morning of the 21st the en-
emy were reinforced by five hundred choice troops, under
the command of Gen. Cos, increasing their effective force
to upward of fifteen hundred men, whilst our aggregate
force for the field numbered seven hundred and eighty-
three. At half -past three o'clock in the evening I ordered
the officers of the Texan army to parade their respective
commands, having, in the meantime, ordered the bridge
on the only road communicating with the Brazos, distant
eight miles from our encampment, to be destroyed, thus
cutting off all possibility of escape. Our troops paraded
with alacrity and spirit, and were anxious for the contest.
Their conscious disparity of numbers seemed only to in-
crease their enthusiasm and confidence, and heightened
their anxiety for the conflict. Our situation afforded me
the opportunity for making the arrangements preparatory
to the attack, without exposing our designs. Every evolu-
tion was performed with alacrity, the whole advancing
rapidly in line, and through an open prairie, without any
protection whatever for our men. The artillery advanced
and took station within two hundred yards of the enemy's
breastwork, and commenced an effective fire with grape
and canister."

Houston's artillery consisted of two six-pounders

288 TEXAS' DESTINY DETERMINED.

(brass), that had been bought with money raised by the
ladies of Cincinnati, in whose name they were presented
to General Houston. Houston says:

"Col. Sherman and his regiment, having commenced the
action upon our left wing, the whole line, at the center and
on the right, advancing in double quick time, with the war-
cry, 'Remember the Alamo,' received the enemy's fire, and
advanced within point-blank shot before a piece was dis-
charged from our lines. Our line advanced without a 'halt
until they were in possession of the woodland and our
enemy's breastwork. The right wing of Burleson and the
left of Millard taking possession of the breastwork; our
artillery having charged gallantly up within seventy yards
of the enemy's cannon, when it Was taken by our troops.
The conflict lasted about eighteen minutes from the time
of close action until we were in possession of the enemy's
encampment, taking one piece of cannon (loaded), four
stand of colors, all their camp equipage, stores and bag-
gage. Our cavalry had charged and routed that of the en-
emy upon the right, and given pursuit to the fugitives,
which did not cease until they arrived at the bridge I
mentioned before, Captain Karnes, always among the
foremost in danger, commanding the pursuers. The con-
flict in the breastwork lasted but a few moments; many
of the troops encountered hand to hand, and not having
the advantage of bayonets on our side, our riflemen used
their pieces as war-clubs, breaking many of them off at the
breech. The route commenced at half-past four, and the
pursuit by the main army continued until twilight. A
guard was then left in charge of the enemy's encampment,
and our army returned with their killed and wounded.
In the battle our loss was two killed and twenty-three

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TEXAS' DESTINY DETERMINED. 280

wounded, six of them mortally. The enemy's loss was 630
killed, among whom was one general officer, four colonels,
two lieutenant-colonels, seven captains, one cadet. Prison-
ers, 730 — President General Santa Anna, Gen. Cos, four
colonels, aids to General Santa Anna, and the colonel of
the Guerrero battalion, are included in the number. Gen-
eral Santa Anna was not taken until the 22nd, and General
Cos on yesterday, very few having escaped. About 600
muskets, 300 sabres and 200 pistols have been collected
since the action; several hundred mules and horses were
taken, and near twelve thousand dollars in specie. For
several days previous to the action our troops were en-
gaged in forced marches, exposed to excessive rains, and
the additional inconvenience of extremely bad roads, ill
supplied with rations and clothing — yet amid every diffi-
culty they bore up with cheerfulness and fortitude, and
performed their marches with spirit and alacrity—there
was no murmuring."

The Secretary of War of Texas, Col. Rusk, was on the
field, and said in his official report :

"Major-General Houston acted with great gallantry,
encouraging his men to the attack and heroically charging,
in front of the infantry, within a few yards of the enemy,
receiving at the same time a wound in his leg.

"The enemy soon took to flight, officers and all, some
on foot and some on horseback. In ten minutes after the
firing of the first gun we were charging through the camp
and driving them before us. They fled in confusion and
dismay down the river, followed closely by our troops for
four miles. Some of them took the prairie, and were pur-
sued by our cavalry; others were shot in attempting to
swim the river ; and in a short period the sanguinary con-

290 TEXAS' DE8TINY DETERMINED.

flict was terminated by the surrender of nearly all who
were not slain in the combat. One-half of their army
perished; the other half are prisoners, among whom are
Gen. Santa Anna himself."

Col. Rusk closed his report :

"The sun was sinking in the horizon as the battle com-
menced ; but, at the close of the conflict, the sun of liberty
and independence rose in Texas, never, it is hoped, to be
obscured by the clouds of despotism."

CHAPTEE XIX.

THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS.

Texas is the only part of the North American continent
that has been under seven national flags.

1. The Bourbon flag of France, white, with lilies.

2. The red and yellow standard of Spain.

3. The tri-color and the eagles of Napoleon.

4. The stars and stripes.

5. The flag of Mexico.

6. The lone star of Texas.

7. The stars and bars of the Southern Confederacy.
Again the old flag of the stars and stripes, with all the

old stars and new ones.

The annexation of Texas to the United States was Feb-
ruary 16, 1846.

[HISTORY OF TEXAS, from 1685 to 1892. By John
Henry Brown. St. Louis: L. E. Daniel.]

Under a proclamation of President Jones, the new, and
first legislature of the State assembled at Austin on the
16th of February, 1846. The senate organized by the
election of Jesse Grimes as President pro tern. In the
House of Representatives Wm. E. Crump was elected
Speaker.

Both houses, having completed their organization, as-
sembled in joint session to witness the closing scenes in
the drama of annexation.

It was a scene witnessed by many persons from all parts
of Texas, over which the banner of the lone star floated for

291

292 ?&£ SJSVtiN FLAGS OF TEXAS.

the last time. President Jones delivered his valedictory
address, from which brief extracts follow. He said :

"The great measure of annexation, so earnestly dis-
cussed, is happily consummated. The present occasion,
so full of interest to us and to all the people of this coun-
try, is an earnest of that consummation ; and I am happy
to greet you, their chosen representatives, and to tender
you my cordial congratulations on an event the most ex-
traordinary in the annals of the world ; one which marks
a bright triumph in the history of Republican institutions.
A government is changed both in its officers and in its
organization — not by violence and disorder, but by the
deliberate and free consent of its citizens ; and amid per-
fect and universal peace and tranquillity, the sovereignty
of the nation is surrendered, and incorporated with that
of another. * * *

"The lone star of Texas, which ten years since arose
amid clouds over fields of carnage, and obscurely seen for
a while, has culminated, and followed an inscrutable des-
tiny; has passed on and become fixed forever in that glo-
rious constellation which all freemen and lovers of freedom
in the world must reverence and adore — the American
Union. Blending its rays with its sister States, long may
it continue to shine, and may generous heaven smile upon
the consummation of the wishes of the two Republics now
joined in one. May the union be perpetual, and may it be
the means of conferring benefits and blessings upon the
people of all the States, is my ardent prayer.

"The first act in the great drama is now performed.
The Republic of Texas is no more."

General Henderson then delivered his inaugural ad-
dress. It was elegant in diction, and breathed the spirit

THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS. 293

of fervent patriotism. He ably pointed out the work be-
fore them, involving the change of laws to suit the altered
condition of the country ; a vast labor demanding thought-
ful and patient care.

Texas received many congratulations, none more fervid
and sincere than from ex-President Andrew Jackson. He
appreciated the value of the addition of Texas to the
Union, and congratulated the United States as well,
always regarding the act as the "re-annexation of Texas."
He said: "I now behold the great American eagle, with
her stars and stripes, hovering over the lone star of Texas,
with cheering voice welcoming it into our glorious Union,
and proclaiming to Mexico and all foreign governments,
'You must not attempt to tread upon Texas' — that the
United stars and stripes now defend her."

Texas received $10,000,000 from the United States
for the great domains west and north of its present bor-
ders, and the debt of the Eepublic and the expense of the
State for many years were paid therewith. It also re-
ceived the right to divide into five States, if future devel-
opment should require it. The imperial area of public
lands within the State Texas reserved for her own control
and disposal. When the secession war opened the Gov-
ernor, Sam Houston, formerly President of Texas, made
every effort to hold his State firm in her loyalty to the
Union; but the people voted in favor of secession, 39,415
to 13,841. Gen. Twiggs surrendered twenty United States
forts ; and the garrisons, 2,500 soldiers, with their arms,
were conveyed out of the State. Houston was deposed
from the Governorship, and then the State swung into the
Confederate line. The war made little impress on this
imperial domain, which happily lay outside of its ap-

294 THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS.

palling struggles. The Federal fleet and army occupied
Galveston October 4, 1862? but were driven out three
months later with heavy losses, and the Confederates held
the port until the end of the war. The National fleets
were twice repulsed from Sabine Pass by Confederate
cotton-clad steamboats and forts, and lost four gunboats.
In November, 1862, Gen. Dana occupied Brazos Santiago
and Brownsville with 6,000 soldiers from New Orleans,
and the whole coast except Galveston and the Brazos Eiver
fell into the hands of the Federal troops. These useless
garrisons were soon withdrawn, except at Brazos Santiago.

In the fall of 1862 General Magruder, Confederate
States army, assumed command of the Trans-Mississippi
(that is, west of the Mississippi) Department. He de-
termined at once to attempt the recapture of Galveston.
He went to Virginia Point, where the Confederate troops
were camped, and there with great caution and secrecy
made his plans.

At the head of Galveston Bay the Neptune and the
Bayou City, two small steamboats, were bulwarked with
cotton bales, mounted with cannon, and manned with
sharpshooters from the Confederate States cavalry and
artillery. The Lady Gwinn and the John F. Carr were
detailed to accompany these vessels as tenders. This crude
fleet was commanded by Captain Leon Smith, who had
served in the navy of the Texas Kepublic.

About midnight on the 31st of December the boats
moved down the bay to a position above the town, where
they quietly awaited General Magruder's signal gun.

Magruder had already crossed his troops to the island.
They marched swiftly through the deserted streets of the
city, and, by the light of the waning moon, planted their

THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS. 295

batteries. At five o'clock on New Year's morning, 1863,
the attack began. It was a complete surprise to the Fed-
erals.

The ships of the blockading fleet, under the command
of Commodore Renshaw, were nearly all within the bay.
The Harriet Lane, commanded by Commodore Wain-
wright, was lying near the wharf. At a little distance was
the ironclad Westfield, Commodore Renshaw' s flag-ship,
attended by the Owasco ; still further out were the armed
vessels, the Clifton and the Sachem, and the barges the
Elias Park and the Cavallo.

The war-ships answered the fire of Magruder's bat-
teries with a terrific hail of iron; once the Confederate
gunners were driven from their guns. But the Neptune
and the Bayou City steamed up to the Harriet Lane and
attacked her at close quarters, pouring a hot fire into her
from beyond the rampart of cotton bales.

The Neptune with a hole in her hull made by a cannon
ball soon sank in the shallow water. The Bayou City was
also disabled. The Confederate sharpshooters leaped on
board the Harriet Lane; and, after a bloody fight on her
deck, captured her. Commodore Wainwright was killed
early in the action. First Lieutenant Lea was mortally
wounded.

The Union infantry made a gallant resistance to the
land attack, but they were finally obliged to surrender.

The Sachem, the Clifton and the Owasco stood out to
sea and escaped. The Westfield ran aground and was
blown up to prevent her capture. Commodore Renshaw
and his officers had left the vessel, but their boats were too
near when the explosion took place prematurely, and they
perished with her. The Harriet Lane and the barges, with

296 THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS.

several hundred prisoners, remained in the hands of the
victors.

The loss in this battle on the Confederate side was
twelve killed and seventy wounded. The Federals lost
one hundred and fifty killed and many wounded.

Among the mortally wounded were two young soldiers,
the story of whose death even yet stirs the heart with
pity. One fell fighting under the starry cross of the Con-
federacy. The other dropped on the bloody deck of the
Harriet Lane under the shadow of the Stars and Stripes.
The Confederate was Lieutenant Sidney Sherman, son of
the gallant veteran, General Sidney Sherman, who led the
infantry charge at San Jacinto. The lieutenant was
hardly more than a boy. The blood oozed from his wounds
as he lay dying, but the smile of victory parted his lips.
Suddenly his blue eyes grew soft and tender. "Break this
gently to my mother," he whispered. These were his last
words.

The young Union soldier was Edward Lea, first lieu-
tenant of the Harriet Lane. His wounds were also fatal.
But as his life was ebbing away he heard his name spoken
in a tone of agony. He opened his eyes. His father,
Major Lea of the Confederate army, was kneeling beside
him. Father and son had fought on opposite sides that
dark New Year's morning. The pale face of the young
lieutenant lighted with joy, and when a little later the
surgeon told him he had but a moment to live, he answered
with the confidence of a little child and with his latest
breath, "My father is here."

The two lads cold in death rested almost side by side on
their funeral biers that day — brothers in death, brothers

THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS. 297

forever in the memory of those who looked upon their
calm young faces.

In the remote Southwest Confederate troops aided Ba-
zaine's French forces against the patriot Mexicans, who
in turn raided along the Kio Grande border, under Cor-
tina's lead.

The vast influx of immigrants and capital, and the de-
velopment of mines, cattle-ranges and farms have raised
Texas to the proud position of the richest state in the
South. Since 1880 it has far passed Kentucky and Vir-
ginia, its nearest competitors. A single county in the
Pan Handle, which had but twelve families, now raises
more wheat than the entire state did at that time. The
immigration has come mainly from the older Southern
states, left prostrate by the Civil war, and finding in Texas
the most promising outlet for the ambitions of their young
men. Many thousands of Frenchmen, Poles, Swedes,
Germans and other Europeans have entered at the port
of Galveston, and great numbers of Northwestern farm-
ers now occupy the northern counties.

In contrast with the scenes of the wars that are over is
the excellent work of saving lives at Galveston during the
hurricane, by the officers and crew of the revenue cutter
"Galveston," which was stationed at that port. The first
mail through from the stricken city reached Washington
to-day and brought two letters from Chief Engineer
W. S. Whittaker of the Galveston. Under date of Sun-
day he says :

"All the sheds on the wharves have been leveled to the
ground, or nearly so. I do not think there is a house that
has not been more or less damaged or blown to the ground.
While the wind was blowing over sixty miles an, hour w$

298 TEE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS.

sent out a boat with a rescuing party to row up one of the
streets. The first trip they succeeded in saving thirteen
women and children and brought them back to the vessel
in safety.

"It was useless to attempt to row the boat against the
terrific wind, and, as the water was at that time not over
a man's head in the streets, a rope would be sent out to
the nearest telegraph pole and by that means the boat
could be hauled along from pole to pole. This was accom-
plished only by the most herculean efforts on the part of
the men who led out the rope, but between swimming,
walking and floundering along in the teeth *of the gale
the rope would finally be made fast.

"Then it was all that the crew of one officer and seven
men could do to pull the boat against the fierce blasts of
the cyclone. By working all Saturday afternoon and
evening and up to 1 o'clock Sunday morning, the brave
boys succeeded in rescuing thirty-four men, women and
children, whom they put in a place of safety and provided
them with enough provisions for their immediate wants.
Finally, on account of the darkness, the increasing violence
of the storm and the vast amount of wreckage in the
streets, the rescuing party was reluctantly compelled to
return to the vessel.

"On board the ship it was a period of intense anxiety
for all hands. No one slept and it was only by the almost
superhuman efforts of the officers and crew that we rode
out the hurricane in safety. With the exceptions of the
carrying away of the port forward rigging and the smash-
ing of all the windows and stay lights the vessel sustained
no serious injury. !N"ot a single person on board was
injured in any way."

THE SEVEN FLAGS OF TEXAS. 299

Under date of Tuesday, two days after the storm had
spent its strength, the same officer writes: "We think
there have been 5,000 lives lost. I cannot begin to tell
the number of houses blown down or damage done. Our
new distiller, which came down on the New York steamer,
has been set up on deck, and we are thus enabled to relieve
much suffering by supplying drinking water to the many
who call on us for relief. We have also furnished as much
food to the needy as we can possibly spare."

CHAPTEK XX.

TEMPESTS THAT AEE HISTORIC.

August 15, 1787, there occurred in Connecticut a wind
"which blew in a circle about 250 miles in diameter," of
which it was quaintly said that it "had its center near
Lake George," and "got close enough to the earth to do
damage in the parish of New Britain, Connecticut." It
then proceeded in a northeasterly direction through the
southern portion of the parish of Newington, then, we
quote "The Historic Storm of New England," over Weth-
ersfield, East Windsor, Glastonbury, Bolton, Coventry,
Thompson (which was then a parish of Killingly), Conn.,
then over Gloucester, R. I., continuing its course over
Mendon, Eramingham, Southboro, Marlboro and Sun-
bury, Mass., into New Hampshire, touching at Rochester,
where it was last heard from.

If the reader will examine the map of New England
he will notice that the line of the cyclone was a curve, and
not a straight course, like that in which tornadoes blow.
A cloud carried along by the wind was observed about
noon on that day in the northwest, the direction of Lake
George. Between 1 and 2 o'clock it had arrived at the
west of the point where it began to do its destructive work
in New England; and this seems to be additional evi-
dence that this was a cyclone.

During the day there had been at New Britain, Conn.,
quite a strong breeze from the south, and about noon a
cloud somewhat similar to those accompanying violent
thunder showers, unusually black, ranged along the hori-

300

TEMPESTS.

zon from the north to the west, reaching about one-third
up to the zenith, and its upper edge being indented and
forming irregular columns, like pyramids. It was dif-
ferent from the common thunder cloud, being one con-
tinuous sheet of vapor and not a collection of small clouds.
This cloud was seen approaching the south between 1
and 2 o'clock. People on high hills had an excellent view
of it as it came toward the place that was soon to be the
scene of its desolation. They saw a column of black
cloud, about thirty rods in diameter, reaching from the
earth to the cloud above. It was so dense that the eye
could not penetrate it, and it appeared luminous, peals
of thunder coming from it, which grew louder as it ad-
vanced. It whirled along with great force and rapidity,
and was productive of an awful roar, that caused feelings
of terror to arise in all hearts. The cloud sped along in
a majestic manner, as though sliding on an unseen plane,
while from it the black column reached down its horrible
arm and touched the earth. When it came quite near
the column instantly divided horizontally at a short dis-
tance from the earth, as though a strong wind had dashed
it asunder, the upper part of it appearing to rise, and the
lower to spread itself to the extent of sixty or eighty rods.
In a moment it would apparently burst from the ground
like the thickest smoke, spread the above named distance
on its surface, then instantly whirl, contracting itself to
the size of the column described, and lifting its head to
the cloud, being charged with sections of fences, huge
limbs of trees, boards, bricks, timbers, shingles, hay and
similar articles, which were continually crashing against
each other in the air or falling to the ground. At in-
tervals of different lengths the column performed this

302 HISTORICAL TEMPESTS.

movement. But seeming to disdain to stoop towards the
earth the cloud itself sailed grandly along on its errand
of desolation and death.

The cyclone passed over New England at about 3 o'clock
in the afternoon. Its width varied from twenty to one
hundred yards, being most violent at the narrower places.
In some portions of its course the clouds appeared
luminous, in others not, and sometimes thunder rolled in
its midst. In Connecticut only a few large drops of
water fell, but in Massachusetts rain descended in such
quantities that large tracks of low land were inundated,
causing great damage. It was probably not true rain,
but water that had been taken up bodily from the streams
and ponds over which the cyclone had passed.

The wind destroyed all before it, houses barns and other
buildings being utterly shattered, fields of Indian corn
and flax blown away, and all varieties of vegetables swept
even with the ground. A great many stacks of hay were
scattered over the country for miles, much of it being
carried into the woods and left on the tops of trees. Apple
orchards, whose trees were bending under a great quantity
of ripening fruit, and peach and pear trees were torn out
by the roots or twisted off near the ground, some of the
largest apple trees being carried many rods. Forest,
timber and shade trees were also torn up by the roots, or
twisted off at the trunks, and carried long distances with
cartloads of earth and rocks clinging to some of them, be-
ing dropped in field, meadow or street. Whole groves of
fine young trees were utterly destroyed. The toughest
saplings and closest pasture white oaks were twisted off
and woven together, their smaller boughs looking as if
they had been struck upon a rock many times. Fences

HISTORICAL TEMPESTS. 303

and stone walls were leveled in all parts of the cyclone's
track, and many articles, such as stones and logs, weigh-
ing several hundred pounds were lifted into the air and
carried to other places. In some localities the column
acted like a plough, tearing the sward off the ground to a
depth of from four to six inches, as it did at Southborough,
Mass., in the pasture of Lieutenant Fay. Strips of the
sward were torn off several yards in length and from
two to four feet in breadth. There were no trees, bushes
or brakes growing upon the sod upon which the wind could
exert its strength in the ordinary manner, nor were any
trees blown across the place that could plow the ground.
The evidence clearly shows that the wind itself tore the
turf from the underlying strata of gravel. Several men
were standing in the vicinity of the pasture when the
wind passed, and noticed that a heavy undulating sound,
like thunder at a great distance, issued from the column.

The Illustrated American of June 17, 1898, gives
this account of a northwest storm:

The terrible cyclone that gathered in more than fifty
victims in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois,
was of much larger area than was at first supposed. The
storm was the most severe, however, at Stillman Valley,
near Eockford, 111.

The wind arose from the southeast on the evening of
May 18, and came rushing along with extraordinarily
sudden vehemence. It was fully 400 feet wide, and
leveled everything in its path, even destroying objects
that lay on its extreme edge, which a cyclone usually treats
more mercifully. Hundreds of farm houses and barns
were demolished, rolling over in the face of the wind like

304: HISTORICAL TEMPESTS.

so many structures of cards, and hundreds of live stock
were killed.

A train on the "Soo" railroad in Wisconsin was com-
pelled to turn back on account of the storm. Several
railroad men were killed, not only in Wisconsin, but also
on the same line in Minnesota, near Duluth. In Pen-
nington, near Duluth, it is said that scarcely a building
was left standing. Southern Michigan was also touched
by the wind storm on its way.

Great damage was done in Adeline, many buildings
being razed. The railroads reported many washouts, and
telegraph and telephone wires were badly affected. The
list of dead and injured was as follows : Michael Nelson,
Stillman Valley; Mrs. M. N. Nelson, Stillman Valley;
a baby of Mrs. Nelson ; Julia Johnson, Stillman Valley ;
William Reese, Marion township ; Thomas Mullens, Ade-
line, 111. ; three children of Mr. and Mrs. John Mass,
Foreston, 111.; S. Chantler, Adeline, 111.; Mrs. Frank
Chichelcer, Paw Paw.

The cyclone passed Wisconsin from west to east across
Pierce and Oneida counties, in northern Wisconsin. The
track of the storm extended forty miles from Brantwood,
Pierce county, to Pennington, Oneida county, both on the
Soo railroad.

The Cornhill Magazine contained the following ac-
count of the Great Storm of 1703, in England :

November has for ages been properly credited with
being the most stormy month of the year on the coast of
northwestern Europe. To our Saxon forefathers it was
known, not only as "Blot-monat," the month for shedding
the blood of cattle to secure a stock of provisions to meet
the requirements of the rapidly approaching winter, but

HISTORICAL TEMPESTS. 305

also as "Wint-monat," because of the boisterous winds
which marked the close of the autumn.

Numerous instances of immense loss of life and de-
struction of property on our own and neighboring coasts
could be mentioned as having been occasioned by Novem-
ber storms, but there seems to be but one storm in Eng-
lish history which writers have agreed to consider one
of the great events of our island story. The naval and
mercantile fleets of European nations have at various
times suffered terribly in those awful aerial convulsions
we know as tropical cyclones or typhoons, but overwhelm^
ing disaster in such far distant regions as the West Indies,
China Seas, or Samoa, do not appeal to us with the same
force as would similar events occurring in our midst.

On the night of November 26-27 (O. S.), 1T03, the
southern half of Britain was ravaged by a tempest which
exhibited the worst features of tropical cyclones. Whole
forests of trees are said to have been uprooted ; more than
a dozen men-of-war were wrecked ; 800 houses, 400 wind-
mills, seven church steeples, and Eddystone lighthouse
blown down; the lead roofing of more than a hundred
churches rolled up; and houses innumerable unroofed, so
that "at London upon this sad occasion the wicked huck-
sters have raised the price of tiles, slates and bricks to an
unreasonable height, and both materials and workmen are
wanting for the repair of the houses."

Thousands of lives were lost, the Navy Royal losing
at least 1,500 men. Bishop Kichard Kidder (Ken's suc-
cessor to the See of Bath and Wells) and his wife were
killed by the collapse of a portion of the Episcopal palace.
Lady Penlope Nicholas, the Bishop of London's sister,
was also killed at Horsley, Sussex. Gilbert White refers

306 HISTORICAL TEMPESTS.

to it as the "amazing tempest" which overturned at once
the vast oak tree which stood in the center of the village
of Shelborne. The lowest estimate 4 of the damage in
London alone was a million sterling, some computations
placing it at two millions and even considerably above four
million sterling. According to The Observer for Decem-
ber 1-4, "never was such a storm of wind, such a hurri-
cane and tempest known in the memory of man, nor
the like to be found in the histories of England."

Before the full extent of the destruction was known the
House of Commons, on December 1, voted an address to
Queen Anne "expressing the great sense this House hath
of the calamity fallen upon the kingdom by the late vio-
lent storm/7 promising to grant supplies for making good
the serious losses of the Navy Royal. There is no other
instance on record of an English storm being the occasion
of national humiliation, January 19, 1703-4 "being ap-
pointed a general and public fast, to be observed through-
out the Kingdom." The Lords went in a body to
Westminster Abbey, where Talbot, Bishop of Oxford, had
been desired to preach, and the Commons attended a
similar service in St. Margaret's Church, with Dr. Gas-
trell as the preacher.

It is to DeFoe we are indebted for most of the infor-
mation hitherto published about this frightful visitation.
The author of Robinson Crusoe had already written ail
account of the condition of London during the Plague of
1665, and thinking the hurricane an equally great event,
he decided to hand down to posterity such particulars as
could be obtained, and made an appeal to people in all
parts of the country to supply him with local details of
the gale and its consequences.

HISTORICAL TEMPESTS. 307

Some months afterwards he published a work on "The
Storm; or, A Collection of the Most Remarkable Casual-
ties Which Happen's in the Late Dreadful Tempest, Both
by Sea and Land." The first part of the book is made up
of the theories then current as to the cause of storms, and
a review of previous storms mentioned in the Scriptures
and elsewhere, from a consideration of which the author
arrived at the conclusion that this particular storm was
"The Greatest, the Longest in Duration, the Widest in
Extent of All the Tempests and Storms That History
Gives Any Account of Since the Beginning of Time."

CHAPTER XXL

THE GEEAT STOEM TIT ENGLAND.

The oceans around England had from the remotest
times the reputation of being stormy. Julius Casar found
it so when he crossed the famous channel, and the fate of
the Spanish Crusader confirmed the old story. There was
a storm November 26, 1703, that has ever since been
the Great Storm. It was very good of Daniel Defoe, the
author of "Robinson Crusoe," to be the historian of the
Great Storm, and to tell of it in prose and poetry, and we
proceed to quote the eminent author. His volume on this
strenuous subject was entitled : "The Storm ; or, A Col-
lection of the Most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters
Which Happened in the Late Dreadful Tempest Both by
Sea and Land. MDCCIV."

I shall dive no further into that mysterious deluge,
which has some things in it which recommend the story
rather to our faith than demonstration.

The other storm I find in the Scripture is that "God
shall rain upon the wicked, plagues, fire and a horrible
tempest." What this shall be, we wait to know; and
happy are they who shall be secured from its effects.

Histories are full of instances of violent tempests and
storms in sundry particular places. What that was, which,
mingled with such violent lightnings, set the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah on fire, remains to me yet unde-
cided; nor am I satisfied the effect it had on the waters
of the lake, which are to this day called the Dead Sea, are
such as some fabulous authors have related, and as trav-
elers take upon them to say.

STORM IN ENGLAND. 309

I am not of the opinion with the early ages of the
world, when these islands (Great Britain) were first
known, that they were the most terrible of any part of the
world for storms and tempests.

Camoden tells us, the Britons were distinguished from
all the world by impassable seas and terrible northern
winds, which made the Albion shores dreadful to sailors ;
and this part of the world was therefore reckoned the ut-
most bounds of the northern known land, beyond which
none had ever sailed ; and quotes a great variety of ancient
authors to this purpose.

It had blown exceedingly hard for about fourteen days
past; and so hard that we thought it terrible weather;
several stacks of chimneys were blown down, and several
ships were lost, and the tiles in many places were blown
off from the houses; and the nearer it came to the fatal
26th of November, the tempestuousness of the weather in-
creased.

On the Wednesday morning before, being the 24th of
November, it was fair weather, and ble-~ hard; but not
so as to give any apprehensions, till about four o'clock in
the afternoon the wind increased, and with squalls of
rain and terrible gusts blew very furiously.

The collector of these sheets narrowly escaped the mis-
chief of a part of a house which fell on the evening of
that day by the violence of the wind; and abundance of
tiles were blown off the houses that night; the wind con-
tinued with unusual violence all the next day and night,
and had not the Great Storm followed so soon this had
passed for a great wind.

On Friday morning it continued to blow exceeding
hard, but not so as that it gave any apprehensions of dan-

310 STORM IN ENGLAND.

ger within doors; towards night it increased; and about
ten o'clock, our barometers informed us that the night
would be very tempestuous ; the mercury sunk lower than
ever I had observed it on any occasion whatsoever, which
made me suppose the tube had been handled and disturbed
by the children.

But as my observations of this nature are not regular
enough to supply the reader with full information, the
disorders of that dreadful night have found me other em-
ployment, expecting every moment when the house I was
in would bury us all in its own ruins ; I have therefore sub-
joined a letter from an ingenious gentleman on this very
head, directed to the Royal Society, and printed in the
Philosophical Transactions, E"o. 289, p. 1530, as follows:
'A Letter from the Reverend Mr. William Derham,

F. R. S., Containing His Observations Concerning the

Late Storm.

Sir : — According to my promise at the general meeting
of the R. S. on St. Andrew's day, I here send you inclosed
the account of my ingenious and inquisitive friend, Rich-
ard Townley, Esq., concerning the state of the atmosphere
in that part of Lancashire where he liveth, in the late dis-
mal storm. And I hope it will not be unacceptable, to
accompany his with my own observations at Upminster,
especially since I shall not weary you with a long history
of the devastations, etc., but rather some particulars of a
more philosophical consideration.

And first, I do not think it improper to look back to the
preceding seasons of the year. I scarce believe I shall go
out of the way to reflect as far back as April, May, June
and July, because all these were wet months in our south-
ern parts. In April there fell 12.49 pounds of rain

STORM IN ENGLAND. 311

through my tunnel: and about 6, 7, 8 or 9 pounds I es-
teem a moderate quantity for Upminster. IH May there
fell more than in any month of any year since the year
1696, viz., 20.77 pounds. June likewise was a dripping
month, in which fell 14.55 pounds. And July, although
it had considerable intermissions, yet had 14.19 pounds,
above 11 pounds of which fell on July 28th and 29th in
violent showers. And I remember the newspapers gave
accounts of great rains that month from divers places
in Europe ; but the north of England, which also escaped
the violence of the late storm, was not so remarkably wet
in any of these months; at least not in that great pro-
portion more than we, as usually they are; as I guess
from the tables of rain with which Mr, Townley hath
favored me. Particularly July was a dry month with
them, there being no more than 3.65 pounds of rain fell
through Mr. Towneley's tunnel of the same diameter with
mine.

From these months let us pass to September, and that
we shall find to have been a wet month, especially the lat-
ter part of it; there fell of rain in that month 14.86
pounds.

October and November last, although not remarkably
wet, yet have been open, warm months for the most part.
My thermometer (whose freezing point is about 84) hath
been very seldom below 100 all this winter, and especially
in November.

Thus I have laid before you as short account as I could
of the preceding disposition of the year, particularly as
to wet and warmth, because I am of opinion that these
had a great influence in the late storm, not only in causing
a replention of vapors in the atmosphere, but also in rais-

312 STORM IN ENGLAND.

ing such nitre-sulphureous or other heterogeneous mat-
ter, which, when mixed together, might make a sort of
explosion (like fired gunpowder) in the atmosphere. And,
from this explosion I judge these corruscations or flashes
in the storm to have proceeded, which most people as well
as myself observed, and which some took for lightning.
But these things I leave to better judgments, such as that
very ingenious member of our society, who hath under-
taken the province of the late tempest; to whom, if you
please, you may impart these papers; Mr. Halley, you
know, I mean.

From preliminaries it is time to proceed nearer to the
tempest itself. And the foregoing day, viz., Thursday,
November 25, I think deserveth regard. In the morning
of that day was a little rain, the winds high in the after-
noon S. b. E. and S. In the evening there was lightning ;
and between 9 and 10 of the clock at night a violent but
short storm of wind and much rain at Upminster, and of
hail in some other places which did some damage; there
fell in that storm 1.65 pounds of rain. The next morning,
which was Friday, November 26, the wind was S.S.W.
and high all day, and so continued until I was in bed and
asleep. About 12 that night, the storm awakened me,
which gradually increased till near 3 that morning; and
from thence till near 1 it continued in the greatest ex-
cess: and then began to abate and the mercury to rise
swiftly. The barometer I found at 12h. -£ P. M. at 28.72,
where it continued till about 6 the next morning, OF 6J,
then hastily rose, so that it was gotten to 82 about 8 of
the clock.

How the wind sat during the late storm I cannot posi-
tively say, it being excessively dark all the while, and my

STORM IN ENGLAND. 313

vane blown down also3 when I could have seen; but my
information from millers and others who were forced to
venture abroad, and by my own guess, I imagine it to
have blown about S.W. by S., or nearer to the S. in the
beginning, and to veer about towards the west during the
end of the storm, as far as W.S.W.

The degrees of the wind's strength being not measura-
ble (that I know of, though talked of) but by guess, I thus
determine, with respect to other storms. On February 7,
169 8-9, was a terrible storm that did much damage.
This I number 10 degrees; the wind then W.N.W. vid.
Ph. Tr. No. 262. . Another remarkable storm was Febru-
ary 3, 170J, at which time was the greatest descent of the
mercury ever known ; this I number 9 degrees. But this
last of November, I number at least 15 degrees.

As to the stations of the barometer, you have Mr. Towne-
ley's and mine. As to November 17 (whereon Mr. Towne-
ley mentions a violent storm in Oxfordshire) it was a
stormy afternoon here at Upminster, accompanied with
rain, but not violent, nor mercury very low. November
11 and 12, had both higher winds and more rain, and the
mercury was those days lower than even in the last storm
of November 26.

Thus, sir, I have given you the truest account I can of
what I thought most to deserve observation, both before
and in the late storm. I could have added some other
particulars, but that I fear I have already made my letter
long and am tedious. I shall therefore only add, that I
have accounts of the storm at Norwich, Beccles, Sudbury,
Colchester, Rochford and several other intermediate
places ; but I need not tell particulars, because I question
not you have better informations.

314 STORM IN ENGLAND.

It did not blow so hard till 12 o'clock at night, but that
most families went to bed, though many of them not with-
out some concern at the terrible wind which then blew.
But about 1, or at least by 2 o'clock, 'tis supposed, few peo-
ple that were capable of any sense of danger were so
hardy as to lie in bed. And the fury of the tempest in-
creased to such a degree that, as the editor of this account
being in London and conversing with the people the next
days, understood, most people expected the fall of their
houses.

And yet, in this general apprehension, nobody durst
quit their tottering habitations ; for, whatever the danger
was within doors, it was worse without. The bricks, tiles,
and stones from the tops of houses flew with such force
and so thick in the streets that no one thought fit to venture
out, though their houses were near demolished within.

The author of this relation was in a well built brick
house in the skirts of the city, and a stack of chimneys
falling in upon the next houses gave the house such a shock
that they thought it was just coming down upon their
heads; but opening the door to attempt an escape into a
garden, the danger was so apparent that they all thought
fit to surrender to the disposal of Almighty Providence,
and expect their graves in the ruins of the house rather
than to meet most certain destruction in the open garden.
For, unless they could have gone above two hundred yards
from any building, there had been no security, for the
force of the wind blew the tiles point blank, though their
weight inclines them downward, and in several very
broad streets we saw the windows broken by the flying
tile-shreds from the other side, and where there was room
for them to fly the author of this has seen tiles blown

STORM IN ENGLAND. 315

from a house above thirty or forty yards, and stuck from
five to eight inches into the solid earth. Pieces of timber,
iron and sheets of lead have from higher buildings been
blown much farther as in the particulars hereafter will
appear.

For this reason I can not venture to affirm that there
was any such thing as an earthquake; but the concern
and consternation of all people was so great that I can
not wonder at their imagining several things which were
not, any more than their enlarging on things that were,
since nothing is more frequent than for fear to double
every object, and impose upon the understanding strong
apprehensions being apt very often to persuade us of the
reality of such things which we have no other reasons to
show for the probability of than what are grounded in
those fears which prevail at that juncture.

Others thought they heard it thunder. 'Tis confessed,
the wind, by its unusual violence, made such a noise in
the air as had a resemblance to thunder, and it was
observed the roaring had a voice as much louder than
usual as the fury of the wind was greater than was ever
known. The noise had also something in it more for-
midable ; it sounded aloft, and roared not very much un-
like remote thunder.

And yet, though I can not remember to have heard it
thunder, or that I saw any lightning, or heard of any that
did in or near London, yet in the country the air was seen
full of meteors and vaporous fires, and in some places
both thundering and unusual flashes of lightning, to the
great terror of the inhabitants.

And yet I can not but observe here how fearless such
people as are addicted to wickedness, are both of God's

316 STORM IN ENGLAND.

judgments and uncommon prodiges; which is visible in
this particular, that a gang of hardened rogues assaulted
a family at Poplar, in the very height of the storm, broke
into the house and robbed them; it is observable that the
people cried thieves, and after that cried fire in hopes
to raise the neighborhood and to get some assistance, but
such is the power of self-preservation, and such was the
fear the minds of the people were possessed with, that
nobody could venture out to the assistance of the dis-
tressed family, who were rifled and plundered in the
middle of all the extremity of the tempest.

Together with the violence of the wind, the darkness of
the night added to the terror of it ; and as it was just new
moon, the spring tides being then up at about 4 o'clock,
made the vessels which were afloat in the river drive the
farther up upon the shore, of all which, in the process
of this story, we shall find very strange instances.

The points from whence the wind blew are variously
reported from various hands; it is certain, it blew all
the day before at S. W., and I thought it continued so
until about 2 o'clock, when, as near as I could judge by the
impression it made on the house, for we durst not look
out, it veered to the S. S. W., then to the W., and
about 6 o'clock to W. by !N*., and still the more north-
ward it shifted the harder it blew, till it shifted again
southerly about 7 o'clock, and as it did so it gradually
abated.

About 8 o'clock in the morning it ceased so much that
our fears were also abated, and people began to peep out
of doors, but it is impossible to express the concern that
appeared in every place ; the distraction and fury of the
night was visible in the faces of the people, and every-

STORM IN ENGLAND. 317

body's first work was to visit and inquire after friends
and relations. The next day or two was almost entirely
spent in the curiosity of the people, in viewing the havoc
the storm had made, which was so universal in London,
and especially in the out-parts, that nothing can be said
sufficient to describe it.

Another unhappy circumstance with which the disaster
was joined, was a prodigious tide, which happened the
next day but one, and was occasioned by the fury of the
wifids, which is also a demonstration that the winds veered
for part of the time to the northward, and as it is observ-
able, and known by all that understand our sea affairs,
that a northwest wind makes the highest tide, so this blow-
ing to the northward and that with such unusual vio-
lence, brought up the sea raging in such a manner that
in some parts of England it was incredible, the water
rising six or eight feet higher than it was ever known to
do in the memory of man ; by which ships were fleeted up
upon the firm land several rods off from the banks, and an
incredible number of cattle and people drowned; as in
the pursuit of this story it will appear.

It was a special providence that so directed the waters
that in the River Thames the tide, though it rose higher
than usual, yet it did not so prodigiously exceed; but
the height of them as it was proved very prejudicial to
abundance of people whose cellars and warehouses were
near the river, and had the water risen a foot higher all
the marshes and levels on both sides of the river had been
overflowed and a great part of the cattle drowned.

Though the storm abated with the rising of the sun, it
still blew exceeding hard; so hard that no boats durst
stir out on the river but on extraordinary occasions, and

318 STORM IN ENGLAND.

about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the next day, being Sat-
urday, it increased again, and we were in a fresh con-
sternation, lest it should return with the same violence.
At four it blew an extreme storm, with sudden gusts as
violent as any time of the night, but as it came with a
great black cloud and some thunder, it brought a hasty
shower of rain which allayed the storm; so that in a
quarter of an hour it went off, and only continued blowing
as before.

This sort of weather held all Sabbath day and Monday,
till on Tuesday afternoon it increased again, and all night
it blew with such fury that many families were afraid to
go to bed, and had not the former terrible night hardened
the people to all things less than itself, this night would
have passed for a storm fit to have been noted in our
almanacks. Several stacks of chimnies that stood out the
Great Storm were blown down in this, several ships which
escaped the Great Storm perished this night, and several
people who repaired their houses had them untiled again.
Not but that I may allow those chimnies that fell now
might have been disabled before.

At this rate it held blowing till Wednesday, about 1
o'clock in the afternoon, which was that day seven-night
on which it began, so that it might be called one continued
storm from Wednesday noon to Wednesday noon.

A PASTOKAL OCCASIONED BY THE LATE
VIOLENT STOEM.

Damon. — Walking alone by pleasant Iris' side,
Where the two streams their wanton course divide,
And gently forward in soft murmurs glide;
Pensive and sad I Melibaeus meet,

STORM IN ENGLAND. 319

'And thus the melancholy shepherd greet :
Kind swain, what cloud dares overcast your brow,
Bright as the skies o'er happy Nile till now !
Does Chloe prove unkind, or some new fair ?

Melibaeus. — No, Damon, mine's a public, nobler care;
Such in which you and all the world must share.
One friend may mollify another's grief,
But public loss admits of no relief.

Dam. — I guess your cause ; O you that used to sing
Of Beauty's charms and the delights of Spring;
Now change your note, and let your lute rehearse
The dismal tale in melancholy verse.

Mel. — Prepare then, lovely swain; prepare to Lear
The worst report that ever reached your ear.
My bower, you know, hard by yon shady grove,
A fit recess for Damon's pensive love :
As there dissolved I in sweet slumbers lay,
Tired with the toils of the precedent day,
The blustering winds disturbed my kind repose,
Till frightened with the threatening blast I rose.
But O, what havoc did the day disclose !
Those charming willows which on Cherwel's banks
Flourished, and thrived and grew in evener ranks
Than those which followed the divine command
Of Orpheus lyre, or sweet Amphion's hand,
By hundreds fall, while hardly twenty stand.
The stately oaks which reached the azure sky,
And kissed the very clouds, now prostrate lie.
Long a huge pine did with the winds contend ;
This way, and that his reeling trunk they bend,
Till forced at last to yield, with hideous sound
He falls, and all the country feels the wound.

320 STORM IN ENGLAND.

!N"or was the God of winds content with these ;
Such humble victims can't his wrath appease :
The rivers swell, not like the happy Kile,
To fatten, dew and fructify our Isle :
But like the deluge, by great Jove designed
To drown the universe and scourge mankind.
In vain the frightened cattle climb so high,
In vain for refuge to the hills they fly ;
The waters know no limits but the sky.
So now the bleating flock exchange in vain,
For barren cliffs, their dewey fertile plain :
In vain, their fatal destiny to shun,
From Severn's banks to higher grounds they run
IsTor has the navy better quarter found :
There we've received our worst, our deepest wound.
The billows swell, and haughty Keptune raves,
The winds insulting o'er the impetuous waves.
Thetis incensed, rises with angry frown,
And once more threatens all the world to drown,
And owns no Power, but England's and her own.
Yet the Aeolian God dares vent his rage ;
And even the Sovereign of the seas engage :
And tho' the mighty Charles of Spain's on board,
The winds obey none but their blustering Lord.
Some ships are stranded, some by surges rent,
Down with their cargoes to the bottom went.
The absorbent ocean could desire no more;
So well regal's he never was before.
The hungry fish could hardly wait the day,
When the sun's beams should chase the storm away,
But quickly seize with greedy jaws their prey.
Dam. — So the great Trojan, by the hand of fate,

STORM IN ENGLAND. 321

And haughty power of angry Juno's hate,
While with like aim he crossed the seas, was tost,
From shore to shore, from foreign coast to coast :
Yet safe at last his mighty point he gained ;
In charming promised peace and splendor reigned.

Mel. — So may great Charles, whom equal glories move,
Like the great Dardan prince successful prove:
Like him, with honor may he mount the throne,
And long enjoy a brighter destined crown.

GOOD WOEDS.

The country was in many places devastated by the un-
usual height to which the tide rose. At Cardiff and other
parts in the Bristol Channel large portions of the seacoast
were submerged. Nor must we forget to mention that it
was in this tempest that the Eddystone Lighthouse was de-
stroyed, involving the loss of Mr. Winstanley, the engineer,
who had often bidden defiance to the winds and waves to do
their worst against his strangely constructed lighthouse;
or, as finely expressed in the "Hunchback" —

"The engineer

Who lays the last stone of his sea-built tower,
It cost him years and years of toil to raise,
And smiling at it, tells the winds and waves
To roar and whistle now ; but ere a night
Beholds the tempest sporting in its place."

What an awful time must poor Winstanley have passed
in what he called his "very fine bedchamber, richly gilded
and painted," ere the wind and the towering billows swept
his frail structure from the rocks ! Smeaton's account of
the affair is too interesting to be omitted :

322 STORM IN ENGLAND.

"Except the above, I have met with no occurrences con-
cerning this building, till November, 1703, when the fab-
ric needing some repairs, Mr. Winstanley went down to
Plymouth to superintend the performance of the roof ; and
we must not wonder if from the preceding accounts of
the violence of the seas and the structure of the lighthouse,
the common sense of the public led them to suppose this
building would not be of long duration; and the follow-
ing is an anecdote received to the same effeet from so
many persons that I can have no doubt of the truth of it.

"Mr. Winstanley being amongst his friends, previous to
going off with his workmen on account of these reparations,
the danger being intimated to him, and that one day or
other the lighthouse would be entirely overset, he replied :
'He was so very well assured of the strength of his build-
ing he should only wish to be there in the greatest storm
that ever blew under the face of the heavens, that he might
see what effect it would have upon the structure.' It hap-
pened that Mr. Winstanley was but too amply gratified,
for while he was there with his workmen and lightkeep-
ers, that dreadful storm began which raged the most
fiercely upon the 26th of November, 1703, in the night;
and of all the accounts of the kind which history furnishes
•us with, we have none that exceeded this in Great Britain^
or was more injurious or extensive in its devastation.

"The next morning, November 27th, when the violence
of the storm was so much abated that it could be seen
whether the lighthouse had suffered by it, nothing ap-
peared standing but, upon a nearer inspection, some of the
large irons whereby the work was fixed upon the rock;
nor were any of the people, or any of the materials of the
building ever found afterwards, save only part of an iron

STORM IN ENGLAND. 323

chain which got so fast jammed into the chink of the rock
that it could never afterwards be disengaged till it was
cut out in the year 1756. The above account is what I re-
ceived from old people at Plymouth."

In the account of the storm, published by Defoe in 1704,
it is stated 1 "It was very remarkable that, as we are in-
formed, at the same time the lighthouse abovesaid was
blown down, the model of it in Mr. Winstanley's house at
Littlebury, in Essex, above two hundred miles from the
lighthouse, fell down and was broke to pieces."

Passing by other remarkable storms since 1703 (of one
of which a curious account is given, along with a map, en-
titled The Passage of the Hurricane from the Seaside at
Bexhill in Sussex, to Newington Level, on the 20th of
May, 1729) we may come to the year 1783, commemorated
by Cowper in his "Task." This was a remarkable and por-
tentous kind of year. During a large portion of the sum-
mer a fog prevailed in various parts of Europe, which gave
the sun a dull red appearance, such as the fogs of winter
sometimes produce. In the earlier part of the year oc-
curred the succession of earthquakes which laid waste Cal-
abria. In August and October there were some remark-
able meteoric phenomena, which were seen all over Great
Britain, as well as on the Continent. Some parts of Eng-
land were visited by an untimely frost, in the month of
June, as described by Sir John Cullum in the "Philosoph-
ical Transactions." Cowper thus alludes to these things
in the second book of the "Task :"

"Sure there is need of social intercourse,
Benevolence, and peace and mutual aid,
Between the nations, in a world that seems

324 STORM IN ENGLAND.

To toll the death-bell of its own decease,
And, by the voice of all the elements
To preach the general doom. When are the winds
Let slip with such a warrant to destroy ?
When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap
Their ancient barriers, deluging the dry ?
Fires from beneath, and meteors from above,
Portentous, unexampled, unexplained,
Have kindled beacons in the skies ; and th' old
'And crazy earth has had her shaking fits
More frequent, and foregone her usual rest."

Toward the end of July, beginning of August, and in
the month of September, 1797, there was a succession of
thunder and other storms, accompanied by violent rains,
which fell all over Great Britain, and caused considerable
damage. Again, under September 12, 1798, the editor of
the Gentleman's Magazine says : "The storm of last night
was as tremendous as any remembered by the oldest man
living."

Another great storm, not the storm of 1703, occurred,
or, rather its worst effects were experienced, on October 10,
1780. Generated probably in mid-Atlantic, not far from
the equator, it was first felt in Barbadoes, where trees and
houses were blown down. Captain Maury, in his Physi-
cal Geography of the Sea, gives a rather exaggerated ac-
count of the effects produced by this storm in tke Barba-
does, apparently from memory, some of the details being
like, but not quite the same as those actually recorded. He
says : aThe bark was blown from the trees, and the fruits
of the earth were destroyed ; the very bottom and depths of
the sea were uprooted — forts and castles were washed

STORM IN ENGLAND. 325

away, and their great guns carried in the air like chaff. "
The bark of trees was removed, but it is believed rather
through the effects of electrical action than by the power
of the wind. Cannon, also, were driven along the batteries
and flung over into the fosse, but not "carried in the air
like chaff." At Martinique the storm overtook a French
transport fleet, and entirely destroyed it. There were
forty vessels, conveying 4,000 soldiers, and the Governor
of Martinique reported their fate to the French Govern-
ment in three words — "The vessels disappeared." Nine
thousand persons .perished at Martinique and 1,000 at St.
Pierre, where not a house was left standing. St. Domingo,
St. Vincent, St. Eustache and Porto Eico were next visited
and devastated, while scarcely a single vessel near this part
of the cyclone's track was afloat on October llth. At Port
Royal the Cathedral, seven churches and 1,400 houses
were blown down, and 1,600 sick and wounded persons
were buried beneath the ruins of the hospital. At the Ber-
mudas, fifty British ships were driven ashore, two line-of-
battle ships went down at sea, and 22,000 persons perished.
Perhaps the most remarkable effects of the storm in this
portion of its course were those experienced in the Lee-
ward Isles. The hurricane drove a twelve-pounder can-
non a distance of 400 feet. Those who lived in the Gov-
ernment building took refuge in the central part, where
circular walls, nearly a yard thick, seemed to afford prom-
ise of safety. But at half -past eleven the wind had broken
down parts of these walls, and lifted off the roof. Terri-
fied, they sought refuge in the cellarage, but before long
the water had risen there to the height of more than a yard,
and they were driven into the battery, where they placed
themselves behind the heavier cannons, some of which were

326 STORM IN ENGLAND.

driven from their place by the force of the wind. When
the day broke the country looked as if it had been blasted
by fire; not a leaf, scarce even a branch, remained upon
the trees.

As in great floods a common terror preserves peace
among animals, which usually war upon each other, so
during the Great Storm human passions were for the time
quelled by the fiercer war of the elements. Among the
ships destroyed at Martinique were two English war-ships.
Twenty-five sailors who survived surrendered themselves
prisoners to the Marquis of Bouille, the Governor of the
island. But he sent them to St. Lucie, writing to the
English Governor of that island that he "was unwilling to
retain as prisoners men who had fallen into his hands
during a disaster from which so many had suffered."

The Great Storm of 1780 must not be confounded with
the storm remembered for so many years in Great Britain
as the Great Storm. The latter occurred on November 26,
1703, and its worst effects were experienced not as usual in
the tropics, but in Western Europe. The reader will re-
member Macaulay's reference to it in his essay on the
"Life and Writings of Addison." In his famous poem,
"The Campaign," Addison had compared Marlborough to
an angel guiding the whirlwind. "We must point out,"
writes Macaulay, "one circumstance which appears to have
escaped all critics. The extraordinary effect which this
simile produced when it first appeared, and which to the
following generation appeared inexplicable, is doubtless to
be attributed to a line which most readers now regard as a
feeble parenthesis —

"Such as, of late, o'er pale Britannia passed."

STORM IN ENGLAND. 327

Addison spoke, not of a storm, but of the storm. "The
great tempest of November, 1703, the only tempest which
in our latitude has equaled the rage of a tropical hurri-
cane, had left a dreadful recollection in the minds of all
men. No other tempest was ever in this country the occa-
sion of a parliamentary address or a public fast. Whole
fleets had been cast away. Large mansions had been blown
down. One prelate had been buried beneath the ruins of
his palace. London and Bristol had presented the appear-
ance of cities just sacked. Hundreds of families were
still in mourning. The prostrate trunks of large trees, and
the ruins of houses still attested, in all the southern coun-
tries, the fury of the blast." He strangely omits to men-
tion one of the most striking events connected with this ter-
rible storm — the destruction of the Eddystone lighthouse.

It is probable that the Great Storm of 1703 owed its de-
structiveness to the narrow range over which its track ex-
tended. As a storm widens in extent it loses power, much
as a river flows more sluggishly where its stream widens
than where it has to make its way along a narrow channel.
It is for this reason that certain regions suffer more from
storms than others. Thus in the West Indies, that great
storm-breeder, the Gulf Stream is at its narrowest. Here,
therefore, the whirling storms, generated by the rush
toward the channel of rare and warm air above the Gulf
Stream attain their greatest intensity, and have worked
most terrible destruction. The Great Storm of 1870 af-
fords an illustration, but many others might be cited.
Flammarian relates that "at Guadaloupe, on July 25,
1825, solidly constructed houses were demolished, and a
new building belonging to the State, had one wing com-
pletely blown down. The wind had imparted such a rate

328 STORM IN ENGLAND.

of speed to the tiles that many of them penetrated through
thick doors. A piece of deal 39 inches long 10 inches wide
and nearly one inch thick, moved through the air so rap-
idly that it went right through a palm tree 18 inches in
diameter. A piece of wood about 18 inches wide and 4 or
5 yards long, projected by the wind along a hard road, was.
driven a yard deep into the ground. A large iron railing
in front of the Governor's palace was shattered to pieces.
A quantity of the debris from Guadaloupe was carried to
Montserrat, over an arm of the sea 50 miles wide. Three
twenty-four-pounders were blown from one end of the bat-
tery to the other. The vessels which were in the harbor of
Basseterre disappeared, and one of the captains, who had
escaped said that his ship was lifted by the hurricane out
of the sea, and was, so to speak, shipwrecked in the air.
The last mentioned event is, however, 'rather a large
order/ as our American cousins would say ; probably that
captain was too confused by the turmoil going on all
around him when his ship was destroyed to note with strict
scientific accuracy what took place. Ships have been car-
ried by the force of a gale upon the crest of a high roller,
and have acquired such velocity that they have been flung
some distance beyond the range reached by the wave itself.
Thus in 1861 an Antigua was carried out of the water to a
point ten feet above the highest known tide. But nothing,
we believe has ever yet happened to a ship, even during
the fiercest hurricane which could properly be described in
the words used by the Basseterre captain. His descrip-
tion probably bore the same relation to fact as Maury's ac-
count of 'great guns carried in the air like chaff.' Prob-
ably when a storm really blows great guns this way, it may

STORM IN ENGLAND. 329

lift ships out of the sea and shipwreck them in the air ; hut
'in such a' when 'we write a never.' '

A remarkable illustration of the terribly sudden nature
of the disaster is afforded by the experience of Mr. Hig-
gins, the Inspecting Postmaster at Noakolly. On the night
of October 31st he was in his traveling barge, in a creek
near Noakolly, about ten miles from the River Megna. N He
had gone to bed at eleven without any fear or anxiety what-
ever. His boatman had gone on shore, but four native
servants were with him on board. Shortly before mid-
night he was awakened by a cry of "The waters are up !"
Jumping up he looked out, and saw a high wave, with its
crest top gleaming in the starlight ; it seemed like a flash ;
in an instant his boats were rising on high ; he fastened on
a life-belt in a few moments ; another wave came rolling
on, and the barge capsized ; he paddled around in the water
all the rest of the night with the help of the life belt ; the
native servants clung to spars. Three were saved and one
was lost. The water felt warm to the body, but the air
was bitterly cold to the head or hands above the surface.

The total destruction of life probably surpassed any
which has been produced in the same space of time since
the world was peopled. Sir Richard Temple, after a per-
sonal inspection of the afflicted districts, came to the con-
clusion that not less than 215,000 persons lost their lives.
He distributes the fatality as follows : Backergunge, with
the island of Dakhan Shabazpore, possessing a population
of 437,000, has lost about a fourth of -that number ; Noak-
olly, with a population of 403,000, has lost 90,000 ; and
Chittagong, with a population of 222,000, has lost 20,000.
So that, out of a total population of 1,062,000 persons,
more than one-fifth have perished. To this terrible human

330 STORM IN ENGLAND.

mortality must be added a tremendous destruction of ani-
mal life, which, as Sir Kichard Temple remarks, "though
it may not be felt acutely at the present moment, will form
a serious obstacle to agricultural operations by the sur-
vivors a few months hence." "Well may the Government
of India," remarks the Bombay Gazette, "express the opin-
ion that the calamity is scarcely paralleled in the annals of
history." It will take many years before the afflicted dis-
tricts will be able to recover from its effects, and it will be
a landmark in the history of even this country of great
calamities. The swiftness of the calamity must have been
terrific, and one may almost gather from Sir Eichard Tem-
ple's minute that the great waves literally flashed out over
the land, and that simultaneously the vast destruction of
life was completed. * * * When the sun rose next
morning, it shone upon a desolate country and a shivering
terror-stricken band of survivors, who were not yet able to
realize what kind of a calamity it was that had over-
whelmed them so suddenly in the darkness. Many had
been snatched from imminent death in wonderful ways;
some had been able to catch hold instinctively to a friendly
piece of wood floating past them, and many had been swept
into trees, where they were held tightly by the thorns and
branches until the waters had subsided. Villagers were as-
tonished with the appearance of the corpses of strangers
in the midst of their villages, and it was not until the
extend of the calamity became widely known that it was
found there were few homesteads or villages that had not
had dead bodies washed into them from a distance.

The cyclone is simply a whirlwind on a large scale.
What we have said respecting the destructiveness of
cyclones varying inversely with their range must notj of

STORM IN ENGLAND. 331

course, be understood to signify that a large cyclone is
necessarily less destructive than a small one, or a smaM
cyclone less destructive than a whirlwind. We there
referred to the same cyclone. As a cyclone contracts
it circles more swiftly, and becomes more destructive ; as it
expands it loses power. But it is the contraction of a large
cyclone that produces the most terrible effects. A cyclone
which is small when first formed can only become de-
structive by contracting till it is yet smaller, and then, of
course, the range of its destructive action is limited to a
narrow track. Some cyclones have been so small that when
they have so narrowed as to work mischief their track has
been a mere lane compared with the broad highways of
destruction traversed by their larger brethren. Such are
the cyclonic storms generated in the valley of the Missis-
sippi. A large river may be compared to an ocean-current
as a storm-breeder, but, being much narrower, the cyclonic
storms generated by a river are much more limited in ex-
tent. "The track of these tornadoes," says Maury, "is
called a 'windroad' because they make an avenue through
the woods, straight along, as clear of trees as if the old
denizens of the forest had been cleared away with an axe.
I have seen these trees, three or four feet in diameter, torn
up by the roots, and the top with its limbs lying next the
hole whence the root came."

Fortunately, it happens not unf requently that the chief
fury of these whirlwinds is expended in the upper air.
Indeed, very often, terrible storms are raging high up in
the air, as can be seen by the behavior of the fleecy clouds,
when it is calm or but a slight breeze blowing at the sur-
face. The upper parts of forest trees have been torn off
while the lower branches have scarcely moved, and houses
placed on a hill have been wrecked while others in a valley

332 STORM IN ENGLAND.

scarce a hundred feet lower have not suffered at all. Jame-
son thus describes the progress of a storm in the valley of
the Ohio : "I heard a distant murmuring sound of an ex-
traordinary nature. As I rose to my feet and looked
toward the southwest, I observed a yellowish oval spot,
the appearance of which was quite new to me. Little time
was left me for consideration, as the next moment a smart
breeze began to agitate the smaller trees. It increased to
an unexpected degree, and already the smaller branches and
twigs were seen falling in a slanting direction toward the
ground. Two minutes had scarcely elapsed when the whole
forest before me was in fearful motion. Turning in-
stinctively toward the direction from which the wind blew
I saw, to my great astonishment, that the noblest trees of
the forest bent their lofty heads for a while, and, unable to
stand against the blast, were falling into pieces. First the
branches were broken off with a crackling noise, then went
the upper parts of the massy trunks, and in many places
whole trees of gigantic size were falling entire to the
ground. So rapid was the progress of the storm that, be-
fore I could think of taking measures to insure my safety,
the hurricane was passing opposite to the place where I
stood. !Never can I forget the scene which at that moment
presented itself. The tops of the trees were seen moving
in the strangest manner in the central current of the tem-
pest, which carried along with it a mingled mass of twigs
and foliage that completely obscured the view. Some of
the largest trees were seen bending and writhing under the
gale, others suddenly snapped across, and many, after a
momentary resistance, fell uprooted to the earth. The
mass of twigs, branches, foliage, dust that moved through
the air was whirling onward like a cloud of feathers, and
on passing disclosed a wide space filled with broken trees,

STORM IN ENGLAND. 333

naked stumps and heaps of shapeless ruins, which marked
the path of the tempest. This space was about one-fourth
of a mile in breadth, and to my imagination resembled the
dried-up bed of the Mississippi, with its thousands of
snags and sawyers strewed in the sand and inclined in vari-
ous degrees. The horrible noise resembled that of the
great cataract of Niagara, and, as it howled along the
track of the desolating tempest, produced a feeling in my
mind which it were impossible to describe. The principal
force of the hurricane was now over, although millions of
twigs and small branches that had been brought from a
great distance were seen following the blast as if drawn
onward by some mysterious power. They even floated in
the air for some hours after." After crossing the track of
the storm to his own house, which stood close by, he found
to his surprise "that there had been little wind in the neigh-
borhood, although in the streets and gardens many twigs
and branches had fallen in a manner which excited great
surprise."

When whirlwinds such as these occur in more thickly
peopled regions, effects as terrible as those produced by a
cyclone are sometimes experienced. Thus on the 19th of
August, 1845, a whirlwind occurred in the department of
Seine Inferieur, which is remembered to this day in Nor-
mandy as if it had happened but yesterday. The barometer
fell suddenly more than two inches. Very soon it was ob-
served that along a certain track the sea at Havre was dis-
turbed by a tempest, while outside the track the sea was
relatively calm. The whirlwind soon reached the land.
The large mill at Monville, in a valley near the railway
between Deippe and Rouen, was suddenly blown down. It
fell as if a hundred batteries had discharged their fire at
once upon it. Hundreds of factory women were buried

334 STORM IN ENGLAND.

beneath the ruins. The few who escaped could not under-
stand that in the midst of calm a hurricane had suddenly
arisen. They believed for a while that the end of the world
had arrived. Men were hurled over hedges ; others were
cut to pieces by the machinery which had been whirled
about in the air ; others, without being actually hurt, were
so terrified that they died from the effects of the fright, in
the course of a few days. Whole rooms and walls were
turned upside down, so as to be no longer recognizable.
At other points the buildings were literally pulverized and
their site swept clean. Planks, measuring a yard long,
five inches wide and nearly half an inch thick, archives and
papers were carried to distances of 15 to 25 miles. Trees
situated in the track of the storm were blown down and
dried up. The extent of the ground thus devastated was as
much as nine miles in length. Manifestly this was a case
in which a whirlwind had descended and then arisen
again, for the track increased from 30 yards in width at
Cleres to about 300 yards near Monville, decreasing again
to 100 yards near the Seine at Canteleu.

One of the most singular whirlwinds on record is that
which devastated Chatenay, near Paris, in June, 1839.
We are told by Flammarion that it "burnt up the trees that
lay within its circumference, and uprooted those which
were upon its line of passage ; the former, in fact, were
found with the side which was exposed to the storm com-
pletely scorched and burnt, whereas the opposite side re-
mained fresh and green. Thousands of large trees were
blown down, and lay all one way like wheat sheaves. An
apple tree was carried over 200 yards onto a group of oaks
and elms. Houses were gutted inside without being blown
down. Several roofs were carried off as if they were
kites."

CHAPTEE XXII.

THE GBEAT TBAGEDY OF THE ALAMO.

As everything relating to this memorable siege must
be interesting, I will insert a brief abstract from the jour-
nal of Almonte, and aid of Santa Anna, commencing with
the 27th of February, three days subsequent to the date
of Travis' first letter :

"Saturday, 27th. — Lieut. Menchard was sent with a
party of mem for corn, cattle and hogs, to the farms of
Seguin and Elores. It was determined to cut off the water
from the enemy on the side next to the old mill. There
was little firing from either side during the day. The
enemy worked hard all day to repair some entrenchments.
In the afternoon the President was observed by the enemy
and fired at. In the night a courier was dispatched to
Mexico, informing the Governor of the taking of Bexar.

"28th. — News was received that a reinforcement of two
hundred was coming to the enemy by the road from La
Bahia. The cannonading was continued.

"29th. — In the afternoon the battalion of Allende took
post at the east of the Alamo. The President reconnoi-
tered. At midnight Gen. Sexma left the camp with the
cavalry of Dolores and the infantry of Allende, to meet
the enemy coming from La Bahia to the aid of the Alamo.

"March 1st. — Early in the morning Gen. Sezma wrote
from the Mission de la Espadar, that there was no enemy,
or trace of any, to be discovered. The cavalry and in-
fantry returned to camp. At 12 o'clock the President
went out to reconnoitre the mill-site to the northwest of

335

336 TRAGEDY OF ALAMO.

the Alamo. Col. Ampudia was commissioned to construct
more trenches. In the afternoon the enemy fired two 12-
pound shots at the house of the President, one of which
struck the house.

"2d. — Information was received that there was corn at
the farm of Sequin, and Lieut. Menchard, with a party was
sent for it. The President discovered in the afternoon a
covered road within pistol shot of the Alamo, and posted
the battalion of Ximenes there.

"3d. — The enemy fired a few cannon and musket shots
at the city. I wrote to Mexico, directing my letters to be
sent to Bexar — that before three months the. campaign
would be ended. The General-in-Chief went out to recon-
noitre. A battery was erected on the north of the Alamo,
within musket shot. Official dispatches were received from
Urrea, announcing that he had routed the colonists of San
Patricio, killing sixteen and taking twenty-one prisoners.
The bells were rung. The battalions of Zapadores, Aldama
and Toluca arrived. The enemy attempted a sally in the
night at the sugar mill, but were repulsed by our advance.

"4th. — Commenced firing very early, which the enemy
did not return. In the afternoon one or two shots were
fired by them. A meeting of Generals and Colonels was
held. After a long conference Cos, Castrillon and others
were of the opinion that the Alamo should be assaulted
after the arrival of two twelve-pounders, expected on the
7th inst. The President, Gen. Ramirez and I were of the
opinion that the twelve-pounders -should not be waited for,
but the assault made. In this state things remained, the
General not coming to any definite resolution."

The storming of the Alamo took place on the morning
of the 6th, the second after the conference of the Mexican

TEAGEDY OF ALAMO. 337

officers. The events of that memorable morning, on which
was exhibited perhaps the most obstinate and determined
valor ever known, have been but very partially related, since
not an American belonging to the fort — except a woman,
Mrs. Dickerson, and a negro man, Col. Travis' servant —
was left to tell the tale. The account the most to be relied
upon, and which is undoubtedly substantially correct, is
given by a negro man, Ben, who, at the time of the siege,
acted as cook for Santa Anna and Almonte. Ben had pre-
viously been a steward on board several American vessels
— had been taken up at New York in 1835 by Almonte as
body servant — had accompanied him in that capacity to
Vera Cruz, and thence to Bexar. After the fall of the
Alamo he was sent, with Mrs. Dickerson and Travis' ser-
vant, to the Texas camp at Gonzales, and subsequently be-
came cook to General Houston.

"I," says a highly respectable officer of the General's
staff, "had repeated conversations with Ben relative to the
fall of the Alamo. He knew but little. He stated that
Santa Anna and Almonte occupied the same house in the
town of Bexar, and that he cooked for both ; that, on the
night previous to the storming of the fort, Santa Anna or-
dered him to have coffee ready for them all night ; that both
he and Almonte were conversing constantly, and did not
go to bed; that they went out about midnight, and about
two or three o'clock returned together to the house; that
Santa Anna ordered coffee immediately, threatening to run
him through the body if it was not instantly brought ; that
he served them with coffee; that Santa Anna appeared
agitated, and that Almonte remarked 'It would cost them
much ;' that the reply was, 'It was of no importance what
it cost, that it must be done.'

338 TRAGEDY OF ALAMO.

" ( After drinking coffee/ says Ben, 'they went out, and
soon I saw rockets ascending in different directions, and
shortly after I heard musketry and cannon, and by the
flashes I could distinguish large bodies of Mexican troops
under the walls of the Alamo. I was looking out of a win-
dow in the town, about five hundred yards from the Alamo,
commanding a view of it. The report of the cannon, rifles
and musketry was tremendous. It shortly died away, day
broke upon the scene, and Santa Anna and Almonte re-
turned, when the latter remarked that "another such vic-
tory would ruin them." They then directed me to go with
them to the fort, and point out the bodies of Bowie and
Travis — whom I had before known — which I did. The
sight was most horrid.' 7

On other authority we have it, that at day-break on the
morning of the 6th, the enemy surrounded the fort with
their infantry, with the cavalry forming a circle outside, to
prevent the escape of the Texans. The number of the
enemy was at least 4,000, opposed to 140 !

In the Alamo chapter of Titherington's Dramatic Scenes
of American History there is this clear narration of the
course of the Alamo fight:

On all sides, but the north the attack was only a feint,
and the Mexicans were repelled by a single volley from the
garrison. But in that one quarter the division of General
Castrillon,by sheer weight of numbers, and after two hours
of desperate resistance against fearful odds, succeeded in
forcing an entrance. Twice the Mexicans were driven
back by the fire of the besieged, and twice their officers,
saber in hand, forced them to return to the assault. At
the third attack scaling ladders were placed against the
walls. The defenders were firing as fast as they could

TRAOEDY OF ALAMO. 339

load, and with deadly effect, but for every Mexican that
fell there were a dozen to take his place. The ladders were
replaced every time the Texans toppled them over. Men
swarmed up them in irresistible numbers, and in spite of
the furious fighting of the garrison, who used their
rifles as clubs when they had no time to load them, the
assailants forced their way over the wall.

The Texans, or those of them that were left alive, fell
back into the mission building. They had pulled bags of
dirt in its windows and doorways, and upon the roof, and
behind these defenses they prepared to make their last
stand. The Mexicans poured over the wall like a torrent,
filled the courtyard and surged round the building on all
sides. Col. Travis turned his one cannon upon them and
fired a few telling shots before he was overwhelmed. At
every door, and soon in every room, there was a desperate,
merciless struggle. Quarter was neither asked nor given.

Chambers' Journal on the defense of the Alamo, con-
tinues : Even then, though only a dozen or two of the gar-
rison remained alive, resistance was not at an end. They
fought manfully to the last, for most of them had prom-
ised their dead leader never to surrender, and they meant to
keep their word. The savage conquerers showed no mercy,
even to the wounded. Bowie was lying in bed, suffering
from sickness and injuries, when they broke in upon him
with the intention of dispatching him then and there.
But they caught a Tartar in the wiry little Colonel, who,
even in his enfeebled condition, stretched four of his assail-
ants dead on the floor before he was slaughtered. Crockett
was one of the last to die. When they surrounded him he
fought with his 'clubbed rifle. He and five others — all
that remained of the Alamo defenders — stood back to

340 TRAGEDY OF ALAMO.

back, and so fierce was their resistance they actually kept
their assailants at bay until the Mexicans were glad to offer
them quarter. They were led out from the fort and
brought before Santa Anna. The Mexican leader regarded
the heroes with looks of fierce exultation. They must have
thought then, when it was too late, that it would have
gone better with them if they had shared the fate of their
comrades, rather than have fallen into the hands of this
tyrant. Though the brave fellows had been promised quar-
ter, they were led out from his presence, and massacred in
cold blood. The brutal instincts of the conqueror were not
satisfied until he had mutilated the bodies of the slain.

The Magazine of American History relates of the fall of
the Alamo : When the hour came, the south guns of the
Alamo were answering the batteries that fronted them,
but the music was silent till the blast of the bugle was fol-
lowed by the rushing tramp of soldiers. The guns of the
fort opened upon the moving masses, and Santa Anna's
bands struck up the assassin note, of deguello, or no quar-
ter. But a few and not very effective discharges of cannon
could be made from the works before the enemy were
under them, and it was probably not till then that the worn
and weary garrison was fully mustered. Castrillon's col-
umn arrived first at the foot of the wall, but was not the
first to enter. The guns of the north, where Travis com-
manded in person, probably raked the breach, and this,
or the fire of the riflemen brought the column to a disor-
dered halt, and Colonel Duque, who commanded the bat-
talion of Toluca fell dangerously wounded ; but while this
was occurring, the column from the west crossed the barrier
on that side by escalade at a point north of the center;
and as this checkoJ resistance at the north, Oastrillon

TRAGEDY OF ALAMO. 341

shortly after passed the breach. It was probably while the
enemy was thus pouring into the large area that Travis
fell at his post, for his body, with a single shot in the fore-
head, was found beside the gun at the northwest angle.
The outer walls and batteries, all except one gun, of which
I will speak, were now abandoned by the defenders. In
the meantime, Cos had again proved unlucky. His col-
umn was repulsed from the chapel, and his troops fell back
in disorder behind the old stone stable and huts that stood
south of the southwest angle. There they were soon ral-
lied and led into the large area by General Amador. I am
not certain as to his point of entrance, but he probably fol-
lowed the escalade of the column from the West.

This all passed within a few moments after the bugle
sounded. The garrison when driven from the thinly
manned outer defenses, whose early loss was inevitable,
took refuge in the building before described, but mainly
in the long barrack, and it was not till then, when they be-
came more concentrated and covered within that the main
struggle began. They were more concentrated as to space,
not as to unity of command, for there was no communicat-
ing between buildings nor in all cases between rooms.
There was little need of command, however, to men who
had no choice left but to fall where they stood before the
weight of numbers. There was now no retreating from
point to point, and each group of defenders had to fight
and die in the den where it was brought to bay. From
the doors, windows and loopholes of the several rooms
around the area the crack of the rifle and the hiss of the
bullet came thick and fast; as fast the enemy fell and
recoiled in his fierce efforts to charge. The gun beside
which Travis fell was now turned against the buildings, as

342 TRAGEDY OF ALAMO.

were also some others, and shot after shot was sent crash-
ing through the doors and barricades of the several rooms.
Each ball was followed by a storm of musketry and a
charge, and thus room after room was carried at the
point of the bayonet, when all within them died fighting
to the last. The struggle was made up of a number of sep-
arate and desperate combats, often hand to hand, between
the squads of the garrison and bodies of the enemy. The
bloodiest spot about the fort was the long barrack and the
ground in front of it, where the enemy fell in heaps.

Before the action reached this stage, the turning of
Travis' gun by the assailants was briefly imitated by a
group of the defenders. "A small piece on a high plat-
form," as it was described to me by General Bradburn,
was wheeled by those who manned it against the large
area after the enemy entered it. Some of the Mexican
officers thought it did more execution than any gun which
fired outward; but after two effective discharges, it was
silenced, when the last of its cannoneers fell under a
shower of bullets. I cannot locate this gun with certainty,
but it was probably the twelve-pound cannonade which
fired over the center of the west wall from a high com-
manding position. The smallness assigned to it perhaps
referred only to its length. According to Mr. Ruiz, then
the Alcalde of San Antonio, who, after this action, was re-
quired to point out the slain leaders to Santa Anna, the
body of Crockett was found in the west battery just re-
ferred to, and we may infer that he either commanded
that point or was stationed there as a sharpshooter. The
common fate overtook Bowie in his bed in one of the
rooms of the low barrack, when he probably had but a few
days of life left in him, yet he had enough remaining, it is

TRAGEDY OF ALAMO. 343

said, to shoot down with his pistols more than one of his
assailants before he was butchered on his couch. If he had
sufficient strength and consciousness left to do it, we may
safely assume that it was done.

The chapel, which was the last point taken, was car-
ried by a coup de main after the fire of the other build-
ings was silenced. Once the enemy in possession of the
large area, the guns of the south could be turned to fire
into the door of the church, only from fifty to an hundred
yards off, and that was probably the route of attack. The
inmates of this last stronghold, like the rest, fought to the
last, and continued to fire down from the upper works
after the enemy occupied the floor. A Mexican officer told
of seeing one of his soldiers shot in the crown of the head
during this melee. Toward the close of the struggle Lieu-
tenant Dickerson, with his child in his arms, or, as some
accounts say, tied to his back, leaped from the east em-
brasure of the chapel, and both were shot in the act. Of
those he left behind him, the bayonet soon gleaned what the
bullet had left, and in the upper part of that edifice the
last defender must have fallen. The morning breeze which
received his parting breath probably still fanned his flag
above that f actic, for I doubt not he fell ere it was pulled
down by the victors.

The Alamo had fallen ; but the impression it left on the
invader was the forerunner of San Jacinto. It is a fact
not often remembered, that Travis and his band fell under
the Mexican Federal flag of 1824, instead of the Lone Star
of Texas, although independence, unknown to them, had
been declared by the new convention four days before at
Washington on the Brazos. They died for a Republic of
whose existence they never knew.

344: TRAGEDY OF ALAMO.

Bancroft's History of the Pacific States tells of Hous-
ton's reception of the news of the Alamo.

News of the slaughter at the Alamo reached Gonzales
on the day of Houston's arrival, and orders were sent forth-
with to Fannin, instructing him to fall back to Guadalupe
Victoria, and place it in a state of defense. On the 12th
Mrs. Dickenson reached the place and confirmed the
mournful tidings, adding many horrible details of the
event. The inhabitants were panic stricken. There was
hardly a household in the town that had not to mourn the
loss of a father, a son, a brother or other relative. Not
less than twenty widowed mothers bemoaned their hus-
bands' deaths. The families of the citizens who had fallen
abandoned themselves to grief and despair, and the inhab-
itants began to flee. The panic was contagious, and many
who had assembled in arms returned to their homes to pro-
vide for the safety of those whom they had left behind.
With no force capable of repelling the enemy, Houston de-
cided to retreat, and having thrown his artillery, consisting
of two brass 24-pounders, into the river, began his march
just before midnight of the 12th. On his departure the
town was set on fire and reduced to ashes.

CHAPTEK XXIII.

DISASTEES THAT ARE MEMORABLE.

Of the Johnstown disaster the Spectator of June 8,
1889, says:

In the awful calamity of May 31st, in the valley of
Conemaugh, the greatest calamity, we believe, which
has suddenly fallen on white men since the earthquake
of Lisbon destroyed thirty thousand persons, the ulti-
mate cause was clearly a climatic condition wholly beyond
human control. The dam of the great reservoir above
Johnstown, a tank holding millions of tons of water, was
constructed by human hands, and may have been in an
unsound condition — the evidence telegraphed on that
point looks very bad indeed — but the reason why it broke
was a fall of rain on the Alleghanies, wholly beyond cal-
culation or arrest, a fall which swelled every river in
the region till the water could not pass under the bridges,
and which probably far exceeded in aggregate volume the
contents of the reservoir. The mass of water imprisoned
in that receptacle rose and rose with the new accessions
from the clouds and from the mountains, till its weight
was unendurable, and when the masonry of the great
dam, seven hundred feet in length and a hundred feet
high, was "driven open like a pair of lock-gates," the
unbroken mass, with its head reared twenty feet into
the air, and throwing out clouds of spray which blinded the
spectators, marched — for that is the only word for a pas-
sage which took sixty minutes, through and over the
"cities" and villages of the Conemaugh Valley, as if they

345

346 MEMORABLE DISASTERS.

were non-existent. A few buildings stood, six, for in-
stance, in Johnstown, a town of twenty thousand people ;
but the mass of houses were of wood, and were swept away
like logs, their inmates screaming within them. An eye-
witness writes of the richer quarter of Johnstown that
it became a piece of waste ground : "There is nothing to
indicate that it has ever been anything else than what
it is — as clear of debris and wreckage as though there
had never been a building on it. In reality it was the
central and busiest part of Johnstown. Buildings, both
dwellings and stores, covered it thickly. Its streets were
paved, and its sidewalks were of substantial stone. It
had street car lines, gas and electric light, and all the
other improvements of a substantial city of fifteen or
twenty thousand inhabitants. The iron bridges which
spanned the streams, and the buildings were of substan-
tial character. Not a brick remains, not a stone, not a
stick of timber. In all this territory there are not even
mounds to show where the wreckage might be covered
with a layer of mud. They are gone — every building —
every street, every sidewalk, pavement, street railway —
everything else that covered the surface of the earth has
vanished as though it had never been there. The ground
is swept as clean as though some mighty scraper had been
dragged over it again and again. Not even the lines of
the streets can be remotely traced. 'I have visited Johns-
town a dozen times a year,' said a business man to-day.
'I knew it thoroughly, but I haven't the least idea what
part of it this is. I can't even tell the direction the streets
used to run.' '

As the stream was moving at twenty miles an hour the
very beasts could not and did not escape; flight for any

MEMORABLE DISASTERS. J4T

human being at a distance from a hillock was impossible ;
and we greatly fear the official estimate of the dead is
far within the truth, and that even the private estimate
of the Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania, fifteen thou-
sand, may be considerably exceeded. It is certain that
the slaughter of laborers throughout the valley has been
so great that the dead cannot get buried, and that, in fear
of a pestilence, spread not so much by the stench of the
corpses as by their effect on drinking water, the Governor
of the State has ordered a regiment of militia to assist in
the painful task. To add to the horror of the tragedy, a
considerable portion of those destroyed, perhaps a sixth,
were not drowned or struck senseless, but burned alive,
hundreds of wooden shanties having been welded by the
stream into a huge raft, sixty acres in area, which stopped
against one of the bridges, unluckily too well built to give
way, and, catching fire, burned on* steadily for hours,
under the eyes of powerless spectators. Amid such a scene
the destruction of property seems not to matter; but a
fine of eight millions sterling levied by nature on a mo-
ment on a population of fifty-eight thousand, must mean
for thousands of the survivors ruin which anywhere but
in America would be hopeless, and even in America will
take out much of the happiness from life during a genera-
tion.

The scale of the calamity is, of course, not Asiatic.
It is nothing when compared with the destruction of the
Island of Shahbaxpore, at the mouth of the Ganges, in
1876, when a quarter of a million of human beings per-
ished in a night; or with the famine in the two Chinese
provinces, which starved nine millions of people ; or with
the famine in Orissa, which swept away a third of the

348 MEMORABLE DISASTERS.

people; or with, the horrible flood of last year in Honan,
where the Yellow river in a few hours drowned, it is be-
lieved, more than two millions of peasant men and women.
The scale, however, for Europe is very large; and when
the fate of white men is concerned, it is the scale of Eu-
rope we unconsciously employ. We can individualize
them, and actually feel with the unhappy man who, after
twice lifting mother and wife out of the water, was
struck by a piece of wreckage, and so died; or with, the
German who, with twenty-nine relatives at 5 p. m., knew
at 7 p. m. that he was alone in the world. This European
scale, which has a profound effect upon European thought,
is, of course, the result of centuries during which men
have noted the moderateness of all catastrophes, a moder-
ateness so nearly unbroken, that a philosopher like Gothe
held the earthquake of Lisbon, which destroyed probably
10 per cent of those drowned at Shahbaxpore, an adequate
reason for doubting the goodness or existence of God.

It has been noticed with a certain superstition that two
great men, Cromwell and Napoleon, died in the midst of
storms, and monarchists have held that they passed away
in the midst of manifestations that Nature was displeased
with them. We quote the Leisure Hour of 1878 :

Few storms in English history have become more
memorable than that which attended the death of Crom-
well. Nearly every contemporary historian mentions this
great tempest, and all who do so endeavor to draw some
augury therefrom. In the MS. diary of a sturdy old
Royalist we find written, "Cromwell, ye great rebel, went
to ye divele in a tempest" ; and Bulstrode avers that the
rein of the prince of the air showed his power, thinking
it not fit that one should depart out of this world quietly

MEMORABLE DISASTERS. 349

who had made "such a combustion, trouble and misery in
it." But there are others who held that "Nature sympa-
thized herein with the death-throes of a great Master in
Israel." All saw a connection between the storm and the
death, however they might interpret its meaning; and
such a connection, in the case of Napoleon to be noted
hereafter, there certainly was.

When atmospheric conditions of great depression exist
the enfeebled vital powers are easily brought to an end.
All the writers who allude to this storm bear testimony to
its violence. Clarendon calls it "the greatest storm of
wind that had ever been known, * * * which over-
threw churches and houses and made great wrecks at sea."
Its effects were felt not only all over England, but in
France and in Flanders and in other parts of Europe, so
that the people trembled at its fury, and the coasts were
strewn with wrecks and the bodies of the drowned. Echard
likewise terms it "the most tremendous storm that had
ever been known," and Bulstrode speaks of the trees in St.
James* Park being torn up by the roots, and of shipwrecks
and disasters all over the country. The coincidence of the
storm with the Protector's death made so deep and solemn
an impression upon men's minds that one wonders at the
uncertainty which attends its exact date. Cromwell died
on the 3d of September, his "fortunate day," the anniver-
sary of his victories at Dunbar and Worcester. Was that
the day of the great storm? Authorities widely differ.
Blustrode speaks of the storm as being in the night of the
second, or morning of the third. Clarendon states that
it raged for some time before and after Cromwell's death.
Echard, agreeing rather with Bulstrode, says that it ush-
ered in the fatal third. Hume makes the storm immedi-

350 MEMORABLE DISASTERS.

ately succeed the death. And after a careful examination
of all the records of the time, Carlyle has the tempest break
forth on the 30th of August, and apparently implies that
it had ceased before September 3d, and that it was in calm
and not in storm that the great Oliver's days were actually
ended.

And it is a strange coincidence that the last days of the
great Napoleon were also attended by tempestuous weath-
er. May is the windy season at St. Helena ; and in May,
1821, the weather was, to quote the language of Thiers,
"terrible." The storms swept in violent gusts over the
rocky island, and tore up the trees, including the fallen
Emperor's favorite, in the gardens around Longwood.
Such was the 4th of May ; but on the 5th, when Napoleon
passed away, all was bright and serene. A second coin-
cidence this, even more striking, with the circumstances
attending the death of Cromwell. If our version of Car-
lyle be right, the storm passed like "life's fitful fever," and
the calm of nature sympathized with the calm of death.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MAJOR FAYLING'S HEROIC WORK.

It is in the hour of great calamities, when the average
will is palsied and ordinary men are weaklings, that men
who have the vigor of mind and the force of character to
comprehend the conditions and meet their requirements
are revealed.

Galveston was more fortunate than other cities that have
met a similar fate, for in Major L. K. D. Fayling, who
had been a resident. of the town a few months when the
storm came, the stricken city had a man who was equal
to the emergency and whose prompt and valorous work
saved the town from the carnivals of crime that the lawless
element would otherwise have been able to conduct.

Major Fayling is a young man of unusual heroism and
force of character. His training qualified him well to take
in hand the work of maintaining order in the stricken city.
He has served in the ranks of those who risk life and limb
that order may be maintained. He has seen service in the
regular army, and in 1894 during the Chicago strikes he,
served as special Deputy United States Marshal under
Marshal Brinton, and commanded a squad of deputies
under Colonel Nichols of the Thiel Detective Service, doing
hard and effective service throughout the strike. Later
he did secret service work in several of the States, among
other things holding arguments with "moonshiners"
through the medium of Winchesters. In 1895 he entered
the secret service of the Cuban Junta with rank of Lieu-
tenant, but was shortly afterwards transferred to the line

351

352 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

and participated in many filibustering expeditions in
Cuba under the command of General Gomez, and for two
years saw much hard fighting in the interior of Cuba. He
was twice captured by the Spaniards, the second time being
confined in a Spanish prison until he was physically pros-
trated, making it necessary for him to leave the service as
soon as he escaped. He left the Cuban service with the
rank of Captain, but with the brevet of Major for indi-
vidual services. When war was declared between the
United States and Spain, Major Fayling had regained his
health, and though holding a lucrative position in civil
life, he raised, at his own expense, the first Company in
Ohio that was offered from that State for service in the
war with Spain, of which he was unanimously elected
Captain. But, not being a part of the regular militia
organization, the Company was not sent to the front, owing
to political intrigue in the State. The Company spent
the summer in hard drill and camp life, but saw no
fighting.

For some months previous to the Galveston storm, Major
Fayling had been the southern manager of a New York
corporation, with offices at Galveston. He had become
familiar with the city, and when the storm broke he not
only knew what should be done, but had the training which
qualified him to take the initiative in restoring order and
protecting life and property. An account of his services
in the work of rescue and that of maintaining order in the
storm-stricken city is of historical value, and interesting
because of its heroic character. For a week after the
storm Major Fayling held the destiny of the city in his
hand, and his word meant life or death to evil-doers.

Saturday, September 8, opened as a rainy day in

RUINS OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH.

MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK. 353

Galveston. The rain was accompanied by a stiff gale, and
a heavy sea was running in the Gulf. At noon the rain
ceased, and at one o'clock Major Fayling started for the
beach to get a view of the sea. At that hour the water in
the streets from M street south had risen until it reached
the hubs of carriages. The people were somewhat alarmed,
but no one thought the storm would be any more serious
than those that are common in the Gulf city. Shortly after
Major Fayling reached the beach he saw O'Keefe's bathing
pavilion and a part of the Pagoda, another bathing insti-
tution, carried away by the action of the sea. The Pagoda
was built on piling out in the sea, and connected with the
shore by a walk supported also by piling. Major Fayling
went out to what remained of this building to secure his
bathing suit, and while there he noticed that the sea had
a phosphorescent color, and that the wind was blowing
from the north, while the sea was running from the oppo-
site direction. While in the West Indies on military ser-
vice he had learned that these signs meant a hurricane.
He hurriedly started toward the town, bathing suit in
hand, and told the people he met that they had better set
out for the higher parts of the town. When he reached
the Y. M. C. A. building the first force of the storm struck,
and several buildings within his sight went down. The
air became filled with masonry, bricks and slate. He was
wading and swimming through an average of five feet of
water, and was kept busy dodging live wires that sputtered
and burned in every direction. At that time it was almost
impossible to stand against the wind, and women were
blown distances of ten to twenty feet into the water. He
finally reached his offices at Twenty-first and Market
streets, where he threw off his clothing and, putting on his

354 MAJOR FAILING'S WORK.

bathing suit and a pair of stout Turkish slippers, he was
ready for work. The only persons in the building were
Dr. Baldinger, Dr. Nave and Miss George, the latter hav-
ing been brought there for safety by Dr. Nave.

By this time the water was running furiously through
the streets, and the air seemed full of the wreckage of
buildings. A boat, a center-board sloop, thirty feet long,
dismasted and without oars, came along as if propelled
by steam, carrying a man and several women and children.
This was secured and towed into the building. By means
of ropes and lines this boat was used during the night in
the work of rescuing persons who were being carried on
the tide past the building. In this way Major Fayling,
with the assistance of the two physicians, rescued forty-
three persons during the night.

About fifteen negroes and tramps strayed into the build-
ing during the evening. These overheard a plan to put
the women and children into the boat and remove them
to a safer place, and attempted to seize the boat for them-
selves. Major Fayling had a six-shooter and a Winchester
in the building, and, placing the gang under arrest,
stationed his servant as guard over them.

By three o'clock the wind had slackened to a strong
gale, and it seemed like a calm after the night's cyclone.
The water had gone down as rapidly as it had risen, until
it was only about four or five feet deep. The worst danger
being over, Major Fayling left to seek some friends in
another part of the city. Finding them safe he returned
in the hope of being of some service in the down-town
district. Store windows were broken where the buildings
were not destroyed, and people were crawling over heaps
of rubbish, and going in and out of stores in the most

MAJOR FAYLIN&S woM. 355

suspicious manner. It was not yet daylight, but looting
had already begun.

At daylight Major Fayling sought the Chief of Police
to turn over his prisoners. He found the city hall partially
blown down, and an officer on guard told him there was
no place in which to put any prisoners. He returned to
the building, and after giving his prisoners a warning,
turned them loose.

At that time everything was chaos. Corpses lay in every
direction. Knots of people were standing on the street
corners, frightened out of their wits, while crazy men and
women walked up and down the streets weeping and wail-
ing at the top of their voices.

The Major found the Chief of Police, Ed. Ketcham,
who did not seem to have any policemen left, and asked
him if he could be of any service. The reply was a
decided yes, and on a damp envelope at the Tremont
Hotel the Chief wrote Major Fayling a commission as
Sergeant of Police. The Chief's deputy also wrote an
order for food and supplies for the men Major Fayling
might enlist to patrol the city. The Major then went to
the city authorities and suggested that the salvation of
the town lay in putting it under martial law at once. He
also told them he had seen some half -naked regular soldiers
wandering in the streets, and suggested it might be advisable
to take them into the police service. He was told to go
ahead and do whatever he thought best, but was assured
it would be impossible to get any help from the regulars,
as they would not obey a civilian. Apparently someone
had been trying it.

Leaving the city authorities, the Major found within
four blocks four bare-footed artillerymen, who at the com-

256 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

mand of "Attention!" fell in without asking any ques-
tions, glad to find some sort of an officer. They were
informed that they were now policemen, and would be
sworn in as soon as time could be found for the ceremony.
In the meantime they were to fall in and get shoes, guns,
ammunition and provisions. Some were inclined to ask
questions, but were quickly silenced with the sharp com-
mand of "Silence in the ranks !"

The next man found was Ed. Rogers, whom the Major
knew to be a brave man and to have had some military
experience. The Major issued a verbal commission to
him at once, and with his assistance had the men supplied
in less than thirty minutes with what they needed for doing
duty. More soldiers were found on nearly every corner,
and finally a militia bugler with his bugle was picked up.
The "assembly" was blown loudly, which brought recruits
from Battery 0, and a few straggling militiamen.

Two hours after receiving his commission the Major
had a soldier on guard at almost every point of vantage,
and then went back to the city officials for more authority.
The Mayor and Chief of Police were satisfied with what
had been done, and being busy forming a Committee of
Public Safety, issued the following commission :

"By the authority vested in me as Chairman of the
Committee of Public Safety of the city of Galveston, I,
J. H. Hawley, do hereby commission L. R. D. Fayling
as Commander-in-Chief of the military forces and the
special deputies of police with the rank of Major, and only
subject to the orders of the undersigned, the Mayor and
the Chief of Police.

"J. H. HAWLEY,
"Chairman Committee of Public Safety.

MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

357

OCO. ft KOH8T

»»0»»II*TOJ»,-

By the authority invested in

of Publi, Sae ty of

. Chairmao Qr.

L/R.D.FayUng, as Connaander in CWef of
the military forceii, and

with -the rank of Major, and only eabjeot to

and
orders of the undersigned, the Hayor,Tha; Chief

Chairman

pf

Public

[ or Payling is hereby authorized to reauiflltion
any -property that he may require for the use «? .hip
force, and his. receipt will be honored by .the
City of Galveston, end any iracb property paid for
by the cityj

•»

SaJTety<

358 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

"Major Fay ling is hereby authorized to requisition any
property that he may require for the use of his force, and
his receipt will be honored by the city of Galveston, and
any such property paid for by the city.

"ED. KETCHAM,

"Chief of Police.
"Approved by order of the Mayor."

Major Fayling now directed his efforts to maintain
order at any cost. The first morning he closed the saloons,
meeting some resistance in a few cases, which a show of
arms overcame instantly. His orders to his men were:
"First, close all saloons in town. If a man opens up again
and sells liquor after being closed, arrest him. Second,
shoot anyone caught looting the dead or desecrating corpses
in any way. If anyone resists your authority, shoot. Be
very careful not to interfere with good citizens in any way,
but investigate all suspicious characters."

Within twenty-four hours, finding he needed more men,
the Major called for volunteers, and impressed a few and
drafted others, until he had organized the following
battalion : Company A, regular U. S. soldiers of Battery
O, detailed by their commander, Captain Rafferty, who
tendered the service of all the soldiers he had outside of
the hospital. Companies B and C were made up of mixed
militia and citizen volunteers. There was also a troop of
cavalry to patrol the outlying districts.

Horses for the cavalry troop were selected from those
roaming in the street. Major Fayling himself wore out
two and three horses a day in making his rounds night and
day to see that his men did their duty.

The troops, mixed as they were and many inexperienced,

MAJOR FAY LING'S WORK. 359

To The Public.

Sept. n, 1900.

tlie City .of Galveaton being under martial law and all good
citfeens being- iW enrolled in aome branch of the public service.

It becam£§\ffieee$§ary; to preserve the peacevthat all arms in this city
be placed .id the hands of the Military.

Alt geod citizen* forbidden to carry arms .except by written
from the Mayor, Chief of polica or the major commanditig.

AH good citiaens are hereby coramatidedio driver all arms and

ftiba in tho city and take Maior Fajrliag'e receipt.

Walter C. Jones,

MAYOR,

360 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

behaved nobly. There was strict discipline, but no case
of insubordination. There was a belief among the men
that the Major would shoot any man on the spot who might
be found sleeping on duty or incline to disobedience of
orders. The men worked as long as they had strength to
work. Every day in the armory they had to bathe their
feet in cold water to get them into their shoes, and many
walked miles when on duty when they should have been
in the hospital. There were no complaints. Some of the
best business and professional men of the city were in the
ranks, and worked as hard as anyone. Major Fayling
had no rest from the time he undertook the command of
the city forces until he was relieved by General Scurry,
and during that time he had nothing to eat except an
occasional sandwich and a cup of coffee taken in the saddle.

The work of disposing of the dead was the most horrible
in the stricken city. Major Fayling's men drove hundreds
of negroes at the bayonet point to assist in the work. Men
would say, "For heaven's sake, don't make me do that. I
won't go. You can shoot me if you want to, but I can't
do that." The only answer was: "Load with ball cart-
ridge— take aim ," but fortunately that was as far as

it was necessary to go. They threw up their hands and
went to work.

Nearly everyone in town was armed in some way. The
negroes, both men and women, carried large carving
knives, if they had no better weapons. Arms in large
numbers were stolen from the gun stores. This caused the
Mayor to issue the following proclamation :

"September 11, 1900.
"To The Public:

"The city of Galveston being under martial law, and all

MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

361

To the AdJuiantQener<a of

Sin-

Having b*W4& active ,6erVT«e, wittotii «leQp or food ein«e laet
Saturday night € th. inat., I beg> toVte •ral.Ht'e^ Q* My preaent
comaiBBion froa the City Author! iie flu. aa Mag or of City Voltmteera,
until I can rest And bep,o»e fit for *ome duty In the work of relief*

After 24 houro rest, X beg to tender ay eerrlce* in an? capacity
whatever, to do- any kind cf dUty that 997 be cf QUO.
Sir,

362 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

good citizens being now enrolled in some branch of the
public service, it becomes necessary, to preserve the public
peace, that all arms in the city be placed in the hands of
the military. All good citizens are forbidden to carry
arms except by written permission from the Mayor, Chief
of Police or Major commanding. All good citizens are
hereby commanded to deliver all arms and ammunition in
the city and take Major Fayling's receipt.

"WALTEK C. JOKES, Mayor."

It was under this commission that Major Fayling and
the men under him requisitioned arms and ammunition,
shot guns, rifles, etc., from the stores, pistols from the
pawnshops, and arms, ammunition and uniforms from the
armory.

When the Chief of Police relieved the men of Major
Fayling's force in accordance with the Major's request on
the arrival of General Scurry, Adjutant-General of the
State, he issued the following receipt:

"Galveston, September 11, 1900.

"I hereby certify that Major L. E. D. Fayling has
turned over to the city authorities all guns, arms, horses,
saddles and supplies requisitioned by him or his men
according to orders of the authorities over me during the
past week. I receipt hereby for same.

"ED. KETCHAM,
"Chief of Police."

At this time Major Fayling was directed by the Chief
of Police to call in all his men, as General Scurry had
arrived to take command for the State. The men were
accordingly assembled at the armory, from which place

MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

363

364: MAJOR FAYLING'8 WORK.

they were brought to the Hotel Tremont for inspection
drill. Major Fayling had that day fallen from the saddle
from faintness caused by a lack of food and sleep, and he
applied as follows to General Scurry:

"To the Adjutant-General of the State of Texas,

"Galveston, Texas.

"Sir: — Having been on active service without sleep or
food since last Saturday night, 8th inst., I beg to be
relieved of my present commission from the city authori-
ties as Major of City Volunteers, until I can rest and
become fit for some duty in the work of relief.

"After twenty-four hours' rest, I beg to tender my
services in any capacity whatever, to do any kind of duty
that may be of use.

"I am, sir, respectfully,

"L. K. D. FAYLING,
"Major of City Forces."

By military precedence the word "Approved" is all that
the commanding officer writes on such an application.
General Scurry disregarded precedent and indorsed as
follows :

"Your services have been most worthy. I cheerfully re-
lieve you from duty. THOS. SCUKKY,

"Adjutant-General."

That night the city was left without guards, and there
were complaints of disorder and looting.

Major Fayling's next duty was to escort a committee
of prominent Galveston citizens who were sent for by the
Governor to come to Houston to bring back a large sum of

MAJOR FAYL1N&8 WORK.

The Mayor of Galveaton, in behalf of the citizens of Qalveston
and in his own behalf., desirea to say that the work 'Major L. H. D. Payling
did for the City of 'Galveston, was most magnificent and cannot be express-
ed to word*. Bo built the foundation upon *hich the later good work
has. been done. The initiative, courage and discipline, displayed by
Hajor yayllng deserve the highest praise. He has the official and
personal thank* of the mayor aad citizens.

Mayor of &alvest««. r

Major

X consider your work was the saving of the oit?y. I
you ptfrftonollY for your senriees and loyalty

Mayor.

MAJOK FAYLIN&S WORK.

money for relief work. He was about to return to Gal-
veston when he received a telegram instructing him to
meet Miss Clara Barton and her party of eleven, and give
them such assistance as he could in getting them into Gal-
veston. He also received the following letter from the
Mayor of Houston:

"Houston, Tex., Sept. 15, 1900.
"Major L. E. D. Fayling,

"Galveston, Texas.

"Sir : — We will urgently ask you to represent us in ar-
ranging the details of receiving Miss Clara Barton and
her party, providing them with information as to the
situation in Galveston. We judge your information to be
superior to ours, as you and your men have been patrolling
every part of the wrecked city. Confident that you will
grant us this favor, we are,

"Very truly yours,

"S. H. BKASHEAE,

Mayor.
"By A. K. KOSENTHAL,

Secretary."

The Major borrowed a corporal's guard, induced the
proprietor of the Hutchin's House to throw a few "drum-
mers" out of their rooms and reserve the best part of the
house for Miss Barton. When her train got in, the guards
were ready, the soldiers at "present arms" — everything in
martial style — in fact, that reception was the only thing
in all the incidents of the storm that 'had any spice of the
theatrical.

When martial law was declared off, Mayor Jones in
the presence of a few prominent citizens at the Hotel

MAJOR PAYL1N&S

36?

368 MAJOR FAYLING'S WORK.

Tremont presented Major Fayling with the following
declaration of thanks:

"Major's Office,
"Walter C. Jones, Mayor.
"Galveston, Tex., Sept. 22, 1900.

"The Mayor of Galveston, in behalf of the citizens of
Galveston and in his own behalf, desires to say that the
work Major L. R. D. Fayling did for the city of Galves-
ton was most magnificent and cannot be expressed in
words. He built the foundation upon which the later
good work has been done. The initiative, courage and
discipline displayed by Major Fayling deserve the highest
praise. He has the official and personal thanks of the
Mayor and citzens.

"WALTER C. JONES,
"Mayor of Galveston."

"Major Fayling:

"I consider your work was the saving of the city. I
thank you personally for your services and loyalty.

"WALTER C. JOKES,
"Mayor."

The people of Galveston were not ungrateful for the
work Major Fayling had done to protect life and prop-
erty. When civil law superseded martial law, he was
tendered ovations wherever he went. On his way north
he was tendered similar ovations at Houston, and at Dal-
las, Captain Paget, of the Dallas Rough Riders, received
him with a military luncheon at the Oriental Hotel, and
turned out the Rough Riders as guard of honor to escort
him to the depot.