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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. v ii 
 
 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 
 
Q 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 3 
 
 s!i 
 
 Q fc 
 
 s ^ 
 
 _ H 
 
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 dollars 7 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. 
 
 a The 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 does 1 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 \ 7 irginia 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. 
 
 a ln 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 : 
 
 a The 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 arp y 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 outside 
 
 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. r After 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 
 
i 
 
 ft ra 
 
 B > . 
 
 x tr 1 j 
 
 _ < 
 
 LJ 
 
 ^K 
 OH 
 
 
 WO ,;: 
 
 ^^ I 
 
 C^ ! 
 
 O H \ 
 
 
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 alacritythere 
 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 also 3 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 : a The 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 
 
 0II*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 peace v that 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 ,6erVTe, wittotii leQp or food eine 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,oe 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.