USA > Texas > Galveston County > Galveston > The great Galveston disaster : containing a full and thrilling account of the most appalling calamity of modern times. > Part 4
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HURRIED TO A WATERY GRAVE.
The further the ruins are explored the greater becomes the increase in the list of those who perished as their houses fell about their heads. On the lower beach a searching party found a score of corpses within a small area, going to show that the bulwark of debris that lies straight across the island conceals many more bodies than have been accounted for.
Volunteer gangs continue their work of hurried burial of the corpses they find on the shores of Galveston Island at the many neighboring points where fatalities attended the storm. It will probably be many days yet, however, before all the floating bodies have found nameless graves.
MANGLED CORPSES WASHED ASHORE.
Along the beach they are constantly being washed up. Whether these are those who were swept out into the Gulf and drowned or are simply the return of some of those cast into the sea to guard against terrible pestilence, there is no means of knowing. In any event, the correspondent, in a trip across the bay yesterday, counted seven bodies tossing in the waves with a score of horses and cattle.
The city still presents the appearance of widespread wreck and ruin. Little has been done to clear the streets of the terrible tangle of wires and the masses of wreck, mortar, slate, stone and glass that bestrew them. Many of the sidewalks are impassable. Some of them are littered with debris. Others are so thickly covered with slime that walking on them is out of the question.
As a general rule, substantial frame buildings withstood better the blasts of the gale than those of brick. In other instances, however, small wooden structures, cisterns and whole sides of houses are lying in streets or backyards squares away from where they originally stood.
Here and there business men have already put men to work to repair the damage done, but in the main the commercial inter- ests seem to be uncertain about following the lead of those who apparently show faith in the rapid rehabilitation of the island city. The appearance of the newspapers to-day, after a suspension of
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The motormen deserted their cars when the fury of the wind and the rush of the water made it 110 longer possible to operate them. Attempts are being made now to get the cars in shape again. The great destruction of live stock has elimated the car- riages and cabs as a means of transportation.
The work of relief continues energetically. Mayor Jones and his associates are bending every nerve to open a direct line of trans- portation with Houston by which he may be enabled promptly to receive the great quantity of provisions which are now on the way to the city. The Relief Committee is striving to systematize its work. On Tuesday an ordinance was passed authorizing rescuing and burying parties to set fire to wrecked buildings and burn them. In these funeral pyres hundreds of corpses were cremated.
CARING FOR HOMELESS REFUGEES.
Houston now is the haven of the unfortunate people of Gal- veston. Trains have already brought in between 500 and 1000 of the survivors, and a motley crowd they are. Men bareheaded, barefooted, hatless and coatless, with swollen feet and bruised and blackened bodies and heads were numerous. Women of wealth and refinement, frequently hatless, shoeless, with gowns in shreds, were among the refugees. Nearly all of those who came in have suffered the loss of one or more of their family. It is remarkable, however, there is no whimpering, 110 complaining.
The refugees are being housed and fed, and those in need of medical attention are placed in the hospitals. General-Manager Van Vleck, of the Southern Pacific, says the damage to the wharves is fully eighty per cent. The Southern Pacific, he says, expects to begin work on the bridge within two days. It is expected that trains will be run into Galveston within forty days.
John J. Moody, a member of the committee sent from Houston to take charge of the relief station at Texas City, reports as follows :
"On arriving at La Marque this morning I was informed that - the largest nu1111 ber of bodies were along the coast of Texas City. Fifty-six were buried yesterday and to-day within less than two miles extending opposite this place and towards Virginia City. It
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" Appreciating the situation, Adjutant-General Scurry yester- day succeeded in getting gangs of laboring men organized. The progress made is remarkable and to-day it was much greater. Large piles of refuse were gathered and burned, and the work of cleaning up proceeded in a systematic manner. Heretofore there has been no system, everybody working for the public good in his own way.
PEOPLE HURRYING TO ESCAPE.
" The exodus from the city was heavy to-day, and hundreds more were eager to go who were unable to secure transportation. Along the bay front there were scores of families with dejected faces, pleading to be taken from the stricken city, where, in spite of every effort to restore confidence, there is a universal feeling of depression.
"Shipping men say to-day that the damage to the wharves is by no means as serious as at first supposed. More hopeful reports were received to-day touching the water supply. The company is placing men all along the mains, plugging the broken places and thereby assisting the flow. It was serving some of its customers to-day, and hopes gradually to increase the service. The water continues to run by gravity pressure.
"The only difficulty the people are having is in carrying supplies to their homes or places of business. The ice supply continues bountiful, and at many corners lemonade is being served at five cents for as many glasses as you can drink at one time.
" The work of disposing of the dead continues. Several li1111- dred bodies are still buried beneath the wreckage. Thirty-two sand mounds, marked with small boards, attract attention on the beach, near Twenty-sixth street, and tell the story of where seventy-five bodies have been laid to rest. In the extreme western part of the city sixty bodies were cremated with wreckage of the homes of the unfortunate victinis.
" A conflict of authority, due to a misunderstanding, precipi- tated a temporary disorganization of the policing of the city yes- terday. It seems that when General Scurry, Adjutant-General of
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the Texas Volunteer Guard, arrived in the city with about 200 militia from Houston, he conferred with the chief of police as to the plans for preserving law and order.
"An order was issued by the chief of police to the effect that the soldiers should arrest all persons found carrying arms unless they showed a written order, signed by the chief of police or Mayor, giving them permission to go armed. The result was that about fifty citizens wearing deputy sheriff badges were arrested by the soldiers and taken to police headquarters.
FREE USE OF DEADLY WEAPONS.
" The soldiers had no way of knowing by what authority the men were acting with these badges, and would listen to no excuses. After a hurried conference between General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas it was decided that all deputy sheriffs and special officers shall be permitted to carry arms and pass in and out of the guard lines. The deputy sheriffs and special and regular police now police the city during the daytime, and the militia take charge of the city at night.
" More than 2000 dead bodies have been identified, and the estimate of Mayor Jones, that 5000 perished in Saturday's great hurricane, does not appear to be magnified. The city is being patrolled by troops and a citizens' committee, and a semblance of order is appearing.
" At a conference held at the office of City Health Officer Wilkinson it was decided to accept the offer of the United States Marine Hospital Service and establish a camp at Houston, where the destitute and sick can be sent and be properly cared for. The physicians agreed that there were many indigent sick in the city who should be removed from Galveston, and Houston was selected because that city had very thoughtfully suggested the idea and tendered a site for the camp. Acting upon the suggestion to estab- lish a camp and care for the sick and needy, a message was sent to the Surgeon-General, at the head of the Marine Hospital Corps, asking for 1000 tents of four-berth capacity each ; also several hun- red barrels of disinfecting fluid.
CHAPTER VIII.
Fears of Pestilence-Searching Parties Clearing Away the Ruins and Cremating the Dead-Distracted Crowds
Waiting to Leave the City -- Wonderful Escapes.
"The large force of men used in burying and cremating the exposed dead scattered throughout the city are trying to complete that portion of their work and are searching for the bodies of un- fortunates lying crushed beneath the mass of debris and wrecked buildings. Where the debris lies in detached masses, it is fired, and the bodies therein consumed.
"When adjacent property will be endangered by fire, the inass of ruins is removed, the bodies are taken out and conveyed to a safe distance. Around them is piled the debris and the whole is saturated with oil and fired. It is quite impossible to identify the bodies as they are in all stages of putrefaction.
"It is a gruesome and sad task. Some of the inen engaged in this work are, perhaps, unknowingly helping to destroy all that is mortal of some loved one, who, a few days before, was the light of his home. The ghastly pile may contain the body of his wife, mother, brother, or some petted child ; but in nearly every in- stance he knows it not.
"One pathetic incident occurred. A squad of mien discovered in a wrecked building five bodies, among whom one of the party recognized a brother. All were in an advanced state of decompo- sition. They were all removed and a funeral pyre was made. The living brother, with a wrench in his heart, assisted, and witli Spartan-like firmness stood by and saw his brother's body reduced to ashes.
"The appalling loss of life by the hurricane has benumbed the people and virtually dried up the fountains of grief. Neighbor meets neighbor and, with a hearty grasp of the hand, says "I hope all is well with you." The usual reply is, "I am sorry to say I am the only one left."
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BURNING THE RUINS AND THE DEAD.
antine warehouse and disinfecting barge, just completed, are total wrecks, as is also the quarantine wharf. A part of the quarantine residence is left standing, but so badly damaged that it is not worth repairing.
AN OFFICER'S BRAVERY.
"Quarantine Officer Mayfield showed the greatest bravery and self-sacrifice when the storin came on. He sent all of his employees and his family, except two sons, who refused to leave him, to places of safety. He remained in the quarantine house with his two devoted sons throughout the terrible night. All of one wing of the house was taken away and the floor of the remaining part was forced up and carried away by the waters. Dr. Mayfield and his two sons spent the night on a stairway lead- ing from the upper floor to the attic.
"Despite this destruction of the station, the quarantine has never been relaxed, and all vessels are promptly boarded upon arrival at Galveston. There are now three vessels lying at quar- antine. They brought cargoes to be discharged at Galveston and had cargoes consigned to them. The cargoes cannot be taken off except by lighter, and the vessels are awaiting instructions from their owners. The Mallory Line Steamer " Alano" got in Wed- nesday, but was sent back to the bay, as she could not discharge her cargo.
"The sanitary condition of the city is very bad. While there has been no outbreak of sickness, every one expects that, and it is inevitable. There is no organized effort being made to improve sanitary conditions. Large quantities of lime have been ordered to the place, but I doubt if anyone will be found to unload it from the vessels and attend to its systematic distribu- tion when it arrives.
"The stench is almost unbearable. It arises from piles of debris containing the carcasses of human beings and animals. These carcasses are being burned where such can be done with safety. But little of the wreckage can be destroyed in this man- ner, however, owing to the danger of starting a fire that will destroy what is left of the ill-fated city. There is no water pro-
BURNING THE RUINS AND THE DEAD.
day. There must be hundreds of dead bodies back on the prairies that have not been found. It is impossible to make a search there on account of the debris. There will be mnany a skeleton of vic- vims of the disaster found on the prairie in the months and years to come.
" Bodies have been found as far back from the present main- land shore of the bay as seven miles. That embraces a big terri- tory which is covered with rank grass, holes filled with water and piles of debris. It would take an army to search this territory on the mainland.
THE GULF FULL OF BODIES.
"The waters of the Gulf and bay are still full of bodies, and they are being constantly cast upon the beach. On my trip to and from the quarantine station I passed a procession of bodies going seaward. I counted fourteen of them on my trip from the station, and this procession is kept up day and night. The cap- tain of a ship who had just reached quarantine informed me that. he began to meet floating bodies fifty miles from the port.
"As an illustration of how high the water got in the Gulf, a vessel which was in port tried to get into the open sea when the storm came on. It got out some distance and had to put back. It was dark and all the landmarks had been obliterated. The course of the vessel could not be determined, and she was being furiously driven in toward the island by the wind. Before her course could be established she had actually run over the top of the north jetty. As the vessel draws twenty-five feet of water some idea can be ob- tained as to the height of the water in the Gulf."
They marry and are given in marriage. A wedding took place in Galveston. It occurred at the Tremont Hotel. Ernest A. Mayo, a lawyer, and a candidate for Prosecuting Attorney, was the bridegroom. Mrs. Bessie Roberts was the bride. The engage- ment was of long standing. Both suffered much from the stormn. They decided that it was better to cast their fortunes together. Friends approved. The ceremony took place on Thursday, the 13th, five days after the flood.
Governor Sayres was advised on the fourteenth that a goy-
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ernment vessel, which was loaded with supplies at Texas City for the Galveston sufferers, went aground shortly after leaving the wharf, and had not yet been gotten off. It was found that vessels could not cross the bay at that point, and thereafter they would be sent to some other point which had a deeper channel connec- tion with Galveston.
The estimates of immediate losses in the aggregate vary widely. It may be said that none of them are below $20,000,000. The maximum, as given by intelligent residents, including some members of the Citizens' Committee, is $35,000,000. One of the Galveston business men sent to Austin to confer personally with Governor Sayres on the work of relief, inclined to the belief that the immediate losses might, without exaggeration, be placed at $35,000,000.
In the indirect class are the losses which must be sustained through the paralysis of business, the reduction of population, the stoppage of industries, and the general disturbance of commercial relations, and Galveston business men hesitate to form any con- clusion as to what the moral losses must be.
A REFUGEE'S TALE OF HORROR.
F. B. Campbell, who was in Galveston when the floods swept upon it, was one of the first refugees to reach the North. He passed through Pittsburg, six days after the disaster, on his way to Springfield, Mass., which is his home. Mr. Campbell had his right arm fractured. William E. Frear, a Philadelphia commer- cial traveller, who was with Campbell in Galveston, accompanied him as far north as Cincinnati, and went home on the express. Frear's right ankle was sprained.
Campbell was a cotton broker and was overwhelmed at his boarding house while at dinner. He reached a heap of wreckage by swimming through an alley. Of the scene when he left, Campbell said :
" The last I saw of Galveston was a row of submerged build- ings where a thriving city stood. A waste of water spread in all directions. In the sea were piles of wreckage and the carcasses of
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animals and the bodies of hundreds of human beings. The salt marshes presented an indescribable sight. Nude forms of human beings, that had been swept across the bay were scattered every- where. No man could count them without going insane. It looked like a graveyard, where all the tenants of the tombs had been exhumed and the corpses thrown to the winds."
SOME WONDERFUL ESCAPES.
There were many wonderful incidents of the great storm. In the infirmary at Houston was a boy whose name is Rutter. He was found on Monday morning lying beside a truck on the land near the town of Hitchcock, which is twenty miles to the north- ward of Galveston. This boy is only 12 years old. His story is. that his father, mother and two children remained in the house. There was a crash and the house went to pieces. The boy says that he caught hold of a trunk when he found himself in the water and floated off with it. He thinks the others were drowned. With the trunk the boy floated. He had no idea of where it took him, but when daylight came he was across the bay and out upon the still partially submerged mainland.
When their home went to pieces the Stubbs family, husband, wife and two children, climbed upon the roof of a house floating by. They felt tolerably secure, when, without warning, the roof parted in two places. Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs were separated and each carried a child. The parts of the raft went different ways in the darkness. One of the children fell off and disappeared, and not until some time Sunday was the family reunited. Even the child was saved, having caught a table and clung to it until it reached a place of safety.
One of the most remarkable escapes recorded during the flood was reported to-day when news came that a United States battery man on duty at the forts last week had been picked up on Morgan's Point, injured but alive. He had buffeted the waves for five days and lived through a terrible experience. Morgan's Point is thirty miles from Galveston.
Galveston, Tex., Sept. 14 .- The local Board of Health
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BURNING THE RUINS AND THE DEAD.
Probably never before has there been so much telegraphing to the dead. The headquarters of the Western Union and Postal systems located in this city report that in Dallas, Houston and Galveston are thousands of messages addressed to persons who can never call for them or receive them.
"Some of the persons addressed are known to be dead, and there is no doubt that hundreds of others are among the thou- sands of unknown and unidentified victims of the storm whose bodies have been dumped into the sea, consigned to unmarked graves or cremated in the great heaps that sanitary necessity marked for the torch and the incinerating pyre.
" The insurance questions are beginning to receive serions attention. Life insurance companies are going to be liit very hard. The question that particularly engages the attention of representatives is whether settlement shall be made without liti- gation. The general southwestern agents for eight big insurance companies were interviewed to-day, and they stated that all Dallas insurance men concur in the opinion that the insurance policies against storm losses carried by Galvestonians will not aggregate $10,000,000. They say there was absolutely no demand for such insurance at Galveston."
WHOLE FAMILY KILLED BY STORM.
Among those who were caught in the storm that devastated Galveston on Sunday night were six persons who comprised the family of Peter E. McKenna, a former resident of Philadelphia. According to news received by their relatives in that city, all perished.
When word of the Texas disaster first came it was reported that the entire family had been lost, but it later developed that a married daughter, who lives in Omaha, Neb., was not visiting her parents, as was first supposed, and therefore escaped the death that overtook her relatives.
Peter E. McKenna, the head of the family, was well known in Philadelphia during his youth. His father was one of the pioneers in the religious press. The son followed the profession
CHAPTER IX.
Story of a Brave Hero-A Vast Army of Helpless Victims- Scenes that Shock the Beholders-Our Nation Rises to the Occasion.
HEN Galveston's chapter of horrors had reached its crisis, when the people were dazed, leaderless and almost helpless, so that they went about bewildered and did little more than gather a few hundred of the bodies which were in their way, a long- shoreman became the hero of the hour. It was not until Monday that the brave leaders, who are usually not discovered in a commu- nity until some great emergency arises, began to forge in front. They were not men from one rank in point of wealth or intelli- gence. They came from all classes.
For example, there was Hughes, the longshoreman. Bodies which lay exposed in the streets, and which had to be removed somewhere lest they be stepped on, were carried into a temporary morgue until 500 lay in rows on the floor.
A VERY GRAVE PROBLEM.
Then a problem in mortality such as no other American com- munity 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 neces- sary 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 prob- lem, found Hughes. The longshoreman took up the most grue- some task ever seen, except on a battlefield. He had to have help .. ers. Some volunteered ; others were pressed into the service at the point of the bayonet.
Whisky by the bucketful was carried to these men, and they "vere drenched with it. The stimulant was kept at hand and ap- plied continuously. Only in this way was it possible for the stout- est-hearted to work in such surroundings.
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THE WRECK OF A DWELLING WHERE TWELVE MEN AND WOMEN HAD A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE
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PHOTO BY COURTESY CHICAGO AMERICAN
CREMATING DEAD BODIES TAKEN FROM GALVESTON WRECK.
EXTERIOR VIEW OF ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH, WHICH WAS DEMOLISHED
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WRECKAGE AT CENTRE STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM AVENUE O 12
RUINS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL, TWENTY-FIFTH STREET AND AVENUE P
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REMAINS OF RAILROAD POWER HOUSE, TWENTIETH STREET AND AVENUE I
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A CLEAN SWEEP OF EIGHTEEN BLOCKS BY SIX. WAS THICKLY POPULATED AND COMPLETELY DESTROYED
TREMONT STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM AVENUE O 12
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A RUINED HOME
HON. WALTER C. JONES MAYOR OF GALVESTON
PHOTOGRAPH BY MORRIS, GALVESTON
INMATES OF THE HOME FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN, GALVESTON-ALL OF THESE LITTLE ONES WERE LOST IN THE FLOOD
RUINS AT TWENTY FIRST STREET AND AVENUE O 12
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PHOTO BY COURTESY CHICAGO AMERKAM
WRECK OF FORT CROCKET
AVENUE A IN "EAST END" OF GALVESTON-COLORADO AND SANTA FE RAILROAD TRACKS IN FOREGROUND
CLARA BARTON
REMAINS OF A BUILDING THAT WITHSTOOD THE FLOOD
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VAST ARMY OF HELPLESS VICTIMS.
"None of the danger of sickness that was feared has shown itself. We are getting rid of the wreckage, and we are scattering car loads of lime and other disinfectants everywhere. I believe all danger is passed. Talk about Galveston giving up!" continued Mr. Robinson, "This great wharf property is worth $18,000,000. It sustained a loss of less than $500,000.
"The company has 1000 men at work on the repairs. It stared eternity in the face Saturday night, and was ready to go To-day I have got more energy and ambition than I ever had. I don't know where I got it. I guess God gave it to me. Come back in sixty days, and you will not know Galveston, remembering it as you see it to-day."
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG GIRL.
Miss Maud Hall, who was spending her school vacation in Galveston, and who passed through the storm, has written of her experience to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emory Hall, of Dallas. Miss Hall was in the house where she was boarding at the time the storm came. She says :
"The wind and rain rose to a furious whirlwind, and all the time the water crept higher and higher. We all crowded into the hall, and the house, a big two-story one, rocked like a cradle. About 6 o'clock the roof was gone, all the blinds torn off and all the windows blown in. Glass was flying in all directions and the water had risen to a level with the gallery. Then the men told us we would have to go to a house across the street.
"It took two men to cach woman to get hier across the street and down to the end of the block. Trees thicker than any in our yard were whirled down the street and the water looked like a whirlpool. I came near drowning with another girl. It was dark by this time, and the men put their arms around us and down into the water we went.
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