The officers of the National Government took steps at once to render all possible aid and assistance to the flood-sufferers of Texas. The President sent telegrams of sympathy to the Governor of the State and the Mayor of Galveston, and promised to render all possible relief. Adjutant-General Corbin also telegraphed instructions to General McKibbin, commanding the Department of Texas at San Antonio, to proceed to Galveston and investigate the character and extent of the damage caused by the hurricane, and to report to the Secretary of War what steps were necessary to alleviate the sufferings of the people and improve the situation. Battery O, First Artillery, which garrisoned Fort San Jacinto, was commanded by Captain William C. Rafferty. First Lieutenant Lassiter was on detail duty at West Point, but the Second Lieutenant, J. C. Nichols, was with his company during the storm. Acting Secretary of the Treasury Spalding ordered two revenue cutters, one at Norfolk and one at Wilmington, N.C., to proceed at once to Mobile, Ala., and there await orders. They were needed in supplying food and tents to the storm-sufferers. Governor Sayers, of Texas, applied to the War Department for 10,000 tents and 50,000 rations for immediate use for the sufferers. Acting Secretary Meiklejohn issued an order granting the request. The tents were sent from San Antonio and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. A large portion of the rations was procured at San Antonio. AN APPEAL FROM HOUSTON. The following telegrams passed between the White House and Texas: “Houston, Texas, September 10.—William McKinley, President of the United States, Washington, D. C.: I have been deputized by the Mayor and Citizens’ Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins, and certainly many hundreds, if not a thousand, 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 from the Gulf is swept clear of every building, the whole wharf 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 whole city, having risen twelve feet. Water has now subsided, and the survivors are left helpless among the wreckage, cut off from the world except by boat. “RICHARD SPILLANE.”