Acting Secretary Meiklejohn of the War Department at Washington authorized the chartering of a special train from St. Louis to carry quartermaster’s and commissary supplies to the relief of the destitute at Galveston. The following telegram was received: “Galveston, Texas, Sept. 9, 1900.—Quartermaster General, Washington. I report terrific cyclone with an eleven foot tide. All improvements, temporary buildings, property and stores at both Jacinto and Crockett destroyed and swept clean. “BAXTER, Quartermaster.” A second telegram followed: “Galveston, Texas, Sept. 11, 1900.—Referring to my telegram of yesterday, via Houston, I urgently recommend that fair compensation be made to contractors for their losses, and that they be relieved of their contracts. If fortifications are rebuilt at or near their present sites I urgently recommend that quarters for troops be purchased and built on higher ground in the city, centrally located. Wharves destroyed; all railroad bridges swept away and building operations of any nature cannot be resumed under six weeks or two months.” A VOICE FROM JOHNSTOWN. Mayor Woodruff, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, issued the following proclamation: “Later and more definite information of the fearful destruction of life and property at Galveston and other places in Texas recalls to our attention the awful calamity in Johnstown and vicinity eleven years ago. Whole squares of homes have been swept away, hundreds of dead are lying unburied and thousands of people destitute. This would be a fitting time to show our gratitude for what the world did for us in the hour of need. Any contributions left at the banks in this city will be acknowledged and promptly forwarded to the authorities in charge of the work of relief. Already over $200 without any call for aid has been subscribed to a relief fund.” A special despatch from Galveston tells the following story of the great calamity, showing that scarcely a building was undamaged or a family that did not lose one or more members. It is roughly estimated that the death list will approximate 6,000 and the property loss will be many millions. Scarcely a building in the city escaped injury and the loss on stocks of goods cannot be estimated. All the extreme eastern and southern part and the western portion, south of avenue Q, to the Gulf, is either washed away or demolished and the dead are thrown in every direction. These are being rapidly gathered up and taken to temporary morgues on the strand. Whole families are, in many instances, wiped out of existence. There is scarcely a family in the district mentioned that did not lose one or more members, while the hospitals are crowded with wounded beyond their capacity, and the county court house is being converted into a hospital for their care. The Catholic hospital down the island, was completely demolished. All the Sisters and ninety inmates were drowned.