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 gruesome task ever seen, except on a battlefield. He had to have helpers. 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 were drenched with it. The 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 direction 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 an ocean barge and taken far off into the gulf to be cast into the sea. There were 38,000 people in the city when the census was taken a few weeks before the flood. After a careful survey of the desolate field since the storm and flood have wrought their sad havoc, the conclusion is forced that there were in Galveston 25,000 people, or thereabouts, who had to be fed and clothed. The proportion of those who were in fair circumstances and lost all is astonishing. Relief cannot be limited to those who formed the poorer class before the storm. An intelligent man left Galveston, taking his wife and child to relatives. He said: “A week ago I had a good home and a business which paid me between $400 and $500 a month. To-day I have nothing. My house was swept away and my business is gone. I see no way of re-establishing it in the near future.” This man had a real estate and house renting agency. STRIPPED OF ALL THEIR POSSESSIONS. At the military headquarters one of the principal officials doing temporary service for this city said: “Before the storm I had a good home and good income. I felt rich. My house is gone and my business. The fact is I don’t even own the clothes I stand before you in. I borrowed them.” Now these are not exceptional cases. They are fairly typical. They must be fed and clothed, these 25,000 people, until they can work out their temporal salvation. And then something ought to be done to help the worthy get on their feet and make a fresh start. Some people will leave Galveston. It is plain, however, that nothing like the number expected will go. Galveston is still home to the great majority. Those who can stay and live there will do so. If the country responds to the needs in anything like the measure given to Johnstown, Chicago, Charleston and other stricken cities and sections, Galveston as a community will not only be restored, but will enter upon a greater future than was expected before the storm.