The Great Galveston Disaster: Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of De — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Great Galveston Disaster: Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of De
John Stuart Mill · en
“About 9 o’clock the water commenced to fall rapidly, and at 10 o’clock
the wind had subsided fully 50 per cent. The damage had all been done.
At daylight we got out and went down to the beach. From the beach back
for four or five blocks it was just as clean as this floor. Up and down
the island there was wreckage as high as this ceiling. This had
something to do with breaking the force of the water. And that wreckage
was full of dead bodies. The only way to get rid of it is to burn it
with the bodies in it, for they can never be taken out.
MAKING A HURRIED ESCAPE.
“Monday at noon we left the wharf on the sailboat ‘Lake Austin’ in
company with five others. We paid $100 for passage to Texas City. The
names of those in the party were, J. A. Kemp, of Wichita Falls; Henry
Sayles, of Abilene; A. W. Boyd, of Houston; W. A. Frazer, of Dallas, and
myself and my wife. Mrs. Griswold was the first woman to leave the
island after the disaster. We landed at Texas City at 2.30, caught the
Texas Terminal Railway to a junction with the Galveston, Houston and
Henderson. From there we walked for a mile to where they were repairing
the track, and caught a freight train into Houston, arriving about 10.30
at night.
“The buildings in Galveston that are not totally wrecked are damaged in
such a manner that I believe it will cost as much to repair them as it
would to build new ones outright. There is not a church left standing.
The general offices of the Santa Fe are badly wrecked. On the floor next
to the top some of the inside door casings are forced out of the frames,
and the entire building will have to be replastered before it will be
safe to occupy. The train sheds are gone.
“On the Mallory wharves is a conglomerated pile of boxcars and boats and
cotton wreckage of every description. The Mallory liner ‘Comal’ arrived
there just after the storm, and, thank goodness, the crew has sense
enough to stay on board the boat. Dead bodies are in all the wreckage
under the wharf just like dead rats. The Santa Fe officials and the
heads of the different departments in the general offices, so far as
reported, are all safe. The families of a good many of the clerks have
been lost entirely, and in other instances partially so.
“The Blum family came to the Washington Hotel at daylight Sunday morning
with nothing on them but shreds. They had lost everything. When they
left home they had thousands of dollars worth of diamonds on their
persons. These were all lost in their battle with the elements. Their
bodies were a mass of bruises.
“There is scarcely a stock of goods in Galveston that isn’t a total
loss. But the Sealy residence, standing even as it does, where it seems
as if the slightest breeze would strike it, hasn’t a scratch on it.
ENTIRE FAMILIES LOST.