As the hours rolled on the wind gained in velocity and the waters crept higher and higher. The wind changed from the north to the northeast and the water came in from the bay, filling the streets and running like a millrace. Still the great danger was not realized. Men attempted to reach home in carriages, wagons, boats, or any way possible. Others went out in the storm for a lark. As the time wore on the water increased in depth and the wind tore more madly over the island. Men who had delayed starting for home, hoping for an abatement of the storm, concluded that the storm had grown worse and went out in that howling, raging, furious storm, wading through water almost to their necks, dodging flying missiles swept by a wind blowing 100 miles an hour. Still the wind increased in velocity, when, after it seemed impossible that it should be more swift, it changed from west to southeast, veering constantly, calming for a second and then coming with awful terrific jerks, so terrible in their power that no building could withstand them and none wholly escaped injury. Others were picked up at sea. And all during the terrible storm acts of the greatest heroism were performed. Hundreds and hundreds of brave men, as brave as the world ever knew, buffeted with the waves and rescued hundreds of their fellow men. Hundreds of them went to their death, the death that they knew they must inevitably meet in their efforts. Hundreds of them perished after saving others. Men were exemplifying that supreme degree of love of which the Master spoke, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he give his life for his friend.” Many of them who lost their lives in this storm in efforts to save their families, many to save friends, many more to help people of whom they had never heard. They simply knew that human beings were in danger and they counted their own lives. TREMENDOUS FURY OF THE GALE. The maximum velocity of the wind will never be known. The gauge at the Weather Bureau registered 100 miles an hour and blew away at 5.10 o’clock, but the storm at that hour was as nothing when compared with what followed, and the maximum velocity must have been as great as 120 miles an hour. The most intense and anxious time was between 8.30 and 9 o’clock, with raging seas rolling around them, with a wind so terrific that none could hope to escape its fury, with roofs beginning to roll away and buildings crashing all around them, men, women and children were huddled in buildings, caught like rats, expecting to be crushed to death or drowned in the sea, yet cut off from escape. Buildings were torn down, burying their hundreds, and were swept inland, piling up great heaps of wreckage. Hundreds of people were thrown into the water in the height of the storm, some to meet instant death, others to struggle for a time in vain, and thousands of others to escape death in most miraculous and marvelous ways.