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
“I have seen tracks of many cyclones, but never have I seen the path of
one that held the misery, the suffering and the general destruction that
were occasioned by this hurricane, assisted by the sea.
“Furniture, household articles, pianos (complete and in part) and the
carcasses of every kind of domestic animal were to be found in chaos.
Even from the mainland could be seen the dire effects of the storm on
the seaport of Texas—jagged walls, broken smokestacks, tin roofs
suspended from their proper places or lying curled up at my feet in the
bay, a distance of several miles from where they belonged. While it is
natural for a person drowning to cling to whatever comes in their reach
with that intensity that they cannot be disengaged, after death, without
much trouble, this very thing lent much grewsomeness to the scene.
Mothers with their children in their arms could not be separated from
them, even by death.
“The piling of the destroyed railroad bridges had an occasional figure
clinging to them. On nearer approach the head was seen to be thrown back
as if to keep above water, and the features were distorted with horror
as if in their last moments they realized the fatality of the attempt.
The sea, not content with drowning the living and washing them away,
desecrated the tombs of Galveston and several caskets were seen floating
on the bosom of the quiet bay that morning and two or three were found
on shore as if resentful at having their rightful rest disturbed.
“Many people from a distance moved only by a morbid curiosity, which I
consider little short of criminal, crowded to Houston in order that they
might go to the devastated city and view the misery and devastation, not
willing to alleviate suffering or help to bury the dead. As for me, I
trust I will never look on a sight as appalling, as heartrending, as
desolate, while life lasts.”
A ST. LOUIS MAN STORMBOUND.
George MacLaine, of St. Louis, arrived at Dallas from Galveston, where
he spent the time from Friday until Tuesday. “I was intending to leave
on the 1.50 train Saturday afternoon,” he said, “but I could not get
away on account of the storm, the water having risen to such an extent
that it could not cross the bridge.
“My experience was pretty much the same as a large number of others have
given. During the storm I was in a building located at the corner of
Twenty-fifth and Market streets, two or three blocks above the Santa Fe
depot. We were in the parlor of the hotel on the second floor, with
about eight feet of water in the lower story. The parlor was crowded
with guests and refugees, men and women, and from the windows I
witnessed a great many affecting and pathetic sights, particularly in
the way of appeals to the men in the hotel to assist in rescuing women
with children in the neighborhood who had become separated from their
husbands.