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
“The wind reached its strongest about 6 o’clock. Then the water was in
the rotunda of the hotel. Part of the skylight had blown off and the
rain was pouring in. Many of the windows were broken by flying pieces of
debris and the rooms were flooded. My room was among those flooded. Joe
Morrow had a room that was dry, and he and Harry Archer and myself
crowded into it. Morrow got four inches of candle somewhere, and we had
half a dozen dry matches. We burned the candle from time to time during
the night to cheer us up. All of us were scared and did not know what
minute everything would go. After midnight the storm began to go down,
and at 5 o’clock in the morning the water had gone out of the hotel and
part of Tremont street was above it.
“We set out to find W. H. McClure, who had had an awful experience. He
came to the hotel and offered a hackman any price to go to his house
after his family, but could not induce him to go. Failing in that, he
started back home to his wife. That was 7 o’clock, and he did not manage
to reach home, one-half mile away, until 2.30 in the morning. We found
them all safe. We saw several bodies on Tremont street on the way there.
“The organization of relief work began at once. It was soon seen that
there was no time for the identification of bodies, and the work of
taking them to sea for burial began. Along the Gulf front for three
blocks back there is not a house standing, and I could see only one or
two on the Denver resurvey.
“There was a meeting of all the railroad men in Galveston at 9 o’clock
Tuesday morning, at which it was arranged that freight would be handled
through Houston and the Clinton tap to Clinton and by barge to
Galveston. The Galveston, Houston and Henderson to handle passengers to
Texas City and then to Galveston by the steamer Lawrence.”
W. H. McGrath, general manager of the Dallas Electric Company, returned
from Galveston yesterday. He said:
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE STREWN FOR MILES.
“No words can express the scenes of death and desolation. Nothing can be
said that will convey the full meaning. I went over to Galveston in a
schooner and came away as soon as possible. What they need there is not
people, but ice, water and supplies. All along the shore of the bay for
twelve miles inland are strewn pianos, sofas, chairs, tables, paving
blocks and all sorts of broken lumber and debris from Galveston.
“General Scurry detailed my party to bury the dead on a stretch of beach
about two-and-one-half miles long. In that space we found fourteen
bodies, all women and children but two. The hot sun beating down and the
action of the water had caused decomposition to set in at once. They
were horribly bloated, and the eyes and tongues protruding and the
bosoms of the women bursting open.