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
“None of the corpses had any clothing upon them. One man had a leather
belt about his waist and the shreds of his trousers. The women were nude
except that corsets and shoes still remained on some of them. All the
lighter portions of the clothing had been beaten off by the water. There
was no time for identification. We simply pulled them up on the beach
and buried them where they lay.
“It is frightful to think of. The bay is still full of floating bodies.
Forty-three were counted from the schooner I was on as we went down.
Gangs of men are at work all the time under martial law burying as fast
as they are cast up.
“The city of Galveston is a wreck. Not a building in the town escaped
injury. The people there who went through the storm seemed dazed and in
a sort of stupor. All they know is that they want to get away from the
spot, and when they get on the mainland they go wild with joy. They are
utterly bewildered and demoralized.
ARRESTED FOR ROBBING THE DEAD.
“General McKibben had just arrived when I was there and martial law
reigned. I was told that seventy ghouls had been arrested for robbing
bodies and that they would be court-martialed and shot. The tramp
steamer Kendal Castle is lying high and dry 200 feet from the water’s
edge. She is standing on an even keel, just as though she was at sea.
General Scurry wanted a boat to go across to Galveston and informed the
captain he was under martial law and his boats would be required. The
boats were sent and General Scurry went across the bay in the captain’s
gig.
“The stench along the wharves in Galveston is something terrible, but
the people are making every effort to dispose of everything that is
putrifying.
“The railroad and telegraphic companies are making tremendous efforts to
get into Galveston. The Postal Telegraph Company has two wires strung
down the Galveston, Houston and Henderson to the junction of the Texas
Terminal. Below that not a pole was left. The Western Union is making
rapid progress and will lay a cable across the bay.”
George Hall, a traveling man who lives at 133 Thomas avenue, this city,
returned from Galveston yesterday morning, having passed through the
terrible scenes enacted there during and after the storm. To a News
representative he said last night:
“I arrived at Galveston Friday afternoon, and my wife and little girl
were to come down Saturday. At noon Saturday I noticed that the storm,
which had been blowing all the morning, was getting worse. At that time
I went to the tower of the Tremont Hotel and saw the waves rolling in
toward the land. I took just one look over the city and came down. The
wind increased in violence from that on and the rain fell in sheets, and
I sent a telegram to my wife and advised her to stop in Houston. I think
that was the last telegram that was sent from the island, as a few
moments afterwards the girl told me the wires had snapped. The storm was
accompanied by no thunder or lightning.