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
“After arriving at Texas City we had to wait two or three hours for a
boat, and during the time a number of the party walked down the beach
and discovered and buried the bodies of eight men, women and children. A
memorandum was taken describing as well as possible the people buried,
and a headboard put up with a number corresponding to the one in the
book. We left Texas City at 3.30 Tuesday evening, arriving at Galveston
at 9.30.
“While on the way over we discovered the bodies of several people and
quite a number of horses and cows, and as we got off the boat, just
under the wharf was a pile of twenty or twenty-five drowned people. Just
after leaving the wharf we saw the remains of seven people which were
being prepared for cremation. The town is under martial law, and on my
way up to the city I was hailed by guards three different times, but
after explaining I was permitted to proceed.
“I do not think the conditions at Galveston have been over-drawn by the
newspaper reports. In fact, it is more deplorable than any words or
picture could portray to the mind. Before we arrived several parties had
been shot for robbing the dead and looting houses. Some of our party
walked down the beach and found a couple of white men who were breaking
open and robbing the trunks which had floated ashore, taking the
garments from them and drying them on the grass. These trunks contained
all kinds of family wearing apparel.
“We found that all the insurance men of Galveston and their immediate
families were safe excepting two married sisters of Mr. Harris, who were
drowned with their eight children. They were drowned in their own yards
and the bodies afterward recovered and buried there. The loss to the
insurance companies from a financial standpoint will be very heavy on
account of the cancellation of policies under which there is now no
liability, the houses having been destroyed. Again, a great many people
who are indebted to the insurance agents cannot pay for the reason that
they have lost everything.
CITY WILL RECOVER FROM THE BLOW.
“If the Government and the railroads will repair and rebuild their
property in Galveston the city may recover from the blow, but unless
this is done there will be very slim chances for the city to attain the
position as a commercial point it has heretofore held. The losses of
life and accident insurance companies will be something enormous.