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
“There was a new party of them which came in last night late from
Galveston. About fifty came in after 10 o’clock, hungry, half clad and
worn to the very edge of human endurance. They stood timidly at the door
and one of them begged for shelter as if she thought she would be
refused. Most of our cots with mattresses in them were taken, but that
did not make any difference. Dr. Bloch, of Chicago, and Dr. O’Brien, of
New York, got their heads together and in less than half an hour every
one of those fifty people had some sort of a bed to sleep on and in
three-quarters of an hour they were all fed.
“We engaged two cooks, a man and a woman, yesterday, but neither of them
came. That did not make the slightest particle of difference. Whoever
was hungry was fed at the relief station, and whoever was naked was
clothed and whoever was sick was attended. Nobody knew or cared how long
they had been working or whether they themselves had time to get a
morsel of food. Everybody did everything. I saw Dr. O’Brien down on his
knees taking off a pair of soaked shoes for a woman who was so tired she
could not lift her hand to her head.
“The fear of pestilence has become so widespread that the authorities
are taking measures to prevent a wholesale exodus of able-bodied men,
whose services are urgently needed at the present time. The dread of
plague has seized upon the negro population so strongly that in some
instances they refuse to work in cleaning up the city.
“The tidal wave caused a heavier loss of life along the coast west of
Galveston than was at first supposed. Scores of corpses are being found
lying along the beach. Some of the bodies may be those who were buried
at sea from Galveston and floated into shore again, but the position of
many shows that they were natives of the little coast towns suburban to
Galveston. When more order is made at Galveston attention will be turned
to those places and the bodies of the dead there will be buried or
burned.
“The work of disposing of the bodies is being expedited as rapidly as
possible, but the crying need is disinfectants. Hundreds of barrels of
lime are being asked for in order to prevent contagion. Health officers
say that the worst is to be feared from the small pools of stagnant
water which fill cellars of the wrecked houses and the clogged drainage
system.
CLOTHING AND PROVISIONS.
“The Chicago corps of surgeons and nurses, under Dr. L. D. Johnson,
buried thirty-two bodies between the hours of 1 A. M. and 8 A. M. to-day
in Alvin, Hitchcock and Seabrook, and gave provisions, clothing and
medicine to 300. Its members also attended to twenty-six persons
suffering from broken bones, cuts and other wounds requiring surgical
work, and nursed more than fifty.