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 believe the worst sight I witnessed was the 2,800 bodies being
carried out to sea and buried in the gulf. Huge barges were tied to the
wharfs and loaded with the unknown dead. As fast as one barge was filled
it made its way out from the shore, and weighting the bodies, men cast
them into the water.”
I. Thompson, a young man who was very active in saving life during the
night of the storm, became insane because of the awful scenes he
witnessed. Thompson’s friends first noticed his condition when he told
that one of the persons he rescued had deposited $10,000 in one of the
banks to his credit, and that he was going to live in luxury the rest of
his life.
TRAGIC INCIDENTS.
Thompson retired to his room, on the third floor of the Washington
Hotel, seemingly sane. Soon afterwards he began to moan, and soon became
violent, rushing from one side of his room to the other and declaring
his determination to commit suicide. Employes of the hotel did all they
could to pacify the man, and during the night he became more rational
and lay down. The person engaged to watch him was compelled to leave the
room for a short time early in the morning, and when he returned he
found that Thompson had wrenched the shutters off his window and leaped
out upon an awning and thence to the street.
Thompson was seen to run toward the bay, and in all probability he threw
himself overboard and was drowned, as he was not seen or heard of
afterward.
Another case is that of a young woman who was caught in the rain, and,
with two other women and about fifty men and boys, found refuge in an
office. It was with the utmost difficulty she could restrain herself
during the fearful storm, and she frequently became hysterical and cried
out for her mother, sisters and her brother and his family. As the storm
gradually subsided the young woman became more calm, and when morning
broke she started for her home quite reassured. She found a wild waste
of waters sweeping over the site of her home. Her dear ones were
missing.
Among the first victims carried into the temporary morgue were the young
woman’s mother, brother and two children. These were quickly followed by
her brother’s wife and her two sisters. The shock overthrew the girl’s
reason, and she became a nervous wreck, without a relative in the world.
Hundreds of such tragic incidents as these marked the week, and the
number of men and women who lost their reason was very large.
HARROWING TALES TOLD BY SURVIVORS.
Many strange incidents of the hurricane were gathered from the tales of
the survivors. They told of pitiable deaths, of fearful destructions of
property and of strange incidents of the great force of the storm. The
following are just a few of the many that were told by refugees in this
city: