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 work of distribution is being conducted systematically and with an
apparent minimum of imposition and fraud. There is a central committee,
of which W. A. McVitie, a prominent business man, is chairman. Then
there is a committee for each one of the twelve wards. As fast as goods
or provisions arrive from the mainland they are placed in the central
warehouse, from there the different ward chairmen requisition them, and
they are taken to supply depots in the different wards. All day long
there is a motley crowd around every one of these depots, negroes
predominating at least two to one. Every applicant passes in review
before the ward chairman.
ONLY THE DESTITUTE HELPED.
“Ah want a dress foh ma sistah,” says a big negress.
“You’re ’Manda Jones, and you haven’t any sister living here,” replied
the chairman.
“Foh de Lord, ah has; ah ain’t ’Mandy Jones at all; we done live on
Avenue N before de storm, and we los’ everything.”
“Go out with this woman and find out if she has a sister who needs a
dress,” says the chairman to a committeeman. In this way check is kept
on all the applicants for aid.
At the 5th ward distributing station clothing was being given away this
evening. A negro woman, who had been refused a supply, went outside and
by way of revenge pointed out different ones of her friends and
neighbors whom she alleged were similarly unentitled.
“Dat woman done los’ nothin’ at all,” she shrieked. “Ah did not los’
nuthin’ mahself and doan wan’ nuthin.”
“What’s the trouble?” asked a bystander. An old negress who was lined up
waiting her turn, replied: “Oh, she’s mad ’cause de white folks won’t
give her nuthin.” So far no woman has been required to work, but a
strong feeling is developing to compel negro women to work cleaning up
the houses. There are plenty of people who are willing to hire them, but
as long as free food and clothing can be secured it is hard to get
colored women to go in and clean up the partially ruined homes.
“Our supply of foodstuffs is adequate,” said Chairman McVitie, “but just
now we are a little short of clothing. This, however, may not be true
to-morrow. We have no idea of the contents of the cars on the road to
us. Frequently we don’t know anything is coming until the cars reach
Texas City. With the money which has been coming in we have been
augmenting our supplies by purchasing of local merchants in lines where
there was a shortage.
SAYS MONEY IS MOST NEEDED.
“What do we need worst? Money. If we have money we can order just what
we need and probably get better value than the people who are buying it.
Many people have made the mistake of sending money to Houston and Dallas
and asking committees there to buy for us. They do not know just what we
need, and if we had the money we could do better for ourselves. Money
should be sent to us.”