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 — John Shaqi
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
If the people of the State and the outside world can not grasp the full
measure of the Galveston horror, neither can the people of Galveston
themselves. The town is dazed, and self-contained people are hard to
find. There is a well-organized Citizens’ Committee at work in a
consecutive and business manner, but the work before it is beyond the
ability or power of any committee.
It will be some time before thousands will know the real nature of the
disaster which has overtaken them, and the world will never know it all.
Men and women walk the streets and tell each other experiences and weep
together as gradually the stories of loss come out. They are hysterical,
half crazy, paralyzed and utterly dejected. There has been so such death
and so much ruin that they don’t know which way to turn or what to do.
There has been much complaint on the part of visitors that the men don’t
go to work and help clear the debris from the streets. This job alone
would give three thousand men a month’s hard work. But a man can’t work
when he has before him the vision of his loved ones hurled to death in
an instant and thinks of what has happened.
A man who lost a wife and children, no matter how strong he may be,
can’t get his mind on the necessities of this town when he thinks of his
family among the seven hundred sunk in the sea last Monday or the
thousand burned in trenches on the beach yesterday. If he does not
become a maniac or does not commit suicide it is a wonder, if one will
stop to think of it for a minute.
SHATTERED LIVES.
They will come around after a while and will do their part. Thousands of
them have not slept since last Friday night and may not sleep for a week
to come. Pity them, for God knows their shattered lives are enough to
drive almost any of us insane if we should stop to think.
J. W. Maxwell, general superintendent of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railway; J. W. Allen, general freight manager of the same road, and
Major G. W. Foster, of the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company,
got in yesterday from Texas City. Coming across the bay, Mr. Maxwell
said, not less than 300 bodies were seen floating in the water, and many
more were being buried on the mainland shore. This proves what many have
contended from the first, that the casualties from the beginning have
been understated. Under the debris of wrecked houses all over the city
there is every reason to believe there are hundreds of bodies, and these
must be disposed of as early as possible. In the rafts of the bay there
are yet many bodies which must be looked for.