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
Another man took his wife from one house to another by swimming until he
had occupied three. Each fell in its turn, and then he took to the
waves. They were separated and each, as the persons above mentioned,
believed they were carried to sea. Strange to say, after three hours in
the water he heard her call, and finally rescued her.
It is not necessary to go on and recite these instances, for there were
thousands, each showing that in time of danger at least the best
sentiments in man’s nature are aroused. It can be safely guessed that
one-half of those who perished, died in their effort to aid others. The
trite expression of “man’s inhumanity to man” has no place in all that
may be written or spoken of this great tragedy.
DIRECTION OF THE STORM.
It is not at all remarkable that of all the statements in regard to the
details of this storm no two persons can be found who agree on the
direction of the wind and the currents. All agree that the most terrible
blows which the town received came from the point of the compass which
may be spoken of as between northeast and east. There are those who
declare that first the wind was almost from the north. Then it veered
till it was almost east, and then settled down to its herculean efforts
from a point between the two; and yet there are others who say that it
came from all directions at different times and prove it by the loss of
windows in their houses.
These waves came in from the Gulf. They filled the bay. The water chased
across the island, met the waves and then it seems there was a battle
between the two elements. For the currents ran criss-cross. They went
down one street, up another street and across lots. They seized a house
here and placed it there. They seized a house there and placed it here.
Men were carried to sea. Men were carried down the island. Men were
carried across the bay by it. No chart can be even dreamed of their
peculiarities. The wind lashed the water and it fled. That was all there
was in it, and it fled in every direction, carrying on its bosom a
shrieking people. It carried too, houses whole, houses in halves, houses
in kindling wood.
The winds dipped and seized the debris and hurled it on. The air was
filled with missiles of every kind. The water held them and threw them
from wave to wave. The winds grasped them as they were thrown and hurled
them further. Stoves, bath tubs, sewing machines, slates from
roofs—these were as light in the hand of the two giants, wind and water,
now in their fury, as the common match would be in the hand of the
strong man.