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 cable left Chicago on Sunday morning and was laid across the bay,
and several thousand telegraph poles on the mainland were straightened
up by a force of 250 men under the supervision of superintendents of the
Western Union.
Concerning the great calamity, the destruction of life and property, the
view expressed by a prominent citizen was very generally approved. He
said:
“The people and military officers who are dooming Galveston to eternal
ruin would have consigned Lisbon to a lasting chaos after her earthquake
and decried and abandoned St. Louis with vacant crumbling houses after
the great cyclone. If the citizens of Chicago had listened to their
despairing notes, blackened fragments of half-fallen walls and shapeless
heaps of brick and stone would still be the fitting monuments to
proclaim their broken spirit.
BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE.
“But all the reserves of human energy are summoned forth by the very
worst disasters, and courage should be written on the heart of
Galveston. It is the time to lift up the hands of her strong men, to
give them a word of cheer, for they are bound to the spot and must make
the best of their fate. A chorus of evil predictions simply multiplies
their difficulties and is a cruelty to them, whether it is intended to
be so or not.
“Let the dismal prophets reflect a moment. Though buildings have been
destroyed there is not a foot of land on the island that does not
represent savings. Though railroad communications have been cut off, the
currents of commerce by the land and by the sea are merely waiting to
resume their courses. There is a capital in trade connections which is
not necessarily wrecked along with wrecked stores, offices and houses.”
C. J. Sealey, a young man of Galveston, Texas, who was in La Junta,
Colorado, received a telegram from the Mayor of Galveston informing him
of the death of twenty-one of his relatives, among whom were his mother,
two sisters and three brothers. The young man said he did not believe he
had a relative on earth.
An eye-witness of the desolation described the scene as follows:
“Galveston is beginning slowly to recover from the stunning blow of last
week, and though the city appears to-night to be pitilessly desolated,
the authorities and the commercial and industrial interests are setting
their forces to work, and a start has at least been made toward the
resumption of business on a moderate scale.
“The presence of the troops has had a beneficial effect upon the
criminal classes, and the apprehension of a brief but desperate reign of
anarchy no longer exists. The liquor saloons have at least temporarily
gone out of business, and every strong-limbed man who has not his own
humble abode to look after is being pressed into service, so that, first
of all, the water service may be resumed, the gutters flushed and the
streets lighted.
BODIES CONSTANTLY COMING TO LIGHT.