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 further the ruins are dug into the greater becomes the increase in
the list of those who perished as their houses tumbled about their
heads. On the lower beach a searching party found a score of corpses
within a small area, going to show that the bulwark of debris that lies
straight across the island conceals more bodies than have been accounted
for.
“Volunteer gangs continue their work of hurried burial of the corpses
they find on the shores of Galveston Island, at the many neighboring
points where fatalities attended the storm. It will probably be many
days, yet, however, before all the floating bodies have found nameless
graves.
“Along the beach they are constantly being washed up. Whether these are
those who were swept out into the Gulf and drowned or are simply the
return ashore of some of those cast into the sea to guard against
terrible pestilence, there is no means of knowing. In a trip across the
bay yesterday I counted seven bodies tossing in the waves, with a score
of horses and cattle, the stench from which was unbearable. In various
parts of the city the smell of decomposed flesh is still apparent.
Wherever such instances are found the authorities are freely
disinfecting. Only to-day, a babe, lashed to a mattress, was picked up
under a residence in the very heart of the city and was burned.
“The city still presents the appearance of widespread wreck and ruin.
Little has been done to clear the streets of the terrible tangle of
wires and the masses of wreck, mortar, slate, stone and glass that
bestrew them. Many of the sidewalks are impassable. Some of them are
littered with debris. Others are so thickly covered with slime that
walking on them is out of the question. As a general rule substantial
frame buildings withstood better the blasts of the gale than those of
brick. In other instances, however, small wooden structures, cisterns
and whole sides of houses have been plumped down in streets or back
yards squares away from where they originally stood.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE.
“Here and there business men have already put men to work to repair the
damage done, but in the main the commercial interests seem to be
uncertain about following the lead of those, who, apparently, show faith
in the rapid rehabilitation of the island city. The appearance of the
newspapers to-day, after a suspension of several days, is having a good
effect, and both the News and Tribune are urging prompt succoring of the
suffering, and then equal promptness in reconstruction. It is difficult
to say yet what the ultimate effect of the disaster is to be on the
city. Many people have left, and some may never return. The experience
of others still here was so frightful that not all will remain if they
can conveniently find occupation in other cities.