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
“On arriving at La Marque this morning I was informed that the largest
number of bodies were along the coast of Texas City. Fifty-six were
buried yesterday and to-day within less than two miles extending
opposite this place and towards Virginia City. It is yet six miles
farther to Virginia City and the bodies are thicker where we are now
than where they have been buried. A citizen inspecting in the opposite
direction reports dead bodies thick for twenty miles.
“The residents of this place have lost all, not a habitable building
being left, and they have been too busy disposing of the dead to look
after personal affairs. Those who have anything left are giving it to
others, and yet there is real suffering. I have given away nearly all
the bread I brought for our own use to hungry children.
“Every ten feet along the wreck-lined coast tells of acts of vandalism.
Not a trunk, valise or tool chest has escaped rifling. We buried a woman
this afternoon whose fingers bore the mark of a recently removed ring.”
WASHED ACROSS THE BAY FROM GALVESTON.
B. F. Cameron, a lumber dealer of Stowell, Chambers County, says that
the relief party which went from Stowell to Bolivar, reported to him
that there was over 1000 dead bodies on the beach at Bolivar, Yeast Bay,
and in sight of the salt marshes which line the bay. The party succeeded
in burying only forty of the corpses. The others are lying in the water
and on land, decomposing in the heat. Many of these bodies were
evidently swept across the bay from Galveston.
In view of the completeness with which Galveston has been destroyed by
the storm, many believe the city will never be rebuilt. The argument is
that from its very location the city is ever in danger of a similar
visitation, and capital will be fearful of investment where the danger
is so constant.
There are many, however, who take the opposite view and say that in no
other place on the Gulf can there be found a location so advantageous,
and therefore, no matter if the risk be great, capital will seek
investment in Galveston, and the city will soon resume her importance as
a shipping port.
This sentiment is reflected in telegrams and verbal utterances, some of
which are here printed:
Dallas, Texas, Wednesday.—Much serious thought has been given to the
question of the future of Galveston by the best informed men of Dallas
since the calamity of last Saturday and Sunday. The outlook, to their
minds, is not a bright one. The expression of judgment most frequently
heard is “Galveston is doomed.” Men reason that to the perils the
population have ever to face from nature’s elements the timidity of
capital must now be added.