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GALVESTON AF1 Harrowing Scenes of I Every PROMPT MEASURES OF RELIEF. The Whole Civilized World Responds Quickly to the Cry for Help From The Stricken City. f ? The great tropical storm which swept away the fair city of Galveston jr. its fury, and left the corpses of its dead victims piled and strewn upon the beach, has now passed into history as the most destructive disaster in the annals of the country. The total loss in lives and property will never be fully known. But the civilized world has responded quickly to the cry for b< In. and the swift agencies of steam and electricity have been employed in carrying aid to the suffering. Immense quantities of food, clothing, medicine and needed supplies, as well as faba lcu/5 sums of money, have been dispatched to the scene. Train-loads ot trained nurses and skilled physicians have been rushed to the scene of dis- ; a-ter, and these, together with the energy and pluck of the survivors of the storm have been resolutely at work, bringing order out of chaos, until the wcist features of the disaster are being rapidly removod. The starving are being fed, the wounded looked after and the dead buried or burned. The city will recover in time, and again be the most beautiful of the Southland. Busily at Work. Galveston, Texa*, Special.?The first real attempt to clear away the great mass of debris piled along the beach front for a distanle of several miles was begun Friday. Advertisements were printed in the News, which appeared in the morning, asking for hundreds of men and boys to do this work. A multitude responded. They were lumieu 1UIU squttus auu puu to work, with polic? and deputy sheriffs in charge. It is hoped that a vigorous prosecution of this work will lead to the early recovery of bdias still in the debris. That there are many f them there is no shadow of doubt. A Late Summary. Chicago, Special.?The following statement was received at 11 o'clock Wednesday night: 'Galveston. Tex., Sept. 12. "To Charles S. Diehl, General Manager Associated Press, Chicago: "A summary of the conditions now . . prevailing at Galveston is more than human intellect can master. Briefly siaieu. me carnages 10 property is anywhere between $15,000,000 and $20,000,000. The loss of life cannot be computed. No lists could be kept and all is simple guess work. Those thrown out to sea and burled on the ground, wherever found, will reach the horrible total of at least 3.000 souls. "Mv estimate of the loss on the island of the city of Galveston and the immediate surrounding district is between 4.000 and 5,000 deaths. I do not make this statement in fright or excitement. The whole story will never be told, because it cannot be told. The necessities of those living are to total. Not a single individual escaped property loss. The property on the island is wrecked; fully onehalf is totally swept out of existence altogether. "What our needs are can be computed by the world at large by the statement herewith submitted much hotter than T rnuld nnssihlv summarize them. The help must be immediate. R. G. I/OWE, "Manager of Galveston News." Galveston, Tex., by Texas City and Houston.?At a meeting of the relief committee, held Wednesday morning, reports were received from the various wards. The chairman called for armed men to assist in getting labor to bury the dead and clear the wreckage. and arrangements were made to supply this demand. The situation in the city is that there are plenty of volunteers for this service, but an insufficiency of arms. There have been two or three small riots, but the of fleers have managed to quell them. The committee rejected the proposal ol trying to pay for work, letting the laborers secure their own rations. It was decided to go ahead impressing men into service, if necessary, issuing orders for rations only to those who worked, or were unable to work. All of the ward chairman reported the imperative need of disinfectants. A committee was appointed to secure all the disinfectants in the city, including the lime which escaped wetting and to obtain more. Hor.ston was called upon \ for a barge-load of lime. Captain Sinclair Taliaferro, of Houston, who did such efficient work during the Brazos flood, arrived here Wednesday morning. He was asked to assist Chairman McVittie in his work. Dan Henderson announced that Mr. VanVieck, the general manager ot the Southern Pacific, authorized the committee to draw on that company ER THE STORM. t)eath and Suffering on Hand. for $5,000. Mr. VanViock returned to | Houston on the tug Juno to send a I ti'ron nf onnnlift; | MUi0g Robbing the Dead. Houston, Texas. Special.?A reporter lias telegraphed from Laporte the story of the robbery and mutilation of the dead in Galveston, and the death of offenders. The ghouls were holding j an orgie over the dead. The majority ! of these men were negroes, but the-e were whites .vho took part in the desecration. Some of them were natives and some had been allowed to go over from the mainland under the guise of "relief workers." Not only did they ' rob the dead hut they mutilated bodies i in order to secure their ghoulish booty. A party of ten negroes ere returning from a looting expedition. They had stripped corpses of all valuables and the pockets of some of the looters were fairly bulging out with fingers of the j dead which had been cut off because they were so swollen the rings coula not be removed. Incensed at th;3 deseI ?Mtinn and mtttilafinn r>f the dead the ! people shot down the looters and ... has been determined that all found in the act of robbing the dead shall be summarily shot. During the robbing of the dead, not only were fingers cut off, but ears wert i stripped from heads in order to secure jewels of value. few government troops who have survived are assisting in patrolling the city. Private citizens have also endeavored to prevent the robbing of the dead and on several occasions have killed the offenders. Singly and two and three the offenders were thus shot down until the total of those thus executed exceeds fully fifty. Summary Punishment. DalfMMffex.. Special.?W. H. Mc? _ * Lrratn, manager 01 iac vo.uaa c.>v> Company, reached DaJlas, direct from Galveston. He said: "Vandalism at Galveston has beene horrible. The most rigid enforcement | of martial law has not been able to suppress it entirely. Adjutant General ' Scurry's men have arrested 100 or more [ negroes, 43 of whom were found with i effects taken from dead bodies. These were ordered tried by court-martial. They were convicted and ordered shot. One negro had 23 fingers with rings on them in his pocket." Pockets Full of Human Fingers. Houston Tex., Special. It is true j that negroes were shot by order of a i court-martial. Their pockets were i found to he full of human fingers and J jewelry of which the dehd were strip| ped. Communication E-tablished. I Galveston, via Virginia Point, by ; boat.?Regular communication Is now ! e-stablisi hed between this city and the mainland and several lines of boats are running. I'p to this -time the communication has been confined to scows manned by Italians, who charged all j the way from $10 to $30 per passenger ! for a one way trip. The lines are being operate* in connection with the railroads which have been repaired and i are running ail the way to the coast.. I Au effort is being made which prom; ises to be successful to get all of the destitute people out of the city at the eirliest possible moment. There are probably 15,000 of these and the work of transporting them acro-s the bay and to Houston and other towns is a task which requires all the energits of the volunteers engaged in it. I nere IS no ce?anuu in I.Uc -uin yjL recovering the dead bodies of the victims. The death list continues to grow and a conservative estimate pla-es the number of known dad at 7,000, misting at 1,000 and bodies already recovered their death in the disaster. The city at 4,100. It will probably never be definitely known as to how many met had a poulation of nearly for;y tfcous.&nd people and in addition to this numi ber there were hundreds of strangers I In the town from all parts of the country. The sanitary condition of the city could not be worse. State Health Officer W. J. Blount arrived here and is making an investigation of the situation. He will probably order most of the wreckage, from which the terrible * ' ? ' Tl stencil is arising, ourueu. ns sajo uu doe3 not believe there is any danger of an epidemic resulting from the unsinliary condition of things, for the reason that the salt water which lovered the city and saturated everything is more of a preventive than a breeder of disease. The odor from the decaying human and animal bodies is so great that some efforts will be taken to remely the matter. Over one thousand barrels of lime have arrived, and it is bej ing spread throughout the city as a j disinfectant. Liberal Contributions. Austin. Tex., Special.-Governor Sayers Wednesday made the foliowing statement to the As-oelated Press oa the flood situation: "Vile conditions at Galveston are fully as bad as reported. Communication, however, has been re-established between the island and the mainland and hereafter transportation of supplies will be less difficult. The work of clearing the city is progressing fairly well and adjutant General Scurry, under direction of the'mayor, is patrolling the city for the purpose of prevent !ng depredations. The most conservative estimate as to the number of deaths places them at 2,000. Contributions from citizens of this State and also from other States are coming in rapidly and liberally, and is confidently expected that within the next ten daps the work of restoration by the people of Galveston will have begun In good earnest and with energy and suc.es-. Of course, the destruction of property has been very great?no le3.; than $10.000,000?but it is hopsd and believed that even this great loss will be overcome through the energy and self-reliance of the people." During the day the contributions have fairly deluged the Governor, upwards of $100.t<00 having been received Among the large contributors are to be noted the Standard Oil Company, with $10,000: St. I-ouis Commercial Club for a like amount, and the Huntington in- : terests for $5,000. Help From All Quarter.;. Houston. Tex.. Special.? From ail parts of :he United tSates and seme ; pas ts of England many 'thousands of j dollars are pouriug ir.-to this city for the relief of Texas' destitute storm sufferers. Train leads of provisions and clothing are also hurrying toward [ Houston and Galveston, ann tnose or j the refugees who have arrived here are | being made as cornbortable as i>ossibie. i Estimates of the number of the dead : still vary. Mayor Jones, of Oalve;toa, j maintaining his opinion that the nuni her will be no lf3S than 5.COO. Property losses are mounting higher as details arrive, and scm? estimates for the city of Gaheston reach as high as $20.0C0.0U0. Thete are 25.000 hemeifss people in that city to be taken care of. and it is a question whether Galveston ; can or will he rebuilt. There seems to ; be a disposition on the part of the leading citizens, however, to start resolutely where the storm left off and raise a new city from the ruins of the old. The Chinese Will Help. New York, Sperial ?The Chinese col- I ony of this city is collecting supplies to send to Galveston. The principal item to be 3ent will be tea. It is said that this is the first time that any set of Chinamen in this country have joined together for the relief of sufferers from a great catastrophe. New York Aid Funds. New York Special.?The subscription ' to date for the relief of the Galveston i mfferers are: Merchants' Association, j $52,099: Mayor's fund. $7,000; New | York Merrantile Exchange Fund, $2.- I 000: New York Cotton Exchange Fund, j $5,3C0; New York Stock Exchange j Fund. $7,000; New York Produce Ex- ! change Fund, $0,000; Chamber of Com- | nerce Fund. $25,000; Miscellaneous 3ubserip:ions, $30,000. Total, $134.094. A $j,ooo,ooo Relief Fund. Austin. Texas, Special.?The fund j . for the relief of the Galveston sufferers ; I now aggregate nearly $1,000,000, and ! I if iiill nrrwhnhtv J1 nOO 000 sonil. 1 Most of the amount is in the hands of Governor Sayers. who will direct the work of expending it for food, supplies and other relief work. The governor 1 : will not give out for publication an I ! itemized list of the contributions for ; several days. How the Storm Came. Galveston, Tex., Special.?(By Wrs; tern Union despatch boat to Houston.) , ?The terrific storm that produced i such an appalling disaster here was predicted by the United States Weath! er Bureau to strike Galveston on Fri1 day night and created much apprehension. but the night passed without the I prediction being verified. Conditions. ! however, were ominous. The danger signal wr.s displayed on the flagstaff of j ' the Wether Bureau, and shipping was , warned. The southwestern sky was sombre. The Gulf surf beat high upon the beach. From the north just after midnight, 'the wind began to come in spiteful puffs, increasing in volume as Han Hou'Tiar\ Rv 10 n'rlnrk on Sat ; urday morning it was almost a gale. I At noon it had increased in velocity ' and was driving the rain, whipping the pools and rattling things up in a lively manner, yet no serious apprehension was felt by residents remote from the [ Gulf. Those near the beach, however, ; were 9??on aroused to the danger that; j threatened their homes. As stupendous waves began to send their waters far inland, they began a hasty exit to more secure places in the city. Two gigantic forces were at work. The Gulf waves drove high upon the J | beach and the gale from the northeast pitched the waters against <the sewers ! and flooding the city from that quarter. I Streets rapidly began to fill with water. | communication became difficult and , the people were caught between the two powerful elements of wind and i sea. I Business suddenly came to a stand- j still. Car traffic was impossible and j i all those that had homes and could , reach them hastily left their places of i business ana onerea raDuious prices i for any kind of a vehicle that would j carry them. Railroad communication was cut oiT ; shortly after noon, t:aeks being washed i Wire facilities completely failed at 3 j ! o'clock and Galveston was isolated j from the world. The water, which had reached a depth of eight feet on Strand j I street at 10 o'clock, began to ebb and ran out rapidly. By 5 o'clock on Sun- j day morning the crown of the street 1 was free frotn water. Thus passed one one of the most destructive storms that ever devastated the coast of Texas. In the few hours it raged it was more destructive of life and property than the great storm of 1875. The city was yesterday tilled witn the bereft, destitute and homeless, while at the temporary morgue the glare of lanterns and candles shows bodies by 'the hundred, of all ages, nationalities and conditions of lift, j Whole families, in some ca=es, lie side by side, while elsewhere men on the | verge of madness are searching i'cr j tbeir loved ones ami.l the slime and waters in the streets and alleys or tinder :he dabris of .heir homes. The hea\icst lotses by the storm will be the Galveston Wharf Company, the southern Pat ifv Railway, the Gulf. Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Campuny and the Texas Lone Star Flouring Mill Company. It will be days before anything like an approximate estimate of the lo-s of life and damage caused by the storm can be obtained. Of the new Southern Pacific work3 little remains but the piling. Half a million feet of lumber was carried away, and Engineer Borchke says, as far as the company is concerned, it might as well start all over again. GALVESTON DESCRIBED. Interesting Facts about the Wrecked City. Galveston is the third city of Texa3 in point of poulation and the first commercially. In 1890 It had a population cf 29,084. The 1900 census returns for the city have not been published, but the present estimated population is at least 40,000. In the past ten years it has made great strides as an exporting point, especially for cotton and grain, it is the largest cotton exporting point x v? A-lrKointr j in tne country, i>ew v^i icauo uwiuq | only competitor. Among the 127 foreign exporting points in the United States Galveston held the fifth place. During the year 1898 itexported 6.39 per cent, of the merchandise that left the country its exports increasing $10.500.000 during the year. Lumber and live stock are also large exports. A leading cause of Galveston's recent progress is the harbor improvements which have been made on a most extensive scale. In 1895 the depth of the channel over the bar was only 21 teen. By the expenditure on the part of the government of more than $8,000,000 In the construction of jetties and other improvements, which were finished in January, 1893, the depth has been increased to 23 feet and is still increasing at the rate of six inches a year, owing to the action of the wind and the tides. After deep water h2d been secured, a new line of steamers from New York was established and a rate war resulted, which proved disastrous to he steamship companies but beneficial to Galveston. The city has a grain elevator capacity of 2,730,000 bushels and the port can handle 70,000,000 bushel3 during a sea1+ hoc fiftoen rllrpri line* of Eu ropean steamers and two lines to Mexico. The city is situated on the northeast extremity of Galveston Island, at the mouth of Galveston Bay, the entrance to which is through the channel between ihe city and the southwest point of the peninsula of Bolivar. The island is about thirty miles long and from one and a half to three and a half miles wide, intersected with many small bayous, and bordered tiirouh its whole length ou the ocean side by a smooth ahrd beach, forming a splendid drive and unsurpassed bathing. Ou * * * *- ?- ? Oas Dao/.K IU18 Deacn IS lil? ma^muvcut VJ^J. Hotel. The streets, which are but a few feet above the level of the bay, are wide and straight, and the residence quarters are beautiful, abounding In luxuriant gardens, shaded with magnolias and oleanders. Among the principal buildings are or were the new Custom House and Post Office, the Cotton Exchangse, the Court House, the Ball Free School, the Free Public Library and the Roman Catholic Univereity of St. Mary. The bay is an irregular Indentation, branching out into various arms. It has a total area of 450 square miles. Its entrance is guhrded by a long bar .i v, whtrth nrf>sf>nt deeD water I ill UU&u naivu V?4V r.?, , channel was constructed. The stone jetties flanking It are five miles long. The city proper being on the Inner side of the island Is naturally protected from the sweep of the ocean stormy, but the level of the island is so little above that of the bay that inundatiors have more tbaD once been threatened. The bay Is, of course, quite shallow in mos tparts, and the railroads reach the city on a two-mile trestle from the mainland. The Southern Pacific' railroad is heavily interested in Galveston, and in 1899 joined hands with the fctMmshit) interests centering there making large improvements and increasing their own and the city's business. The island of Galveston was occupied by the pirate Lafitte in 1817. and continued to be his headquarters until his settlement was broken up in 1821. The city was founded in 1S37. During the war of the rebellion the Federal forces, occupied the town on October 8, 1862 but it was retaken by the Confederates on January 1, 1863 AWFl'L SCENES OF WRECK. An Eye-Witness Describes the Hor? rors of the Flood and Storm. Houston, Texas. Special.?Richard Spillane, a well-known Galveston newspaper man, and day correspondent of the As30ciated Press in that city, reached Houston Monday, after a terrible experienco. He gives the following account o? the disaster at Galveston: ' One of the most awful tragedies ot modern times has visited Galveston. The city Is In ruins and the dead will number 1,000. I am just from the city, having been commissioned by the mayor and citizens' committee to get in touch with the outside world and appeal for help. Houston was the near* *aL nr?inf o t trhtnh rrr?rb [ n cr to1ofrn.nh Instruments could he found, the wires, as well as nearly all the buildings between here and the Gulf of Mexico being wrecked. When I left Galveston shortly before nocn Sunday the people were organizing for the prompt burial of the dead, distribution of food and all necessary work after a period of disaster. The wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tempest so terrible that no words can adequately describe its intensity, and by a flood which turned the city }nto a raging sea. The Weather Bureau records show that the wind attained a velocity of 84 miles an hour, when the i lno>r-nmnnf hlow 07 0 V OTk UiOaOUHUg HlOUUUi^Ub ? ?? mmj , w it is impossible to tell what was the maximum. The storm began at 2 o'clock Saturday morning. Previous to that a great storm had been raging in the Gulf and the tide was very high. The wind at first came from the north, and was in direct opposition to the force from the Gulf. While the storm in tbe Gulf piled the water upon the beach side of the city, the north wind piled the water from the bay Into the bay part of the city. About noon it became evident that the city was going to bo visited with disaster. Hundreds of residences along the beach front were V I.J1- #1 tv, 1 Una flnn li ui ritrui v auauuuutru, iuc luuimvo uwing to dwellings in higher portions of the city. Every home was opened to the refugees, black or white. The winds were rising constantly and it rained in torrents. The wind wa3 so fierce that thet the rain cut like a knife. "By 3 o'clock the waters of the Gulf and bay met, and by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of the electric plant and the gas plants left the city in darkness. To go upon the streets wa3 to court death. The wind was then at cyclonic velocity, roofs, cisterns, portions of buildings, telegraph poles and walls were falling, and the noise of the wind and the crashing of the buildings were terrifying in the extreme. The wind and wa ters rose steaany irom aarK umu i:a;> o'clock, Sunday morning. During all this time the people of Galveston were like rats in traps. The highest po "tion of the city was four to five feet under water, while in the great majority of cases the streets were submerged to a depth of ten feet. To leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court death in tlie wreckage. "Such a night of agony has seldom A?nolla/1 WUKnnf onnaranf rni> U^cii Cljuaiicu. ?? iiuvaw wu* * son the waters suddenly began to subside at 1:45 a. m. Within 20 minut33 they had gone down two feet and before daylight the streets were practically free of the flood water3. In the meantime the wind had veered to the southeast. "Very few if any buildings escapedinjury. There is hardly a habitable dry house in the city. When the people who had escaped death went out at daylight to view the work of the tempest and the floods, they saw the meet horrible sights imaginable. In the three blocks from Avenue N to Avenue P, in Tremont street, I saw eight bodi?3. Four corpses were in one yard. The whole of the business front for three blocks in from the Gulf was stripped of every vestige of habitation, the dwellings, the great bathing establishments, the Olympia and every structure having been either carried out to sea, or its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town, according to the vagaries of the tempest . "The first hurried glance over the city showed that the largest structures supposed to be the most substantially built suffered the inoet. "The bay front from end to end is in ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck of great warehouses remain. The elevators lost all their sujjer works and their stocks were damaged by water. The life-saving station at Fort Point was carried away, the crew being swept across the bay 14 miles to Texas City. I saw Captain Haynes and he told me that his wife and one of hi3 crew were drowned. "The shore at Texas City contains enough wreckage to re-build a city. Eight persons who were swept across the bay durng the storm were picket! up there alive. Five corpses were a'st> picked up. There were three fatalities in Texas City. In addition to the living and the dead which the storm cast up at Texas City, caskets and coffins ?">* ?n Oftlvfts 11ULU UUC iuv VViMVW v- v. ? ton were being fished out of the water there. "The cotton mills, the bagging factory, the gas works, the electric light works and nearly all the industrial establishments of the city are elrher wrecked or crippled. The flood left a slime about one Inch deep over the whole city and unless fast progress a made in burying corpses and carcasse* there is danger of pestilence.'*