The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, September 20, 1900, Image 7
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.'*