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 Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

A GHASTLY SPECTACLE.

Here they were placed on barges. The poor living creatures, wild with liquor, bestialized by it, because they could not have done it, embarked with the putrifying cargo. The white men retched and vomited. The negroes did the same. Yet more work had to be done and now they pleaded for whisky to dull them more for their horrible work. It was given them. No man in all the world can tell of the horrors of this trip. Those who were not wild shrunk in agony from it. Those who were mad stumbled over the corpses and laid with them in drunken stupor—but beyond the jetties the cargo was tossed into the sea.

It is claimed that they were sunk with weights. This may be partly true. This disposition of the corpses was found impracticable. The work was too slow. The sea would give up its dead. As time passed the difficulty of transporting the bodies became greater. Then the burning began. The corpses wherever found were burned on the spot. If the fire might be dangerous they were pulled to an open space.

Where several were found in close proximity they were placed together for the final act. Kerosene was poured over them. Planks, lumber, anything combustible were placed upon them and the torch applied. The incineration was never complete enough to completely destroy the bones. But the flesh, breeding a pestilence, was gone. Many were buried. But the graves were only deep enough to receive the bloated bodies. The sand was full of water. Graves could be dug no deeper than as mentioned.

A shudder will go through the world when some one properly tells of how the beloved ones found their last resting-place. For it is horrible to think of disposing of human corpses in this way. But what could be done? What else? Nothing—absolutely nothing, except what was done. The dead threatened the living. Even if the living had desired to flee from the dead, which they did not, they could not have done so—but on an island were the living and the dead. There were no vessels to run from the island to the mainland. There were no railroads or bridges. The hot sun beat down and quickly decomposed the bodies. The bruised and maimed could not work. What could be done? Nothing but what was done. ’Twas a sad and horrible thing, but it was charity for the dead to do it, and preservation to the living to do it.

It is utterly unreasonable for one to think that the people of Galveston and the workers in the cause of cleaning can proceed rapidly. Not only is it a task, but it is a task which has conditions existing which are new to the people engaged in the work, and they cannot work with the energy which is their wont.