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 GLORIOUS RECORD.

There has yet to come to light any tale of brutality; those who spent the night of the storm battling the waves never witnessed a selfish act; this in itself is a glorious record to hallow the event. Man after man secure in his own house, hearing the cry for help plunged out in the fury to rescue the helpless ones; oftentimes this was attended with loss of life to the rescuer. There was no question of kin or color that awful night, the ties of a common sorrow united all, and not only was man with his intellect and strength the courageous one; children who could have been rescued would not be taken from their loving ones, and as for the mothers who sought death with their little ones such tales as these are as manifold as the waves of the sea.

Nor were the humbler animals forgotten, many instances are known where men wading waist deep in water holding their wives and children above the water, found hands somewhere for the household dog. One young lady, a society girl, when forced to abandon her home gave no thought to silken finery and jewels, but waded in water nearly to her shoulders holding fast in her arms a large sized sky-terrier. Nor was this devotion only from man to animal, it was equal if only all were known.

One dog, we call him “Hero,” as there is none to tell us otherwise, is truly a hero worthy the Legion of Honor. This four-footed hero is a small-sized Newfoundland, and in the storm he was cast adrift on Seventh and Broadway, with his master, an old gentleman about seventy years of age. Around Hero’s neck is a stout black collar; to this the old gentleman clung. Hero did the rest, he swam pulling along his old master from Seventh to Fourteenth streets, where they found a house standing with veranda piled with debris but intact, and into a sheltered corner of this the dog dragged the man for safety. Both were alive, the old gentleman was much bruised, but his mind was active, and his only grief was for the loss of his wife and daughter, for save the dog he had no one.