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 SOLEMN CEREMONY.

The negroes listened attentively, and when the saintly woman told them that all those who wished to be baptized or resign themselves to God might do so, nearly every one of them asked that the sacrament be administered.

The panic had been precipitated by the falling of the north wall or that section of the building in which the negroes had sought refuge. Order and silent prayer were brought about by this noble woman’s sweet determination and great presence of mind.

Families that had been separated by this merciless and devastating conflict of the elements were united by the cruel waters of the gulf tossing them into this haven of refuge. What scenes, what heart-bleeding pictures these unions presented as the half dead, mangled and bruised wretches were rescued and dragged from the raging waters by the more fortunate members of their own family, mourned as victims of the storm.

The academy was to have opened for the fall session on Tuesday, and forty-two boarding scholars from all parts of the State had arrived at the convent preparatory to resuming their studies on that day. The community of nuns comprises forty sisters and they, too, were there administering cheer and deeds of mercy to the sufferers, many of whom were more dead than alive when brought into the shelter. Early in the storm when people dragged themselves or swam to the convent and asked for protection an attempt was made to keep a register of the unfortunates.

Their register reached nearly a hundred names and then the storm-driven humans began to arrive at the shelter in crowds of twenty and thirty. They were taken in through the windows and some were dragged through five feet of water into the basement, which long since had been abandoned, by ropes from treetops and snatched from roofs and other wreckage as it was hurled in the maddening torrents through the convent yards.