ABOUT 17,000 PEOPLE RECEIVING RELIEF.
Health Officer Wilkinson stated that 40 per cent. of the debris of every description had been removed from the streets; that 95 per cent. of the dead bodies had been disposed of, and that 95 per cent. of the carcasses of animals had been removed from the city.
Among the bodies found was that of Major W. T. Levy, United States emigrant inspector for Galveston. His wife and three children perished, but their bodies have not been recovered. In one place the body of a mother was found with a babe of a few months tightly clasped to her breast.
About 17,000 people are now receiving relief each day, and the supplies are sufficient for their immediate wants. This morning the first supplies brought by the Chicago relief train arrived here by way of Clinton. The train reached Houston at midnight Saturday, having made a run of 270 miles from Fort Worth at an average speed of thirty-seven miles an hour. Owing to a change in its schedule the people who had been watching for its arrival failed to see it, and it was rushed over the Southern Pacific Road to Clinton, where barges were waiting for the supplies.
The Chicago train was the largest that has yet been sent to Galveston, and many expressions of gratitude to Chicago are heard here. Mayor Jones, for instance, said to-day: “Chicago people are the best kind of friends to have when one is in trouble. We cannot express our thanks to them. We will show by our future what their help has meant to us. Like Chicago we will rise above all disaster and rebuild our city better than it has ever been before.”
Eleven hundred tents were received to-day by the Board of Health. All except 300, which were retained for the marine hospital on the beach, have been distributed to the homeless in the different wards.
Miss Clara Barton is giving her time and attention to assisting in the work of relief and ascertaining what supplies are necessary to meet the exigencies of the situation.