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

APPEAL TO COLORED PEOPLE.

Professor H. C. Bell, of Denton, Grand Master of the Colored Odd Fellows, issued the following self-explanatory circular:

“To the Lodges and Members of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in Texas: Dear Brethren—The greatest calamity that has ever visited any city in America visited Galveston on the 8th instant, leaving in its wake thousands of dead and helpless people of our race, together with the white race. It is our duty to help, as far as we are able, to relieve the suffering condition of the citizens of Galveston. It goes without saying that the white citizens of Texas have always contributed freely to ameliorate and alleviate suffering humanity; it is, therefore, our bounden duty, and, indeed, this is a most fitting opportunity for us, as members of the greatest negro organization in the world, to show to our white fellow-citizens of Texas the charitable spirit that has always characterized Odd Fellows. Besides this, many members of our fraternity are victims of the direful storm of the 8th instant at Galveston. They appeal for our assistance. Therefore, I, H. C. Bell, do issue this appeal to the lodges and members for relief for our brethren in Galveston.”

The well-known writer and correspondent, Joel Chandler Harris, writing from Galveston, says:

“As was naturally to be expected, the facts already brought to light show that the devastation wrought at Galveston and other coast towns in Texas by the unhappy conjunction of wind and sea outrun and overmatch the wildest conjectures of those who were calm enough immediately after the event to give out such estimates as tallied with what their own eyes had seen.

“The tremendous loss of life which has been verified by all accounts gives this harrowing catastrophe a first place among events of the kind. Indeed, among modern disasters it has an awful pre-eminence, and this fact lends wings to a suggestion which I should like to emphasize.

“It is this: If the horror of the calamity is to be measured by the loss of life, the same measure should be applied to the pressing necessities of those who have been stripped of everything save life. However much we may deplore the loss of life, the dead are done for. They are beyond and above the crying demands and necessities which press upon those who are left alive.

“In the nature of things, the condition of thousands of those who have been spared is far more pitiable than that of the dead. Their resources have been swept away by wind and tide, and they are desolate in the midst of desolation. The catastrophe was so vast in extent and so furious in its sweep that it will be many a long day before the survivors are able to recover from its effects.