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

BANKS ASK MILLION DOLLAR LOAN.

“The cashier of the Island City Bank left the city last night for Houston. He carried with him a petition from the Associated Galveston Banks begging the Houston bankers to advance them $1,000,000. By an agreement made among the Galveston banks, no check for more than $25 is now honored. It is impossible for nine out of ten Galveston merchants to meet any promissory notes that are about to fall due, and if assistance is not obtained the merchants, as well as the banks, must go down.

“Every time a schooner or a catboat was filled to its safety limit with human freight, and the way was barred, women would gesticulate wildly and in choking voice implore even standing room. Nine hundred refugees left the city yesterday, and 10,000 more would have left to-day if facilities were at hand.”

Excellent work in saving lives during the hurricane at Galveston was done by the officers and crew of the revenue cutter Galveston, which was stationed at that port.

The first mail through from the stricken city reached Washington on the 15th, and brought two letters from Chief Engineer W. H. Whitaker of the Galveston. Under date of September 9, he says:

“All the sheds on the wharves must have been levelled to the ground, or nearly so. I do not think there is a house that has not been more or less damaged or blown to the ground. While the wind was blowing over sixty miles an hour we sent out a boat with a rescuing party to row up one of the streets. The first trip they succeeded in saving thirteen women and children, and brought them back to the vessel in safety.

“It was useless to attempt to row the boat against the terrific wind, and, as the water was at that time not over a man’s head in the streets, a rope would be sent out to the nearest telegraph pole, and by that means the boat could be hauled along from pole to pole. This was accomplished only by the most herculean efforts on the part of the men who led out the rope, but between swimming, walking and floundering along in the teeth of the gale the rope would finally be made fast.