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

CAPITAL WILL BE SHY HEREAFTER.

Capitalists will scarcely venture again in the near future to invest their money in a place where it is likely to be wiped out at a ratio of from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 to one equinoctial storm. And when the Federal Government contemplates costly brand new coast defence fortifications, such as Fort Sam Houston, shattered by wind and waves, and ninety per cent. of the garrison killed, it will not consider the place where these ventures were made a safe one for their duplication. A harbor to be safe must be land locked.

These are the views of thinking men who have studied the situation. The question then arises, What will supersede Galveston? Some predict that Houston, fifty miles in the interior, on Buffalo Bayou, through the agency of a ship canal built at the expense of the federal government, is the coming metropolis of the Gulf.

Others say Texas City, ten miles from Galveston, will now be developed as a grand maritime successor to the unfortunate island city. Others say Clinton, on Buffalo Bayou, six miles below Houston, because of its facilities to furnish water and rail terminals, will be the Texas seaport of the near future.

Very few expect unfortunate Galveston to rise again and reassert herself the mistress of the Gulf. A Galveston man illustrated the problem very aptly to-night, when he said:

“Fully one-half of the population of Galveston will never go back there to live if they be got off the island alive this time. My opinion is that Galveston has had her rise and fall.”