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

FLOATED IN A TANK.

He had noted a large zinc-lined wooden tank on the upper floor, used for holding water, and which he thought might be used for a boat, when suddenly the crash came and he knew no more for possibly an hour. He recovered consciousness to find himself floating in the tank on the surging waters, bruised, bleeding and almost drowned. He managed to escape to higher ground in a short while and crawled into a deserted house, where he spent a night of horror, suffering from his injuries and momentarily expecting death. As soon as daylight came he sought surgical assistance, and then saw the awful results of the hurricane’s work. Mr. Fonda is bruised all over, and has a deep wound on the back of his head, but no bones were broken and he is able to be at work.

E. F. Adams, chief clerk in the Santa Fe passenger department, at Galveston, is also a flood sufferer, but happily his family are in St. Louis at present, and his residence, being at Alvin, only suffered slight damage. He said that he and fifty-two others occupied the Santa Fe general offices on the night of the storm, and, in his opinion, very few of them, if any, realized the awfulness of the disaster until next day, as the sheet-iron roof on the train shed became loose early in the evening, and the tremendous noise it made in flopping up and down prevented them from hearing the crash of falling buildings, or, perhaps, the screams of drowning human beings during the night.

It was only when they came out next morning, Mr. Adams said, that he realized what the storm meant to thousands in the fated city. Almost the first object that met his eyes was the corpse of a child lying on the sidewalk, which staggered him, and with the sickening sights afterward presented to his view, gave him a shock whose gruesomeness it will take a lifetime to efface.