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

FOR A MOTHER’S LOVE.

He says he saw other men who were physically stronger than he do that very thing. Still he would not give up and he struggled on. He had no wife or child to live for—there was just one person in the world whom he fondly loved, and that was his mother. Every time, he says, that he decided to let himself go down beneath the water and drown his mother’s face would appear before his vision. Clearly and distinctly he could see the look of reproach in her eyes at his threatened weakness, and each time this vision would spur him to greater effort, and he would battle on until he reached another place of safety.

Finally, when the storm had spent its fury and he crawled into a place of safety, he drifted into unconsciousness and remained in that condition until late Sunday evening. Mr. Martin says that his mother lives in New York and he knew she was safe, but says had it not been for the image of her face which constantly appeared before him he certainly would never have lived to tell his experience.

There are no better hearted people in the world than the Americans. Not a case of genuine suffering or honest and unavoidable misfortune need ever go long without generous assistance in any part of the United States, if only the people know that it is a proper case for their sympathy. And this is true whether the misfortune be an individual and private or a public calamity.

The papers in all parts of the country, without exception, called the attention of their readers to the destructiveness of the hurricane in Texas, expressed their profound sympathy with the sufferers and urged instant relief measures. There never was a more general manifestation of popular solicitude, or a readier or more widespread response to an appeal for assistance.

And yet this is the American rule in such cases. The humblest and the highest give and give quickly. Nothing is too good for the unfortunate when it is known that their misfortune could not be warded off and that they are left utterly helpless.

It makes us love our country better when we find it has such a people within its borders. We regain the confidence in mankind which may have been shattered in sordid every day business. We feel that down in the heart, the good impulses remain, and that only something a little out of the ordinary is necessary to reveal (to slightly paraphrase Goldsmith) that

To relieve the wretched is our pride,

And e’en our failings lead to virtue’s side.

CHAPTER XXIV.
One Hero Rescues Over Two Hundred—Traveler Caught in the Rush of Water—Report of a Government Official—How the Great Storm Started.

There are many people who are composed of the material that constitutes a hero, but the majority pass through the time allotted to them on earth without having the opportunity of demonstrating the fact to the world. On the night that the awful catastrophe visited the city of Galveston few were those who had not this opportunity presented to them.

Of course there were some who failed to develop this quality. The every effort of these was directed with the one supreme purpose of self preservation. Others there were who devoted their services unreservedly to the helpless and in consequence their names will never be forgotten by those whom they preserved from a watery grave.

Some of the deeds of this nobler class will never be known—not even after the relentless sea gives up all its dead. There is one name, however, which will be recorded and preserved in the memory of some as long as that never to be forgotten night of the hurricane at Galveston is remembered by the sons of men. That name will be taught by mothers to their children in the age to come as the name of one possessed of undying courage and heroism.

The name is that of Zachery Scott, a young medical student who was at St. Mary’s Infirmary at Galveston on the fateful night. Alone and single-handed Mr. Scott rescued over 200 souls from the very jaws of death. St. Mary’s Infirmary is composed of a large brick building and several wooden structures, and the latter were entirely destroyed by the fury of the wind and the water. In the wooden buildings were nearly 200 patients who were too sick and weak to battle against the elements and the raging storm, besides a score of the sisters who were at the time acting as nurses.

When the water began to rise, Mr. Scott, who was in the brick building, went over to where these patients were quartered and soon returned, through water waist deep, with one in his arms. Over 200 times he performed this feat, although before the task was completed the water between the two buildings was over six feet in depth.

Back and forth, during all the stormy night, he went and every time he returned another soul was saved from a dreadful fate. When the storm was at its height, the debris was flying in all directions, the resistless waters carrying people on to destruction and when he was weak and weary from his exertions, the inmates of the brick building begged him not to attempt the feat again. But still, with a dauntless courage born of devotion, he never faltered in his duty, and every person in the doomed building was taken to a place of safety. Such courage, devotion and heroism deserves a place side by side with that of the greatest heroes who ever lived.