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

“FOUNDED ON A ROCK.”

“Attention was attracted to the house of Mr. J. H. Hawley, the brother of Congressman Hawley. He bought the property from an engineer who lived in Galveston some time about the flood of ’96. He said he would build him a house which would stand. He placed the foundations on an iron fence two feet in the ground. This foundation was of brick. In this foundation he placed the railing of the iron fence running up three feet. At the top he placed filagree brick work. His house was braced well and the timbers were heavy and well put together. The storm did not phase it.

“The fence acted as a barrier to timbers from the houses which had been destroyed. It kept away the battering rams with which the waves assaulted all places. When the night’s horrors were at an end the house stood intact. Even the cistern, which was on piling, stood the test and was uninjured. Now the Galveston people begin to consider the question of whether much was not their fault in that their structures were not of the kind that should have been built, when storms were sure to come.

“It is just such things as this that give them hope. As I have said, I despaired of the town when I walked among the dead bodies and saw the destruction on every side. But like the rest I got over this depression. I caught the infection of the new life when it came. I know that I speak the truth when I say that the life in Galveston now is capable of upbuilding the town, and building it better in every way than it ever was. Millions of dollars are invested in enterprises in the town. The men who have lost thousands, not to say millions, will not permit the rest to go without a struggle.

“The railroads running into the place and depending on the thirty feet of deep water, which is said now to exist in the channel, for export of the freight, will not agree to abandon the port, the only one of such depth for thousands of miles. Cotton factors in all the world, who look to this port for their supplies, will not abandon it. The monetary interest in the city of itself would save it even if the people were not so full of heart as they are. But above this, the poor people and the working classes have no where else to go. With many of them, it is too late in life to begin it anew. It is too late for them to build up acquaintances again. They have lost their houses, but the lots on which the houses were located are there.