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

GALVESTON SAFER THAN EVER.

“On Friday I would not have given $10 for the place. On Thursday I would have given more for a lot than I would have given before the deluge and storm. Why? Because the pluck of the people came out through that night of rest. Galveston should be greater than it had ever been. That is what they said. Galveston was safer than before by the island’s weathering such a storm. That is what they said, too. They began to talk of their own pluck. We have stood so much, but the world will say that we stood it well. If we can do as we have done in such a trial, what can not we do in the battle of life? Galveston shall be rebuilt.

“Galveston shall be the greatest of towns. Hurrah for Galveston! Thus they talked and went about their work of throwing up breastworks against disease by cleaning the town. Thousands of the people, negroes as well as whites, went about the work of burning the dead and cleaning away the debris. They asked nothing about wages, even those who had no property. They had begun the fight. It was evident that they intended to keep it up. The cold, calculating speculator would have had something to study over if he had seen these people as I saw them the day after their one night’s rest. Well, there was nothing wild in their determination. The island has not a break in it.

“There is a story of millions of feet being torn from it and cast into the sea. This story may be true if applied to some part of the island which I did not visit. But where I went it is not true. There was erosion. That was to be expected. Erosion would have come from a far less storm than this. I have seen a common “rise” on the Ohio River carry away more dirt than this storm carried from Galveston Island into the Gulf. The people of the interior know where the old Beach Hotel stood.

“They know where the chimney of that house was built. They know how far it was from the beach. They will understand the work of erosion. I stated that the brick of that chimney is not in the water. The piling on which the hotel was built are in some places in the water. In fact, according to my observation, the erosion at this point has not been above 300 feet. I went to the east end of the town and to the west end of it. The destruction of the island is no greater anywhere that I saw than at the location of the hotel mentioned.