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

HOUSE WASHED TO FRAGMENTS.

“We had to push it apart to get through in places, and some of them laughed and said push it to them, and I did so, and they began hauling it in. Nobody thought how serious it was, but looked on it as merely high water. A little later all those buildings along there were destroyed and all the people there drowned. Stufflebram had taken his wife up to Chilton’s and Clarkson also, because it was a little higher ground there. We finally reached it, on Twenty-second street, just opposite Harmony Hall. We were all in the house together when Prof. Smith sent word over from Harmony Hall that we had better get out at once.

“We went to the hall, and the last of the party had hardly cleared the sidewalk when a large brick building gave way and mashed Chilton’s house to fragments. We staid in Harmony Hall until the cyclone ceased, though it looked once as if the hall would go when the roof blew off. It was the awfulest time I ever saw. My daughters and their families were saved, and I am truly thankful for it. They said at Galveston that we were the only family in the city who all got away alive. It must have been providential.

“We left there Thursday and went to Houston, where we were nicely treated. I never saw such charitable people and I just love Houston. Charity was a mile high there. They fed us and clothed our children and paid our fare to Hillsboro. The railroads, too, were nice, and did all and more for us than one could expect. I never saw or heard of such a time as we experienced at Galveston. Nobody can tell it as it was. It is impossible. For two days we didn’t think of eating. The dead people floating, the ruins all about us, destroyed all sense of hunger. It wasn’t the water that killed, death seemed to be in the atmosphere, there was so much electricity and such furious winds. It is awful, even to think of.”

CHAPTER XXII.
Galveston Storm Stories—Fierce Battles With Surging Waves—Vivid Accounts from Fortunate Survivors—A City of Sorrow.

A resident of the stricken city gave the following graphic narrative of his experiences, which help to make up the dark picture of Galveston’s agony and desolation:

“Some people asked, ‘How did you feel when your house went down in the storm?’ It is a question easier asked than answered. I was among the few who lost their houses early in the storm and before darkness set in. Up to fifteen minutes or less before the house went down I had hopes that it might survive the storm. For three hours before it went I watched the waters patiently, mostly from the south windows, but of course had the restlessness natural to people who are waiting for a great crisis in the lives of themselves or those dear to them. To sit perfectly still under the circumstances was impossible.

“A few moment’s rest by a south window was followed by an uncontrollable desire to go to some other part of the house to see how matters were looking. Wandering from one point to another, the round of the house was made, and once more I found myself back of the south windows to watch the waters from the main danger point. I do not think that I or any of my family could have been called excited. There was a restless, uneasy feeling among us all, but actually no fear. When my wife left the house she fully expected to return to it when the storm was over. My boys were with her and my little girl, and for probably half an hour I was alone.

“During that time I was partly engaged in keeping the north and east doors closed. The wind blew them open several times, but did not break the hinges. When one was blown open torrents of rain poured in, and I remember thinking of the task the women would have in drying the floors and disposing of articles that had suffered from the water. From this it can be judged that even at that time I was not looking for a total wreck. How did I feel? I was not excited. I was not in fear of my life. It seemed to me that what I regretted was the property loss and the struggle I would have to repair damages.

“But a total loss—a sweeping away of everything I had in the world—was not thought of. In fact, it is hard to realize now, a week after the storm. The mind cannot rest all the time on one’s loss, and at times it seems when I want something at my house all I have to do is to go out and get it. My good wife last night caught herself the same way. Speaking of the need of a shirt for Sunday, she asked: ‘What do you want to buy a shirt for, when you have three or four—oh, I forgot; they were lost in the storm.’ We have been housed safely, and it has seemed more like a visit than a total loss of property to her, except when she has felt the need of something that was carried away in the storm.