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

HOUSES AND OTHER PROPERTY GONE.

Alta Loma—This committee reports about seventy-five families, or 300 persons, to be cared for. Have received 530 rations. People have no money and their property destroyed. In the neighborhood of 100 houses existed; forty destroyed and about twenty untenantable. There are about four houses now on blocks. Two lives were lost. The population is mainly of northern people. A shipment was made them of provisions and medicines, but other things are needed at once.

Col. B. H. Belo, publisher of the “Galveston News,” said that Galveston would be rebuilt at once.

“The storm and flood taught us several lessons,” said Col. Belo, in an interview. “The loss of life would have been comparatively light if the buildings had been of a more solid character. The Ursuline convent, for instance, was surrounded by a brick wall, and there was no loss of life there, although it stood right in the path of the flood and storm. There were no lives lost in the ‘News’ office, and we would not have been badly flooded had it not been for a building falling and battering in a part of our wall.

“I believe that all buildings will be of a more solid and enduring character than formerly. I think, too, that the streets along the water front will be built higher than they were. The city must be rebuilt. It is the only outlet worthy the name on the Gulf west of New Orleans. The government spent $6,000,000 to make a thirty-foot harbor there, and the shipping is so extensive that rebuilding the wrecked portions of the city is imperative.”

A tale of self sacrifice comes from the western part of the city. A young man by the name of Wash Masterson heard the cries of some people outside. They were calling for a rope. He had no rope, but improvised one from bed sheets, and started out to find the people who were calling. The wind and water soon tore his rope to shreds and he had to return to the house, where he made another and stronger rope.