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

HUNGRY AND HALF CLAD.

“There was a new party of them which came in last night late from Galveston. About fifty came in after 10 o’clock, hungry, half clad and worn to the very edge of human endurance. They stood timidly at the door and one of them begged for shelter as if she thought she would be refused. Most of our cots with mattresses in them were taken, but that did not make any difference. Dr. Bloch, of Chicago, and Dr. O’Brien, of New York, got their heads together and in less than half an hour every one of those fifty people had some sort of a bed to sleep on and in three-quarters of an hour they were all fed.

“We engaged two cooks, a man and a woman, yesterday, but neither of them came. That did not make the slightest particle of difference. Whoever was hungry was fed at the relief station, and whoever was naked was clothed and whoever was sick was attended. Nobody knew or cared how long they had been working or whether they themselves had time to get a morsel of food. Everybody did everything. I saw Dr. O’Brien down on his knees taking off a pair of soaked shoes for a woman who was so tired she could not lift her hand to her head.

“The fear of pestilence has become so widespread that the authorities are taking measures to prevent a wholesale exodus of able-bodied men, whose services are urgently needed at the present time. The dread of plague has seized upon the negro population so strongly that in some instances they refuse to work in cleaning up the city.

“The tidal wave caused a heavier loss of life along the coast west of Galveston than was at first supposed. Scores of corpses are being found lying along the beach. Some of the bodies may be those who were buried at sea from Galveston and floated into shore again, but the position of many shows that they were natives of the little coast towns suburban to Galveston. When more order is made at Galveston attention will be turned to those places and the bodies of the dead there will be buried or burned.

“The work of disposing of the bodies is being expedited as rapidly as possible, but the crying need is disinfectants. Hundreds of barrels of lime are being asked for in order to prevent contagion. Health officers say that the worst is to be feared from the small pools of stagnant water which fill cellars of the wrecked houses and the clogged drainage system.