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

JEWELS ON THE DEAD.

He noticed a woman floating in the water, and he and a policeman turned her over, and attached to her bosom was a very fine gold watch with her name upon it. He called the policeman’s attention to the importance of securing the watch for future identification, and was given the same information.

Mrs. John P. Smart returned from Galveston on board the steamer “Lawrence,” along with about 400 women and children. Mrs. Smart had been in Galveston for some three weeks, and came away on the first trip made by the “Lawrence.” She said of her experience during the storm:

“At 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, in spite of the efforts of the lady of the house to persuade us all to remain at home, we set out for a place of safety, the Atlanta Hotel. The water was then three feet deep on avenue P. On the way to the hotel I saw three women drowned. They were making their way down the street and were blown down by the wind and lost. We left the house none too soon. After the storm not a trace of it could be found.

“The wind was then blowing at the rate of about sixty miles an hour. At 11 o’clock, when the wind was at its height, the water around the Atlanta Hotel was nine feet deep and the building shook terribly. As the windows were blown in, the men stopped them up again with doors. But when the worst was over and the house still stood, we found that not one of all those who had crowded there for refuge was lost.

“The sight on Sunday morning defies description. One could not look in any direction without seeing scores of human bodies. One building in the west end, in which between 400 and 500 had taken shelter, went down and every human being in it was lost. Not a house was left along the beach. On the bay shore I saw three men on horseback dead. Horses and riders, with reins gripped as if to ride through the peril at any cost, had passed over the river.