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

MACHINERY A COMPLETE LOSS.

Major R. B. Baer, receiver of the Galveston City Street Railway, who is in this city now, says that to-day he telegraphed the Guarantee Trust Company, the owners of the property, that it would take $200,000 to $250,000 to repair the damage to the street railway. The powerhouse and machinery are a complete loss and seven miles of track is gone, as well as all of the trestle work.

“After the storm and until I left Galveston yesterday I walked an average of ten miles a day,” said Major Baer, “and I know there is hardly a building in the city that is not damaged, while the stocks of merchandise are damaged from 25 to 90 per cent. The Galveston, Houston and Northern and the Santa Fe both expect their roads to be open to Virginia Point by Saturday, and then some light draught steamboats will be put on to ply between Virginia Point and Galveston. Both of these roads will commence work on their bridges across the bay as soon as material can be gotten on the ground. The Santa Fe has now a force of 400 men working toward Virginia Point and a large force on the island repairing their track. The Southern Pacific is putting to work all the men they can get.”

One of the Texas journals made editorial comment as follows: “Duty is still all that all can do. Many of the survivors of the storm are ill, others bruised, wounded, broken, hungry and breadless, others hapless orphans, too young to realize their sad condition. There has never been in this country any other disaster to be compared with this. Where others have had to battle against wind or water, here the man and the woman and the child have found a dual foe—both wind and wave. Considering all the conditions and forces and dangers and dreadful results, it may be asserted without any word to modify the statement that this is the most grievous calamity of modern times.