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

MAN CARRIED THIRTY MILES.

Mr. A. A. Van Alstyne had a large quantity of provisions, such as rice, canned goods, etc., stored with him. He and his family escaped unhurt, and every since have been using their house as a basis of supplies for the needy in their immediate neighborhood.

Mr. Henry R. Decie, who lives eight and one-half miles down Galveston island, was in Houston, and reports that he was at his home when the storm began, but took his wife and children to the house of Mr. Willie Raine, a close neighbor. After reaching there he says the water, with one bound, raised four or five feet which took the house off the blocks.

“My wife and I were sitting on the foot of one of the beds at that time, which was 6 o’clock. We felt the house quiver, and my wife threw her arms around my neck and kissed me and said, ‘Good-bye, we are gone.’

“Just then the house crushed in and we struggled hard to get out. My baby boy was in my arms a corpse, having been killed by a falling timber. Another wave came and swept the overhanging house off my head. I looked around and discovered that my wife was gone and the remaining part of the house was drifting apart. Catching a piece of scantling I was carried thirty miles across the bay, landing near the mouth of Cow bayou.”

CHAPTER XXIII
Heroic Incidents—Arrival of Relief Trains—Hospitals for the Injured—Loud Call for Skilled Labor.

A lady correspondent who went from Houston to view the wreck of Galveston reported as follows:

“We are only just beginning to find out what this awful calamity has been to the people in this vicinity. The first shock is wearing off, the long lists of dead and missing are getting to be an old story now, and the sick and suffering are crawling into our places of refuge. Some of them have been sleeping on the open prairies ever since the storm, most of them, in fact, men with broken arms and legs, sick women and ailing children.

“They crawl out of the wreck of their homes and lie down on the bare ground to die. Our relief corps are finding them and bringing them in as fast as they can. Dr. Johnson and his party came in from the Galveston district and reported that they found over 5,000 people and attended medically about 200 patients.

“While we were standing at the door of the hospital talking things over a man rode up on horseback. He threw his arms up to attract our attention.

“‘Is this the relief hospital?’ he said.

“Dr. Johnson told him that it was.”

“‘I’ve come in from the Brazos bottoms,’ he said. ‘The folks there are starving. There is not a pound of flour left and the children are crying for milk. There are so many sick people there that we don’t know what to do. Can you send some one down?’

“Dr. Johnson had not slept for twenty-four hours. He had not had time to get a full meal for thirty-six hours. He was worn out and travel stained, but he heard what the man told him.

“‘All right,’ he said. He picked up his coat, put on his hat and turned to his assistants. ‘Come on, boys,’ he said. ‘Let us go down and get the cars into shape. We’ll get down to your place, my man, just as fast as the Lord will let us.’

“The man on horseback leaned over his saddle and tried to speak. Something in his face frightened me, I called to two doctors. They ran out and caught him. He was in a dead faint. When we had brought him to he laughed sheepishly. ‘I don’t know what’s the matter with me,’ he said. ‘Ain’t never been taken this way before.’ The doctors looked at each other and smiled, but the nurses’ eyes were full of tears. The man had not tasted food for thirty-six hours, and he had ridden fifty miles in the broiling sun of Texas. Dr. Crossway and his men are down the island relieving the sick and burying the dead.