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

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH.

Some of the escapes of people of Galveston from the storm were nothing less than miraculous. Charles Rutter, aged twelve, was in his father’s house when the waves and wind swept it away. The boy seized a floating trunk and was found at Hitchcock, twenty miles north.

The Stubbs family, consisting of father, mother and two children, was in its home when it collapsed. They found refuge on a floating roof. This parted, and father and one child were swept in one direction, while the mother and the other child drifted in another. One of the children was washed off, but last Sunday evening all four were reunited.

Mrs. P. Watkins is a raving maniac as the result of her experiences. With her two children and her mother she was drifting on a roof, when her mother and one child were swept away. Mrs. Watkins mistakes attendants in the hospital for her lost relatives, and clutches wildly for them.

Harry Steele, a cotton man, and his wife sought safety in three successive houses which were demolished. They eventually climbed on a floating door and were saved. W. R. Jones, with fifteen other men, finding the building they were in about to fall, made their way to the water tower, and, clasping hands, encircled the standpipe, to keep from being washed or blown away.

Mrs. Chapman Bailey, wife of the southern manager of the Galveston Wharf Company, and Miss Blanche Kennedy floated in the waters, ten to twenty feet deep, all night and day by catching wreckage. Finally they got into a wooden bathtub and were driven into the Gulf over night. The incoming tide drove them back to Galveston, and they were rescued the next day. They were fearfully bruised. All their relatives were drowned.

A Texas journal commented as follows upon the great disaster:

“Galveston thanks the nation. Her citizens, still staggering under the blows dealt by the hurricane, have been aroused to confidence again and inspired for the work of restoring their home city, by the magnificent expression of sympathy and kindliness which their fellow countrymen have made by means of their great relief fund.