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

NO DANGER OF PESTILENCE.

Dr. A. B. Chamberlain said that Galveston would now escape epidemic in any form. He had been through two of these Gulf coast visitations, though upon a smaller scale. “We may have some mild cases of fever as the result of the shock and the exposure,” he said, “but I am confident there will be nothing serious.”

This seems to be quite generally the opinion of the doctors who are not advising any wholesale exodus. They put great faith in the free use of disinfectants and in the bracing salt air which blows continuously over the island.

“A barrel of lime is worth more to us now than a ton of food,” was the expression of Dr. J. O. Dyer. “Let us appeal,” he continued, “for 10,000 barrels of lime and 500 barrels of tar. Each block will require at the least ten barrels scattered on its respective lots and streets, burn the tar in offensive localities.”

Ladies of Galveston are engaged in a work which is perhaps without precedent in relief effort. They are making many little bags, into which they place two or three lumps of camphor. The bags have strings by which they can be fastened at the head, so that they will rest on the lip just under the nose. They are to be worn by the men engaged in the search and cremation of bodies.

It is proposed to all people whose houses are still standing that whenever they locate a corpse or carcasses in their vicinity the position be indicated by a flag of some kind.

Some of the notices and paragraphs in these first issues of the Galveston papers are as interesting as stories of the storm. For example:—

“The First Church of Christ, Scientists, cordially extends the use of their church to any denomination whose church was so damaged by the recent storm as to render it unfit for services.”