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 WEAK FIBRE IN GALVESTON PEOPLE.

“Stunned by a disaster in which individual griefs were lost in a common horror and the presence of death on all sides made the finding of the dead an incident of commonplace, they could scarcely have been expected to act with energy, organization or promptitude. The blow sustained by the city must have seemed irreparable.

“Irreparable it would have been if the Galveston men and women had been of weaker fiber. It stands to their credit that as soon as the clear comprehension of their misfortune came to them they faced it resolutely, and pushing aside individual griefs, set themselves to protect those who were still living. They recognized the futility of lamentation, and the necessity of foregoing the rites and formalities which men hold to be sacred obligations to the dead. Now that the worst part of their terrible task is over, the reports indicate that they are setting themselves in the same spirit to the work of rebuilding Galveston and making of it such a city as it had never before been expected to be.

“There is no more talk about abandoning the site or allowing the city to pass into a stage of decadence. The town is to be rebuilt, from its ruins, and it is not merely to be rebuilt but to be improved. Judging from the feeling manifested among the people of the city, they will come in the future to celebrate ‘flood day’ in much the same spirit that Chicago commemorates the anniversary of its great fire.

“The outside world has a double duty to discharge in helping the people who are showing this resolution and pluck in a time of severest trial. It would have been a duty to have given them aid in any event. But the way in which they are meeting their calamity indicates a courage and a strength of character to which the world can well afford to pay tribute. No effort should be spared to help those who are so bravely trying to help themselves.

“‘The Daily News’ is glad to say that in discussing Galveston’s future it is discussing what is to be a fact—a fact, moreover, inspiring in its lesson of invincible Anglo-Saxon will and courage that rises equal to all occasions and throws down the challenge to despair.