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

PICTURES IN SHARP CONTRAST.

Of Galveston’s population of 38,000 it is estimated that 8000 were killed.

The area of total destruction was about 1300 acres.

There were 5000 dwellings, hotels, churches and convents utterly destroyed.

More than 2000 bodies have been burned.

The property loss is not less than $15,000,000.

One hundred and twenty-five men, most of them negroes, were shot to death for robbing the dead. “Decimation” is the word often employed to emphasize destruction of life. Galveston was “decimated” twice over by this storm.

It took on the part of the public-spirited men a good deal of boldness to lay down the law that the support tendered by the country must be earned and to enforce it. But before two days had passed the whole community was at work cheerfully. A tour through the city, up one street and down another, showed the greatest activity. Thousands and not hundreds of men were dragging the ruins into great heaps and applying the torch. Occasionally they came on the remains of human beings and hastily added them to the blazing heaps. But it is notable that much less is said now about the dead than during the early days. The minds of the people who survived have passed from that phase of the calamity.

A soldier standing guard at a place on the beach where these fires were burning thickly was asked if the workers were still finding bodies.

“Yes,” he replied, “a good many!” That was all. Three days ago the same soldier would have gone into particulars. He would have told how many had been found in this place and in that.

The commander of one of these squads came into headquarters to deliver a report to Colonel McCaleb. He had nothing to say about bodies, but wanted to tell that a trunk in fairly good condition, with valuable contents, had been taken out of one heap, and that the owner might be found through marks of identification which he had noted. So it goes; the thought is of the living rather than of the dead.