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

QUICK WORK NEEDED.

They are disposed of, not as humanity would direct, or as sentiment dictates, but as necessity demands, and it is not with the accompaniment of a clergyman’s prayer, or the simple words of the man of the cloth, that “God has given and God has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; earth to earth, dust to dust and ashes to ashes.” Bodies have been consigned to that element which destroyed the vitality of the material—the water and the waves which came from the storm tossed Gulf of Mexico to invade the portion of land which nature set aside for the habitation of man.

This could not be continued for long. The conception of man’s mind, which first suggested this disposition, proved to be wise judgment in the first emergency, but nature’s laws prevented a continuance of the plan, and it became necessary to turn to a quicker and more convenient method, as the decomposition which fast began a destruction of the mortal, rendered handling impossible. Cremation was then resorted to, and without the facilities of science to assist, the destruction of the remains was affected by using burning debris, upon the places where the corpses were found.

Humanity may think this is terrible and sentiment may revolt at this story, but that humanity and that sentiment is not to be found in Galveston. Here the people have thrown aside custom and formalities, all men are equal and that equality extends throughout the whole city. No custom of dress, no formality of appearance and no false modesty enters into one’s mind. Men and women cover their nakedness with what they can procure from neighbors, from friends or from the relief committee or what perchance was saved from the wreckage of their own homes, and they proceed with the work of looking after their own, their friends and their neighbors, as necessity demands. All people are neighbors here and all have a common interest.