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

REFUSED TO BELIEVE THE TIDINGS.

“The difficulty in the case of the sea island hurricane was that a large number of conservative people—the very class which may be depended on to respond most liberally to appeals in behalf of the unfortunate—refused to believe the stories sent out by the press agents and newspaper correspondents who made haste to visit the scene of disaster, placing them in the category of newspaper sensations.

“The fact remains, however, that the naked details of the sea island hurricane never were put in possession of the public. Curious incidents and queer results were dwelt upon and described, but a detailed account of the effects of that storm has never been printed. Those who have never visited the scene of one of these elemental disturbances can have no idea of the extent of the havoc and ruin wrought by them. The results must be seen and felt before they can be understood and appreciated.

“They are of such a character as to elude and evade all efforts at description. All the newspapers can do is to give a bald account of incidents.

“But to-day we are face to face with a few of the horrors of a calamity that outdoes any similar visitation with which the nation is familiar. The situation in the afflicted territory is piteous in the extreme. And may the nation’s blessing rest on all who give succor to those stricken by this awful hurricane curse of the sunny southland.”

“It would be difficult to exaggerate the awful scene that meets the visitors everywhere,” said Clara Barton, after arriving in Galveston. “The situation could not be exaggerated. Probably the loss of life will exceed any estimate that has been made.

“In those parts of the city where destruction was the greatest there must still be hundreds of bodies under the debris. At the end of the island first struck by the storm, and which was swept clean of every vestige of the splendid residences that covered it, the ruin is inclosed by a towering wall of debris, under which many bodies are buried. The removal of this has scarcely even begun.