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

ROBBERS DRIVEN FROM THEIR WORK.

Since Adjutant-General Scurry has assumed police direction of affairs, looting and plundering have ceased. No one has been shot, and order prevails throughout the city. The lawless know that they will be shot down on the spot when caught depredating, and this has had a very wholesome effect. The large force of men employed in burying and cremating the exposed dead scattered throughout the city have completed that portion of their work and are now engaged in searching for the bodies of unfortunates lying crushed and bruised beneath the immense mass of debris and wrecked buildings scattered throughout the city. Where the debris lies in detached masses it is fired and the bodies therein are consumed.

When adjacent property is endangered by fire the mass of debris is removed, the bodies taken out, removed to a safe distance and around them is piled the removed debris, the whole saturated with oil and fired. Identification is impossible. The bodies being in all stages of putrefaction and giving a horrible stench, it is a most sad and gruesome task. Perhaps some of the men engaged in this work are unknowingly aiding in destroying all that is mortal of some loved one.

In gathering remains for interment a nephew of Alderman John Wagner, a youth 18 years old, was found lodged in the forks of a tall cedar tree, two miles from his wrecked home, and tightly clenched with a death grip in his right hand $200, which his father gave him, with two $20 gold pieces, to hold while the father attempted to close a blown open door, when the house went down and the whole family perished in the raging storm and flood.