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

SIGNS OF RESTORATION EVERYWHERE.

The women of Galveston are working as never before. Wherever one goes carpets and clothing and mattresses and rugs are hung on fences and galleries. The scrubbing-brushes are going. A smell of carbolic acid is in the air. The housekeepers are bustling in and out. Every residence that can be called habitable is undergoing renovation most thoroughly. The sound of the hammer is heard everywhere. Amateur carpenters are patching and strengthening homes which, in the better spirit that prevails, they may now hope to save.

One of the strongest impressions that is gained of the work of restoration is from the sights in front of the stores. Merchants and clerks are overhauling stocks. Where the articles are such that it can be done they are carried out in front of the stores and spread in the sun to dry. Tons of dry goods, clothing, hats and caps, boots and shoes are spread in the streets and on the pavements, so that in places it is difficult to get past.

In these stores the watermarks on the walls and shelves varies from waist to shoulder high. Everything below these levels was saturated. The loss of stocks affected by water is very great. But the disposition of the storekeepers to make the best of it and to save something, even if badly damaged, is cheering.

Full of confidence and even optimistic are the expressions of the men who have taken the lead in this crisis. Said Colonel Lowe, of the Galveston News: “In two years this town will be rebuilt upon a scale which we would not have obtained so quickly without this devastation.

“I took it for granted that when the Southern Pacific management said to its representatives, as it has said: ‘Build a bridge ten feet higher than the old one and put on a double force to do it,’ our future was assured. We shall go forward and create the city. We shall have some restrictions as to rebuilding lines, especially on the beach side, where the greatest losses were sustained. The ramshackle way in which too much construction has been done heretofore will be of the past.”