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

SYSTEMATIC RELIEF.

The committee is trying to systematize the work, so as to relieve the worst cases first. Mayor Jones said:

“We have made such arrangements as will make it possible for us to feed the needy until we can get in full supplies. We are relieving every case presented to us. I think within a day or two our transportation facilities will be sufficient temporarily to meet our needs. Galveston has helped other cities in their distress, despite her size, and we are consoled by the generous response of the country to our appeal.”

The committee has instructed the local drug stores to provide the poor and needy with medicine at the expense of the relief fund.

Every strong-limbed man who has not his own home and property to look after is being pressed into the service of the city. First of all, it is necessary to get the waterworks in good condition, so that water may be turned into the mains, the gutters flushed, and the sewers made usable. The lack of water since the flood has contributed much to the discomfort and the danger to health.

Volunteer gangs continue their work of hurried burial of the corpses they find on the shores of Galveston Island at the neighboring points where fatalities attended the storm. It will probably be many days, however, before all the floating bodies have found nameless graves. Along the beach they are constantly being washed up. Whether these are those who were swept out into the Gulf and drowned or are simply the return ashore of some of those cast into the sea to guard against terrible pestilence, there is no means of knowing.

In various parts of the city the smell of decomposed flesh is still apparent. Wherever such instances are found the authorities are freely disinfecting. Only to-day a babe lashed to a mattress was picked up under a residence in the very heart of the city and burned.

The following editorial, signed by the publishers, A. H. Belo & Co., appeared September 13th in the “Galveston News”: