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

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG GIRL.

Miss Maud Hall, who was spending her school vacation in Galveston, and who passed through the storm, has written of her experience to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emory Hall, of Dallas. Miss Hall was in the house where she was boarding at the time the storm came. She says:

“The wind and rain rose to a furious whirlwind, and all the time the water crept higher and higher. We all crowded into the hall, and the house, a big two-story one, rocked like a cradle. About 6 o’clock the roof was gone, all the blinds torn off and all the windows blown in. Glass was flying in all directions and the water had risen to a level with the gallery. Then the men told us we would have to go to a house across the street.

“It took two men to each woman to get her across the street and down to the end of the block. Trees thicker than any in our yard were whirled down the street and the water looked like a whirlpool. I came near drowning with another girl. It was dark by this time, and the men put their arms around us and down into, the water we went.

“I spent the night—such a horrible one!—wet from my shoulders to my waist and from my knees down, and barefoot. Nobody had any shoes and stockings. The house was packed with people just like us. The windows were blown out, and it rocked from top to bottom, and the water came into the first floor. About 3 o’clock in the morning the wind had changed and blew the water back into the Gulf.

“As soon as we could we waded home. Such a home! The water had risen three feet in the house, and the roof being gone the rain poured in. We had not had anything to eat since noon the day before, and we lived on whisky.

“It was awful. Dead animals every where and the streets filled with fallen telegraph poles and brick stores blown over. Hundreds of women and children and men sitting on steps crying lost ones, and nearly half of them injured! Wild-eyed, ghastly-looking men hurried by and told of whole families killed. All day wagon after wagon passed filled with dead, most of them without a thing on them, and men with stretchers with dead bodies with just a sheet thrown over them, some of them little children.”