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 TALES OF VANDALISM.

Passengers who arrived at Dallas told terrible tales of the work of the vandals in that city. According to them, men inflamed with liquor were roaming among the wreckage over the city rifling the hundreds of bodies of even the clothing and leaving them to fester in the semi-tropical sun. Much of this horrible depredating, it is claimed, is being done by negroes, who will not work and cannot be made to leave town. This was before the saloons were closed.

Among those who arrived from Galveston was J. N. Griswold, division freight agent of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. His story is as follows:

“There were many acts of vandalism. Fingers and ears that bore diamonds were lopped off with knives. Upon our arrival at Texas city I saw an old man who was drunk. Sticking out of a pocket in his pants was a bank deposit book full of bank notes.

“I asked him where he got it. He said he found it on the bank.

“‘How much have you got?’ I asked him. ‘Oh, about twenty-seven dollars,’ was his reply. He must have had several times that amount at least.

“The darkies are doing most of the pilfering. Sunday morning before daylight they were breaking into warehouses and looting stores and saloons particularly. The town was full of drunken negroes Sunday morning at daylight.

“And the worst of it is that nearly all the soldiers were lost. Of the detachment stationed at Galveston I don’t believe there are more than thirty left. At present the crying need of Galveston is water and ice—and soldiers. The fresh water on the island was ruined by the brine from the sea. The ice is needed to prevent the decomposition of the corpses. The soldiers are needed to keep down vandalism. And along this latter line I want to say that the militia must come quickly. The negroes should be sent to the cotton fields of north Texas. Those who will work can be kept there, but the others should be sent away just as soon as possible, for they merely eat up the supplies and are a constant menace. They should either be killed or made to get out, for one or the other is the grim necessity of the situation.