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

THE USUAL QUESTIONS.

After uttering the last sentence be pulled his hat down over his eyes and he passed into the crowded throng that was headed down the street. He looked around and said:

“There are hundreds of cases that are similar to mine, the result of this great hurricane.”

“Was your father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter or other relatives saved from the Galveston horror?” are questions that are frequently heard asked as friends meet and greet each other in Houston.

“Yes,” said a gentleman speaking to another, who asked him if his son was safe. “I have just returned from Galveston with him. You would hardly recognize him, though, bruised, battered and bleeding, with a bandage around his head and his arm in a sling. These wounds were not caused by trying to save himself, but others. He was boarding with some lifelong friends of our family who had been extremely kind to him. When the storm was at its height and danger appeared on every hand and it was deemed advisable to abandon their home to its fate, Charlie was the sole protector of two lone women. He took the elder one first and carried her to a place of safety, after being washed about by the water and debris of trees and buildings for an hour or more

“When the storm was raging in its greatest fury he returned to the home of his friend for the young lady. Reaching her he was surprised to find the water nearly five feet deep all around the place, and the house careened over, nearly ready to fall. With his arm tightly clasped into hers they started for the high ground. The Gulf was now raging in all its madness; billows were piling many feet into the air, and each billow seemed to vie with the other as to which could raise its head the higher, and do the greatest destruction.

“Sometimes Charlie and his precious, helpless burden would be entirely submerged for some time. At other times they would be lifted off their feet and carried a distance of fifteen or twenty feet. After regaining their equilibrium they would again forge forward to meet the elements, of danger of life and limb. Each wave had cunningly hidden beneath its sprays missiles of death, such as pieces of planks, house tops, buggies, wagons, pianos and other articles too numerous to mention. It kept these two wearied and exhausted creatures nearly all the time dodging and escaping those death missiles.