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

WILL BUILD BETTER THAN BEFORE.

“I slept at my home last night with as great a sense of security and safety as I ever have felt during my residence in this city,” Colonel Moody continued. “There may be some people who will leave here, but there will be enough people left here who will rebuild their properties and go ahead with the city to form the nucleus for its future growth. We will build better than before, and the city will be better and stronger and safer than ever.

“The railroads are leading off with this better construction; they will build a double track steel bridge. Every man who builds in this city hereafter will build better and stronger than before, and the weaker structures will be weeded out. We will have better building regulations, and men will not be permitted, if they would, to construct faulty buildings.

“Some people may say, ‘Oh, Moody can afford to make this talk; he is planted down here and can not get away.’ But let me tell you I could get away very easily if I wanted to. The greater portion of what I hope I own is not in Galveston, but is scattered throughout the State. It is in the hands of merchants throughout Texas to whom we have made advances on cotton. I could get away very easily if I had any desire to do so; in fact, I believe I could liquidate and get out of town about as easily as any man in it.

“So far as our business and property are concerned, the bank is running along with unimpaired facilities. I have had an architect at work all day preparing for the immediate restoration of the bank building, the compress buildings and my other property. The compress machinery is intact, and we will be pressing cotton again within a week. Some of the partition walls in the cotton warehouses were blown out, but we will have a force of men at work immediately and will have them rebuilt before it is realized. And the walls will be better than they were before, because they were originally constructed by contract, while I am now having them rebuilt myself by day’s work.