“Old and young crushed by the falling timbers, were one by one dragged from debris six to twenty feet deep. Aged fathers were clinging to more robust forms; children clutching to mother’s skirts, young girls with their arms around brothers, mothers clasping babes to their bosoms. These were the melancholy sights seen by those digging among the ruins. In dozens and scores the bodies were turned up by pick and shovel, rake and axe. Away to the left the wreckage stretched two miles to Seventh street; to the right, a mile to Fortieth street down town.
“Popular sentiment insists that the west end be burned, but the military authorities have hesitated to give the order. Father Kerwin and Captain Morrissey urge that the wreckage be fired at once, and it will probably be done.
“Men are making ready to apply the torch. Fire engines are out on the beach. A road runs through the wreckage separating it from houses not wholly destroyed. When water is running freely in the mains the fire will be started. Fires are burning at intervals all along the beach over the gulf front, raising clouds of smoke, which stretches far along the coast.
“The streets are clearing rapidly; many in the centre of the town are to-day readily passable. Along the Bay and Gulf fronts, however, the wreckage still chokes the streets. Sanitary conditions are steadily improving. Physicians do not disguise the danger to the city, but do not expect an epidemic. Five of them declared to-day that if the refuse was completely burned, the streets were thoroughly disinfected and the sewers quickly put in order, there would be no pestilence.
GREAT EXODUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
“Women and children are leaving in large numbers. They include all classes and conditions. In groups and sometimes in long lines they pass down Tremont street on the way to the boat bound for Texas City. Many are going never to return, poorly and scantily clad, with handkerchiefs for hats, and all their worldly goods stuffed into pillow-cases.
“The man who has no property or relatives in Galveston is leaving for good. The future of Galveston depends upon whether or not the town can retain its shipping. If Galveston can keep her prestige as a port her revival is assured. All those who have helped to make Galveston what it was are certain that it will continue to be the great port of the Southwest. Not a man in town who has any property will desert the city. Progressive citizens have been especially cheered by the news that the English shippers will continue to patronize the port and by the generous gift of $5000 from R. P. Houston, member of the English Parliament and head of the shipping firm of R. P. Houston & Co., of Liverpool and London. This contribution came in response to the news that one of the Houston steamers, the Hilarius, was stranded on the Pelican Island.
“Business men know that if Galveston should go down its shipping would promptly be transferred to New Orleans. But it is the glory of the people of New Orleans that since the storm they have said not a word against the rebuilding of this city, but have generously and nobly responded to the appeals for Galveston’s sufferers.
“In spite of any ambition of rival ports, in spite of the timidity of women and some men, the people of Galveston, patiently and soberly, with loyalty and courage, are determined to rebuild on the ruins of this once beautiful city a metropolis that shall prosper and endure. They are determined to do this, in spite of the possibility that their homes and industries may again be wrecked by storm. If you ask them why, they will tell you, “No community is immune from disasters of this kind. It merely happened that Galveston was in the path of the storm.” And then they will go back to burying their dead.
“Captain Randall, of the steamship Comeno, which has arrived from New Orleans, reports that coming up the bay he saw a great many human corpses, and that the banks of Pelican Island were strewn with the dead. Pelican Island is six miles from Galveston.