LUCAS TERRACE
WHERE TWENTY-SEVEN PERSONS WERE SAVED IN ONE LITTLE ROOM THAT REMAINED STANDING
“Every portion of the island was submerged and it seems a miracle that the entire city was not swept away. At least two-fifths of the houses on the island have been razed to the ground. Of the remaining three-fifths, at least half are damaged beyond repair, while the others are all damaged to greater or less extent. No house escaped without some damage and to have some idea of the cyclonic nature of the storm it will be only necessary to state that steel shutters on large business buildings were twisted around as one would twist a small piece of copper wire.
“Large splinters were whirled about in the air like darts, and many found lodgment in human bodies, no doubt producing instant death. Oh, the horror and terror of that dismal night! The wind howling, the sea roaring and lashing, houses falling and crashing, men, women and children screaming; the shrieks of dying animals; imagine it, if you can, and you may form a faint idea of the situation at Galveston last Saturday night.
HUMAN VULTURES PILFERING AND LOOTING.
“Tuesday morning I passed a partially wrecked home, in the door of which stood a young face and snow-white hair.
“‘Saturday morning,’ said the man who accompanied me, ‘that woman’s hair was dark brown; Sunday morning it had turned to snow.’ I did not doubt him, for he told me of the woman’s experience and how she had been saved as if by a miracle.
“But the woeful part of the terrible disaster has not yet been told. Hundreds of human vultures, almost before the storm had abated, began the work of pilfering and looting. Dead bodies were robbed and in some instances fingers were cut off to secure the rings that were on them. Most of these vultures were negroes, and they kept up their horrible work all day Sunday and Sunday night. Monday morning martial law was declared, and those placed on guard had strict orders to shoot all pilferers and looters. Many met their just fate, and by Tuesday morning the looting had almost ceased.
“Sunday the negroes refused to help bury the dead for either love or money. But when martial law was declared they were forced at the point of the bayonet and made to do their share of the gruesome work. Up to Monday noon many of the dead were identified, but after that identification was impossible because of the swollen and decomposed condition of the bodies.
“Monday afternoon several hundred were loaded on barges and carried far out into the Gulf, where they were thrown over to become the food of sharks and fishes. Sunday and Monday morning many were buried down the island in the shallow sand, but by Tuesday morning these, as well as other bodies gathered along the beach, were piled on wood and burned.