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

WINDOWS BROKEN AND ROOMS FLOODED.

“The wind reached its strongest about 6 o’clock. Then the water was in the rotunda of the hotel. Part of the skylight had blown off and the rain was pouring in. Many of the windows were broken by flying pieces of debris and the rooms were flooded. My room was among those flooded. Joe Morrow had a room that was dry, and he and Harry Archer and myself crowded into it. Morrow got four inches of candle somewhere, and we had half a dozen dry matches. We burned the candle from time to time during the night to cheer us up. All of us were scared and did not know what minute everything would go. After midnight the storm began to go down, and at 5 o’clock in the morning the water had gone out of the hotel and part of Tremont street was above it.

“We set out to find W. H. McClure, who had had an awful experience. He came to the hotel and offered a hackman any price to go to his house after his family, but could not induce him to go. Failing in that, he started back home to his wife. That was 7 o’clock, and he did not manage to reach home, one-half mile away, until 2.30 in the morning. We found them all safe. We saw several bodies on Tremont street on the way there.

“The organization of relief work began at once. It was soon seen that there was no time for the identification of bodies, and the work of taking them to sea for burial began. Along the Gulf front for three blocks back there is not a house standing, and I could see only one or two on the Denver resurvey.

“There was a meeting of all the railroad men in Galveston at 9 o’clock Tuesday morning, at which it was arranged that freight would be handled through Houston and the Clinton tap to Clinton and by barge to Galveston. The Galveston, Houston and Henderson to handle passengers to Texas City and then to Galveston by the steamer Lawrence.”

W. H. McGrath, general manager of the Dallas Electric Company, returned from Galveston yesterday. He said:

HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE STREWN FOR MILES.

“No words can express the scenes of death and desolation. Nothing can be said that will convey the full meaning. I went over to Galveston in a schooner and came away as soon as possible. What they need there is not people, but ice, water and supplies. All along the shore of the bay for twelve miles inland are strewn pianos, sofas, chairs, tables, paving blocks and all sorts of broken lumber and debris from Galveston.

“General Scurry detailed my party to bury the dead on a stretch of beach about two-and-one-half miles long. In that space we found fourteen bodies, all women and children but two. The hot sun beating down and the action of the water had caused decomposition to set in at once. They were horribly bloated, and the eyes and tongues protruding and the bosoms of the women bursting open.

“None of the corpses had any clothing upon them. One man had a leather belt about his waist and the shreds of his trousers. The women were nude except that corsets and shoes still remained on some of them. All the lighter portions of the clothing had been beaten off by the water. There was no time for identification. We simply pulled them up on the beach and buried them where they lay.