“We had one particularly hard gust that lasted about five minutes, and on looking at my watch I saw that was a little after 10 o’clock. At 12 o’clock it had died down considerably, and the water fell two feet in about twenty minutes.
“In the early morning we ventured out, although it rained most of the forenoon. In the afternoon I took a walk down to the beach which is ordinarily ten minutes’ walk, but it took me an hour and one-half on this occasion. Once I slipped and twisted my ankle slightly. My foot came down on something soft, and I found that it was the breast of an old man with long whiskers.
“As I returned to the hotel I counted thirty-five bodies, five in one bunch. I saw a negro go out of a house with a load of bedclothes and other stuff and a soldier stopped him. The man claimed that he had been sent there by the owners of the property. I personally saw no looting.
“I stayed there over Sunday night, and on Monday morning seven of us bunched together and paid a man $100 to take us over the bay. On the way over we counted more than ninety bodies passing close to us, and on Sunday forenoon I believe there were about as many bodies in the bay as there were fish. I am certain in my own mind that I saw over 1000 bodies.
STRONG MAN FAINTS.
“Early Sunday morning Jack Frost, of this city, walked into the Tremont Hotel, nearly naked and broken and bruised from head to foot. He fainted and was carried to a room and a doctor sent for. The doctors said that the bones of his right hand were broken, one clavicle broken and his left shoulder dislocated, besides being horribly bruised and mangled. Several inquiries from the doctors elicited the information that it was a close question of life and death when I left. He was caught at Murdock’s pavilion when the storm came up, and could not get away. No one knows just where he landed.”
VIEW OF CENTRAL PARK, SHOWING DAMAGED HIGH SCHOOL IN THE CENTER, TRINITY CHURCH IN THE REAR AND TREMONT HOTEL AT THE RIGHT
THE CITY HALL, GALVESTON—SHOWING DAMAGE DONE BY THE STORM