MACHINERY A COMPLETE LOSS.
Major R. B. Baer, receiver of the Galveston City Street Railway, who is in this city now, says that to-day he telegraphed the Guarantee Trust Company, the owners of the property, that it would take $200,000 to $250,000 to repair the damage to the street railway. The powerhouse and machinery are a complete loss and seven miles of track is gone, as well as all of the trestle work.
“After the storm and until I left Galveston yesterday I walked an average of ten miles a day,” said Major Baer, “and I know there is hardly a building in the city that is not damaged, while the stocks of merchandise are damaged from 25 to 90 per cent. The Galveston, Houston and Northern and the Santa Fe both expect their roads to be open to Virginia Point by Saturday, and then some light draught steamboats will be put on to ply between Virginia Point and Galveston. Both of these roads will commence work on their bridges across the bay as soon as material can be gotten on the ground. The Santa Fe has now a force of 400 men working toward Virginia Point and a large force on the island repairing their track. The Southern Pacific is putting to work all the men they can get.”
One of the Texas journals made editorial comment as follows: “Duty is still all that all can do. Many of the survivors of the storm are ill, others bruised, wounded, broken, hungry and breadless, others hapless orphans, too young to realize their sad condition. There has never been in this country any other disaster to be compared with this. Where others have had to battle against wind or water, here the man and the woman and the child have found a dual foe—both wind and wave. Considering all the conditions and forces and dangers and dreadful results, it may be asserted without any word to modify the statement that this is the most grievous calamity of modern times.
TOO AWFUL FOR WORDS.
“It is a stunning blow to every Texan whose heart is in the right place. It is a calamity so dread that no one can afford to stop to consider himself or his own wounds. The duty which one owes to others comes first. Many are too far away from the scene of desolation and death to do anything; but they are not too far away to give something, and thus to help along the heartrending work which is now going on in Galveston and in other places along the coast. The work of uncovering bodies, of burying the dead, of supplying the needs of those who require assistance, is going on, and a beginning has been made in cleaning and clearing the city to prevent a general spread of sickness, which is sure to come unless this work is thoroughly done. This task will require a week more, possibly many weeks more.
“The removal of huge masses of bricks, stones, timber and decaying stock in large houses which have gone down is necessarily a slow business, yet this difficult task must be performed before even the work of burying the dead can be completed. From the ruins of some houses of this kind scores of bodies are yet to be taken. Unless ample help is procurable this task is almost a hopeless undertaking. It is in order to repeat that it is a duty which must be performed without delay. So far Texans have responded nobly. The same may be said of people the country over. The main purpose is to keep before all the fact that the service of sympathy and mercy must be continued for a little while if the victims of the storm are to be saved and succored.
“As an exchange says, the elements seem to have been wreaking vengeance on Texas this year. In April the Colorado and Brazos Valleys were swept by floods, entailing great loss in life and property. Austin suffered severely. This flood followed a more disastrous one of last year, which laid waste some of the best farms in the State, destroyed crops too late for replanting, drowned thousands of cattle, horses, mules and hogs, and many people. With all these recent disasters Texas is in a more prosperous condition than the State has ever been in before, taking the whole country over.
“While certain of the river valleys have been swept by flood, the rich uplands, particularly those of north Texas, the orchard and garden lands of east Texas and of the coast country and the small grain and pasture lands of the west have brought forth abundant crops, and, speaking generally, the people are in a good way. The high prices for wheat, corn, cotton and other products of the field or ranch have told a hopeful story, and a wise change from the old-time one-crop habit has done much to help along. In spite of the disasters of this and of last year, barring the victims of the floods alluded to, the people of this State are in good condition and quite ready to do all in their power to help along their less fortunate fellow citizens.