ON THE BOAT ALL NIGHT.
T. L. Monagan, of Dallas, who went down with the Dallas relief committee, returned and said: “We got there by wagon and boat about 10 o’clock Tuesday night and remained on the boat during the night. We went over to the hotel in the morning and found relief work well organized. They need men to clean the debris out of the streets and to get the city cleaned up. They are disposing of the dead as fast as possible, and the safety of the living precludes any delay for identification. Many are being buried at sea and some cremated.
“We went over the city and along the gulf front saw the immense windrow of wrecked houses. Not a street from Tenth to Twenty-Third was so we could get through. The ground fronting the beach is clear of houses the whole length of the city. The Denver Resurvey was washed away. In my opinion the salt meadow to the southwest of Virginia Point on the mainland must be covered with dead and wreckage. It is an awful thing and it will be thirty days before they can get in shape down there at the present rate.”
F. McCrillis arrived from Galveston. He was in the storm and saw the frightful destruction. He said: “The relief committees are doing noble work on the island. The people of Galveston are rising to the occasion and I never saw braver, stronger-hearted or more intelligent men. It is wonderful the way they face the fearful disaster. They have made no mistakes.
“Some negroes were killed for looting, but since that time it has stopped. The work of cleaning up is being pushed as rapidly as possible. Every Galvestonian is confident that the city will rise from the disaster and sustain its commercial and industrial position.”
HON. MORRIS SHEPPARD’S ACCOUNT.
Hon. Morris Sheppard, son of Congressman John L. Sheppard, returned to Texarkana from Galveston, sound and well, though a little broken up from the shock. When seen he said concerning his experience in the Galveston storm:
“I had gone there to address the Woodmen Saturday night, but the weather got so bad I concluded to leave. I went to the Union Depot about 5 o’clock to catch a train that was to leave for Houston a little later. When the storm broke we all ran up stairs. There were about 100 men and three ladies, and all remained in one room for thirteen hours. While the storm was at its height and the waters were wildest a number of men in one corner of the room struck up the familiar hymn, ‘Jesus Lover of My Soul,’ and sang with great effect, especially the lines ‘While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high,’ etc.
“We all expected death momentarily, yet nearly all seemed resigned; several actually slept. The wind ripped up the iron roof of the depot building as though it were paper. A wooden plank was driven through the iron hull of the Whitehall, a large English merchantman, whose captain said that in his experience of twenty-five years he had never before known such a fearful hurricane. One lady clung to her pet pug dog through it all, and landed him safely at Houston Monday morning. When daylight finally came, an old, gray-bearded man was seen near the building wading in water to his armpits. We hailed him and requested him to get us a boat. He turned upon us and cursed us with a perfect flood of oaths, then turning around walked deliberately out into the bay and was swept away.”