“Insanity is developing among the sufferers at a terrible rate. It is estimated by the medical authorities that there are 500 deranged men and women who should be in asylums, and the number is increasing. These poor creatures form the most pitiable side of Galveston’s horror. They stand in groups and cry hysterically. They are harmless, for their troubles have left them without strength to do harm.
“Mentally unbalanced by the suddenness and horror of their losses, men and women meet on the streets and compare their losses and then laugh the laugh of insanity as a newcomer joins the group and tells possibly of a loss greater than that of the others. Their laughter is something to chill the blood in the veins of the strongest men. They are maddened with sorrow, and do not realize their losses as they will when reason returns, if it ever returns.
“Some of them are absolute raving maniacs. One man, Charles Thompson, a gardener, as soon as he was out of personal danger that awful night, commenced rescuing women and children, and saved seventy people. He then lost his mind. Two policemen were detailed to capture him, but he heard them approaching and leaped from the third-story window of an adjoining building and escaped.
THE YOUNGEST NURSE.
“The Chicago Relief Corps has the youngest, and, considering her years, most efficient nurse among the hundreds engaged in relief work. She is Rosalea Glenn, eleven years old, a refugee from Morgan Point. Together with her mother, Mrs. Minnie F. Glenn, and two smaller children, she was received at the hospital last night.
“To-day Rosalea asked to be assigned to part of one of the wards. She astonished trained nurses by her cleverness, and her services proved as valuable as those of any one on the force. She is now the hospital pet. Her father is Albert W. Glenn, a boatman. The home of the Glenns was washed away, but the family were saved by a flight of seven miles into the country.
“Some of the advertisements in the Galveston News are very striking. Garbadee, Iban & Co. make this announcement: ‘Our help has generously volunteered to work to-day to assist the necessities of the flood sufferers. Our store will open from 9 A. M. until 5 P. M. Orders from the Relief Committee will be filled.’”
CHAPTER XIV
Dead Babes Floating in the Waters—Sharp Crack of Soldiers’ Rifles—Tears Mingle With the Flood—Doctors and Nurses for the Sick and Dying.
One of the most harrowing experiences during the scene of destruction and death at Galveston was that of a young lady belonging to Elgin, Illinois. Stamped upon her mind until she shuddered and cried aloud, that she might forget all its horrors and terrible memories, Miss Pixley stood in the Dearborn Street Station and told of the Galveston flood. Surrounded by her relatives and friends who had given her up as dead, Miss Pixley, who was the first arrival from the storm swept district, told her story between outbursts of bitter tears.
“Oh, those eyes,” she cried, “that I might put them from my mind. I can see those little children, mere babies, go floating by my place of refuge, dead, dead! God alone knows the suffering I went through. Thousands, yes, thousands, of poor souls were carried over the brink of death in the twinkling of an eye, and I saw it all.”