“It was best, for the odor that arose from the dead bodies was awful. Still it made one’s heart ache with a sorrow never to be equaled as one witnessed little children tossed into the midst of the hissing flames. Do you wonder I cry?
“Before me, no matter which way I turned, I could see dead bodies, their cold eyes gazing at me with staring intentness. I closed my eyes and stumbled forward, hoping I might escape for a moment the sight of dead bodies, but no; the moment I would open them again, right at my feet I would find the form of some poor creature.
“Coming to Chicago on the train I read the papers. They are mistaken, away wrong: They only say 5,000 dead. It will be more than 10,000. I know I am right; every one in Galveston talks of 12,000, 15,000 and 18,000 dead, but it will be 10,000 at the very least.
“I believe the worst sight I witnessed was the 2,800 bodies being carried out to sea and buried in the gulf. Huge barges were tied to the wharfs and loaded with the unknown dead. As fast as one barge was filled it made its way out from the shore, and weighting the bodies, men cast them into the water.”
I. Thompson, a young man who was very active in saving life during the night of the storm, became insane because of the awful scenes he witnessed. Thompson’s friends first noticed his condition when he told that one of the persons he rescued had deposited $10,000 in one of the banks to his credit, and that he was going to live in luxury the rest of his life.
TRAGIC INCIDENTS.
Thompson retired to his room, on the third floor of the Washington Hotel, seemingly sane. Soon afterwards he began to moan, and soon became violent, rushing from one side of his room to the other and declaring his determination to commit suicide. Employes of the hotel did all they could to pacify the man, and during the night he became more rational and lay down. The person engaged to watch him was compelled to leave the room for a short time early in the morning, and when he returned he found that Thompson had wrenched the shutters off his window and leaped out upon an awning and thence to the street.
Thompson was seen to run toward the bay, and in all probability he threw himself overboard and was drowned, as he was not seen or heard of afterward.
Another case is that of a young woman who was caught in the rain, and, with two other women and about fifty men and boys, found refuge in an office. It was with the utmost difficulty she could restrain herself during the fearful storm, and she frequently became hysterical and cried out for her mother, sisters and her brother and his family. As the storm gradually subsided the young woman became more calm, and when morning broke she started for her home quite reassured. She found a wild waste of waters sweeping over the site of her home. Her dear ones were missing.
Among the first victims carried into the temporary morgue were the young woman’s mother, brother and two children. These were quickly followed by her brother’s wife and her two sisters. The shock overthrew the girl’s reason, and she became a nervous wreck, without a relative in the world.