Hundreds of such tragic incidents as these marked the week, and the number of men and women who lost their reason was very large.
HARROWING TALES TOLD BY SURVIVORS.
Many strange incidents of the hurricane were gathered from the tales of the survivors. They told of pitiable deaths, of fearful destructions of property and of strange incidents of the great force of the storm. The following are just a few of the many that were told by refugees in this city:
One of the most remarkable escapes recorded during the flood was that of a United States battery-man on duty at the forts, who had been picked up on Morgan’s Point, wounded but alive. He had buffeted the waves for five days and lived through a terrible experience. Morgan’s Point is thirty miles from Galveston.
Another man who passed though a similar experience was found floating on the roof of a house on the open sea, over one hundred miles distant from Galveston. He was half famished, but quickly recovered upon being taken aboard.
Dr. H. C. Buckner, of the Buckner Orphan’s Home at Dallas, brought with him from Galveston thirty-six little children who were made homeless, fatherless and motherless by the storm. Many of the children were suffering from cuts and bruises, and all were destitute of clothing except the tattered and torn garments which they had on their backs. They were taken to the Children’s Hospital in Haskell avenue, in Dallas, to have their wounds treated and to recuperate before being sent to the home proper, six miles east of the city. The children are from all walks of life, and were taken in charge by Dr. Buckner while in Galveston as the ones most in need of immediate attention.
Reports show that three-fourths of the Velasco people lost their homes and four persons were drowned. Eight bodies were washed ashore at Surfside, supposed to be from Galveston. At Quintana 75 per cent. of the buildings are destroyed. No lives were lost there, though a number were injured. Velasco has hardly a house that will bear inspection. People are suffering for the necessities of life and many who are sick need medicines.
At Seabrooke, Texas, thirty-three out of thirty-four houses floated away and twenty-one people were drowned. At Hitchcock a large pile-driver of the Southern Pacific works at Galveston, and also a large barge partly laden with coal, are lying in the pear orchards several miles from the coast. Box cars, railway iron, drawbridges, houses, schooners and all conceivable things are lying over the prairie, some fifteen miles from their former location.
A TRAGIC WEDDING CEREMONY.
At the Tremont Hotel in Galveston a wedding occurred Thursday night, which was not attended with music and flowers and a gathering of merrymaking friends and relatives. Mrs. Brice Roberts had expected some day to marry Earnest Mayo. The storm which desolated so many homes deprived her of almost everything on earth—father, mother, sister and brother. She was left destitute. Her sweetheart, too, was a sufferer. He lost much of his possessions in Dickinson, but he stepped bravely forward and took his sweetheart to his home.