A pathetic story of the Galveston flood is that of Mrs. Mary Quayle, of Liverpool, England, who is now on her journey home. She had only been two days in the city with her husband when the storm came. She goes home, her husband dead, and herself a nervous wreck. Mr. and Mrs. Quayle had taken apartments in Lucas terrace, Galveston. During the storm Mr. Quayle went to a window, when a sudden burst of wind tore out the panes and sucked him, as it were, out of the house. Mrs. Quayle, in the rear of the room, was thrown against a wall and stunned. No trace of her husband’s body has been found.
It will be a long time before many of the survivors of the Galveston catastrophe can appreciate the nature of the calamity which has befallen them. One woman laughingly told another that she had saved her baby, but that her two boys and her husband had been drowned. She was evidently insane.
An eye-witness, writing on September 16th, said: “Galveston is striving manfully to rise from its ashes. A reign of terror has been averted, Hope crowns the day. More than a thousand men are clearing the streets of debris. They are working night and day. Their efforts so far have been expended in picking up carcasses and gathering bodies into piles and burning them. Separate pyres are built for human bodies and animals, and the work progresses rapidly. The task is heart-rendering, and many able bodied men have succumbed to the ordeal.
GIGANTIC DISINFECTION.
“Hundreds of women and children who are trying to get away from the city to the mainland find the task difficult. The slowness of the distracted ones is not due to tardiness or hesitation on their part. On the contrary, it is a scramble to get away, and the shattered wharves are lined with persons awaiting their turn. Transportation facilities are very meagre. There are few boats to be had. The Lawrence, a 200–ton propeller, is the only steamer carrying persons across to Texas City.
“One of the most hopeful features of the situation is the arrival of hundreds of barrels of disinfectants, such as carbolic acid and chloride of lime. Two thousand barrels of these could be advantageously used. The Board of Health shows signs of vigor and of an appreciation of the danger that confronts the city and contiguous territory. Every effort is being made to deodorize the ruins and to quickly dispose of the dead as soon as they are reached.
“The work of cleaning and disinfecting the streets is carried on with vigor, and the results are quite noticeable, especially in the central part of the city. Gutters in Tremont street were opened and the slush and debris from them carted to the city dump. This allowed the water to drain off. Centre street and the Strand were also worked on with excellent results, the gutters being opened and disinfectants generally distributed. Several other streets in the central part of the city were put in a sanitary condition.
“The depot for sanitary supplies established by the Board of Health issued yesterday fifty-four sacks and eighty-four barrels of lime, twenty-five sacks of charcoal, twenty boxes of powdered disinfectants, ten cans of oil and three barrels of carbolic acid. All of this was distributed over the city for disinfection.
“Out in the suburbs large forces were at work cleaning the streets and opening the gutters. The result of their work is very noticeable to one who went out in the evening after having gone over the same ground the day before. The work of clearing the streets of broken telephone and telegraph poles and wires, as well as poles and wires of other kinds, has been begun in earnest. The great broken poles with their loads of wires are lowered to the ground and the wires removed as rapidly as possible.