“THEY WERE ALL DROWNED.”
“He went into minute particulars, told how his house was built and what it cost, and how it was strengthened and made firm against the weather. He told me how the storm had come and swept it all away, and how he had climbed over a mass of wabbling roofs and found a friend lying in the curve of a big roof, in the stoutest part of the tide, and how they two had grasped each other and what they said.
“He told me just how much his cows cost, and why he was so fond of them, and how hard he had tried to save them, but I said, “You have saved yourself and your family; you ought not to complain.”
“The man stared at me with blank, unseeing eyes. “Why, I did not save my family.” He said. “They were all drowned. I thought you knew that; I don’t talk very much about it.”
“The hideous horror of the whole thing has benumbed every one who saw it. No one tells the same story of the way the storm rose, or how it went. No two men tell the story of rescue quite alike. I have just heard of a little boy who was picked up floating on a plank. His mother and father and brothers and sisters were all lost in the storm. He tells a dozen different stories of his rescue on the night of the storm.
“But the city is gradually getting back to a normal understanding of the situation, just as one comes out of a long fainting fit, and says: “Where am I?”
“The Mayor is doing everything in his power to straighten matters out. Martial law is strictly enforced. The Chief of Police is busy, very busy. I caught him in the hotel rotunda this morning. There were five or six men around him, all trying to get permits. He would not listen to one of them.
TOO BUSY TO TALK.
“He transfixed me with a stony stare when I asked him for some information. He did not have time to bother with me. He was too busy feeding the hungry and comforting the destitute and taking care of thieves to care whether the outside world knew anything about him or his opinions or not.
“The little parks are full of homeless people. The prairies around Galveston are dotted with little camp fires, where the homeless and destitute are trying to gather their scattered families together, and find out who among them are dead and who are living.