“George Boyer’s experience was a sad one. He was thrown into the rushing waters, and while being carried with frightful velocity down the bay saw the dead face of his wife in the branches of a tree. The woman had been wedged firmly between two branches.
“Margaret Lees’ life was saved at the expense of her brother’s. The woman was in her Twelfth street home when the hurricane struck. Her brother seized her and guided her to St. Mary’s University, a short distance away. He returned to search for his son, and was killed by a falling house.”
Galveston, Tex., Sept. 15.—The sound of the hammer is beginning to be heard throughout the city. Every man not engaged in looking for and cremating the dead is repairing the damage wrought by Saturday’s great tidal wave.
The spirit that has been displayed by the citizens remaining here is remarkable. They seem determined to begin immediately the work of rebuilding the stricken city, and to that end are endeavoring to secure building material as speedily as possible. Business houses are being restored and restaurant keepers are conducting business on the sidewalks.
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH.
Some of the escapes of people of Galveston from the storm were nothing less than miraculous. Charles Rutter, aged twelve, was in his father’s house when the waves and wind swept it away. The boy seized a floating trunk and was found at Hitchcock, twenty miles north.
The Stubbs family, consisting of father, mother and two children, was in its home when it collapsed. They found refuge on a floating roof. This parted, and father and one child were swept in one direction, while the mother and the other child drifted in another. One of the children was washed off, but last Sunday evening all four were reunited.
Mrs. P. Watkins is a raving maniac as the result of her experiences. With her two children and her mother she was drifting on a roof, when her mother and one child were swept away. Mrs. Watkins mistakes attendants in the hospital for her lost relatives, and clutches wildly for them.
Harry Steele, a cotton man, and his wife sought safety in three successive houses which were demolished. They eventually climbed on a floating door and were saved. W. R. Jones, with fifteen other men, finding the building they were in about to fall, made their way to the water tower, and, clasping hands, encircled the standpipe, to keep from being washed or blown away.
Mrs. Chapman Bailey, wife of the southern manager of the Galveston Wharf Company, and Miss Blanche Kennedy floated in the waters, ten to twenty feet deep, all night and day by catching wreckage. Finally they got into a wooden bathtub and were driven into the Gulf over night. The incoming tide drove them back to Galveston, and they were rescued the next day. They were fearfully bruised. All their relatives were drowned.