“Onward it came, with its ivory keys, showing it was once a messenger of joy and happiness, but it was now a messenger of death, for with one mighty bound it went straight up into the air upon the foaming and frothy water and plunged straight down at Charlie and his fair companion. He saw that he had to make one more death struggle in an instant. He threw himself in front of his lone midnight charge and placed her arms around his body and told her to hold on to him with all her strength.
“The supreme moment was over—the piano had been thwarted in its effort to crush them, but in the struggle Charlie found that he had been torn loose from his lady friend, who had been swallowed up by the raging wave. He at once began a search by feeling and diving for her. Not a flash of lightning, nor the glimmer of an arc light was visible, for, like the life of this dear creature who was engulfed by the torrent waters, they had gone out.
“At this juncture a remarkable thing happened. He had decided to dive once more. He did so, and grasped the hand of what he thought to be his missing friend. He was overjoyed, but upon bringing her to the surface he found that it was not her, but another.
“The waters had increased so in depth by this time that it was impossible for him to attempt to wade, and about this time a house top came along and he crawled upon it. While drifting about on it, he picked up four boys from 6 to 12 years of age. His frail craft finally drifted to a place of safety, where he and his young companions were rescued.”
ATTRACTED NO ATTENTION.
So many are the stories, so harrowing the details, and so miraculous the escapes that for the present the experiences of different persons on the night of the storm in Houston attracted no attention; in fact, if a person wished to tell of his experience in Houston that night he could scarcely find an interested listener.
Nevertheless, Mr. Fred. Chadly, who lives near the Arkansas Pass depot, came as near losing his life that fatal night as did any who passed through its fury in the city of Galveston and escaped. Mr. Chadly left the Capitol Hotel for home about 10 o’clock, not realizing the intensity of the storm.
After an hour’s fighting the strong wind and rain and dodging falling trees and flying debris of all kinds, he arrived at his house only to find the front door impregnably barricaded by a large fallen tree. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Chadly immediately proceeded to make his way around to the back of the house and gain an entrance there.
He was walking in a crouching position with his head bent down so that the wind would not strike him squarely in the face, and was not looking ahead, therefore the large cypress cistern, as it tottered on its foundation preparatory to being blown down, escaped his notice until he was too late to dodge it. The cistern was blown over, turning twice in rapid succession, falling top downward directly over Mr. Chadly.
The cistern was about one-third full of water, but as Mr. Chadly was already thoroughly wet, the water made very little difference, as it soon ran out. Mr. Chadly called loudly for help, but owing to the pandemonium caused by the hurricane, no one heard him. The next morning the carpenter came to fix the cistern, and after raising it discovered Mr. Chadly, who was nearly smothered to death.