He asked the party in charge why these valuables were not removed and the garters removed as a means of identification, and he was told that they were not allowed to remove anything from the bodies, no matter how valuable and how it might aid in future identification.
JEWELS ON THE DEAD.
He noticed a woman floating in the water, and he and a policeman turned her over, and attached to her bosom was a very fine gold watch with her name upon it. He called the policeman’s attention to the importance of securing the watch for future identification, and was given the same information.
Mrs. John P. Smart returned from Galveston on board the steamer “Lawrence,” along with about 400 women and children. Mrs. Smart had been in Galveston for some three weeks, and came away on the first trip made by the “Lawrence.” She said of her experience during the storm:
“At 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, in spite of the efforts of the lady of the house to persuade us all to remain at home, we set out for a place of safety, the Atlanta Hotel. The water was then three feet deep on avenue P. On the way to the hotel I saw three women drowned. They were making their way down the street and were blown down by the wind and lost. We left the house none too soon. After the storm not a trace of it could be found.
“The wind was then blowing at the rate of about sixty miles an hour. At 11 o’clock, when the wind was at its height, the water around the Atlanta Hotel was nine feet deep and the building shook terribly. As the windows were blown in, the men stopped them up again with doors. But when the worst was over and the house still stood, we found that not one of all those who had crowded there for refuge was lost.
“The sight on Sunday morning defies description. One could not look in any direction without seeing scores of human bodies. One building in the west end, in which between 400 and 500 had taken shelter, went down and every human being in it was lost. Not a house was left along the beach. On the bay shore I saw three men on horseback dead. Horses and riders, with reins gripped as if to ride through the peril at any cost, had passed over the river.
MAJORITY KILLED OUTRIGHT.
“There were a number injured, but the overwhelming majority were killed outright. The injured were taken care of at the Sealy and St. Mary’s hospitals, both of which were injured, but not totally destroyed. There are doctors enough in Galveston, but medical supplies are needed.
“One pitiful incident came under my observation. Mrs. Baldwin clung to a raft for twelve hours, from six o’clock Saturday night until six Sunday morning, holding a child, a baby two years old, in her arms. The baby begged her to save its dog, a beautiful St. Bernard, too. Of course this was impossible. The baby was killed in its mother’s arms by flying debris and the dog was saved.