The papers in all parts of the country, without exception, called the attention of their readers to the destructiveness of the hurricane in Texas, expressed their profound sympathy with the sufferers and urged instant relief measures. There never was a more general manifestation of popular solicitude, or a readier or more widespread response to an appeal for assistance.
And yet this is the American rule in such cases. The humblest and the highest give and give quickly. Nothing is too good for the unfortunate when it is known that their misfortune could not be warded off and that they are left utterly helpless.
It makes us love our country better when we find it has such a people within its borders. We regain the confidence in mankind which may have been shattered in sordid every day business. We feel that down in the heart, the good impulses remain, and that only something a little out of the ordinary is necessary to reveal (to slightly paraphrase Goldsmith) that
To relieve the wretched is our pride,
And e’en our failings lead to virtue’s side.
CHAPTER XXIV.
One Hero Rescues Over Two Hundred—Traveler Caught in the Rush of Water—Report of a Government Official—How the Great Storm Started.
There are many people who are composed of the material that constitutes a hero, but the majority pass through the time allotted to them on earth without having the opportunity of demonstrating the fact to the world. On the night that the awful catastrophe visited the city of Galveston few were those who had not this opportunity presented to them.
Of course there were some who failed to develop this quality. The every effort of these was directed with the one supreme purpose of self preservation. Others there were who devoted their services unreservedly to the helpless and in consequence their names will never be forgotten by those whom they preserved from a watery grave.
Some of the deeds of this nobler class will never be known—not even after the relentless sea gives up all its dead. There is one name, however, which will be recorded and preserved in the memory of some as long as that never to be forgotten night of the hurricane at Galveston is remembered by the sons of men. That name will be taught by mothers to their children in the age to come as the name of one possessed of undying courage and heroism.
The name is that of Zachery Scott, a young medical student who was at St. Mary’s Infirmary at Galveston on the fateful night. Alone and single-handed Mr. Scott rescued over 200 souls from the very jaws of death. St. Mary’s Infirmary is composed of a large brick building and several wooden structures, and the latter were entirely destroyed by the fury of the wind and the water. In the wooden buildings were nearly 200 patients who were too sick and weak to battle against the elements and the raging storm, besides a score of the sisters who were at the time acting as nurses.