When the water began to rise, Mr. Scott, who was in the brick building, went over to where these patients were quartered and soon returned, through water waist deep, with one in his arms. Over 200 times he performed this feat, although before the task was completed the water between the two buildings was over six feet in depth.
Back and forth, during all the stormy night, he went and every time he returned another soul was saved from a dreadful fate. When the storm was at its height, the debris was flying in all directions, the resistless waters carrying people on to destruction and when he was weak and weary from his exertions, the inmates of the brick building begged him not to attempt the feat again. But still, with a dauntless courage born of devotion, he never faltered in his duty, and every person in the doomed building was taken to a place of safety. Such courage, devotion and heroism deserves a place side by side with that of the greatest heroes who ever lived.
A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.
Harry Van Eaton, a well known traveling salesman for Tenison Bros., Dallas, was in the midst of the disaster, but saved his life in a marvellous manner.
“It was the worst trial of my life,” he said with a shudder. “I shall never forget its horrors. I arrived in Galveston Saturday morning and immediately went to the beach with a party of us and for a while had a good time in bathing. But the waves soon became furious and we were notified by the life saving crew ‘to get out of the water as there was danger coming.’
“Luckily we obeyed their command, for when we had dressed, the waves were enormous. We had to wade waist deep in water before we reached the Tremont Hotel. The wind kept increasing and at this stage of the game I began to realize something awful was going to happen.
“At eight o’clock that night the wind must have been going a hundred mile an hour gait and it was about this time that the roof of the hotel gave away and the skylight fell in on the thousand or more people who were there. I walked through three or four feet of water to reach the front door.
“There was a regular millrace rushing past the door and I was caught in it, but by God’s help and by expert swimming I managed to reach the mainland.
“It was a terrible experience; whirling by me were hundreds of bodies, more than I dared to count, crushed and mangled between timbers and debris. Men, women and children sinking, floating and dashing on, many to an instant death. I also passed many dead horses and cattle. How it all ended, that I reached safety, I hardly know; but I kept my presence of mind and by God’s help was saved.”