The Gulf Port Trading Company addressed a letter to General Manager Polk of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railway, advising him that strenuous efforts were being made to divert business from Galveston to other ports on representation that Galveston would be unable to take care of the shipments. He was asked to say whether his line would issue domestic and foreign bills of lading for export shipments through Galveston. Colonel Polk replied that the representations were entirely false; that it is expected to have rail communication open to Galveston very soon and to begin the delivery of local and export freight here Friday morning the 21st; that orders have already been issued to superintendents to let Galveston freight come forward and that agents have been authorized to accept freight for Galveston and sign domestic and foreign bills of lading as usual.
A PECULIAR CONDITION.
The wheat in elevator ‘A’ is being turned over and put in shape to deliver to vessels. There were about 1000 cars of wheat on track here and most of these show a peculiar condition on inspection. It appears that in nearly all of them there is a foot of wheat on the bottom to which the water rose. It was salt water and the wheat caked so hard that the ‘tryer’ used by the inspector will not penetrate it. The grain above this water line appears not to have been damaged. The good grain was being transferred by hand to other cars and that on the bottom will probably go to distilleries or some other places. A number of grain exporters, in fact, all who do business through this port, have written letters of sympathy and express themselves as having confidence in the ability of the Galveston people to care for their wheat in the best manner.
“Hanna & Leonard’s new elevator has started. It was about completed before the storm, little damaged during the storm, and has been completed since the storm in order to handle the grain and put such as is out of condition into condition for export.
“A census bureau has been established and placed in operation. A mortuary bureau has also been opened where relatives and friends make oath of the known death of persons lost in the storm. These bureaus will greatly assist in securing an accurate estimate of the loss of life. The clearing of debris in the streets proper has progressed and the spirit of rehabilitating the city is seen in every business. The military forces are accomplishing wonders, and the prediction is made that Galveston will assume normal conditions in a week. Resumption of trade in every channel is apparent. But five arrests and court martial trials is the record for the past week (the second after the flood) since General Scurry assumed control of the city.
“Insurance Inspector J. G. Youens has begun to go over the town to make a detailed report of the houses destroyed. Up to date he has covered the district bounded on the north by East Broadway, on the east and south by the Gulf, and on the west by Fourteenth street. In these forty-five blocks he found destroyed an average of sixteen houses to the block. The fire insurance companies are arranging to refund a pro rata on policies on houses and furniture where the same have been entirely destroyed by the hurricane, and the holders thereof want them cancelled.”
DR. YOUNG’S GRAPHIC STORY.
The following very interesting account of the beginning of the great Galveston storm and graphic story of his experience was prepared by Dr. S. O. Young:
“Tuesday morning, September 4, I was standing near the signal service officer who makes the weather bureau map each day for the Cotton Exchange. This is simply a large blackboard on which is painted a map of the United States. Wherever the bureau has a signal station the readings of the barometer, thermometer, direction and force of the wind and rainfall are recorded on this map, different colors of chalk being used to indicate each.
“When the observation at Key West was-recorded I saw that the barometer was low, that the wind was from the northeast, and the map as a whole showed pretty plainly cyclonic disturbances to the south or southeast of Key West. There was a region of high barometer over Pennsylvania and New York, shading gradually down to Key West and presumably far to the south of that point, while there was another region of high barometer over Colorado, with a comparatively low barometer between the two, all shading toward low the further south the records were made.