They were thus driven up into the attic by the waters and terrorized by the wind until after dark. Then, as if to follow out the idea that whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, the wind added to their fright and almost crazed them by carrying before it to their ears the frantic appeals for help from those who were already in the storm’s clutches and were soon to become its victims. The houses around them went, nothing being able to stand against the mighty force of the wind and waves. Then it was that their house began to creak and groan louder than ever, until at last Irvin and his fellows in distress felt that it was going the next minute, and if they did not get out then they never would.
EIGHT CHILDREN THROWN OUT OF WINDOW.
So, having no time for a second thought, he picked up one of those eight children, whose life was part of his and who made his life worth living, and with a prayer tossed him out of the window, to alight on what he did not know, if to alight on anything. But he thought, and wisely, as circumstances proved, that they would have a better chance in the open than in a falling house. He risked their falling into that turbulent sea and sinking, never to come up, to leaving them in the building to be maimed by flying timbers and killed by the falling house.
Thus he threw out all of the eight, then came his wife, then the others who had come to him for refuge. He did not know what the fate of each of the former was when he threw out another, but trusted to Divine Providence, and not in vain. For as he threw the first out a shed in the rear of the house, as if with heroic instinct, washed against the building directly under the window, and there it stayed for a few seconds, catching each member of the family as he or she fell, even waiting for him.
The rest of Irvin’s story is that of a continual fight to keep his family from being blown and washed off of the raft that Providence had given him. This fight lasted for hours and their perilous position was made even greater by the flying timbers and pieces of slate which the wind would seem to take such delight in hurling at them. It was a battle between providence and the elements to see which should claim the family for its own, and not until nearly three o’clock did the wind and water cease in their efforts to add the Irvin family to their long list of victims. The elements were recompensed by taking one of the eight children and injuring the wife so that she would later become one of their dead.
At about three o’clock the next morning Irvin found himself and family, except the little one who had been lost, several blocks from where he had formerly lived, and mixed up in the debris. At daylight he succeeded in getting his wife and children out and brought them to the business part of the town.
THE MOST REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE.
As soon as possible he sent the children to relatives in Houston. In the meantime his wife had been taken to the Sealy hospital suffering from the injuries she had received during the storm. At this time he realized that he was hurt also and went to the temporary hospital at the Custom House, where he stayed for several days under treatment. It was while he was there that the last sad chapter was added to his story. While there confined to his bed, his wife died in the Sealy hospital, and he had to lie at the Custom House without getting a last look at the woman whom he loved, while strangers were burying her body. Of his neighbors who took refuge with him all were saved except the little daughter of Mr. Crowley.
IMPRISONED BY THE STORM.
Thrilling Experience of Colonel Anderson, the Fort Point Lighthouse Keeper and His Wife—In the Face of Death the Light Was Put Up—Isolated for Days in the Wrecked House Without Supplies.
The government reservation of several hundred acres situated at the extreme eastern end of Galveston island met the full force of the storm of September 8th. Unprotected from any side the destructive hurricane and relentless gulf swept the historic spot and the massive concrete fortifications crumbled like so much papier mache. The substantial, double iron-braced barrack buildings and quarters were battered into kindling wood and not a stick stands to mark the place where thirteen buildings stood. Situated within the United States government reservation were the quarantine officers’ home and headquarters; the torpedo casemate, torpedo cable-tank, torpedo warehouse, engineers’ store rooms and wharf leading to the cable tank and casemate.