In September, 1889, he cabled to Captain Joshua Reynolds, commanding one of the Ward steamers, and who was just leaving Vera Cruz for New York, that a hurricane was approaching from the eastward, and that he would better steam slowly to and past Progresso and let the great storm pass up and along the Gulf Stream. Captain Reynolds acted in obedience to the warning, but this particular hurricane, like the one that struck Galveston, curved to the westward instead of to the eastward, after passing the Yucatan Channel, overcame an area of high barometer that, hung over the Mexican coast, and rushed into Vera Cruz, carrying death and destruction in its wake. Captain Reynolds and his ship safely weathered the hurricane and were received at Havana with great rejoicing, where it had been thought they were lost.
It was in 1859 that still another West Indian hurricane curved the wrong way and swept the waters of the Gulf over Last Island, then the great summer resort of Southern society, situated a few miles west of the mouth of the Mississippi off the coast of Barataria. Those who wish to obtain some conception of the horrors attending the Galveston hurricane should read Lafcadio Hearn’s story of “Chita: The Romance of Last Island,” in which that skilled word painter depicts the scenes of the awful tragedy which decimated the households of the South.
STIRRING APPEALS FOR HELP.
One of our leading journals made the following timely comments upon the Galveston calamity and the urgent necessity for quick help:
“The cry for help which comes from the stricken city of Galveston and the surrounding country is a moving appeal which should receive the readiest and most generous response. The extent of the disaster which has overtaken the city and the coast country of Texas has not been over-drawn, it seems, in the reports from the scene, and it would be impossible to exaggerate the horror of the catastrophe and the distress and suffering that follow in its wake.
“A fair city of 38,000 inhabitants was wrecked in a night. Thousands of men, women and children were drowned or killed in the wreckage of the flooded, crumbling city; whole families suddenly blotted out; the great mass of the survivors bereft of their habitations, goods and clothing, and by the wreck of business houses and the stoppage of industry deprived of the means of earning subsistence for a long time to come. No one need hesitate about making a contribution to alleviate the suffering of Texas on the grounds that others will give enough to supply all needs.
TERRIBLE SUFFERING AND MISERY.
“However generous or lavish may be the aid proffered, it will not be enough to repair the mischief of that storm, and however prompt the aid may be, it will not be quick enough to prevent terrible suffering and misery. Delay in providing for the impoverished and homeless means peril to more lives, deprivation and sickness, and, under the most favorable circumstances in getting aid to the district, thousands are fated to undergo the severest suffering.
“Fortunately, the Government has stepped in and, through the War Department, is lending prompt and effective aid. Tents and rations are being rushed to Galveston with all possible speed, and private liberality and relief committees are coming to the rescue. The scope of the Government’s efforts will be limited to such supplies as are available in the War Department, and, in addition, vast quantities of food, clothing and medicines are needed, doctors and nurses are required, and a large sum of money is an absolute necessity to pay for these things and to form a fund for the purpose of maintaining relief until the sharp period of distress shall be tided over. Our city, in every cause that appeals to benevolence and humanity, has always been in the forefront of the generous, and, in such a case as the Texas disaster, the city’s liberality should be maintained. The Citizens’ Permanent Relief Committee has taken steps to render aid to the hurricane sufferers, and, through that useful and beneficent organization, every person in this vicinity will have the opportunity to join in giving aid for a purpose which must excite universal pity and sympathy.”