“Men who have lived through the yellow fever scourge in New Orleans and other Southern cities, where the dead in the streets were more numerous than the living, hold those horrors lightly in comparison with the conditions that exist in Galveston.
“In devious ways news of the situation that confronts the living in Galveston comes to this city. There is no telegraphic communication with the island. There is no train service. Boats are plying at irregular intervals across the bay. No one in the city has time to send forth to the world more than meagre accounts of the situation in the city. The bulk of the news is gleaned from refugees who are fleeing to Houston. A few railroad men have penetrated into the desolated city and returned with fragmentary accounts of the perils that menace the living, and the gruesome work that is being carried on day and night to ward off the contagion that is threatened by the hundreds of corpses that lie corrupting under the hot sun.
“It will be days before a fairly accurate estimate of the loss of life can be made. Arrivals from Galveston to-night tell that citizens are laboring unceasingly at disposing of the dead in order that the living may not suffer.
“To graves beneath the blue waters of the Gulf the dead are being consigned as fast as they can be loaded upon barges and towed to sea. There is no other way. The city must be rid of them. No more than a tithe of the bodies can be interred. So soaked is the ground that trenches fill with water as fast as the shovel can lift the earth.
FIERCE HEAT ADDS TO THE HORROR.
“There is need of laborers in the city. The remnants of the fire department and police force, both of which organizations contributed many victims to the storm, are doing heroic work. Their efforts are supplemented by the citizens. Hordes of negroes, kin, many of them, to the unspeakable creatures who preyed upon the dead in their hunger for loot, have been commandeered and forced to lend their strength in delving in the ruins for corpses. Stern-faced men with shot guns and rifles stand over them and keep them to their toil. It is heart-breaking work but it is necessary.
“Since the storm blew itself away the weather has been semi-tropical. For four days the sun has sent down its fiercest darts. The result may be imagined. Over the city hangs the nauseating stench of decomposing flesh. Besides the humans there are thousands of carcasses of domestic animals scattered through the devastated portions of the city. Galveston is in need of everything that charity and compassion can suggest. But above all the city requires disinfectants.
“Heroic measures were adopted by the citizens in charge of the work of policing and rehabilitating the city. It was determined to fire the ruins and purify the city by flame. This must be done. Hundreds of bodies will be cremated in the pyres. Fire is the best disinfectant that the city has at its command. People from the vicinity of Galveston report to-night that heavy clouds of smoke have shrouded the city all the afternoon. It is evident that the ordeal by fire has begun. This adds a fresh menace to the city’s safety. The fire department is unable to cope with the flames, should they spread to the undamaged sections of the city.
“It was the weakest members of the community that suffered the greatest in the dark hours of Saturday night, when the seas leaped upon the city. Two-thirds of the corpses that are seen are those of women and children. The number of the negro dead exceed the white victims.
“A water famine has added its quota to the perils of the situation. The water works are still disabled. There are few wells in the city, and the bulk of the available water supply consists of the stores in the reservoirs. This is not sufficient to last more than a day or two. Strenuous efforts are being put forth to repair the pumps and start the water works.”