“The large force of men used in burying and cremating the exposed dead scattered throughout the city are trying to complete that portion of their work and are searching for the bodies of unfortunates lying crushed beneath the mass of debris and wrecked buildings. Where the debris lies in detached masses, it is fired, and the bodies therein consumed.
“When adjacent property will be endangered by fire, the mass of ruins is removed, the bodies are taken out and conveyed to a safe distance. Around them is piled the debris and the whole is saturated with oil and fired. It is quite impossible to identify the bodies as they are in all stages of putrefaction.
“It is a gruesome and sad task. Some of the men engaged in this work are, perhaps, unknowingly helping to destroy all that is mortal of some loved one, who, a few days before, was the light of his home. The ghastly pile may contain the body of his wife, mother, brother, or some petted child; but in nearly every instance he knows it not.
“One pathetic incident occurred. A squad of men discovered in a wrecked building five bodies, among whom one of the party recognized a brother. All were in an advanced state of decomposition. They were all removed and a funeral pyre was made. The living brother, with a wrench in his heart, assisted, and with Spartan-like firmness stood by and saw his brother’s body reduced to ashes.
“The appalling loss of life by the hurricane has benumbed the people and virtually dried up the fountains of grief. Neighbor meets neighbor and, with a hearty grasp of the hand, says “I hope all is well with you.” The usual reply is, “I am sorry to say I am the only one left.”
“You hear of such incidents everywhere—on the street, in the stores, around soda-fountains where crowds collect to quench their thirst, since water is scarce and the saloons are closed for an indefinite time.
“Burial parties are organized at Virginia Point, Texas City, Port Bolivar and down the island, and the bodies there are being buried as rapidly as possible. Since something like order has come out of chaos a stop has been put to the looting and desecration of bodies at Virginia Point by the bands of ghouls that had terrorized that point, and they have been dispersed.
MONEY CLINCHED IN DEATH GRIP.
“Where the bodies are beyond identification and effects and jewelry are found, these are removed, and a memoranda taken for possible identification at some time by any one who is seeking a lost relative or friend.
“A party that was picking up bodies for burial found the corpse of a nephew of Alderman John Wagner, eighteen years old, lodged in the forks of a tall cedar tree, two miles from his wrecked home. Tightly clinched in his right hand was $200, which his father had given him, with two twenty dollar gold pieces, to hold while the father attempted to close a door, which had blown open.