The Great Galveston Disaster. Paul Lester
Mayor also sent the following telegram to Mayor Brashear, of Houston, Texas:
“Hon. S. E. Brashear, Mayor, Houston, Texas.—In response to your telegram I have issued a call to the people of the city of New York to contribute to the relief of those afflicted by the disaster at Galveston. Please express to the Mayor of Galveston the profound sympathy of the people of New York for the people of Galveston in this hour of their distress.
“ROBERT A. VAN WYCK, Mayor.”
Ten doctors and twenty nurses from Bellevue Hospital, New York, volunteered to go to Galveston and help care for the injured and sick. They left New York by special train in the evening.
The following cablegram was received by the American representative of Sir Thomas Lipton:
“Very grieved to see press reports here regarding fearful calamity befallen Galveston. Sufferers have my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy. If getting up public subscription will be glad to give $1000.
“LIPTON.”
POST OFFICE STREET, SHOWING HARMONY CLUB BUILDING AND MASONIC TEMPLE
DESTRUCTION AT AVENUE I BETWEEN EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH STREETS
TAKING BODIES ON THE RAILROAD BARGE FOR BURIAL AT SEA
BURNING WRECKAGE TO CREMATE DEAD BODIES
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD ON SOUTH TREMONT STREET
WRECK OF THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, THE LARGEST IN GALVESTON
WRECKAGE ON THE WHARF, PIER 20 SPANISH STEAMER IN THE BACKGROUND
SCENE AT AVENUE K AND SIXTEENTH STREET—HOUSE OVERTURNED BY THE WIND
This was a graceful act of sympathy from the gallant yachtsman who made the spirited attempt to capture the cup from the New York Yacht Club, and although failing, became a universal favorite in this country.
Official reports from Galveston to Governor Sayres at Austin, on the 11th, were that 400 bodies had been identified. 200 more were in an improvised morgue awaiting identification, and many more were thought to have drifted out to sea, and their identity will never be known.
CONDITIONS THAT BEGGAR DESCRIPTION.
A telegram from Adjutant General Scurry, who was at Galveston, to the Governor, was as follows:
“Have just returned from Texas City with several Galveston parties, who assure me that conditions there beggar description. Accounts have not been exaggerated. While a portion of the provisions has been destroyed by water sufficient on hand to relieve immediate necessities. The citizens seem to have the situation well in hand. United States troops and Company C., volunteer guard, with citizens, patrol the streets to prevent looting.
“I requested W. B. Wortham to go to Galveston from Texas City for the purpose of advising me of the city’s most urgent needs, and I returned here to report and ask for further instructions. I respectfully suggest that the distress is too great for the people of Galveston, even with the assistance of Houston, to stand, and that a general appeal for help would be welcomed. The estimate of 10,000 destitute does not seem to be excessive.
“From reports reaching the Governor this morning it will be necessary to co-operate with the Federal troops to place all the mainland opposite Galveston, as well as the island, under martial law.
“Thieves have begun to enter the city for the purpose of pilfering the bodies of the dead. The Governor has been informed that the commander of the Texas troops has been ordered to Galveston by the Federal authorities, and the Governor will lend him every assistance possible with State militia to keep vandalism down. There is only one road operating to the coast from Houston, and that will be placed under military supervision temporarily.
“Governor Sayres was in receipt of a telegram from Miss Barton, of the Red Cross Society, offering the assistance of that association if necessary, and he replied that he would call on the society if he found that its help was needed.
“A large number of State militia tents were shipped from Austin to Galveston for temporary use on the island.
MONEY BEGINNING TO POUR IN.
“Governor Sayres received upward of 1000 telegrams during the day from parties in the East and West offering assistance to the flood sufferers at Galveston, and from various portions of the State reporting the collection of money and supplies. During the day Governor Sayres estimated that the receipts in money from collections in Texas would amount to $15,000, though from reports a great deal of money has been sent direct to Galveston instead of coming through the Governor, and the amount may be much larger than that stated.
“Quite a number of Eastern newspapers are wiring the Governor offering to establish themselves as bureaus for relief funds if desired and asking what they can do to relieve the situation. A telegram from New York informed the Governor that two relief trains of supplies had left New York for Galveston. The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce wires that it will send any relief desired that it can give. Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis and several other points did likewise.”
Acting Secretary Meiklejohn of the War Department at Washington authorized the chartering of a special train from St. Louis to carry quartermaster’s and commissary supplies to the relief of the destitute at Galveston.
The following telegram was received:
“Galveston, Texas, Sept. 9, 1900.—Quartermaster General, Washington. I report terrific cyclone with an eleven foot tide. All improvements, temporary buildings, property and stores at both Jacinto and Crockett destroyed and swept clean.
“BAXTER, Quartermaster.”
A second telegram followed:
“Galveston, Texas, Sept. 11, 1900.—Referring to my telegram of yesterday, via Houston, I urgently recommend that fair compensation be made to contractors for their losses, and that they be relieved of their contracts. If fortifications are rebuilt at or near their present sites I urgently recommend that quarters for troops be purchased and built on higher ground in the city, centrally located. Wharves destroyed; all railroad bridges swept away and building operations of any nature cannot be resumed under six weeks or two months.”
A VOICE FROM JOHNSTOWN.
Mayor Woodruff, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, issued the following proclamation: “Later and more definite information of the fearful destruction of life and property at Galveston and other places in Texas recalls to our attention the awful calamity in