CHAPTER VIII. Fears of Pestilence--Searching Parties Clearing Away the Ruins and Cremating the Dead--Distracted Crowds Waiting to Leave the City--Wonderful Escapes.

“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.

“At that moment the house went down and the whole family except the father perished in the storm and flood. It would take volumes to record the many heartrending incidents of this sort and the heroism displayed during the fateful night of Saturday.

“The loss of life in this city is simply appalling. Every little town within seventy-five miles of Galveston was wrecked and torn and people were killed and wounded. The damage to property will aggregate millions of dollars. The damage to property in and around Alvin, a thriving town of two thousand people, where eleven people were killed and a number wounded, is estimated at $300,000, and they send out an urgent appeal for aid and relief supplies.”

“Captain Talfor, of the United States Engineer Corps, during the hurricane was at Quintana, at the mouth of the Brazos River, where he has been supervising government works. He stated to-day that the barometer fell to 27.60, and the wind velocity was one hundred and twenty miles an hour. Fifty-four houses were wrecked in Quintana, and the debris piled up in the streets. Fortunately no lives were lost.

“The town of Velasco, three miles above, on the east side of the river, was completely wrecked. Nine persons were killed, three in the hotel, which was badly demolished. Angleton, the county seat, of Brazoria, ten miles north of Velasco, was almost completely destroyed. Several lives were lost and a number of persons were badly injured.

“The property loss in these three towns and the country adjacent will be beyond the ability of the people to repair. Destitution stares them in the face, and help is urgently needed there and in all other towns within seventy-five miles of the city. The loss in proportion to population and means is just as great and as keenly felt as the loss and destruction in Galveston, and they should not be forgotten by the generous public, which is responding with such noble promptness to Galveston’s cry for help.

SOLID TRAINLOADS OF SUPPLIES.

“Supplies for the relief of Galveston’s sufferers are coming in from every quarter as rapidly as the limited means of transportation here will admit. Solid trainloads from the North and East are speeding towards Galveston as fast as steam will bring them, while cities, chambers of commerce and other commercial bodies in this country, England and Continental Europe are subscribing thousands of dollars for the sufferers from one of the greatest calamities of the century.

“The distribution of supplies here has not yet been put on a systematic basis. There is one general relief committee, with sub-committees in each ward. To these sub-committeemen sufferers must apply for relief, and are categorically questioned as to the extent of their distress.

“If the answers are satisfactory, an order is issued for supplies. If he is an able bodied man, although he may be houseless and may have lost members of his family, or have some injured by the storm and needing attention, he must perform labor before supplies are issued, and if he refuses he is impressed and compelled to work.

“There are many so sadly injured or prostrated by the frightful experience they have recently undergone that they are unable to apply for relief, and would suffer from thirst and exposure unless housed, fed and cared for by humane people who have been less unfortunate. No effort thus far has been made by those in charge of relief affairs to hunt out these poor creatures and care for them.

“And if they have male relatives, these are afraid to venture on the streets for fear they will be impressed and put to work, and thus taken away from those who need their constant care. The present method of relief needs to be radically revised, or it will fail of its purpose and defeat the object of those who are so generously contributing. Medical relief is much better organized.

EXODUS SERIOUSLY HAMPERED.

“The Transportation Committee is handicapped in its efforts to get out of the city the persons who are destitute by the lack of sufficient boats and rail communication. The latter want will not be supplied for many days. Present communication is by boat to Texas City, and then by the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railway to Houston. Those who are able to pay are charged half fare; those who are not are given free transportation. Guards are stationed at Texas City to prevent the curious from invading the city, eating up the limited food supply and doing no good.

“The city in its present condition is not a healthy place for visitors. It is full of fever and other disease breeding matter, and smells like a charnel house. There is not a house of any character in the city but is foul and ill smelling. Plenty of lime-water and disinfectant is urgently needed here, or an epidemic will sweep through the city with hurricane force.

“Thousands of men are cutting passageways through the streets, clearing the sidewalks of the mass of debris, removing the sea slime from the floors of buildings and washing them out, but this does not dispose of it, and under the torrid sun it ferments and putrefies and the stench is fearful.

“The water failed to materialize as promised and this aggravates the situation. With a crippled fire department, the fire engines useless and no water supply, a fire, if it should break out, would speedily wipe out what remains of the city.

“It will be months before the business streets will be entirely cleared of rubbish and repaved, and it will be years before the damage done by the storm will be obliterated. It is impossible to conceive of the widespread destruction unless it is actually seen.”

ANOTHER REPORT FROM GENERAL McKIBBEN.

Washington, D. C., Friday.—General McKibben on September 12, reported to the War Department upon the conditions in Galveston as follows:—

“General conditions are improving every hour. Repairs to water works will by to-morrow insure water supply for fire protection. Provisions of all kinds are being received in large quantities. Enough are now en route and at Houston to feed all destitute for thirty days.

“There is now no danger of suffering from lack of food or shelter. City under perfect control, under charge of Committee of Safety. Loss of life is probably greater than my conservative estimate of yesterday. Property loss enormous; not an individual in the city has escaped some loss; in thousands of cases it is total.

“To-day, in company with Colonel Robert and Captain Riche, I made an inspection at Fort Crockett, and by tug of the fortifications at Forts San Jacinto and Travis; with the exception of battery for two 4.7 rapid fire guns, batteries may be considered non-existent. Captain Riche has forwarded by wire this evening full report of conditions to Chief of Engineers.

“I coincide in recommendation that all fortifications and ordnance property be transferred to engineer officer here for salvage. Earnestly recommend that Battery O, First Artillery, be ordered to Fort Sam Houston for recuperation and equipment; officers and men are largely destitute. At present a large number are injured and unfit for duty. Impossible at present to furnish them with ordinary camp equipage, clothing, as all transportation facilities are being utilized to bring in food supplies.”

CAPTAIN RICHE’S REPORT.

“Chief of Engineers, Army, Washington, D. C.:

“Jetties sunk nearly to mean low tide level, but not seriously breached. Channel at least as good as before; perhaps better. Twenty-five feet certainly. Forts as follows: Fort Crockett—Two 15–pounder emplacements, concrete all right, standing on piling water underneath. Battery for eight mortars about like preceding. Mortars and carriages on hand unmounted.

“Battery for two 10–inch guns about like preceding, both guns mounted and in good shape. Shore line at Fort Crockett has moved back about six hundred feet. Fort San Jacinto—Battery for eight 12–inch mortars badly wrecked, magazines reported fallen in; mortars reported safe. No piling was under this battery; some of the sand parapet left. Battery for two 10–inch guns badly wrecked. Central portion level, both gun platforms down, guns leaning. No piling was under this battery.

“Battery for two 4.7–inch rapid fire guns, concrete standing upon piling; both guns apparently all right. Battery for two 15–pounder guns, concrete apparently all right, standing upon piling.

“Fort San Jacinto batteries could not be reached by land; inspection was from a distance. Sand around these batteries seemed pretty well leveled off to about two to three feet above mean low. Torpedo casemate, nothing but concrete left and badly wrecked. Concrete portion of cable tank left; cable in it probably safe. Part of coal wharf still standing.

“Everything else in vicinity gone. Some of the mine cases are down the beach as far as Fort Crockett. Fort Travis—Battery for three fifteen-pound guns, concrete intact, standing on piling, water underneath. Battery for two eight-inch guns, concrete intact, except eastern emplacement, which has cracked off; eastern gun down and twenty feet from battery; western one all right; concrete standing on piling, water underneath middle of battery. These batteries were inspected from the channel.

“The shore line has moved back about one thousand feet, about on the line of the rear of these batteries. All buildings and other structures gone. Inspection was made with General McKibben. Recommendation was made that all fortifications and property be transferred to the Engineer Department; that for the present batteries be considered non-existent, so that future work may be chargeable as original construction.

“Much ordnance can be saved if given prompt attention. Unless otherwise instructed, I will take charge of these works at once and save all possible. New projects for jetties and forts cannot be submitted for several weeks, until definite detailed information is had. Further recommendations will then be submitted as soon as possible. Galveston is still a deep water port, and such a storm is not likely to reoccur for years.”

ESTIMATES OF THE DEAD ARE TOO LOW.

Austin, Tex., Sept. 14—“I am thoroughly satisfied, after spending two days in Galveston, that the estimate of 6000 dead is too conservative. It will exceed that number. Nobody can even estimate or will ever know within 1000 of how many lives were lost.”

This was the opinion of Assistant State Health Officer I. J. Jones, who arrived at Austin directly from Galveston, where he was sent by Governor Sayres to investigate the condition of the State quarantine station. Dr. Jones made an inspection of the sanitary condition of the city, and in his report said further:

“It was with the greatest difficulty that I reached Galveston. At the quarantine situated in the Gulf, a mile and a half from the wharves, I found things in a state of ruin. The quarantine warehouse and disinfecting barge, just completed, are total wrecks, as is also the quarantine wharf. A part of the quarantine residence is left standing, but so badly damaged that it is not worth repairing.

AN OFFICER’S BRAVERY.

“Quarantine Officer Mayfield showed the greatest bravery and self-sacrifice when the storm came on. He sent all of his employees and his family, except two sons, who refused to leave him, to places of safety. He remained in the quarantine house with his two devoted sons throughout the terrible night. All of one wing of the house was taken away and the floor of the remaining part was forced up and carried away by the waters. Dr. Mayfield and his two sons spent the night on a stairway leading from the upper floor to the attic.

“Despite this destruction of the station, the quarantine has never been relaxed, and all vessels are promptly boarded upon arrival at Galveston. There are now three vessels lying at quarantine. They brought cargoes to be discharged at Galveston and had cargoes consigned to them. The cargoes cannot be taken off except by lighter, and the vessels are awaiting instructions from their owners. The Mallory Line Steamer “Alamo” got in Wednesday, but was sent back to the bay, as she could not discharge her cargo.

“The sanitary condition of the city is very bad. While there has been no outbreak of sickness, every one expects that, and it is inevitable. There is no organized effort being made to improve sanitary conditions. Large quantities of lime have been ordered to the place, but I doubt if anyone will be found to unload it from the vessels and attend to its systematic distribution when it arrives.

“The stench is almost unbearable. It arises from piles of debris containing the carcasses of human beings and animals. These carcasses are being burned where such can be done with safety. But little of the wreckage can be destroyed in this manner, however, owing to the danger of starting a fire that will destroy what is left of the ill-fated city. There is no water protection and should fire break out the destruction of the city would soon be complete.

“When searching parties come across a human body it is hauled out into an open space and wreckage piled over it. The pyre is then set on fire and the body slowly consumed. The odor from these burning bodies is horrible.

“The chairman of the Central Relief Committee at Galveston asked me to make the announcement that the city wants all the skilled mechanics and contractors with their tools that can be brought to Galveston. There is some repair work now going on, but it is impossible to find men who will work at that kind of business. Those now in Galveston who are not engaged in relief work have their own private business to look after and mechanics are not to be had.

“All mechanics will be paid regular wages and will be given employment by private parties who desire to get their wrecked homes in habitable shape as rapidly as possible. There are many fine houses which have only the roof gone. These residences are finely furnished, and it is desired that the necessary repairs be made quickly.

WELL ORGANIZED.

“The relief work is fairly well organized. Nothing has been accomplished, except the distribution of food among the needy, and some attempt at clothing them. I found no one who was hungry or thirsty. About one-half of the city is totally wrecked, and many people are living in houses that are badly wrecked. The houses that are only slightly injured are full of people who are being well cared for. The destitute are being removed from the city as rapidly as possible. It will take three or four days yet before all who want to go have been removed from the island city. A remarkably large number of horses survived the storm, but there is no feed for them, and many of them will soon die of starvation.

“In the city the dead bodies are being disposed of in every manner possible. They are burying the dead found on the mainland. At one place 250 bodies were found and buried on Wednesday. There must be hundreds of dead bodies back on the prairies that have not been found. It is impossible to make a search there on account of the debris. There will be many a skeleton of victims of the disaster found on the prairie in the months and years to come.

“Bodies have been found as far back from the present mainland shore of the bay as seven miles. That embraces a big territory which is covered with rank grass, holes filled with water and piles of debris. It would take an army to search this territory on the mainland.

THE GULF FULL OF BODIES.

“The waters of the Gulf and bay are still full of bodies, and they are being constantly cast upon the beach. On my trip to and from the quarantine station I passed a procession of bodies going seaward. I counted fourteen of them on my trip from the station, and this procession is kept up day and night. The captain of a ship who had just reached quarantine informed me that he began to meet floating bodies fifty miles from the port.

“As an illustration of how high the water got in the Gulf, a vessel which was in port tried to get into the open sea when the storm came on. It got out some distance and had to put back. It was dark and all the landmarks had been obliterated. The course of the vessel could not be determined, and she was being furiously driven in toward the island by the wind. Before her course could be established she had actually run over the top of the north jetty. As the vessel draws twenty-five feet of water some idea can be obtained as to the height of the water in the Gulf.”

They marry and are given in marriage. A wedding took place in Galveston. It occurred at the Tremont Hotel. Ernest A. Mayo, a lawyer, and a candidate for Prosecuting Attorney, was the bridegroom. Mrs. Bessie Roberts was the bride. The engagement was of long standing. Both suffered much from the storm. They decided that it was better to cast their fortunes together. Friends approved. The ceremony took place on Thursday, the 13th, five days after the flood.

Governor Sayres was advised on the fourteenth that a government vessel, which was loaded with supplies at Texas City for the Galveston sufferers, went aground shortly after leaving the wharf, and had not yet been gotten off. It was found that vessels could not cross the bay at that point, and thereafter they would be sent to some other point which had a deeper channel connection with Galveston.

The estimates of immediate losses in the aggregate vary widely. It may be said that none of them are below $20,000,000. The maximum, as given by intelligent residents, including some members of the Citizens’ Committee, is $35,000,000. One of the Galveston business men sent to Austin to confer personally with Governor Sayres on the work of relief, inclined to the belief that the immediate losses might, without exaggeration, be placed at $35,000,000.

In the indirect class are the losses which must be sustained through the paralysis of business, the reduction of population, the stoppage of industries, and the general disturbance of commercial relations, and Galveston business men hesitate to form any conclusion as to what the moral losses must be.

A REFUGEE’S TALE OF HORROR.

F. B. Campbell, who was in Galveston when the floods swept upon it, was one of the first refugees to reach the North. He passed through Pittsburg, six days after the disaster, on his way to Springfield, Mass., which is his home. Mr. Campbell had his right arm fractured. William E. Frear, a Philadelphia commercial traveller, who was with Campbell in Galveston, accompanied him as far north as Cincinnati, and went home on the express. Frear’s right ankle was sprained.

Campbell was a cotton broker and was overwhelmed at his boarding house while at dinner. He reached a heap of wreckage by swimming through an alley. Of the scene when he left, Campbell said:

“The last I saw of Galveston was a row of submerged buildings where a thriving city stood. A waste of water spread in all directions. In the sea were piles of wreckage and the carcasses of animals and the bodies of hundreds of human beings. The salt marshes presented an indescribable sight. Nude forms of human beings, that had been swept across the bay were scattered everywhere. No man could count them without going insane. It looked like a graveyard, where all the tenants of the tombs had been exhumed and the corpses thrown to the winds.”

SOME WONDERFUL ESCAPES.

There were many wonderful incidents of the great storm. In the infirmary at Houston was a boy whose name is Rutter. He was found on Monday morning lying beside a truck on the land near the town of Hitchcock, which is twenty miles to the northward of Galveston. This boy is only 12 years old. His story is that his father, mother and two children remained in the house. There was a crash and the house went to pieces. The boy says that he caught hold of a trunk when he found himself in the water and floated off with it. He thinks the others were drowned. With the trunk the boy floated. He had no idea of where it took him, but when daylight came he was across the bay and out upon the still partially submerged mainland.

When their home went to pieces the Stubbs family, husband, wife and two children, climbed upon the roof of a house floating by. They felt tolerably secure, when, without warning, the roof parted in two places. Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs were separated and each carried a child. The parts of the raft went different ways in the darkness. One of the children fell off and disappeared, and not until some time Sunday was the family reunited. Even the child was saved, having caught a table and clung to it until it reached a place of safety.

One of the most remarkable escapes recorded during the flood was reported to-day when news came that a United States battery man on duty at the forts last week had been picked up on Morgan’s Point, injured but alive. He had buffeted the waves for five days and lived through a terrible experience. Morgan’s Point is thirty miles from Galveston.

Galveston, Tex., Sept. 14.—The local Board of Health through Dr. H. A. West, its secretary, has made a demand that the work of clearing up the dwelling houses be turned over to physicians. This work has been under the direction of Adjutant General Scurry, and he has proved himself so capable that the Relief Committee declined to make any division of responsibility.

Notwithstanding the fact that the number of boats carrying passengers between Texas City and Galveston has been largely increased, it was impossible yesterday to leave the city after the early morning hours. Yesterday the “Lawrence,” after jamming her nose into the mud, remained aground all day. Her passengers were taken off in small sailboats, and by noon a dozen of them heavily loaded started from Galveston to Texas City.

INTENSE SUFFERING ON THE WATER.

The wind died away utterly and the boats could neither go on to Texas City nor return to Galveston. None of them had more than a meager supply of water, which was soon exhausted; the sun beat down with a merciless severity. In a short time babies and young children became ill and in many instances their mothers were also prostrated. There was absolutely no relief to be had, as the tugs of Galveston Bay, which might have given the sloops tow, are all made for deep sea work and draw too much water to allow of their crossing the shallow channel.

Hour after hour the people on the boats, all of which were densely packed, were compelled to broil in the torturing and blinding sun. A slight breeze arising in the evening at 9 o’clock, the sailing craft which had left Galveston at noon began to dump their passengers upon the beach at Texas City. Owing to a delay in Houston trains it was fully twenty hours after their start from Galveston that the people who left there yesterday noon were able to move out from Texas City, which is only eight miles away, and by the time the train had made a start for Houston every woman in the crowd was ill through lack of food, exposure and insufficient sleep.

In the long list of the dead of Galveston the family name of Labett appears several times. Only a year or two ago five generations of the Labetts were living at one time in Galveston.

The family nearly suffered the destruction of the family name in the storm. A young man connected with one of the railroads was down town and escaped. When the parties of searchers were organized and proceeded to various parts of the city one of them came across this young Labett near the ruins of his home all alone. He had made his way there and had found the bodies of father and mother and other relatives. He had carried the dead to a drift of sand, and there without a tool, with his bare hands and a piece of board he was trying to scrape out gravel to bury the bodies.

GALVESTON REFUGEES AT HOUSTON.

The “Post” of Houston prints a list of 2701 names of Galveston dead, compiled from various sources, but believed to be authentic. There are many bodies still in the ruins of Galveston and scattered along the beach of the mainland and in the marshes.

About 1300 people arrived here from Galveston on the 13th. Four buildings have been set apart for the benefit of refugees, but of the 3500 who have reached here so far not more than 800 remain in the public charge, the remainder of them going to the homes of relatives and friends.

MESSAGES FOR THE DEAD.

The following statement was made on Friday, the 14th; it was dated at Dallas:

“Galveston is no longer shut off from wire communication with the outside world. At 1.15 o’clock this afternoon the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company received a bulletin from the storm-stricken city stating that wire connection had been made across the bay by cable, and that direct communication with the island city was resumed with two wires working and that two more would be ready by to-morrow. A rush of messages followed.

“The Western Union got in direct communication with Galveston this afternoon, and soon that office was also crowded. Probably never before has there been so much telegraphing to the dead. The headquarters of the Western Union and Postal systems located in this city report that in Dallas, Houston and Galveston are thousands of messages addressed to persons who can never call for them or receive them.

“Some of the persons addressed are known to be dead, and there is no doubt that hundreds of others are among the thousands of unknown and unidentified victims of the storm whose bodies have been dumped into the sea, consigned to unmarked graves or cremated in the great heaps that sanitary necessity marked for the torch and the incinerating pyre.

“The insurance questions are beginning to receive serious attention. Life insurance companies are going to be hit very hard. The question that particularly engages the attention of representatives is whether settlement shall be made without litigation. The general southwestern agents for eight big insurance companies were interviewed to-day, and they stated that all Dallas insurance men concur in the opinion that the insurance policies against storm losses carried by Galvestonians will not aggregate $10,000,000. They say there was absolutely no demand for such insurance at Galveston.”

WHOLE FAMILY KILLED BY STORM.

Among those who were caught in the storm that devastated Galveston on Sunday night were six persons who comprised the family of Peter E. McKenna, a former resident of Philadelphia. According to news received by their relatives in that city, all perished.

When word of the Texas disaster first came it was reported that the entire family had been lost, but it later developed that a married daughter, who lives in Omaha, Neb., was not visiting her parents, as was first supposed, and therefore escaped the death that overtook her relatives.

Peter E. McKenna, the head of the family, was well known in Philadelphia during his youth. His father was one of the pioneers in the religious press. The son followed the profession of his father, and after engaging in the publication of newspapers and religious weeklies until 1862 he sought fortune in the West.

Galveston at the time was a growing city, and as it offered the opportunities Mr. McKenna desired he settled there and devoted himself to the upbuilding of newspapers. His success was of such a nature that he made his permanent home in Galveston, and during the thirty-eight years that have passed, was recognized as one of the most foremost journalists in that city. Latterly he was connected with the Galveston “Despatch” and also conducted a publishing house for himself.

Separated as he was by thousands of miles from the city of his birth, Mr. McKenna was able to make only a few visits during the last twenty-five years, but he kept up a constant correspondence with several relatives. In these letters there was frequent mention of the fact that the city was lower than the sea and open to the attacks of any storm that might form in the Gulf of Mexico.

CLEARING THE WATER FRONT.

At a conference held at the office of the City Health Officer on Friday, the 14th, it was decided to accept the offer of the Marine Hospital Service, and establish a camp at Houston, where the destitute and invalids can be sent. The physicians agreed that there were many indigent persons in the city who should be removed. A message was sent to the Surgeon General asking that the department furnish one thousand tents, of four-berth capacity each; also seven hundred barrels of disinfecting fluid.

Another important movement in the direction of sanitation was made by the Health Department in calling for one hundred men with drays to clean the streets. The idea is to district the city and start the drays to remove all unsanitary matter from the streets.

STRANGE BURIAL PLACES AND GRAVES.

Although the work of disposing of the dead is being pushed, several hundred bodies are still buried beneath the wreckage. Thirty-two sand mounds marked with small boards, attract attention on the beach, near Twenty-sixth street, and tell the story of where about seventy-five bodies have been buried.

One of the greatest needs of the city now is disinfectants. The local Committee on Correspondence drafted this general message to the country:

“Our most urgent present needs now are disinfectants, lime, cement, gasoline stoves, gasoline, charcoal furnaces, and charcoal. Nearby towns also may send bread. For the remainder of our wants money will be most available because we can make purchases from time to time with more discretion than miscellaneous contributors would exercise. We are bringing order out of chaos and again offer our profound gratitude for the assistance so far received.”

The first real attempt to clear away the great mass of debris piled along the beach front for several miles was begun to-day. Advertisements this morning asking for hundreds of men and boys were answered by a multitude. It is hoped that a vigorous prosecution of the work will lead to the early recovery of the bodies in the debris. That there are many of them there is no shadow of doubt.

SEEKING FORMER RESIDENCES.

A correspondent walked along the beach for some distance to-day and the stench was sickening. Everywhere little groups of men, women and children, some poorly clad, were digging in the ruins of their homes for what little household property they could save. In many cases, those seeking their former residences were unable to find a single remnant of them.

The exodus from the city was heavy to-day, and hundreds more were eager to leave, but were unable to secure transportation. Along the bay front there were scores of families with dejected faces, pleading to be taken from the stricken city, where, in spite of every effort to restore confidence, there is much depression.

J. C. Stewart, a builder, after a careful inspection of the grain elevators and their contents, said the damage to the elevators was not over two per cent. Mr. Bailey said he would put a large force of men to work clearing up each of the wharves, and the company will be ready for business within eight days. The wharves have been damaged very little outside of the wreckage of the sheds. With the wreckage cleared away Galveston will be in shape for beginning business.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC WILL REBUILD.

To a journal in New York the “Galveston News” sent the following important statement:

“You ask the ‘News’ what is our estimate of Galveston’s future and what the prospects are for building up the city. Briefly stated, the ‘News’ believes that inside of two years there will exist upon the island of Galveston a city three times greater than the one that has just been partially destroyed. The devastation has been great and the loss of life terrible, but there is a hopefulness at the very time this answer is being penned you that is surprising to those who witness it. That is not a practical answer to your inquiries, however.

“The principal feature is this—The Southern Pacific company has ordered a steel bridge built across the bay ten feet higher than the trestlework on the late bridges. The company has ordered also a doubling up of forces to continue and improve their wharves, and with this note of encouragement from the great enterprise upon which so much depends the whole situation is cleared up.

AN EXCELLENT PORT.

“Our wharves will be rebuilt, the sanitary condition of the city will be perfected; streets will be laid with material superior to that destroyed, new vigor and life will enter the community with the work of construction, and the products of the twenty-one States and Territories contiguous will pour through the port of Galveston.

“We have now, through the action of this storm, with all its devastation, thirty feet of water on the bar, making this port the equal, if not the superior, of all others on the American seaboard. The island has stood the wrack of the greatest storm convulsion known in the history of any latitude, and there is no longer a question of the stability of the island’s foundation. If a wind velocity of one hundred and twenty miles an hour and a water volume of fifteen feet in some places upon the island did not have the effect of washing it away, then there is no wash to it.

“Galveston island is still here, and here to stay, and it will be made in a short time the most beautiful and progressive city in the Southwest. This may be esteemed simply a hopeful view, but the conditions existing warrant acceptance of the view to the fullest extent.

“The ‘News’ will not deal with what is needed from a generous public to the thousands of suffering people now left with us. The dead are at rest. There are twenty thousand homeless people here, whose necessities at this time are great indeed. Assistance is needed for them in the immediate future. The great works of material and industrial energy will take care of themselves by the attraction here presented for the profitable employment of capital. We were dazed for a day or two, but there is no gloom here now as to the future. Business has already been resumed.”

PLAN TO PROTECT GALVESTON.

Can the city of Galveston, almost obliterated by the recent storm, be protected from all future assaults by the Gulf?

Colonel Henry M. Robert, United States Corps of Engineers, and divisional engineer of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, who is stationed here at present, says that Galveston can be absolutely protected from every storm by a sea wall built along the Gulf front.

Colonel Robert, during the late spring, while on a visit to Galveston, suggested a comprehensive plan for the improvement, of that harbor, which was hailed by the city and State as solving the problem of the creation of a great port in Galveston Bay. This plan would also afford a great measure of protection to the city from inundation on its northern and southwestern sides should a strong wind from the Gulf pile up the water on the shallow floors of Galveston and West bays.

Colonel Robert’s plan contemplates the construction of a great basin for harbor purposes, as well as for dry docks, to the northwest of the city. The basin would be formed by a retaining wall shutting out Galveston and West bays, and by filling in the parts of the Gulf floor between this retaining wall and the walls or shores of the basin.

The northern retaining wall would follow generally the line of the south jetty, and a deep water channel of twenty-five to thirty feet would be left between the new land and the city of Galveston, connecting the channel formed by the jetties with the inner basin. Pelican Island would be the backbone of the made land, and all of Pelican Flats would be transformed into solid land, to be used for railway and docking purposes.

THE PROJECT WAS APPROVED.

The plan also involved the extension of the jetty channel through Galveston Bay and up Buffalo Bayou as far as Houston, more than sixty miles distant, making the latter city an open seaport. Railways would have, by means of the filled-in land, ready access to the city, and, in addition, the port facilities of Galveston would be many times increased, and a continuous sea channel be constructed from the Gulf to Houston.

This project, as outlined by Colonel Robert, received the unqualified approval of the various interests concerned in the development of Galveston harbor, and steps had been taken to carry out the plan before the onslaught of the recent storm swept away water lines and much of the city itself. Colonel Robert now proposes an additional plan, simple and inexpensive, for affording the fullest and most complete measure of protection from all storms. This new plan is to construct a sea wall along the Gulf front of the city.

It is estimated that the height of the waves in the recent storm, which was the severest ever experienced on the Texas coast, was about ten to twelve feet. Colonel Robert suggests that a wall at least twelve feet above the beach, and running the entire length of the water front, or about ten miles, be built immediately to barricade the city from the Gulf. A height of twelve feet above the beach would give fourteen feet above the water, and would, Colonel Robert thinks, afford ample protection.

COST OF THE SEA WALL.

As to the expense of such a structure, it is thought by engineers that a liberal estimate would be about $1,500,000 per mile. This wall, as projected by Colonel Robert, would extend from a point on the south jetty, where the latter crosses the Gulf front of the city, and would follow the line of the beach, two or three feet above the water level, until it reached the southwestern limit of the island, in the shallow water of West Bay. At the latter point the danger from storms is not serious.

At present the depth of water between the jetties is 26½ feet, and it is thought that it will soon be thirty feet. The average depth of the original channel across the twenty-five miles of Galveston Bay is about twelve feet. It is proposed by Colonel Robert’s plan to increase this to at least twenty-five feet. An additional and supplementary plan is to extend the improvement, so as to create a system of coast channels that will transform Galveston into a central port with a labyrinth of waterways.

EXTENSIVE HARBOR IMPROVEMENT.

The magnitude of the plan for the improvement of the harbor of Galveston may be imagined when it is observed that the inner basin, or harbor, is to be about five miles long by three broad, that it may be approached by a deep water channel accommodating ocean going vessels of the deepest draught. The outlet into West Bay will not be so deep, as the bay itself is navigable by light draught vessels only. The new land, formed on the basis of Pelican Island and flats will be about four miles square.

Colonel Robert said that a survey will be made at once of the wrecked forts and other military works at Galveston. A report received from that place says that those portions of the works erected upon piling withstood the storm. It is proposed to use piling entirely for similar works in the future.