CHAPTER XIII. Refugees Continue the Terrible Story--Rigid Military Patrol--The City in Darkness at Night--Hungry and Ragged Throngs.

Persons who arrived in Dallas from Galveston not only confirmed all that had been said before or written about the disaster there, but gave more details of the horror. Each interview was more distressing than the one preceding it, and it seemed that even an approximate idea of the truth was yet to be given. Some accounts told of the deadly flood. Others told of the work of vandals and their speedy death at the hands of Uncle Sam’s fighters, and of hunger and sickness, woe and misery.

Newt M. Smith, of Dallas, who was sent to Galveston by the local insurance men to assist in the relief of the needy brethren in that city, was one of those to return with important information.

“When we arrived in Houston we were informed that no one would be permitted on the train without a pass from Mayor Brashear, of Houston,” he said. “We hunted the Mayor up and were told that 2000 passes had already been issued and that the train would carry only 800 people. We finally succeeded in getting on board without passes, some of the men climbing through the windows. Nearly all the dwellings and business houses of the small stations on the International and Great Northern between Houston and Galveston are either blown down or seriously damaged.

“At certain places along the railroad every telegraph pole was down for a distance of one-half or three-quarters of a mile, poles and wires being across the track. Some twelve or fifteen miles this side of the bay at one place I counted the carcasses of fourteen large cattle and horses that had drowned. Just before reaching Texas City Junction it was necessary for the passengers to abandon the train for the purpose of repairing and rebuilding a bridge across trestle which had washed away. Volunteers were called for to go into the mud and water, and more men volunteered than could get around the bridge timbers to replace them.

“It required three or four hours in which to repair the track at this point, during which some 250 passengers left the train, taking with them their valises, jugs of water and provisions, and walked a distance of six miles through the mud and water to Texas City. About two and a half miles west of Texas City, and about two miles from the bay, out on the bald prairie, is a large dredge-boat. For fifteen miles back from the bay can be seen millions of feet of debris of every description, including tops of houses, sashes, doors, pianos and pieces of household furniture of every kind. There were something over twenty-six bales of cotton that I counted out on the prairie inside of that distance, all compressed cotton which had evidently come from the wharf at Galveston.

BURYING THE DEAD.

“After arriving at Texas City we had to wait two or three hours for a boat, and during the time a number of the party walked down the beach and discovered and buried the bodies of eight men, women and children. A memorandum was taken describing as well as possible the people buried, and a headboard put up with a number corresponding to the one in the book. We left Texas City at 3.30 Tuesday evening, arriving at Galveston at 9.30.

“While on the way over we discovered the bodies of several people and quite a number of horses and cows, and as we got off the boat, just under the wharf was a pile of twenty or twenty-five drowned people. Just after leaving the wharf we saw the remains of seven people which were being prepared for cremation. The town is under martial law, and on my way up to the city I was hailed by guards three different times, but after explaining I was permitted to proceed.

“I do not think the conditions at Galveston have been over-drawn by the newspaper reports. In fact, it is more deplorable than any words or picture could portray to the mind. Before we arrived several parties had been shot for robbing the dead and looting houses. Some of our party walked down the beach and found a couple of white men who were breaking open and robbing the trunks which had floated ashore, taking the garments from them and drying them on the grass. These trunks contained all kinds of family wearing apparel.

“We found that all the insurance men of Galveston and their immediate families were safe excepting two married sisters of Mr. Harris, who were drowned with their eight children. They were drowned in their own yards and the bodies afterward recovered and buried there. The loss to the insurance companies from a financial standpoint will be very heavy on account of the cancellation of policies under which there is now no liability, the houses having been destroyed. Again, a great many people who are indebted to the insurance agents cannot pay for the reason that they have lost everything.

CITY WILL RECOVER FROM THE BLOW.

“If the Government and the railroads will repair and rebuild their property in Galveston the city may recover from the blow, but unless this is done there will be very slim chances for the city to attain the position as a commercial point it has heretofore held. The losses of life and accident insurance companies will be something enormous.

“What the people of Galveston need most, in my opinion, is lime and workingmen, especially carpenters and tinners. The citizens are fully aware of the sympathy they are receiving and the liberal manner in which the people of the country have come to their relief from a financial standpoint, but the immediate need is a sufficient number of hands to clean up the city and remove the debris. Among the important buildings destroyed were the cotton mills, baggage factory and the electric light and power houses, the large elevators and the Texas flouring mills, with several million bushels of wheat.”

W. E. Parry, of Dallas, was one of those who weathered the hurricane in the union depot at Galveston. He said that he was particularly fortunate, and did not even get wet. In telling the story of his experience he said: “I left Houston Saturday morning and knew nothing of the storm until we reached Virginia Point. The wind was blowing a gale and the water in the bay was high and a considerable sea running. We got over on Galveston Island at 10.30 and found the track washed out. A switch engine and a coach was sent to us and everybody, including the train crew, was transferred. The water was rising all this time and the wind was increasing in violence. The water got over the track and put out the fire in the engine, but the steam lasted long enough to get into the depot. While going in the train crew had to go ahead and push floating poles and ties and wreckage off the track.

“We got to the depot at 2.10 in the afternoon. The wind was still growing stronger and the air was full of sheets of water. The streets were waist-deep and the water was running like a millrace. We could see people wading around trying to collect their families and effects, and the bus was still running between the depot and the Tremont. I knew the depot was a new, strong building, and I decided to stay there.

GREAT GUSTS OF WIND.

“Every gust of wind seemed fiercer and more wicked than any. It was blowing in a straight line from the northeast in great, vicious gusts, as if it would tear down everything. Soon the water came into the ground floor of the depot, and we had to go to the second floor. The wind kept increasing in velocity and began to blow the windows in, tearing out frames and all and throwing them across the rooms. Men went to work and put additional braces across the large panes of glass and wedged them tight with newspapers.

“I saw a boy driving an express wagon, trying to reach the depot. A gust struck him, and over went the wagon, horse and all, the boy landing on the sidewalk. He was a nervy youngster and came back, and I could see the knife in his hand as he cut the horse loose in the water. He mounted and rode back to town.

“Night came on, and still the storm grew worse and worse. No man can describe the pandemonium of sound. The wind would yell and shriek until it resembled the cry of an enraged animal. All sorts of missiles were flying through the air and clattering against the walls. Cornices, section of tin and thousands of slates from the roofs were flying every way. The instinct to escape was strong among all in that depot, and it was suggested that we join hands and try to make our way up town. I told those who wanted to go that they would be killed with flying slate, and it was decided to stay.

“It is hard for men to sit still and do nothing when in mortal fear of their lives, and I saw men sit, clench their hands and set their teeth, and sweat breaking out all over them. It was an awful strain on the nerves. We reasoned that we were in as good a place as we could get, though no one expected to live through it.

OLD GENTLEMAN WITH BAROMETER.

“There was an old gentleman in the depot who seemed to be a scientist. He had a barometer with him, and every few minutes he would examine it by the solitary lantern that lit the room, and tell us it was still falling and the worst was yet to come. It was a direful thing to say, and some of the crowd did not like it, but the instrument seemed to be reliable. About 9 o’clock the old man examined it and announced that it stood at 27.90. I give the figures for the benefit of any one who wants to know the reading at the height of the storm. He announced to the crowd that we were gone and that nothing could exist in such a storm.

“At that time the hurricane was awful. Once in a while I could hear a muffled detonation, a sort of rumbling boom. I knew that it was a house falling, and it did not add to my comfort. There was no lightning or thunder, and at times the moon gave some light. The clouds did not appear to be up any distance, but to drag the ground.

“About 10 o’clock the old man looked at his instrument and gave a whoop of joy: ‘The worst has passed,’ he shouted. ‘We are all safe. The storm will soon be over.’ Few took in the full meaning of his words for the wind was still a hurricane. Within almost as many minutes it had risen ten points and we felt safe.

“I went over the island the next day and words can not describe what I saw. Everything was wrecked along the gulf front for three to four blocks back, the ground was clear and the houses which had stood there were piled in a windrow which in many places must have been fifty feet high.

“What is needed is able-bodied, honest men to clean up this wreck and remove bodies and bury them. They want no idlers or surplus people to feed and protect. Disinfectants to purify the streets from the slime and silt left by the water are necessary.

“I saw 600 bodies in an undertaker’s house. I saw them loaded on floats, piled up like cotton, black and white alike, with arms and limbs sticking out in every direction. I must have seen nearly a thousand bodies along the wharves and coming across the bay. It was frightful.”

ON THE BOAT ALL NIGHT.

T. L. Monagan, of Dallas, who went down with the Dallas relief committee, returned and said: “We got there by wagon and boat about 10 o’clock Tuesday night and remained on the boat during the night. We went over to the hotel in the morning and found relief work well organized. They need men to clean the debris out of the streets and to get the city cleaned up. They are disposing of the dead as fast as possible, and the safety of the living precludes any delay for identification. Many are being buried at sea and some cremated.

“We went over the city and along the gulf front saw the immense windrow of wrecked houses. Not a street from Tenth to Twenty-Third was so we could get through. The ground fronting the beach is clear of houses the whole length of the city. The Denver Resurvey was washed away. In my opinion the salt meadow to the southwest of Virginia Point on the mainland must be covered with dead and wreckage. It is an awful thing and it will be thirty days before they can get in shape down there at the present rate.”

F. McCrillis arrived from Galveston. He was in the storm and saw the frightful destruction. He said: “The relief committees are doing noble work on the island. The people of Galveston are rising to the occasion and I never saw braver, stronger-hearted or more intelligent men. It is wonderful the way they face the fearful disaster. They have made no mistakes.

“Some negroes were killed for looting, but since that time it has stopped. The work of cleaning up is being pushed as rapidly as possible. Every Galvestonian is confident that the city will rise from the disaster and sustain its commercial and industrial position.”

HON. MORRIS SHEPPARD’S ACCOUNT.

Hon. Morris Sheppard, son of Congressman John L. Sheppard, returned to Texarkana from Galveston, sound and well, though a little broken up from the shock. When seen he said concerning his experience in the Galveston storm:

“I had gone there to address the Woodmen Saturday night, but the weather got so bad I concluded to leave. I went to the Union Depot about 5 o’clock to catch a train that was to leave for Houston a little later. When the storm broke we all ran up stairs. There were about 100 men and three ladies, and all remained in one room for thirteen hours. While the storm was at its height and the waters were wildest a number of men in one corner of the room struck up the familiar hymn, ‘Jesus Lover of My Soul,’ and sang with great effect, especially the lines ‘While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high,’ etc.

“We all expected death momentarily, yet nearly all seemed resigned; several actually slept. The wind ripped up the iron roof of the depot building as though it were paper. A wooden plank was driven through the iron hull of the Whitehall, a large English merchantman, whose captain said that in his experience of twenty-five years he had never before known such a fearful hurricane. One lady clung to her pet pug dog through it all, and landed him safely at Houston Monday morning. When daylight finally came, an old, gray-bearded man was seen near the building wading in water to his armpits. We hailed him and requested him to get us a boat. He turned upon us and cursed us with a perfect flood of oaths, then turning around walked deliberately out into the bay and was swept away.”

APPEAL TO COLORED PEOPLE.

Professor H. C. Bell, of Denton, Grand Master of the Colored Odd Fellows, issued the following self-explanatory circular:

“To the Lodges and Members of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in Texas: Dear Brethren—The greatest calamity that has ever visited any city in America visited Galveston on the 8th instant, leaving in its wake thousands of dead and helpless people of our race, together with the white race. It is our duty to help, as far as we are able, to relieve the suffering condition of the citizens of Galveston. It goes without saying that the white citizens of Texas have always contributed freely to ameliorate and alleviate suffering humanity; it is, therefore, our bounden duty, and, indeed, this is a most fitting opportunity for us, as members of the greatest negro organization in the world, to show to our white fellow-citizens of Texas the charitable spirit that has always characterized Odd Fellows. Besides this, many members of our fraternity are victims of the direful storm of the 8th instant at Galveston. They appeal for our assistance. Therefore, I, H. C. Bell, do issue this appeal to the lodges and members for relief for our brethren in Galveston.”

The well-known writer and correspondent, Joel Chandler Harris, writing from Galveston, says:

“As was naturally to be expected, the facts already brought to light show that the devastation wrought at Galveston and other coast towns in Texas by the unhappy conjunction of wind and sea outrun and overmatch the wildest conjectures of those who were calm enough immediately after the event to give out such estimates as tallied with what their own eyes had seen.

“The tremendous loss of life which has been verified by all accounts gives this harrowing catastrophe a first place among events of the kind. Indeed, among modern disasters it has an awful pre-eminence, and this fact lends wings to a suggestion which I should like to emphasize.

“It is this: If the horror of the calamity is to be measured by the loss of life, the same measure should be applied to the pressing necessities of those who have been stripped of everything save life. However much we may deplore the loss of life, the dead are done for. They are beyond and above the crying demands and necessities which press upon those who are left alive.

“In the nature of things, the condition of thousands of those who have been spared is far more pitiable than that of the dead. Their resources have been swept away by wind and tide, and they are desolate in the midst of desolation. The catastrophe was so vast in extent and so furious in its sweep that it will be many a long day before the survivors are able to recover from its effects.

NEVER WEARY OF GIVING.

“Outside aid is absolutely necessary in order to prevent suffering even greater than that which accompanied the outburst of the elements. The large-hearted public is never weary of giving in cases where the necessity of giving is absolute. With the American public sympathy and pity provoke unbounded generosity.

“All geographical lines, all differences are completely broken down by any emergency which stirs the tender heart of the people. But it frequently happens that this native generosity is not as prompt to act as necessity demands, especially in cases where the least delay adds to the suffering of those who have been left helpless. No tongue can tell, and no pen can describe the awful results of a storm such as that which has visited the Texas coast.

“The sea island of the South Atlantic coast had a similar visitation several years ago, and the present writer was commissioned to visit the scene and depict the results. He arrived upon the ground more than a fortnight after the hurricane had passed through the islands, and though Miss Clara Barton and her assistants of the Red Cross Society had been able to get in touch with the sufferers more promptly than usual, there were many still on the point of starvation. No doubt many perished within sight and hearing of the succor which the public and the Red Cross Society were so anxious to give.

“Fortunately, the islands are but sparsely populated, as compared with the region which has recently been devastated, and in consequence, there was far less suffering than is to-day to be found in the track of the hurricane which has just wiped out whole communities and caused such an extraordinary loss of life. If the fact to be emphasized and insisted on is that it was necessary for generosity to act promptly after the sea island catastrophe, there is a far greater necessity for promptness in the present emergency, owing to the larger number of people involved.

REFUSED TO BELIEVE THE TIDINGS.

“The difficulty in the case of the sea island hurricane was that a large number of conservative people—the very class which may be depended on to respond most liberally to appeals in behalf of the unfortunate—refused to believe the stories sent out by the press agents and newspaper correspondents who made haste to visit the scene of disaster, placing them in the category of newspaper sensations.

“The fact remains, however, that the naked details of the sea island hurricane never were put in possession of the public. Curious incidents and queer results were dwelt upon and described, but a detailed account of the effects of that storm has never been printed. Those who have never visited the scene of one of these elemental disturbances can have no idea of the extent of the havoc and ruin wrought by them. The results must be seen and felt before they can be understood and appreciated.

“They are of such a character as to elude and evade all efforts at description. All the newspapers can do is to give a bald account of incidents.

“But to-day we are face to face with a few of the horrors of a calamity that outdoes any similar visitation with which the nation is familiar. The situation in the afflicted territory is piteous in the extreme. And may the nation’s blessing rest on all who give succor to those stricken by this awful hurricane curse of the sunny southland.”

“It would be difficult to exaggerate the awful scene that meets the visitors everywhere,” said Clara Barton, after arriving in Galveston. “The situation could not be exaggerated. Probably the loss of life will exceed any estimate that has been made.

“In those parts of the city where destruction was the greatest there must still be hundreds of bodies under the debris. At the end of the island first struck by the storm, and which was swept clean of every vestige of the splendid residences that covered it, the ruin is inclosed by a towering wall of debris, under which many bodies are buried. The removal of this has scarcely even begun.

PEOPLE DAZED INTO CALM.

“The story that will be told when this mountain of ruins is removed may multiply the horrors of the fearful situation. As usual in great calamities the people are dazed and speak of their losses with an unnatural calmness that would astonish those who do not understand it.

“I do believe there is danger of an epidemic. But the nervous strain upon the people, as they come to realize their condition may be nearly as fatal. They talk of friends that are gone with tearless eyes, making no allusion to the loss of property.

“A professional gentleman who called upon me this afternoon, a gentleman of splendid human sympathies and refinement, wore a soiled black flannel shirt, without a coat, and in apologizing for his appearance said in the most casual, light-hearted way: ‘Excuse my appearance: I have just come in from burying the dead.’

“But these people will break down under this strain, and the Red Cross is glad of the force of strong, competent workers which it has brought to its relief.

“Portions of the business part of the city escaped the greatest severity of the storm and are left partially intact. Thus it is possible to purchase here nearly all the supplies that may be wanting. Still, the Galveston merchants should be given the benefit of home demands.

“Mayor Jones has offered to the Red Cross as headquarters the best building at his disposal. Relief is coming as rapidly as the crippled transportation facilities will admit. No one need fear, after seeing the brave and manly way in which these people are helping themselves, that too much outside aid will be given.”

Reported dead several times, their obituaries printed in Galveston and Houston, Peter Boss, wife and son, formerly of Chicago, were found, after having passed through a most thrilling experience.

TRIED TO ESCAPE WITH HER MONEY.

Mrs. Boss’ story of her experience in the disaster was a thrilling one. With her husband and son she was seated at supper in her home on Twelfth street when the storm broke. She seized a handkerchief containing $2000 from a bureau, and, placing it in her bosom, went with her husband and the son to the second story.

There they remained until the water reached them and they leaped into the darkness and the storm. They lit on a wooden cistern upon which they rode the entire night, clinging with one hand to the top of the cistern. Several times Mrs. Boss lost her hold and fell back into the water, only to be drawn up again by her son. Timbers crashed against their queer boat, people on all sides of them were crushed to death or drawn into the whirling waters, but with grim perseverance the Boss family held on and rode the night out.

Mrs. Boss was pushed off the cistern several times by her excited husband, but young Boss’ presence of mind always saved her. With her feet crushed and bleeding, her clothing torn from her body and nearly exhausted, the woman was finally taken from her perilous position several hours after the hurricane started.

Her companions were without clothing and were delirious. They were the only persons saved from the entire block in which they lived. They were taken to emergency hospitals, where they all tossed in delirium until Sunday. Mrs. Boss lost her money, and the family, wealthy a week before, was penniless. They had to appeal to the city authorities for aid, and got but little.

A Chicago journal established a Relief Bureau at Galveston, and sent thither a special commissioner who, under date of September 15, gave the following account:

“I spent part of last night with the Chicago American Relief Bureau. I had no business there. The nurses and doctors had done all there was to do. They have worked like great big-spirited Trojans. The babies were all abed and asleep. The women were fed and the homeless and destitute men who had wandered in for shelter had been tucked away in the gallery and made as comfortable as possible.

A HEROIC LAD.

“The gas was out in the great theatre, and a few candles shed a flickering light. A lad told this story: He lost every one on earth he loved and who loved him in the flood. He swam two miles and over with his little brother on his back, and then saw his brother killed by a piece of falling timber after they had reached dry land and what he supposed was safety.

“He is sixteen years old, this boy of mine; tall and strong in every way, and when he had dug a shallow grave in the sand for his little brother he went up and down the prairies and buried those he found. Alone in the declining sun, without food or water, impelled by some vague instinct to do something for some one, this boy did this, and yesterday they found him fainting in a field and brought him to us. We put him to bed, made him take a bowl of soup and gave him a bath.

“He seemed perfectly amazed at the idea that any one should want to do anything for him. We only got his story out of him by persistent and earnest questioning. He said there was none to tell. Last night he was talking in his sleep.

“‘That’s all right, Charley,’ he said over and over again. ‘Brother won’t let you get hurt. Don’t you be scared, Charley, and I will save you!’ and he threw his arms out and about as if he was swimming.

“Hour after hour he swam and hour after hour he comforted his little brother, and when I laid my hand on his forehead and he woke and remembered where he was, he smiled up into my face as a tired child would smile into the face of one he loved, and went to sleep and began to swim through the black and troubled waters with Charley on his strong young shoulders again.

“He is utterly alone in the world now. The doctors are a little afraid of brain fever for him, but I believe we can stave it off, and if we can we are going to keep him in the relief corps and give him work and something to do and live for as long as we are here. His name is on the list of patients published with this article. If anyone who sees it remembers and wants to befriend this boy telegraph to the American Relief Bureau at Houston and we will attend to it.

HUNGRY AND HALF CLAD.

“There was a new party of them which came in last night late from Galveston. About fifty came in after 10 o’clock, hungry, half clad and worn to the very edge of human endurance. They stood timidly at the door and one of them begged for shelter as if she thought she would be refused. Most of our cots with mattresses in them were taken, but that did not make any difference. Dr. Bloch, of Chicago, and Dr. O’Brien, of New York, got their heads together and in less than half an hour every one of those fifty people had some sort of a bed to sleep on and in three-quarters of an hour they were all fed.

“We engaged two cooks, a man and a woman, yesterday, but neither of them came. That did not make the slightest particle of difference. Whoever was hungry was fed at the relief station, and whoever was naked was clothed and whoever was sick was attended. Nobody knew or cared how long they had been working or whether they themselves had time to get a morsel of food. Everybody did everything. I saw Dr. O’Brien down on his knees taking off a pair of soaked shoes for a woman who was so tired she could not lift her hand to her head.

“The fear of pestilence has become so widespread that the authorities are taking measures to prevent a wholesale exodus of able-bodied men, whose services are urgently needed at the present time. The dread of plague has seized upon the negro population so strongly that in some instances they refuse to work in cleaning up the city.

“The tidal wave caused a heavier loss of life along the coast west of Galveston than was at first supposed. Scores of corpses are being found lying along the beach. Some of the bodies may be those who were buried at sea from Galveston and floated into shore again, but the position of many shows that they were natives of the little coast towns suburban to Galveston. When more order is made at Galveston attention will be turned to those places and the bodies of the dead there will be buried or burned.

“The work of disposing of the bodies is being expedited as rapidly as possible, but the crying need is disinfectants. Hundreds of barrels of lime are being asked for in order to prevent contagion. Health officers say that the worst is to be feared from the small pools of stagnant water which fill cellars of the wrecked houses and the clogged drainage system.

CLOTHING AND PROVISIONS.

“The Chicago corps of surgeons and nurses, under Dr. L. D. Johnson, buried thirty-two bodies between the hours of 1 A. M. and 8 A. M. to-day in Alvin, Hitchcock and Seabrook, and gave provisions, clothing and medicine to 300. Its members also attended to twenty-six persons suffering from broken bones, cuts and other wounds requiring surgical work, and nursed more than fifty.

“This is considered the greatest piece of relief work done since the storm. The bodies buried had been lying in the fields a week, and were decomposed and spreading disease germs. An extra car of provisions is being shipped to that district.

“Insanity is developing among the sufferers at a terrible rate. It is estimated by the medical authorities that there are 500 deranged men and women who should be in asylums, and the number is increasing. These poor creatures form the most pitiable side of Galveston’s horror. They stand in groups and cry hysterically. They are harmless, for their troubles have left them without strength to do harm.

“Mentally unbalanced by the suddenness and horror of their losses, men and women meet on the streets and compare their losses and then laugh the laugh of insanity as a newcomer joins the group and tells possibly of a loss greater than that of the others. Their laughter is something to chill the blood in the veins of the strongest men. They are maddened with sorrow, and do not realize their losses as they will when reason returns, if it ever returns.

“Some of them are absolute raving maniacs. One man, Charles Thompson, a gardener, as soon as he was out of personal danger that awful night, commenced rescuing women and children, and saved seventy people. He then lost his mind. Two policemen were detailed to capture him, but he heard them approaching and leaped from the third-story window of an adjoining building and escaped.

THE YOUNGEST NURSE.

“The Chicago Relief Corps has the youngest, and, considering her years, most efficient nurse among the hundreds engaged in relief work. She is Rosalea Glenn, eleven years old, a refugee from Morgan Point. Together with her mother, Mrs. Minnie F. Glenn, and two smaller children, she was received at the hospital last night.

“To-day Rosalea asked to be assigned to part of one of the wards. She astonished trained nurses by her cleverness, and her services proved as valuable as those of any one on the force. She is now the hospital pet. Her father is Albert W. Glenn, a boatman. The home of the Glenns was washed away, but the family were saved by a flight of seven miles into the country.

“Some of the advertisements in the Galveston News are very striking. Garbadee, Iban & Co. make this announcement: ‘Our help has generously volunteered to work to-day to assist the necessities of the flood sufferers. Our store will open from 9 A. M. until 5 P. M. Orders from the Relief Committee will be filled.’”