Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-06-17
THE GALVESTON CYCLONE.
The Most Terrible Storm Known
for Ten Years.
A FIFTY-MILE-AN-HoUR HURRICANE
Tears Things in the City Like Straws--r-
Vessels Wrecked and Bridges
Broken.

Sr. LOUIS, June l6.-The GlooeDemo
crat contains the following dispatch from
its Galveston correspondent concerning
the storm at that place on Monday: MOI
since the terrible cyclone OF 1875 has Gal
weston Island been visited BY such strong
wind and rain storm as descended during
the preceding twenty-iour hours. For sew
eral days strong winds and heavy rains
have prevailed, but nothing was thought
OF the weather until last midnight,
when the wind struck a FIFTY,
mile.an.hour gait and then began TO tear
things around like strsws At hrst II
came from the northeast, bu: soon Veered
around to the south. After that 1t rota-
ted, coming from every point OF the com
pass, and seeming to center square upon
the island. AS reports from adjoining sec
tions of the State fail to show increased
velocity ofth wind, the storm Is conceded
to be- Of purely local character and origin
Ranging al the way from forty to nifty
miles sn hour, the STERN, with occasional
briet rains, continued until about II
o'clock, when the wind subsided as sud
denly as it came up. -
The waters of the bay and the guilt,
which had met across the east and west
ends of the island, flooding streets and in'
ysding houses, recediug in short
order, laying bare the wrecksge
wrought by the fury OF the
combined elements. On the beach be-
tween TWenty-6rst and Twenty'seVenta
streets the wind and surf had full sway.
On the East end the high sand hills and
salt cellars which had stood the fury OF
many fierce blast were swept away, CIV
ing the sea full sweep through the streets,
carrying way fences and insecure out
buildings before it. The track embsnk'
ment OF the street railways westward to the
Beach Hotel were steadily undermined,
and soon the rails lay upon the beach,
uhile,the ties were either carried inland or
tossed like corns out to sea. Hen
derson's saloon at the beach
terminus of Center street was torn from its
foundation and washed away. The old
bath house, known as the Deepwster Pa
.iGiou, and Ada Purdy road house, known
"a the Oleander Saloon, went the same
way, the inmates OF the latter place having
barely time to escape with their lives from
tho pursuing surf, which at one great toss
tore the biiiIding from its foundation and
dashed it to pieces on the yielding sands
Not q ysstige of the building remained to
mark the place where it stood, except one
of the carpets, which was found embedded
in the sand. O'Keete's Sea Breeze Saloon
and, in fact, every small building on the
beach was more or less damaged.
The waters came up on the Beach hotel
lawn, and it seemed at one time as II theJ
would inysGs tee hotel, but no alarm was
felt The grand new structure as ~s trE es
human ingenuity could devise foundation,
and no damage whatever was sustained
exosLt a. the shruboery. The Pagoda
hal house aud tie Surf bath house
likewise stood the strain, the S1rt sgt'
terino a little by the loss Of the
stairSsys. The beach for miles was
strewn with debris, while. grest holes
in the sand testified to the force OF
the eddying currents. On the bay the
small shipping suffered to vast
extent, no less thirty sloops and yachts
bearing evidences of the war OF the winds
and bsy. Ten of these small vessels were
sunk and battered to pieces st their moor
ings, while others parted cables and we're
tossed high and dry ashore, after pounding
their sides out. Two OF these were thrown
across the railroad tracks in the end, fully
a half mile from the wharf. The bridges,
roth of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe
ana the Galveston, Houston and Hender-
son Railways, stood the strain without
damage. but near the point where they
rcite with the island the trestles we're torn
and twisted cot of shape.