The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-10-21
TOWNS LAID LOW.

TOWNS LAID LOW.
Sabine Pass, Tex, and JohnsoA's Bayou,
La, Swept Out OF Existence by d bis
astrous F1ood-Nearly d Hundred Lives
L~ost-Crops Ruined and Property Great
ly Damaged Along the Gulf Coast.
GALVESTON, Tex, Oct. ia dispatch
from Beaumont gives the following partic-
The waters began to invade the town from
the gulf and the lake together about two
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, and rose with
unprecedented rapidity. Citizens of the
doomed place did not realize the imminent
danger until it was too late to escape, when
safety by fight was out of the question.
The water kept rising, and between three
and four o'clock the smaller houses be-
gan to weld to the restless force of
the waves, and not only moved
from their foundations but turned on
their sides and tops. A little later
the large houses began to give way, and
death by drowning seemed inevitable for
every citizen of the place. With the yield
ing of the smaller houses several persons
who had remained in them were drowned,
and when residences and business places
began to crumble the fatality began to
double. The following incomplete list of
the drowned was obtained:
Miss Mahala, Jim vondy and family of six,
Mrs. Otto Brown and two children. Homer
King, wife and child, Mrs. Junker and son,
Mrs. Pomeroy and family Of five, Mrs. Stewart,
daughter and son, - Wilson, Mrs. Arthur Nc
Reynolds, Mrs. Mcdonald and daughter, Frank
Mulligan and family, Columbus Martee and
family.
About twenty-five colored people, whose
names could not be learned, were also
drowned. This list comprises over sixty
souls, among them some of the leading
families of the place. There are many 9TH
ers, and it is feared that whole families in
different parts of the place have been swept
away without leaving a person or vestige to
indicate their horrible fate. 1t is said that
the situation during the latter part of the
afternoon beggars description-the mani
festation of terror and agony by people
looking death in the face and realizing that
there was no escape, the dying cries of
women rendered almost inaudible by the
roar of the sea, the hoarse voice of paid
men trying to save those dear to them, all
combined, made a scene too horrible to be
described.
IT damage to property at Sabine is
very great. The wharf property of the
town was owned by New York capitalists,
WHO also OWN Lit duJOlu1lR ANUS duu WcT6
aiming to make Sabine Pass an important
port on the gulf coast. The citizens of
Beaumont, on receipt of the news, imme-
diately made preparations for relief. The
East Texas railroad placed an engine at
their disposal, and a party of men have
gone to Orange to procure boats and start
for the scene.
Another dispatch says the damage done
by the storm at Beaumont is also considera-
BILE, a number of houses being blown down
and many Of the principal lumber mills
damaged. The track of the East Texas &
Sabine railway is washed away for miles in
a number of places, besides damage being
done to bridges and depots.
According to the most experienced navi-
gators on this coast it was Lake Sabine
which destroyed the town, which lies only
four feet above mean low water and is
bounded on the west by a great swamp.
The hurricane of last Sunday in the West
Indies blew the waters with great vio-
lence toward the Texas coast. This
hurricane wave was first noticed on this
coast on Sunday morning, attaining its
maximum on Tuesday afternoon, and was
maintained at a high point by the impetus
of the waters behind. The hurricane itself
did not reach these coasts at all, as scarcely
q breath of wind was stirring when
the tidal wave first touched the
coast. When its maximum was
reached on Tuesday afternoon, how
ever, a fierce northwest gale sprang up
along the whole coast, and at Sabine this
gale blew the waters out of Lake Sabine
and drove them toward the gulf, where the
lake waters were met by the hurricane.
This resulted in driving the lake waters
over onto the little town and submerging
the country for ten miles around without a
moments notice.
sabine Pass is situated at the southeast cor
ner of Texas, in Jefferson County, upon a mar
row strip of water also called Sabine pass, less
than two miles in length, through which the
waters of Sabine lake empty into the Gulf of
Mexico. The lake, which is about fourteen
miles long and ten miles wide forms q reservoir
into which the rivers Neches and Sabine flow.
The town of Sabine Pass is the terminal
point of the Sabine & East Texas railway,
now a part of the Southern Pacific system,
since the completion of which two years ago it
has increased from the 300 or 400 inhabitants it
had in 1880 to about three times that number.
Sabine Pass has obtained considerable notori-
ETY. on account of its harbor, which has been
frequently recommended by Government en-
gineers as the best in natural advantages west
of New Orleans. Upon these reports large sums
have been appropriated for Improvements at
that point, and a jetty system upon the Eads
plan has been in course of construction for the
last three years..
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. ia special from
Orange, Tex, says: At Johnson's Bayou
whole families were swept away. Not a
house was left standing within five miles
of the lake. The loss of property along the
Cameron Parish gulf coast and for some
distance west of Sabine Pass by the storm
of Tuesday night was fearful. The entire
country east n west was submerged,
drowning thousands of cattle n running
crops. No lives were lost at Leesburg or
Calcasieu Pass, but the following are re-
ported lost at Johnson's Bayou, La:
Albert Lambert and family, Marion Lukes
and family, George Strieyer and family, L.
Charles Blanchet and family, Radford Grey
and family, Franesware and family.
Some idea of the terrific gale and pound
ing sea at Port Eads can be arrived at when
it is known that many of the blocks com
posing the great concrete wall extending
from the inner reef to the end OF the works
were lifted out of position and swallowed
out of position and stood on end. Each of
these blocks was solid concrete, eight by
fifteen feet, n weighed many tons. The
damage between Point a la Hache n Port
Eads in rice gardens, cattle, horses, poul-
try, houses, etc., is estimated at 100000 No
loss of life is reported.
NEW YORK, Oct. B.-Western Union Of
fcials report that the storm is cutting off
Geographic communication as it progresses.
New Orleans reports that it has no wires
west, and that the whole coast territory,
from New Orleans to Galveston, is cut off.
Proceedings of the Wisconsin Anti-Prohi-
bitionists.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, Oct. 15.-The State
Anti Prohibition convention yesterday
adopted resolutions declaring that the party