New-York tribune., 1900-09-13
FIGHTING PESTILENCE.
RADICAL MEASURES ADOPTED
IN GALVESTON.
THOUSANDS OF BODIES THROWN INTO
THE SEA AND BURNED ESTIMATES
OF DEAD INCREASED
lEr rELreaAru ~ rHE rnrrrSE.I

Try TELFGRArH THE TRIEUNEI
Galveston, Tex, via Houston. Sept 12-This
morning. for he FIRST time. il was possible 70
get away from Galveston Notice given
that train would leave Texas CITY. nine miles
across the hay from Galveston. at noon for
Houston. All manner of craft was pressed into
service by refugees escaping from disorder.
famine and thirst The boatmen charged what
they pleased \ thousand men, women and
children carried 10 the starting point Of
the train The men were haggard and unkempt
The barsheaded and clad in the
most nondescript costumes Some of them were
barefooted ON every face there was the apathy
of despair The train pulled out at noon Hour
by hour the significance Of the disaster is grow
ing. Many well posted. conservative men to-
day place the loss of life at SO0O to 10000. A
definite count of the Gead Will never be made
CREMATION FOUND NECESSARY.
After the first shock mad passed and the work
of relief had begun, bodies were held for iden-
tiication. being carried to half score Of build
ings which had been pressed into service as
morgues. AT this time a record Was kept Of the
number of bodies recovered The impossibility
of continuing such a record soon manifested
itself The buildings chOked with the
bodies. which began to decay. and the authOri-
ties were made 10 see that there was no other
course than to dispose of them as rapidly as
by the Relief Committee and two barges were
Iashed alongside On these bodies were heaped.
When they had been loaded the Clarke stood
out sea. and the cargOes were cast into the
waves. Those who had lost friends relatives
in the beginning opposed TO such a step.
but its sanitary necessity was so strongly urged
that they acquiesced. The Clarke made two
trips. carrying about eight hundred bodies on
each occasion
Thousand of bodies. however. still Uttered the
shores of the bay and the streets of the city, and
the big ocean vessel Pensacola towed out sew
eraI barges weighted down with dead 1t is
said that about twenty-five hundred bodies were
taken out TO sea and thrown of far from land.
While the work going and laborers were
loading the barges at the points of bayonets by
the imprOvised military force. the accumulation
of bodies continued. The air was sitting, and
the authorities took an even more radical step
Bonfires were built along the beach and
throughout the city, and these fires bodies
were cast for cremation In one bonfire alone
one hundred and three bodies were consumed.
and of this number ffty-six were women.
There were several fires in which score were
burned Babies of several months were thrown
into the flames with the dead of mature years
The fires were fed with bodies and piled with
driftwood until far into the night. BY this
morning thousand bodies had been consumed
plan of dumping the bodies into the sea would
have to be abandoned for the tide brought them
back to the island. the shores OF which were
soon thickly strewn. To-day the method os
cremation has been the only one in favor and
it will be at least a week before it can be dis
pensed with, for there are two square miles
where no attempt has been made to remove the
bodies.
MANY VANDALS SHOT DOWN
Sunday night the streets were patrolIed by
force of citizens under command of Major Fay
ling. who had served in the Cuban army. When
the Major stationed his men. he soon found
that there were hundreds of desperate char
acters both black and white. engaged in rob
bing the dead He gave his men definite in
struCtiOns TO kill any one caught in the act OF
robbery without warning, and during the night
a score of men, in most instances negroes.
were shot down. There was no cOmpUnctiOn
among the men in carrying out the orders for
they had found the bodies of women with
missing fingers and mUltilated ears