Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-09-25
GALVESTON COUNTS HER DEAD
Grand Total of the Storms Victims Is
About $500

About $500.
Those killed in Galveston during the
great storm number about 6,500. The
identified dead number ATS; unidenti-
fed dead recovered, 300; estimated num-
Der missing, 1000. Grand total, CATS.
There are also 500 lives lost on the main
land.
Laborers are still scarce and Gen.
Scurry said that he could give employ
ment to several thousand men. A few
mechanics from other places have imme-
diately found work. Many architects and
contractors are preparing plans for new
buildings and other improvements. Build
ing material is needed, but its delivery
is necessarily slow. owing to the lack OF
rail communication with the mainland.
There are still many pitiable cases of
restitution. Many half-demented persons
positively refuse to leave their wrecked
homes and as persistently refuse to ac-
cept offers of relief extended them. In
several instances parents who have lost
children still occupy ruins of their former
home and the surroundings have brought
til nm to a state of mental and physical
collapse.
The number who have gone insane as a
result of their experiences will probably
never be known. In every lot of refu-
gees sent out of the stricken city there
have been some insane men and women.
The victims first make light of their
losses, and laugh immoderately when tell
ing of the death of relatives in the food.
1t is a quick step from this to uncon-
troilable madness.
There are no developments which
would lead to the belief that the esti-
mate of property loss of SO, SOC, 900
is too high, writes a correspondent.
While one occasionally finds business
.lan whose property has not suffered
greatly, it must be stated that the class
is hopelessly in the minority, and that
large losses are the rule. The people
are becoming more cheerful every day
and it is more than remarkable to OBJ
serve the composure exhibited by some
of them under the terrible circumstances.
Everybody seems to be doing all there
is to do toward ultimate rehabilitation
and the determination to build city
which will be bigger and broader in ev-
cry way than the one which has been
destroyed appears to be general.
The sound of the hammer is beginning
to be heard Throughout the city and every
man not engaged in the grim work of
looking and caring for the dead is patch
ing up the holes made by the great tidal
wave. The spirit displayed by citizens
is remarkable. They seem determined TO
Immediately begin TO rebuild the stricken
city and want building material as speed
lily as possible.
Galveston's Pluck.
While the catastrophe at Galveston is
calling forth proofs of sympathy and a
spirit of practical helpfulness ON every
hand, the people of Galveston themselves
are giving the world an equally notable
proof of courage and sturdy resolution.
The situation as it has developed there
from day to day has afforded a striking
evidence of their ability. to pull them
selves together and prepare to face the
future. The conditions which they had
to confront on the days Immediately fol-
lowing the catastrophe, when they were
cut off even from communication with
the outer world and were alone in their
knowledge of the extent Of the calamity,
must have been appalling beyond concep-
ton. Stunned by q disaster in which in
dividual griefs were lost in common
horror and the presence of death on all
sides made the finding of the dead an
incident of commonplace, they could
scarcely have been expected to act with
energy, organization or promptitude The
blow sustained by the city must have
seemed irreparable.
1t stands to the credit of Galveston
people that as soon as the clear compre-
hension of their misfortune came to them
they faced it resolutely, and, pushing
aside individual griefs, set themselves
to protect those who were still living.
They recognized the futility of lamenta-
ton, and the necessity of foregoing the
rites and fcrmalities which men hold to
be sacred obligations to the dead. There