El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-09
THE WARNINGS OF GALVESTON
Story Of the Previous Horrors That Had Overwhelmed the Gulf Islands, With In
caIculable Destruction Of Life and Property Two Centuries Of Dis
aser Co Baylor Suggests That Galveston Build Places
Of Refuge Through the Is and.

The Last Island storm was memoir
able of the large number of
prominent persons drowned. Last Is
land was a. pleasure resort at the time
and the hotel there was crowded with
prominent LouiSianianS. The storm
that destroyed is was like all the 9TH
ers in its origin and action. A violent
wind drove up the water in the bays
back of the island, piling it ten or
twelve feet high there. Then it veer-
ed from south to north, driving the
waters back on the Gulf with a force
that swept everything before it and
out to sea. The wind and the
waves cut the island in half, and where
the fashionable Last Island hotel once
stood is now a part of the Gulf of
Mexico. There were only 2S4 victims
of the a Island storm, but they in
cluded the lieutenant governor of
Louisiana. the speaker of the state
house of representatives and many 9TH
ers prominent in the political and So
cial history of the state.
Last Island Repeated.
West of Last Island the islands are
too low and soft for human habitation
and in consequence they have never
been settled. They have gone under
with every storm, but it has fortunate
ly been without los of life. Near the
Texas line, some twenty years ago, a
large number of armers settled on
J~Ohnson'S Bayou. 1t is what would be
called high land on the Gulf. rising
six feet above the water. The set
tiers planted orange trees and soon
had some of the best groves in the
state, but in 1886 a ornad struck
them and the settlement was annihi-
lated and some 250 persons killed in
identically the same way as at Last Is
land. The wind drove the water into
the swamp back of the bayou. then
changed from south to north and
swept the land away into the Gulf.
The Sabine Pass Disaster.
A few miles from Johnson's Bayou is
Sabine Pass, which met with a similar
disaster. The water piled up in Sabine
lake and dashed down On the town,
which is situated on a peninsula or
island, at the mouth of the lake. 1t
was completely swept away, with great
loss of life. There is a Sabine Pass
today, the terminus of a railroad and
a great deal of anxiety prevailed in
regard to it during the Galveston
storm of the other day, but it is an
entirely new town and some distance
from the town wrecked in 1886.
The Ruin of %Indianola.
Next comes Galveston, and beyond
that is Indianola, which, although the
oretically on the mainland. is practi-
cally an island. The hurricane which
swept over the Gulf coast in October,
1875, struck Indianola just as the other
storms have struck Galveston, Last Is
n Sabine Pass, JOhnSOn'S Bayou.
Cheniere Caminada n other exposed
points. Indianola at that time was a
town of 1000 people and the ter
minus of an important railroad sys-
tenn. 1t was a rival of Galveston and
deemed a dangerous rival for the trade
OF western Texas. 1t was situated at
the head OIL a long bay, on land, like
that a t ualveSton, only a few feet
above tidewater, and behind it there
was such a network of bays, bayous,
and small lakes that it was really an
island. h water was backed up by
a continuous wind to an extraordinary
height, and for many miles back of the
town. Then the north vino drove it
seward with a force hat was ire
sistible and only three houses were left
standing in the owl. 1t virtually kill
ed Indianola, which is smaller than
it was forty years ego; and its harbor
is completely ruined.
The Great City on the Sand.
Such has beer the experience that
Galveston had before it: but in no
wise daunted it has gone to work to
build up a great city on the low sand
spit that juts out into Galveston bay.
1t was not a bit safer han any OF the
other Gulf islands; indeed. it is not so
safe as many of them. Cat Island is
covered with trees. whose roots bind
together the ground: onip Island rises
in places forty feet high. 1t is true that
these are more sane dunes. liable to
be swept away in a storm. but they
at least a refuge ON the wa
ter. when the wind drove il over the
island. M the islands are broader.
Island Is only five feet high
at best above the waters of the Gulf,
only one or at most two miles wide.
practically useless, with a foundation
OF salt. clay and q~uicksand. But at this
spit some sc. 900 persons settled and
invested $50. 900 900 in building up one
of the prettiest and most prosperous
towns in the south. Galveston has for
years boosted of being the wealthiest
city per capita in the southwest. and
was proud of the fact that Strand
street alone possessed twenty-eight
millionaires.
Deceived and Over Confident.
But all this prosperity was built on
n quicksand. The people Of Galveston
knew this as did everybody in the
southwest: but as year after year pass
and Galveston escaped ruin in the
storms which deSolated or destroyed
islands a spirit of conf
dence was aroused hat it would alto
gether escape; that the town was too
substantially built, too we'll protected
by breakwaters to be ruined. as the
less solidly built Indianola a been.
The grade of the principal streets was
raised a few feet and the pavements
were deemed a further protection
against the waves and likely to pre-
vent the washing away of the ground.
But there were some who doubted. who