The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-21
OF THE TEXAS STORM
General1McKibbin, Hardened by Sight
OF Many Battlefields, is Appalled,
at the Sight in Galveston.


The New York Journal has Just sent
lone of its best writer's to Galveston, a
woman, and the report she gives.
though merely a few observations and
incidents, is enough to touch a hear
of stone. A few exceptions from thelet-
ter of Mrs. Winiferi Blae's, appearing
in The Journal of September 18th, are
jgiven:
General McKibben, commander in
charge of the Texas division, was
down stairs in the arlOr reading dis
patches, with an aide and an orderly
or two at his elbow. He was Mortified
to see me.
How in the world did You ge, here?"
lhe said. Il would not let any women
belonging to me come iptO tais place
lof horror for all the money il America.
L am an old soldier, madame. l have
seen many battlefelGs, but let me .ell
you that since / rowed across the bay
the other night n halpei the man
IN the BOAT steer to keep away from
the fioating bodies Of dead women and
little children, ! have not SLEPT one
single instant.
I have been out on inspection all
day, and Ii find that our first estimate
OF the number of the lead was very
much under the real. Five thousand
would never cover the number of peo-
pie who died here in that terrible storm.
L saw my men pulling ava some
rubbish this very morning right II the
corner of the principal street. They
Thought there might be some one lead
Eperson there. They took out fourteen
women and three little children. We
have only just begun TO get a faint
idea of the hideous extent of this ca
Ilam1ty. The little towns along the
coast had been almost completely
washed out. We hear from them every
now and then as some poor, dazed
wretch creeps somehow into shelter
and tries to tell his pitiful story. We
have only just begun our work.
THE people all over America are re-
generously to our appeals
for help, and i would like to impress
lit upon them that what we need now
Us money, money, money and disinfec-
ltants. Tell your people to send all the
lquicklime they can get through. /
wish 1 could see a dozen train loads of
ldisinfectants landed in this city to-
morrow morning. What we must fight
now is infection, and We must fight
lit quick and with determination or it
will conquer u.s."
The people of Galveston are MAX
ing a brave and gallant fight for life.
THE citizens have organized under eff
If1cient and willing management. Gangs
Iof men are at work everywhere remov-
ing the wreckage. The city is dis
ltricted according to wards and in every
ward there is a relief station. They
lgive out food at the relief stations.
lSuch food as they have will not last
long.
Il sat in one relief station for half
ian hour this morning and saw sever
lal people who had come asking for
medicine and disinfectants and a few
rags of clothing to cover their pitiful
~Inakedness turned away. The man in
lcharge of the bureau took the last
nickel in the world out of his pocket
and gave it to make up a sum for a
woman with a baby in her
arms to buy a little garment to cover
its shivering flesh.
1.-The people of the state of Texas
ihave risen to the occasion nobly. They
have done everything that human be-
Iings, staggering AND daged under UGH
a terrific blow, could possibly do, but
they are only human. This is no Or
Urinary catastrophe. One who has not
been here to see with his own eyes
the awful havoc wrought by the storm
l~cannot realize the tenth part of the
misery these people are suffering.
Every street corner has it's story,
its story of misery and human agrny
bravely endured. The eye-witnesses
Iof a hunderd deaths have talked 10
me and told me their h~eartrenIing
lstories, and not one of them has told
Iof a cowardly death. The women met
their fate as did the men, bravely and
for the most part with astonishing
, lcalmness. A woman told me that she
land her husband went into the kitch-
i, en- n climbed upon the kitchen table
Ito get away from the waves and tina;
she knelt there and prayed. AS she
Iprayed the storm came in an carried
the whole house away, and her hus-
l band with it, and yesterday h went
5 Iout to the place where her house had
: been, and there was nothing there but
: a little hole in the ground.
! Her husbands body was found
: twisted in the branches of a tree halt
IA mile from the place where she last
Isaw him. She recognized him by q
llocket he had around his neck the
llocket she ave him before they were
= married.
THE little parks are full of horne
= less people, the prarieS around Gal
q weston are dotted with little camp
\ fires, where the homeless and destitute
: are trying to gather their scattered
e families together and find out wht
5 Iamong them are dead and who are liv'
n ing. There are thousands and thou
+. sands of families in Galveston today
II without food or properties or a place
9 Ito lay their heads.
1T will take thousands and thou
= sands of dollars to put them on thei
n feet again. 1 believe that the people
c lof America will see that money is no
: Hacking. But, oh, in PHYS name, II
: americas name, do not delay one sin
). gle instant. Send this help quickly
e lor it will be too late.'-New York jour