The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-09-16
IN A BATHING SUIT
Miss Lena Schneider Escapes
From Galveston Storm.
FORMERLY LIVED HERE
Writes to Friends Telling of
Horrible Sights.

Miss LEILA schenider, who formerly
lived In this city for year or more, was
in the storm at Galveston and barely es-
capped with her life Like many others
all her possessions were swept way and
when recovered Miss Schneider was
wearing her bathing suit.
Mr.. and Mrs. L. Garrett of this city,
with whom Miss Schneider resided while
in the city, have received a letter from
her and in It she tells Of the horror of
the terrible night in the stricken city.
According to her story it is no uncom-
mon sight to see mothers, bruised and
wounded, holding the forms of their dead
babes, with no hope of surviving the suff-
ering of the time.
Miss Schneider relates also of suicides
and tells of one young girl who, after
being rescued. found that her entire fam
fly had been swept away. The shock was
so great that she could not survive, and
attempted suicide by leaping into the
water, from which she was barely res
cued
Miss Schneider had many friends here
and while in the city was in the dress
making business. She now resides in
Houston and at that place has dress
making parlors. At the time of the
storm she was making a visit in Calves
ton, as were many others. Her letter is
as follows;
Houston, Texas Sept. z. 1900.
Nv Dear Friends: know you have
heard Of the mighty storm that Destroy
ed Galveston on last Saturday night.
Words are inadequate to convey any
real conception Of the Galveston horror;
the mind becomes dazed and the eye
sight uncertain amid the gruesome
scenes-dead, dead. dead, everywhere.
The bodies Of human beings, infants and
aged. the carcasses of animals strewn
like leaves following a winter blast. are
on every hand. There are countless
numbers Of bodies and the bay IS liter
ally alive with them, and like jellyish
the corpses Of human beings are swept
with the changing tide.
Ny experience Of that fatal night can
never be told. but I am thankful that
my life was spared and all I had when
] got to Houston was a bathing suit
which I wore The sights along the
shore are horrible. Here a face will pro-
trude above the water, there the hand
Of a child; here the long snken tresses
Of a young girl and just beneath the
CLASSY surface the full outlines Of these
perisbed people are viewed. Galveston's
fairest daughters, her statehest OF
queens. her MODEST and bravest sons, in
one awful night were swept from the
warmth Of life into the chill of death.
and their bodies fed into the devouring
sea. The scenes drive people to desper-
alton and in the bounds of once fair
Galveston today are many pathetic
scenes.
A number Of suicides have already &C.
Cured. Yesterday a young girl who had
escaocd II find her father. mother, broth
ers and sisers dead. crept far out on the
vrerkaee and threw herself into the bay.
But what was one death. or what would
one hundred be to the fated island
can never describe the horrible scenes,
and to see mothers. wounded and bleed
iag. holding their dead children in their
arms. and TO hear the shrieks Of the
perishing. makes one feel terrible.
Tt IS believed that the mortality list
viii reach four thousand souls. In one
morgue alone at the city hall n tally Of
eleven hundred has already been passed
into great waEonIoads. They are hauled
from the streets onto the barges and by
The 5arFes out beyond the jetties into the
deep water Of the gulf where they are
thrown overboard-buried without cere-
mony ia the deep waters u the sea. In
one Of the city wagons were counted
forty-one bodies. They were piled IN Ike
CordWood. ana among them were once
Heightened babies. fair checked girls.
men who had ruled and commanded. who
had possessed their thousands Of dollars:
negroes and people Of various nations,
al bound for the common destination
me deep water % the mighty gulf. which
was 10 be their winding sheet
When the call came the rich and the
poor We're all the same; there was no
distinction and thousands Of them filed
wa.ery graves. At least one-han Of the
city was swept int0 the rllf and not 50
much as q house foundation remains. a
moments ION would ocme and the nierc-
ing and heart rcndiug soreness of women
and children came from an directions.
They were struggling and tossing. cling
Ing ir desperation TO some floating arti-
Gle From far out in the bay and in the
Very heart ~ tho city came these walls
FROM drowning souls. The awful night
CT terror came to an end when the
Ftroaks ~ dawn lighted the east ard the
san came forth and looked down with
innocent urrar,ce~n BODIES Of friends