The age-herald., 1900-09-13
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
 OF THE AWFUL SCENES

Austin Tex, September 12-This morning Ex-State Treasurer Wortham, who went to Galveston as the special aid to Adjutant { General Scurry to investigate the true con- dtions there, returned home and made his | report. It follows:
 'The situation at Galveston beggars de- 1 scription. I am convinced that the city is practically wrecked for all time to come. Fully 10 per cent of the business part of the town Is irreparably wrecked and at least the same percentage of damage Is to be found in the residence portion.
 Along the wharf front great ocean steamers have bodily bumped themselves on the big piers and lay there great masses of iron and wood that even fire , cannot totally destroy. The great ware i houses along the water front are smashed l In on one side. unroofed and gutted throughout their length, their contents either piled in heaps on the wharves or along the streets. Small tugs and sail boats have jammed themselves half In and out the great doors where they were landed by the incoming waves and left to their fate by the receding waters. Houses are packed and jammed In great confusing masses In all the streets. Great piles of human bodies, dead animals, rotting vege- tation, household furniture and fragments of the houses themselves are piled in con- fuNsed heaps right in the main streets of the city. Along the gulf front human bod les are floating around like cord wood h. termingled with them are to be found the carcasses of horses, chickens, dogs and rot ting vegetable matter. Above all rises the | foulest stench that ever emanated from any cesspool, absolutely sckenng in it's intensity and most dangerous to health in its effects.
 Along the Strand adjacent to the gulf front where are located all the big whole sale warehouses and stores, the situation almost defies successful review. Great stores of fresh vegetation have been in- vaded by the incoming waters and are now turned into garbage piles of most be- foulng odors. The gulf waters, while on the land, played at will with everything, smashing in doors of stores, depositing the bodies of humans and animals where it pleased, and then receded, leaving the wreckage to tell it's own tale of how well the work had been done. As a result the great warehouses are tombs wherein are to be found the dead bodies of human be- ings and carcasses, almost defying invasion
 
 along the streets, in the water and scat tered throughout the residence portion of the city are to be found masses of wreck age, and in these great piles are to be found more human bodies and household furniture of every description.
 Handsome pictures are to be seen lying alongside of ice cream freezers and rest ing beside the nude figure of some man or woman These great masses of debris are not confined to any one particular section r,ff fI,n Aif T1n al 4R and the shreking winds spared no one who was exposed. Whirling houses around in Its grasp, it piled their shattered frames high in confusing masses and dGmped their contents on top. Men and women were thrown around like many logs of wooc and left to rot in the whitening sun.
 "I believe that with the very best exer- tions of the men 1t will require weeka to secure some semblance of physical order in the city, and 1t Is doubtful even then if call the debris will be disposed of. I never saw such a wreck In my fife
 From the Gulf front to the center of tks island, from the ocean back, the storm wave held high revelry and left death and destruction in its wake. So complete was the wreck and so awe inspiring the remains that no one can do justice to the scen~ It Is certainly the greatest calamity that has ever befallen this community.
 There is hardly family on the island whose household is not short member or more, and in some instances entire families have been washed away or killed. Hun dreds who escaped from the waves only did so to become the victims of a worse death by being crushed to death by falling buildings. Down in the business portion of the city the foundations of great build ings have given way, carrying towering structures to their ruin. These ruins fall- ing across the streets formed barricades on which gathered all the floating debris and many human bodies. Many of these bodies were stripped of their clothing by the force of the water and wind and there was nothing to protect them from the scorching sun. the millions of flies and the rapid invasion of decomposition that set in. Many of the bodies have decayed so rapidly that they could not be handled for burial.
 "Home of tho most conservative men on