Arizona republican., 1900-09-19
GALVEsTON's HORROR
Description of the Terrible Storm by
 Wm. G. Sterrett.

In the Galveston News of September II appears the following interesting retrospective article on the great storm by William G. Sterrett, formerly Wash ington correspondent of that newspa- per:
 Galveston, Thursda y.-'When did you first realize that you were in danger?" That. ordinarily, would seem to be q foolish question to put to q man who had escaped death as it rode on the storm, and yet it was not a foolish question, but the natural one. For the Galveston people had for years and years argued out the question of the danger attending the living on the is land. True, Indianola, awful even now in memory, stood out as an alarm to those who live down by the sea. True. there had been storms and storms in Galveston. True, there were people on the great mainland who contended that wind and wa:er would bring disaster to Galveston whenever the two acted in concert and from the right direction. But the answer to the Indianola alarm was that the situation of that unfortu- nate town exposed it to a storm fury;
 
 almost level with the water and all that. The fact that there had been storms, and storms at Galveston only confirmed the people in their security. For, as each had passed away without carrying any great number of lives with them, why should not this do the same?
 A5 to the people on the mainland who h. ial dica= -b,yt h merely timid and ignorant people. Therefore the question of when did you realize that you were in danger" was a reasonable one. And 8he answer was the same in nearly every case. There might have been q difference as to the moment when these people. penncd like rats in d cage, first felt the terror of impending death, but invari- ably the answer was that the storm was almost at It's height before the real ization came. In many cases only the falling houses brought the realization.
 One little girl at a grocery store out on avenue P, from which street to the gulf, the storm swept the island like broom, answered me: Mother and my eight little brothers and sisters wers upstairs, and I went down t. See what the water was doing In the store. You see We live upstairs over the store. My papa is dead long time ago. When I went down my brother went with me and he water was half way up the counter. Put that didn't scare us, be- cause we have seen high water and heard the winds before. Well, we went back and in a few minutes we were down again. Then the counter was floating. Brother said not 70 tell moth CT. but I did. Then we saw a house tumble down and we heard people cry ing. We got scared then and me and mamma prayed. We prayed that one of Us would not be drowned if the little children were not drowned, because one of us would have to be their mother"
 The maternal love was uppermOst. But the love of that little Sirl for her lt,le brothers and sisters, as she told me the story in her simple way, passetb in greatness all understanding.
 When did you think you were in req Ganger?" I asked of a merchant.
 Not until Ritter's house went down and 1 saw the waters rapidly climbing Ehe walls. We had passed through tine terrible s,orm of 1875, and had lived Since then the island has been raised