The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-14

Houston, Texas, September 10.-Rich-
ard Spillane, a well known Galveston
newspaper man, and day correspondent
of the Associated Press in that city,
who reached Houston today, after a
terrible experience, gives the following
account of the disaste at Galveston:
Zone of the most awful tragedies of
modern times has visited Galveston.
The city is in ruins and the dead will
number probably 1000. l am just from
the city. having been commissioned
by the mayor and citizens committee
to get in touch with the outside world
and appeal for help.
Houston was the nearest point at
which working telegraph Instruments
could be found, the wires as we'll as
nearly all the buildings between here
and the gulf of Mexico being wrecked.
When l left Galveston shortly be-
fore noon yesterday the people were
organizing for the prompt burial of
the dead, distribution of food and all
necessary work after a period of dis
aSter.
The wreck of Galveston was brought
about by a tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe its in
tensity and by a flood which turned the
city into a raging sea. The weather
bureau records show that the win at
tanned a velocity of ~eighty-four miles
an hour when the measuring instru-
ment blew away, so it is impossible to
tell what was the maximum.
WIND AGAINST THE TIDE.
The storm began at 2 o'clock Satur-
day morning. Previous to that a great
storm had been raging in the gulf and
the tide was over high. The wind at
first came from the north and was in
direct opposition to the force from the
gulf. While the storm in the gulf piled
the water up on the beach beside the
city, the north wind piled he water
from the bay on the bay part of the
city. About noon it became evident
that the city was going to be visited
with disaster. Hundreds of residences
along the beach front were hurriedly
abandoned, the families fleeing to
dwellings in higher portions of the
city. Every HON was opened to the
refugees, black or white The winds
were rising constantly n 1t ralned IN
torrents. The win was so fierce nat
the rain cut like a knife.
WATERS MBET ACROSS THE CITY
'tBy 3 o'clock the waters of the gulf
and bay met and by dark the entire
city was submerged. n flooding OF
~ = IL ISL ~ $500 -
plants left the city in 10
go upon the streets was to court death.
The wind vas then at cyclonic Velocl-
ty, roofs, cisterns, portions OF build
ings, telegraph poles n walls were
falling and the noise of the wind and
the crashing of the. buildings were ter
rifying in the extreme. The wind and
waters rose steadily from dark until
1:45 o'clock Sunday during
all this time the people of Galveston
were like rats in traps.
The highest portion of he city was
four to five feet under water. while in
the great majority of cases, the streets
were submerged to a depth or ten
feet. To leave a house was to drown.
To remain was to court death In the
wreckage. Such a night of has
seldom been eQualed. WITHOUT APP
pearent reason the waters suddenly
gan to subsid at las o'clock a. m.
Within twenty minutes they had gone
down two feet and before daylight the
streets were practically free of the
waters. In the meantime the Wlnd
had vered TO the southeast
Every few, if any buildings escaped
injury. There is hardly a haIbitable
house in the city. When the people
who had escaped death went out at
DAYLIGHT to view the work of the tenn
pest and the floods they saw the most
horrible sights Imaginable. In the
three blocks from Avenue n, TO Ave
nue. p. in fremont stree l saw eight
bodies. -Four corpses were in one
yard.
ssThe whole of the business front Tor
three blocks from the gulf was strip
ped of every vestige of habitatlon, the
dwellings,. the great bathing establish
ments, the Olympia and every struc-
ture having been either carried out to
sea or it's rufns piled in a pyramid TAI
into the town, according to the Vasa'
ries of the tempest
THE ORPHANAGE COLLAPSED
1.-The first hurried glance over the
CITY showed that the largest struc'
lures, supposed to be the most sup
stantIally built, suffered the greatest
The Orphans home, Twenty mrs
street and Avenue M, fell like a mouse
of cards. How many dead cnllorsi
and refugees are int the ruins couIo
not be ascertained.
"Of the sick in ST. MaryS lnnrHa'
airy, together with the
only eight are understood to nave beer
saved.
1.-THE old womans home on Rosen-
burg avenue collapsed, and the Rosen-
burg school house is a mass of wreck
age. The Ball high school is but ar
semnty Shell, crushed and broken