Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-13
THE WORK
OF MERCY.
Aid Being Sent to the Storm
Sufferers In the City
of Galveston.
PITIFUL SIGHTS ABOUND.
Soldiers Drive Robbers and Maraud.
ers Away From the Bodies in the
Streets-Dead Are Burned With De-
bris-other News of the Storm.


bris-other News of the Storm.
Galveston, Sept. 12.-(Via Yacht
Stella to Houston) The good citizens
of Galveston are straining every nerve
to clear the ground and secure from
beneath the debris the bodies of hui
man beings and animals and get rid
of them. The great magnitude of the
work is attended with untold difficult
ties. There is a shortage of horses to
haul the dead and a shortage of will
ing hands to perform the gruesome
work. Yesterday morning it became
apparent that it would be impossible
to bury the dead even in trenches
and arrangements were made to take
them to sea. Barges and tugs We're
quickly made ready for the purpose
but 1t was difficult to get men to do
the work. City firemen, soldiers, po-
licemen and every able bodied man
found, were pressed into the work.
By nightfall three barge loads contain
ing about 700 human bodies were sent
to sea where they were sunk with
weights. Towards night great difficult
ty was experienced in handling the
bodies of negroes which were badly
decomposed. A large number of dead
animals were hauled to the bay and
dumped in to be carried to sea by the
tides.
One hundred and twenty-five men
worked all day yesterday and last
night in uncovering the machinery of
the water works from the debris. 1t
is being planned to set fire to the de-
bris under the direction of the chief of
the fire department and cremate the
bodies buried under it. Mayor Jones
has given full scope to Chief of Police
Ketchum and ]. H. Hawley, chairman
of the committee on public safety, to
swear in citizens of good character as
officers and has told them that able
bodied men must be made to work or
get off the island.
Tine City Under Martial Law.
The city, he said, is under martial
law. Picket lines have been establish
ed around the large stores and guards
placed on duty. Soldiers and police
are instructed to shoot any one caught
footing or attempting to loot. The jails
are full and summary measures are
necessary. There is no fresh water
famine here as the pipes from the sup
ply wells are running at the receiving
tanks. 1t is difficult, however, to get
1t to the parts of the city where it is
needed.
Bridge Foreman Patterson. of the
Gulf & Interstate railroad, reached
Galveston last evening from Beau
mont. He reports that Beaumont did
not suffer much from the storm, that
two lives were lost from live wires.
District Judge Stewart has telegraph
ed Gov. Sayers asking him to convene
the legislature in special session to1
make a large appropriation for the re-
lief of Galveston.
PilIagers Shot by Guards.
Galveston, Sept. 12.-Galveston is
under martial law, and patrols of
armed men walk the streets to pre-
vent further looting. Several negroes
caught pillaging wrecked houses and
stores were shot, and it is reported
a number of guards were killed in
conflict with the marauders.
The work of disposing of the dead
is being rushed as rapidly as possible
to prevent an epidemic of disease,
which now seems almost unavoidable.
The bodies lying exposed to the hot
sun already are far advanced in de-
composition. In the pleas for sup
plies no collins have been asked, it
being impossible to give the dead
even semblance of Christian BURIAL
All day drays have been hauling the
corpses to the waters edge, where
they are piled into barges, towed out
into the gulf and tossed overheard.
AS the waters receded great trenches
were dug in the sand and scores of
bodies buried in each.
Bodies Burned With Debris.
A more grewsome method of dis
posing Of the dead adopted today
was by fire. Where bodies were
found mixed in with the heaps of
debris in open places, with the pros
pect that it would take days to unS
/ ooua- them the torch was annIied
and the wreckage and the corpses
reduced to ashes. How many have
been burned probably never will be
known, but at present it is the living
who are to be saved, if possible, and
the presence Of the decaying bodies