Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-11

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Spillane, a well known Galveston news
paper man and day correspon dent OF
the Associated Press In that city. who
reached Houston to-day after terrible
experience. gives the following account
of the disaster at Galveston:
One of the most awful tragedies OF
modern times has visited Galveston.
The city is in ruins and the dead
will number probably one Thousand.
am just from the city, having been
commissioned by the mayor and citi-
zens' committee to get in touch with
the outside world and appeal for help.
When | left Galveston. shortly before
noon yesterday, the people were organ
izing for the prompt burial OF the dead.
distribution of food and all necessary
work after period of disaster.
The wreck OF Galveston was brought
about by a tempest so terrible that no
words can adequately describe It's In
tensity, and by a food which turned the
city into a raging sea. The weather
bureau records show that the wind at
tanned a velocity of eighty-four miles
an hour, when the measuring instru-
ment blew away, so 1t is impossible TO
tell what was the maximum.
The storm began at O'Clock Satur-
day afternoon. Previous to that great
storm had been raging in the Gulf aud
the tide was very high.
BY 3 o'clock the waters of the Gulf
and bay met and by dark the entire city
was submerged The flooding of the
electric light plant and the gas plant
left the city in darkness. TO go upon
m
winds was then at cyclonic velocity.
roofs, cisterns, portions OF buildings,
telegraph poles and walls were falling
and the noise of the wind and the
crashing of the buildings were terrify-
ing in the extreme.
The winds and Waters
rose steadily from dark until 1:45
o'clock Sunday morning. During all
this time the people of Galveston were
like rats In traps. The highest portion
OF the city was four or five feet under
water, while In the great majority or
cases the streets were submerged to a
depth OF ten feet. To leave a house
was TO drown. 70 remain was TO court
death In the wreckage.
Such a night of agony has seldom
been equalled. Without apparent reas-
on. the waters suddenly began TO sub
side at LAS a M Within twenty min
utes they had gone down two feet, ana
before daylight the streets were prac-
tically freed OF the food waters. In the
meantime the wind had yeered 10 the
southeast.
Very few If any buildings escaped
injury. There is hardly a habitable
IL fss.
pie who had escaped death went out at
daylight to view the work OF the temp
est and the floods, they saw the most
horrible sights imaginable. In tho
three blocks from avenue n TO avenue
=. in fremont street i saw eight bodies.
-Four corpses were in one yard.
The whole OF the business front for
three blocks in from the gulf was strip
ped of every vestige of habitation. the
dwellings, the great bathing establish
ments, the Olympia and every structure
having been either carried out TO sea
or It's ruins piled in pyramid far into
the town, according To the vagaries OF
the tempest.
The first hurried glace over the city
showed that the largest structures. sup
suffered the greatest, the Orphans
Home, Twenty-first street and Avenue
VI, fell lie a house of cards.
How Many Dead Children
and refugees are In the ruins could not
be ascertained.
OF the sick in st. Mary's Infirmary,
together with the attendants, only eight
are understood TO have been saved.
The Old Woman's Home, on Rosen-
berg avenue, collapsed and the Rosen-
berg school house Is mass OF wreck
age The Ball high school is but an
empty shell, crushed and broken.
Every church in the city with possibly
one or two exceptions, Is in ruins.
AT the forts, nearly all the soldiers
are reported dead, they having been in
temporary quarters which gave them
no protection against the tempest or
the food.
The bay front from end to end Is In
ruins.
In addition to the living and the
dead which the storm casts up at Texas
City. caskets and collins from one Of
the cemeteries at Galveston we're being
fished out Of the water there yesterday.
III kAE Ou6fAFo5 RV4A4OA Va kUE WY
two large brick buildings, one occupied
by Knapp Bros, and the other by the
Cotton Exchange saloon, collapsed. In
the Cotton Exchange saloon there were
about fifteen persons. Most OF them
escaped. Up 10 the time left Calves
ton, three hundred dead had been taken
from the ruins.
How many more corpses are there
will not be known until the search Is
finished. Nearly all the industrial es-
adjustments OF the city are either
wrecked or crippled. The food left a
slime about one inch deep over the
whole city, and unless fast progress is
made Ia burying corpses and eareasses
Of animals, there Is danger of pesti-
leDce.
Some OF the stories OF the escapes
are miraculous. William Sisbit. cot
ton man, was buried in the ruins OF the
Cotton Exchange saloon. and when dug
out In the morning had no further in
jury than
A Few Bruised Fingers.
A woman who had just given birth