The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-09-22
THEdALvEsT0N. AND JoHNsTowN
DISASTERS COMPARED.
> Johnstown's Loss of Lives
2l42; Amount of Proper
ty Swept Away, $9,674,1o5
Loss of Life at Calves
ton, 5000; of Property
$20,000000 - Amount of
Relief Necessary.

The question has several times
been asked the Times-Democrat
how the recent disaster at Calves.
ton compares in the respect OF
loss of life and of destruction OF
property with the 1889 disaster OF
Johnstown, Pa.
The full extent of the disaster
at Galveston is not yet known,
either in respect of loss of life
or of destruction of property;
but, unfortunately, enough is al
ready known to enable us to ans
wer The question.
According to the Houston Post,
which assures us that it has per-
feet grounds for claiming it's emu
meration of the dead in Galveston
tobe accurate, the number of those
known to be dead up to the end
Of last week was 4078. That
number is not of course final by
any means. Hundreds of corpses
is being unearthed from under
debris, or are found floating on the
various beaches about the city,
every day; and many, too, arc dis
covered littering the prairie at
considerable distances inland, car
ried there by the strength Of the
tidal wave and tho force of the
hurricane. Estimates have plac-
ed the dead at various figures,
ranging from 5000 to 10 900; and
the loss of life will reach the for
mcr number at least is beyond
dispute.
What the loss of property will
amountto, it is impossible yet to
say with any approximation of ac-
curacy. Various persons, who
appear to have means of know
ing. place the loss at minimum
Of $40, 900, 900; and at a maximum
of $40, 100000; and there is ground
for fear that it will mount up,
when appraisement shall have
been made, to reach at least mid
way between these two figures.
Weishall be well within bounds,
therefore, If we place the lost of
life by the Galveston disaster at
5000 person, and loss Of property
of $50, 100000.
The Johnstown (Pa.) disaster
occurred in May, 1889; and it was
eau ,ed, not by the wrath of the
elements, but by the bursting of
an immense reservoir of water at
the head of the Conemaugh val
ley, just above the town. About
ten other villages besides Johns
town were in the pathway of the
flood, and suffered more or less
severely; but Johnstown was the
only place that was literally wiped
out.
The number of lives that were
lost as consequence of that cat
astrophe was 2142; the Inhabitants
of Johnstown and of the other
Villages who perished were all
known; and they were all account
cd for in that number of 2142. A
careful valuation of the property
that was destroyed in the Cone
maugh valley by the bursting of
the Reservoir placed tho loss at
$9.674,105
The question therefore of the
comparative loss of life and pro-
perty at Galveston and at Johns
town is therefore settled without
a peradventure. The loss both
of life and property at Galveston
is more than twice and likely to
be at least more than three times,
as great as the loss of property at
Johnstown.
The amount of money that was
contributed to alleviate the suf-
fering caused b, the Johnstown
horror was $2,912,346.30, of which
sum Philadelphia and New York
each contributed more than $780,
600; and a pretty feature of the
distribution of the relief fund was
that all young children orphaned
by the disaster had sum of $50
a year each set aside for their
maintenance until they should
reach the age of 16 years.
If public generosity contribut-
ed almost $4,000 to alleviate the
misery in the Conemaugh valley,
where 2142 lives were lost and
nearly $l0,000,000 worth of pro-
perty was destroyed, how much
should public generosity contri-
butte to mitigate the distress in
Galveston and district, where the
losses are three times as great?-
N. o. Times Democrat.