The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-13
RALEIGH MUST SEND HELP
TO GALVESTON SUFFERERS
The Storm Victims Are in Great Need, and the
Mayor of Houston Makes an Appeal
in Their Behalf.
MASS MEETING OF CITIZENS THIS AFTERNOON
The Call For 1t Was Issued Yesterday Morning by Mayor
Powell and it Should Meet With
Hearty Response,
MASS MEETING OF CITIZENS THIS AFTERNO
as cordial and wholesouled as it will
be free and generous.


be free and generous.
TEXAS SWEPT BY MANY FLOODS.
The elements seem to have been
wrealling vengeance on Texas this year.
In April the Colorado and Brazos VAL
leys were swept by floods, entailing
great loss in life and property. Austin
and Dallas suffered severely. Through
out the summer stories have been re-
peated from day to day of ruined Texas
crops due to floods of rain. The Calves
ton horror is the climax if disaster
Galveston and the neighboring gulf
towns, like the cities at the foot of Vesu-
yius are always under the shadow OF
disaster The coast is low and West
Indian storms rage over the gulf, piling
it's waters into tidal waves which sweep
with consuming force upon the coast
On Wednesday, September 10, 1875,
storm broke over Galveston, which sub
merged half of Galveston Island and
left the city cut off from the rest of the
world until late on Sunday night. Sew
eral hundred tenements were destroyed,
churches were unrOofed, and the streets
were Uttered deep with debris Some
scores of lives were lost in the city and
it's environs in this gale and the damage
done reached nearly $250,OOO. The ship
ping in the harbor suffered severely, one
schooner being hurled 40 feet inland. In
the Strand Market the water driven in
from the gulf by the gale was three feet
deep. No railroad trains were run and
the telegraph wires were down for three
days. Other towns on the Texas coast
suffered in proportion. In this gale the
town of Indianola, in Calhoun county
lot nf
swallowed up by the sea. Two hundred
lives were lost and the damage done to
property reached 81 900, 000 Bodies were
strewn along the beach for 20 miles after
the gale
In October, 1885, Sabine Pass, Texas,
was practically destroyed by a storm
on the gulf in which 247 lives were lost.
The Louisiana coast suffered severely a
this time.
1t was a similar storm that on -Au
gust 81, 1898, ravaged the coasts of Lou
isiana, Florida, Georgia and South Car
DINA, being most severe in the latter
State, where GOO lives were lost, most
ly in the Sea Islands. The Red Cross
provided for 5000 people in South Caro-
lima that fall.
There seems to be no more remedy
for such disasters than for the erup-
tions of Vesuvius. Galveston has tried
to protect itself from the ocean by sea
walls, but they are entirely ineffective
against the hurricane driven tidal wave.
Ocean steamers are lifted and set upon
the docks near which they are moored.
Other shipping is carried inland and
stranded high and dry. Galveston can
only repair the loss and hope for a long
err respite in the future.
THE CITY OF GALVESTON.
Galveston is the third city in Texas
in point of population and the first com
mercially. In 1890 it had population
of 29,084. The 1900 census returns for
the city have not been published, but
the present estimated population is at
least 40 900. In the past 10 years it has
made great strides as an exporting point,
especially for cotton and grain. 1t is
the largest cotton exporting point in the
country, New Orleans being it's only
close competitor. Among the 1877 foreign
exporting points in the United States,
Galveston held the fifth place. During
the year 1898 it exported 639 per cent
of the merchandise that left the country,
it's exports increasing $40 900 during
the year. Lumber and live stock are also
large exports,
The city is situated on the northeast
extremity of Galveston Island, at the
mouth of Galveston Bay, the entrance
to which is through the channel between
the city and the southwest point of the
Peninsula Of Bolivar. The island is
about 80 miles long and from 112 to 31a
miles wide, intersected with many small
bayous and bordered through it's whole
length on the ocean side by a smooth,
hard beach, forming a splendid drive and
unsurpassed bathing. On this beach is
the magnificent Sea Beach hotel. The
streets, which are but a few feet above
the level of the bay are wide and
straight, and the residence quarters are
beautiful, Astounding in luxuriant gar
dens, shaded with magnolias and olean-
ders.
The bay is an irregular indentation
branching out into various arms. 1t has
total area of $50 square miles It's
entrance is guarded by long bar,
through which the present deep-water
channel was constructed. The stone jet
ties fanking it are five miles long. The
city proper, being on the inner side of
the island is naturally protected from
the sweep of the ocean storms; but the
level of the island is so little above
that of the bay that foundations have
more than once been threatened. The
bay is, of course, quite shallow in most
parts, and the railroads reach the city
on two-mile trestle from the main
land The Southern Pacific Railroad is
heavily interested in Galveston. and in
1899 joined hands with the steamship in
terests centerng there, making large
improvements and increasing their own
and the citys business.
The island of Galveston was occupied
by the pirate LATTE in 1917, and contin-
ued to be his headquarters until his set
element was broken up in 1921. The city
was faunded in 1887. During the
Civil War The Federal forces oc-
cupied the town on October s. 1862, but
| it was retaken By the Confeicrates on
January. 1868.
THE HURRICANE IN THE GULF.
IL