St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-10-03
GalveSton'S Disaster.
Incidents told i'm the First Newspaper
from that City to Reach this Office.

The first Galveston paper since the
disaster has finally come, says a recent
Springfield Republican. Through it all,
even in the advertisements, is displayed
the same indomitable spirit which has
called forth an admiration for the citizens
OF the stricken city scarcely less great
than the sympathy their woes have ex-
cited. But it is in the stories of what
people went through that awful night,
and yet lived to tell ofit, that the special
interest lies.
when did you first realize you were in
DANGER" was the common question,
eave 49, G-~I' ~stUn DesiI, News, ''TnyIC
might have been difference as to the
moment when these people, penned like
rats in cage, first felt the terror of i'm
pending death but invariably the answer
was that the storm was almost at it's
hight before the realization came. In
many cases only the falling house
brought the realization" One little girl
living in the most exposed quarter tells
how she spent the night with her mother
and eight little brothers and sisters.
Then we saw a house tumble down,
and we heard people crying. We got
scared then, and me and mamma PRAYED.
We prayed that one of us would not be
drowned if the little children were not
drowned, because one of us would have
to be their mother" One man told of
his feelings as follows: Nothing but
complete resignation. | have read much
OF the tableaux of the past appearing to
the human mind on the eve of mans dis
solution. In no instance have | found
that the survivors of this terrible thing
remembered the past. Some were fright
ened and simply shrieked and laid hold of
anything that would relieve them from
the embraces Of the water. Some were
frightened and prayed for mercy. Some
were frightened into dumb resignation,
partaking of dumb indifference"
In view of what has happened since the
disaster, of the perhaps exaggerated re-
ports OF the work of vandals and fends.
it is well to quote this from the News:
In all the great catastrophes | have vet
to know OF one that some special act of
selhshness and brutality did not occur.
In all have heard of the thousands of
incidents connected with this storm, not
an instance Of that sel6shness which
would cause one person to deprive
another of his means of escape has oc-
Cured. Thousands of instances of devo-
ton OF husband to wife, of wife to hus-
band, of child to parent and parent to
child, can be mentioned. 1t can be
safely guessed that one-haf of those who
persisted, died in their efforts to aid
Others. One poor mother, with her child
and her father, was cast into the raging
waters. They were both separated.
Both were in drift and both believed they
went out in the gulf and returned. Dur
ing all that frightful night she held to
her Gig ht-months- old babe, and when she
was in the drift pile she lay upon the
infant and covered it with her body that
1t might escape the blows of the planks.
She came out of the ordeal cut and
wounded, but the infant had not
scratch" The same writer in the News
tells how the mass of debris, growing
greater and greater, and dragging
bottom finally caught against some Of
the stronger structures and, formed part
~ OF human bodies, became a barrier,
put tor which mot as many people of
Galveston island would have escaped as
on that day when Pompeii was shut out
from the eyes of the world by the veil of
ashes"