The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-10-27

much wiser to send flannel and other l material suited to the season; and in f1nitely wiser yet to senr money and al-
 low the Galvestonians to buy garments 1 to suit themselves of the local mer-
 chants. The latter have suffered
 enough, Heaven knows, from the
 storm, without being ptterly ruined af- ! rewards through misguided charity. 1 They have dried their drenched and
 deluged goods, cleaned out the mud and
 salt left by the sea from their places of i business, and are making heroic efforts l to avert utter failure. The insurance
 companies are making good no storm
 losses, and the merchants, having de-
 stroyed thousands of dollars worth of
 ruined goods, are offering those slightly
 damaged but still usable at greatly re-
 duced prices But naturally nobody
 will buy at any price so long as train-
 loads and ship-loads of good S continue
 to arrive for free distribution and mer- cantile failures are the order of the
 hour in Galveston. It cannot be too
 strongly impressed upon the people
 that money is the one thing most inn
 peritively needed for Texas relief
 money by the millions of dollars; for
 clearing up the mountains of debris, re-
 building the houses, furnishing them
 when built, and purchasinA tools, sew
 ing machines, etc, for those who have
 lost everything. but could earn their
 own support if provided with the imple-
 ments of their trade.
 Some of our experiences in the Rag
 fair of the old clothes department have
 been odd indeed. In many packages
 we find letters-sentimental epistleS
 from ladies, presumably young, hidden
 in the pockets of coats and trousers, in-
 viting correspondence with the reef
 pients and offers of matrimony pinned
 to the female garments. Love letters
 are found stuffed into the toes of shoes,
 and the most earnest of all came to light in a box of soap and combs The last mentioned Is too characteristic to
 be deprived of publicity. The writer, Pennsylvanian, describes himself as
 good-looking man of thirty years, Of unexceptional habits and generally prosperous circumstances. but owing to the death of his wife, a year ago, and long run of sore eyes, now temporarily down on his luck."" However, he is the proud owner of a home, whose fur
  lars and he wants some young woman who has lost her parents in the flood to come on and take possession of the same as wife number two. Owing to the sore eyes, etc., he cannot afford to pay her transportation from Galveston to the Pennsylvania village, but if the Red Cross will kindly select the young woman and purchase her ticket, the rest will be smooth sailing. He makes a special point of some young woman who has lost her parents none other need apply References are enclosed, and with the evident conviction that | applicants would be numerous, the wri- ter urges upon the Red Cross discretion 1 in making the choice
 A Vermont widow writes in the same l vein, and puts her leap year proposition into box of hand-knit hose. She says l she has good farm, but is tired of the i cold northern winters, and will sell out | and come south with her money to | marry some good f1ood-sufferer whose | wife was drowned Occasionally we strike something pathetic, such as bundle of babys clothing, accompanied | by a note saying that the dear little soul for whom they were intended was called up higher when only few days old, and it's sorrowing mother hoped that some happier mother might find use for the garments which love had provided.
 The inmates of the Cunning poor house and insane asylum near Chicago raised eighty-four dollars among them selves toward Galveston's relief. Thir- ty of the poor old almshouse pensioners formed a relief society and gave up their only luxuries, tea and tobacco, to swell the fund. Truly, in heavens these acts of self-denial on the part of the lowly and afflicted may count for as much as the thirty thou sand dollars raised by the great, rich city of Chicago.
 Even the poor, forgotten negroes of the Carolina sea-islands to whose as- sistance the Red Cross went after their great flood a few years ago, have aised among themselves one hundred md sixty-eight dollars--an astonishing amount considering their abject pover- y. Miss Barton considers that it would be the proper and graceful thing 70 turn this money over to a reliable committee of Texas colored people, to De used for the benefit of flood suffer- ITS of that race alone. Some of the most extensive donations of food, mon- y and clothing have come from Johns- own, Pa. Immediately following the irst appeal for help Johnstown began shipping things in surprising quanti- ies to Galvestons aid. A sense of gratitude for help rendered to them in imilar but smaller disaster has no | loubt prompted the noble liberality of { ts citizens. The havoc wrought by he storm in Galveston was much arger in loss of life and property than , t Johnstown, but the donations in f honey thus far have aggregated one 2 hird less for both the city and the l mainland than was given at Johns i own
 An old lady living at Centralia in the f tate of Washington writes to Miss , Barton that she is sixty-two years of :, ge has raised eight children of her r wn and one adopted child. These are 6 Il married and doing well, and now q he wants to adopt four children from V he flood sufferers district. She says f he has good farm of one hundred q nd twenty acres, with plenty to eat r nd comfortable clothing; offers to o i've references and all that sort of fl 1ing, and as a guarantee of good faith h 1ECs fttray, ,fEy toll 4I..z JD-