The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-10-21
Galveston as It Now 1;

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Now that the worst is over ard the
| news gatherers gone their ways in search
| of fresh sensations, this may be ADDED
| by one who has BEEN in pos ton 10 know
whereof she speaks, viz--that the half
| has not been told of this fearful storm,
and never will be. writes Fannie B.
| Ward who is in Galveston with the Red
| Cross. The blood-curdlng accounts of
the yellowest journals have not bean
exaggerations, but on the contrary have
| fallen far short of the truth-simply be-
cause 1t is beyond the power OF words TO
portray the full horror Of it. You may
read figures and statistics till doom sday
without being able 10 form an idea or
the real situation in Galveston.
Every house that stands today In Gal
weston is a house of mourning. Every
member of many families is numbered
among the dead, and sadder yet are the
cases where one or two are left out OF
! numerous households. have talked with
scores of people who suffered fright
| full experience, some OF them children
and delicate girls. The marvel is that
| any survived All are bruised and bat
| tered by flying debris, with broken bones
| and shattered nerves; and today in Gal
weston are more than a hundred cases
| of nervous prostration which will Sc
/ suit in death-the aftermath of that aw-
| full night In nearly every instance wo-
men were entirely deuuded of clothing
| by the combined force of wind and
! waves, and when found. living or dead,
! were naked as the minute they were
| born Think of the sick, the crippled,
| the infirm. the feeble of a populous city
| in such desperate plight.
| Heaven knows you have heard Incl
| dents enough, but 1 cannot forbear tell
I - how
/ der my personal observation. There is
| beautiful little bride in Galveston, only
| a few weeks married, who was honey
/ incoming with her young husband in
! their new dollhouse of a home. when
| the storm broke. Their house-the pa
| ternal wedding gift, furnished with all
! that love and wealth could suggest-was
| one of the many of which no trace can
! now be discovered. Suddenly the young
| couple found themselves struggling in
water up to their necks, beaten about
| by huge pillows and menaced by float
| ing and flying debris. Determined TO
! die together, if worse came, they clam
/ bered upon a bit of broken roof and
were whirled away in the darkness.
| Presently the roof went to p ece' AMI
! the pair were wrenched apart Hours
! later somebody rescued the unconscious
/ husband, got him into st. Mary's IN
|
| buildings comparatively uninjured, and
! the good Sisters resuscitated him. Mean
while the poor little bride was swept
| away alone into the storm-tossed Gulf
| of Mexico, far beyond sight of land. All
! night long she was beaten about by the
| pillows, but somehow managed to keep
/ herself afloat, though chilled TO partial
J Inconsistencies; and with the morning
tide was brought back again-into the
To-
| fortunately happened. Seeing the walls
| of a building, she had just life enough
! left to call for help. The griee-craZed
husband, pacing the corridors mourning
! for her whom he believed TO be lest,
! heard the cry-by some mysterious soul
| sense rather than by mortal ear-and
! insisted on going out to the rescue. To
! quiet him. though with no idea that any
| living thing was in that swirling food,
! the two or three men about the place
/ went with him. They found a youn
woman stark naked. clinging to a board
which had temporarily moored itself
! against a tombstone. and-Heaven be
! praised-the husband held his own dear
wife in his arms again.
| A widowed lady of considerable wealth
| lived alone with two daughters. II and
| 10 years of age. Their house went to
| pieces and both girls. being pinned under
| the walls, were drowned. The mother
| kept their bodies concealed for several
days lest they be cast into the sea or
| cremated on those CHASTITY heaps-as cof-
/ fins were unobtainable and separate fu-
| nerals for thousands out OF the Ques-
! ton A friend, also widowed, had lost
! three small children. The latter brought
| her precious dead over secretly, one by
! one, and together in the darkne e~of
night the two women dug shallow graves
for the five with their. own hands and
| buried them in the dooryard of the de-
molished home.
/ One of the most astonishing freaks Of
! the storm was its gruesome work Of
| robbing graves. Vaults, built of stone.
/ concrete and iron, were crushed like egg
| shells and their contents scattered
abroad, costly monuments were shatter-
! ed headstones carried hundreds of feet.
| and old graves washed open. disturbing
/ the peaceful rest of those long dead. In
| one vault, where nine members of fam
| fly were laid. only two caskets now re-
main, the rest having been carried of
by the greedy Gulf-metallic boxes float
J like corks, you know-and merrily thes
! raced after each other, as II reioced 10
! escape the moldy earth. The new Cath
| Ole cemeteries suffered most being near
| est the beach. In the receiving vault Of
| beautiful Lake View were II caskets,
and all but three are gone. This morn
| ing's Galveston News contains a novel
advertisement. A gentleman desires in
| formation concerning a plush-covered
| coffin containing a corpse, which has
been found on his premises, on the open
prairie, 81 miles distant The coffin Is
being held awaiting Identification.
A noticeable feature OF Galveston in
a. III # Nd
pets. such as cats. dogs, canaries, etc
to say nothing Of horses and cows, nosi
of them having persisted In the flood
A parrot was found on top Of wrecked
home. drenched and shivering but cack-
ling feebly, Polly is poor bird. Poly
feels ike a darned foolr'
People herea bouts are not eating any
fish in these days, unless brought from
distant waters-for obvious reasons. Old
sesmen say that never within the mem
ory Of man have sharks been seen so
close to shore. Having Toasted upon
thousands OF human corpses, consigned
TO the waves for burial they have grown
bold and eager. On the journey here we
were compelled to wait tweHiy-fOur
hours in Texas City on the mainland,
opposite Galveston island, for transpor-
tstion across the Bay. a training ship,
anchored in the harbor. fozted its rag
al half mast Inquiring the reason. we
were told that a cadet taking his Gus
tomary morning bath. had been snapped
NJ by a shark Looking closely. one
might see he shallow water every
where disturbed By great fms and tn
long. Jean bodies OF those assassins of
the ocean. waiting for the next barge
load OF corDses.
A young physician of the Phiiadsluhia
relief tod u that IN walking sl1rg
81 E1- he
the bodies q tao little girls. apparently
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