Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-11
DESPERATE RELIEF TRIP.
Yacht Puts to Sea in the Storm to Get
Help.

Houston, Texas, Sept 1.-THE dreadful
latallty of Galveston is looking worse in
the race of the latest facts brought out.
inree men who reported here tell of
50 many dead bodies being found in a
single house or yard, or one block, that
the conclusion is almost irresistible that
greater number than thousand lives
nave been lost. They tell that twenty or
1orty or more were lost by the collapse of
single house, the victims having gather
ed there for safety, but they are unable
to say anything about hundreds of small
houses that were swept tway, some va
cant, but many occupied, but without a
marx or sign or a memory to call the
lost.
The minute details are wanting and no
list OF the names approaching complete
ness can be had for weeks and it is al
most sure that a complete list will never
be found. AS time wears along the names
OF dlfferent persons will be recalled by
those who were neighbors and they will
De set down in the great death roll that
VIII be made up, but those who do not
know their neighbors' names will never
be called and the identity of the lost will
be passed to eternity without remem-
brance.
The city of Galveston and her people
are industriously devoting themselves to
relieving the distressed people. Her
business men are losing not a moment
Two boats and two teams containing
supplies and disinfectants have gone for
ward from Houston. Last night large
wagons jostled along the streets with
boxes of prepared food to load them on
boats or cars. The mayor has sent out
calls to the larger cities of the state for
immediate help.
NOT A HOUSE UNSCATHED.
Mr.. w. O. Ansloy, a well-known cotton
man of this city, received information
from Galveston today saying:
"It is estimated that from 400 to 600
people have been drowned or killed by the
storm. Nearly 400 bodies have been
found on the beach. All English cotton
buyers are safe. 1t is awful. Not a COM
plete house in the city; help urgently
needed. Thousands are homeless. Food
is being distributed to the destitute but
lots more will be needed"
"A newspaper writer who got through
from Galveston today made the following
statement:
The condition at Galveston is heart
rendering in the extreme. The list OF
dead will not be fully known for weeks.
The list Of missing will swell rapidly as
soon as the people have begun to report
their losses to the authorities and grad
ually this list of missing will change into
the list of dead as the bodies are recov-
cred from the ruins in this city or are
picked up on the beach of the main land
where many Of them lie, it is believed. A
meeting was held at the fremont House
and at this meeting measures We're con-
sidered, for the relief of the stricken. The
conclusion was quickly reached that the
citizens are not equal to the task, do
what they may.
Five miles of La Porte track, just
north of Texas City Junction were SUBJ
merged during the storm. All the draw
bridges between Virginia Point and CAL
weston are gone. The county bridge which
cost $265.000 and which was the longest
wagon structure in the world, collapsed
before the storm got under good head
way. An ocean steamer plowed it's way
through the piling in two other bridges
AS far as is known. the bridge tenders
are dead.
A DESPERATE VENTURE.
The first vessel to leave Galveston after
the, storm contained the party delegated
to inform the outside world of the catas-
trophe and to ask for help It consisted
Of Lieut.. j. l.. Delaney of the Southern
Pacific; f.. c. Cox. of the firm of Thomas
Taylor Co.; e. L. Porch, of Welch e.
Porch, South Galveston, correspondent of
the. Houston Post, and Richard Spillane
of the Galveston Tribune. Their boat
was the steam yacht Pherabe, owned by
made up volunteers, Lawrence V. Elder,
superintendent of the Galveston cotton
mills, acting as engineer and all hands
being stokers. The trip across the bay
was one of the most tempestuous imag-
Unable. Many squalls struck the bay just
as. the Pherabe got out of the channel
from the Galveston wharves to Texas
City, The boat was one time pointed to-
ward the sky and the next moment down
ward. The engineer declined to take the
boat between here and Texas City, de-
claring that she could not live in such a
sea. Lieutenant Delaney who was an Of
ficer in the Japanese navy and COM
manded one of the war ships in the battle
of Yalu river and was later a lieutenant
In the United States navy said the trip
across the bay was far more desperate
struggle for life than that during the hur-
ricane before and he said that in all his
experience at sea he never knew of a
craft surviving through such a strain. In
order to get into Texas City we had to
break a way into a lot of wreckage and
then had to make our way fifty or sew
ty.fiye feet walking on wreckage before
we could get to shore. From Texas City
to Lamarque the party went over the
flooded prairie in a buggy. "A work train
on the Galveston, Houston & Henderson
railroad was below Lamarque toward
Virginia Point and we tried to board this
train to get to Houston. The conductor
would pay no attention to our signals for
him t0 stop and with brutal Indifference
siknalfed the engineer to go ahead faster.
Al Lamarque we got railroad hand
car and pumped our way to about five
miles north of, Dickinson, where, just at