Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-27
"Roofs have to he renaired plass

/
has to be put in windows and houses
have to be lighted. There is work
and to spare for every man in Calves
ton, and soon the money will begin
changing hands from employer to en-
ploye, in turn go to groceryman, cloth
Ter, furniture dealer, baker--to every
one doing business.
| This storm, save for the terrible
heaps of dead, may prove blessing
in disguise, in time"
| at is not all tears in Galveston, not
all sorrow. Hearts bowed down with
grief are not heavy all the time, and
there are smiles and good cheer, and
hearty hand shakes with it ell.
| Here's a sample of the converse
ton.
Hello Bill, I'm glad to see you
alive'
Same to you old man. as they
join hands in hearty clasp.
How about your family?'
All safe thank Cod
L lost my little one, but the rest
are safe. How's your home?'
Gone, knocked into kindlingwood,
but that don't matter, as l saved my
wife and children after a hard strug-
gle.
"And the two pass on, the one light
hearted and the other with smile
glistening in his tear dimmed eye,
both glad for what was left them.
81 saw a telegram. to a Galveston
woman from sister in Houston with
whom she had hardly been on speak
ing terms for years. 1t read:
g Are you safe? Do you want any
money? Come up to Houston and live
with u.s.
as there any necessity for COM
ment?
81 saw neighbors who had been
quameling and saying spiteful things
about each other for months riding
down the street in the same buggy,
the most loving chums in the world.
Il saw rival candidates for the same
political office catch hold of the OBJ
posite end of the same log, and with a
heave, no, toss it up out of the way of
wagons and pedestrians, each DONG
the work for humanity's sake.
Social distinctions are wiped out.
| heard the banker tell his story OF
the storm to his stable man, will as
much vim and gusto as tho hobnob-
bling with his heaviest depositor.
White and colored stop to make inuui-
ries of each other and shake hands.
One mans religious creed is no
better than another's. | saw a min
lister of the gospel take drink
of whisky and l heard a gambler
thank God The churches all over
town Suffered heavily and the Gal.
weston brewery was hardly damaged.
Il saw blind mendicant, contin-
ual object of charity. on the corne- of
| Twenty-first and Market, and heard
of hundreds upon hundreds of great
strong, useful men who went down
with the flood.
Life is stranger than fiction but
it does seem an ironical Providence
that saves the halt and the manned
and takes away the useful.
One thing he did in his awful Wis.
| itation of Saturday night. He swept
the beach clear of those noisome mid.
way joints between fremont Ind Ros-
! enberg avenues, and He wiped from
the face of the earth, number of vile
resorts.
/ Il stood on the foundation OF
the brick chimney of the old
4 Beach hotel with the waters of the
Gulf tapping the soles of my feet, and
not vestage of these places could |
see. Will they be rebuilt with the
new Galveston? Let us hope that no
more unsightly lighthouses with mon
strous railroad signs be erected south
of the driveway along the now irreg-
ular beach.
/ How placid, how guiltless those
waters looked as the greenish blue
took on the tint of an opal when
4 touched by the slow descending sun
of this delightful mid-September day.
The little waves rocked back and
forth at my feet, singing their soft
restful grooming song.
Bah.
J Il had but to turn my head to scs
| columns OF smoke rising all over the
city, marking impromptu crematories
of human bodies, senseless clay, the
souls from which had been sent to
their maker by these same innocent
looking waters! | had but to look be.
tween and beyond these spiral col
umns, these tomb stones OF TN hour
to see leaning houses roofless
residences, splintered structures
but few days before the
homes of those whose bones and flesh
/ We're being turned to ashes-the dis
carded play things of this placid sea
But l did not mean to be bitter. |
was speaking of smiles and good feel
i ing.
I. The first two days the people were
4 respondent. They declared they want
ed to get away. Galveston was ever,
/ lastingly damned and doomed III they
came here from other places they
cursed themselves for coming. Ii they
had been born here, they wondered
why they had never gone away There
We're so many other nice places to live
in
Today different spirit fills near.
ly every breast There Is law and or.
der; there is food and water; there
is clothing and cleanliness to q de-
gree. The women and children arc
being gotten out of town rapidly
those who will go. Many absolutely
refuse. The men are staying, and
they have taken hold of things.
Every hour the prospect brightens
4 Word comes of Car loads-trainload
and boatloads of food clothing ami
medicine enroute. Much has already
been received. The government has
). tents enroute for hospital on the