Evening star., 1901-01-14
SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE
AWFUL EXPERIENCE OF A MOTHER
AND DAUGHTER AT GALVESTON.
Grapic Recital of q Reign of Terror
Through Which Two Wo-
men Passed.

In a letter written to Mr.. Mcdowell of
No. 628 f street northwest, under date of
January 5, Miss Mamie F. v. Schmitt re-
counts the perils through which her mother
and herself passed in the disaster at Gal
weston. Tex. September s. 1900. Her story
follows:
During the day preceding the storm the
beach was unusually rough. When awoke
the morning of the Sth my mother remark
ed to me that 1 wouldn't have far to walk
to the beach that Gay; that instead it was
coming to ME. l laughed and looked out
the window. and, sure enough, there was
the water nearly up to our sidewalk.
1T was about o'clock in the morning at
this time, but as our house stood on the
highest piece of ground in our neighbor-
hood we were not in the least afraid.
Crowds from the central part of the city
came to see how far the water had reach
ed. BY this time all the houses in our vi
cnity were flooded and several had already
been blown to pieces. The water was rising
continually, but still our house remained in
tact. AT one clock we received message
from my sister in town to go to st. Marys
Infirmary. We then proceeded to pull up
our carpets, pack our trunks and put the
things likely to be damaged by water In
the highest place possible.
The Flood Reaches the House.
''In the meantime all our neighbors had
left their houses in boats, but friend of
ours persuaded us to remain, for he SAID
The water will go back as quickly as 1t
came in We stayed, and it was not until
about half-past four or five o'clock in the
evening when the water rushed into our
house. We were taken quite by surprise
md nj, frr, hi opnI to H.
was-for then we realized that We had
stayed too long. and thought there was no
chance for us to be saved. We attempted
to go out by the front door, but the water
dashed US back. We then ran to the rear,
and were about to go into the dining room
when down went the entire rear of the
house, dining room, kitchen and all. we
ran to the bed rooms. where everything
was floating about, then to the front OIL
the house again. All our furniture was
floating out of the house. the paper had all
peeled off the walls. and the WINDOWS and
the doors were broken in with the force OF
the wind and water. The gallery of the
house came down, and the structure itself
was rapidly going to pieces. still we were
unable to do anything to save ourselves.
We had to be content and wait as thou
sands of others did, expecting to be crush
ed to death under our house, or drowned or
struck with flying beams, slate, brick and
other debris.
MY parrot kept saying: What's the mat
ter. mother? Mamie. take Polly. l gave
her to mamma and put some money / had
i'll little tin box and locked 1t in trunk,
but mamma couldn't be persuaded to leave
her money, and. of course. she lost it. We
decided to leave the house and cling to
some log as the only chance to save our
lives If we were not carried out to sea; but
bef
ton down crashed our roof upon us. AS
fate would have it, it went down on the
side furthest from us first. Polly was
caught and thus separated from us.
Mammals arm was wedged in, and only a
few large beams held the roof high enough
to prevent our being crushed / helped
mamma pull her arm out, but l was sure
we would pull her fingers off. The skin
was completely torn from her fingers by
her rings. We managed to get from under
our roof and clung on to some beams.
Mamma then told me to climb to the roof
of an outhouse that stood in our yard
Rescued by Her Mother.
81 had nearly reached tl& top when down
I came and sank beneath the debris. Mann
ma is a good swimmer so down she dived
after me. but when she brought me up 1
was all cut up. We then made our way to
ar attic OF house that was near, and stood
on the window sill and resolved to stay
there as long as possible. The wind was
blowing hard it tossed one about as If
he waSa feather, and 1T also sprayed the
water so that 1t would blind and choke one
AS fate again would have 1t. that side OF
the roof opposite us went down first; SO
again we had to go out into the storm
Once again l sank, and again Mamma
Xed me. | had already given up all hope
of being saved. but mamma never lost cour-
age. She kept telling me she saw a light
but I always failed to see it. OF course il
ft,f
binding spray. which beat against one like
large needles or hail.
.'All this time the water kept drifting us
along and rising higher. but we tried to
stay where the debris was piled thickeS;
so that it formed a sort of raft. Thereto
fore it had been pitch dark, but it bright
ened finally and quite near us We espied
the roof of our-own home. We made haste
t. scramble on it and there we stayed till
left 1t to crawl to safety.
Struck by Flying Beams.
81 had very hard time to stay on the
roof, which had two days before been new
ly tarred and sanded; and as nearly all my
clothes We're torn off when the wind blew
me around, l suffered intensely. 1 was
waiting every moment for some OF the fly.
ing timbers and beams to strike and Kill
one. if not both, of us. l knew that mann
ma could save herself If she was not killed
Directly beam struck mamma in the heaG
and for u few moments she was senseless
/ thought she had been killed, so l deter
mined l would make no effort to save my
self. but would drown.
She came to- however. and l stretched
out my arm to ward off beam that was
again aiming for her head and got such q
blow that l thought my arm was broken
Presently another beam came along ant
crashed down and slashed open my knee
| and knocked it out of joint. | said to my
self, We'll. I'm done for, so from that OF
l wouldn't do a thing but lie face dowr
! and cover my head with my arms. waiting
| for something to hit me in the head.
| begged of mamma to save herself for th'
| sake of my sister, who is younger thar
| /, but she very resolutely told me that if
drowned she would drown with me, so
| might well make some effort to save my
| self. Soon we passed a house of one o.
| our friends which was still standing. Nam
| ma wanted to try to reach it, but my les