The Dolores star., 1902-10-17
The "FIeuT de Lys"

over On tlt Ildl04duu, HNt HlIts
across the Bay of Galveston, con-
tractor is now engaged in rolling a
four-room frame house from the edge
of sand hill, where last week it lay
upon its side. to ten-acre truck gar
den, two miles nearer the bay. The
cottage was swept inland by the
great tidal cataclysm which slew
10000 people and destroyed 100000
600 worth of property in Galveston
and its vicinity two years ago. The
cottage on the mainland. which is
now about to be restored to its for
mer humble station by the sea, was
once the home of struggling truck
farmer named Peter Gurney. On the
night of the disaster. when his doors
and windows were beaten in by the
onrushing waters, he put his wife and
three children in his skiff and resolv-
ed to stand by" his cottage. The
skif, driven inland upon the black
crest of the tidal wave, piloted by the
hands of boy. then II years old. out
rode the hurricane and went aground
ten miles from tidewater. Gurney,
in the sarret of his cottage, was bat
tered, disfgured and drowned when
the sea swept his frail house from its
piling and drove it, capsized, through
the wreck of headlong waves and
wind-driven ruin.
When she had found his body and
the water had receded, the woman
buried her husbands body in the little
thicket that skirts across a corner of
their farm" Then she turned her
face toward the west and said she
would go beyond the reach of the
waters and their ominous dirges. Her
Oldest child. who is almost woman,
said, Let us CO." but her youngest.
who is boy, and his sister, who is
now Is, said: Nanny, let us stay.
This is our home. The sea was never
like that before. Let US stay" Per-
haps they stayed because they had
no means for travel. They had no
horse nor cart, no boat of size. no
choice of egress. But the woman and
her children made lean to" of drift
from the storm and dragged into it
what remained of their household ef-
fects. The boy worked as few men
worked and his sister, who was 13
years old, gave him heart and praised
hire and said. I'VE must stay" When
spring came they made a garden
again, and every morning the boy
went Grabbing" in the bay, ana
looking out across the turbulent floor
of the gulf, spoke to it, and said: ~
Will get back all | can" at noon he
started in his row boat. out across
the blue running tide, for the smoky
Galveston shore. and at dusk he came
back, tired with his eight mile pull
but proud of the money that he got
Tor the crabs and the garden truck,
ara proudest of Nance, his sister,
who went with him, sitting at the
ti'lar and ''minding' the boat while
lhe went a-selling his wares uptown
at the fremont and the Pickwick.
When May had passed he had money
ersugh to buy some hens, and then
he added fresh eggs to his small
caTgo. and his business throve SO that
hfs mother wondered and took cour-
age, though she kept her face toward
tho burrows in the garden and was
afr.id to look upon the sea.
s'ne day creole from Matagorda
sailed his greasy. fish-smelling lugger
into the slip at Galveston and made
fasf to the docks. Then he put a
sign on his mast which read: For
sail. $25," and went to be a cook in
q dlngy eating-house in the Strand.
Upon the stern of this odorous lugger.
In drab letters upon dirty green, was
the vessels name. Fleur de Lys Of
Natagorda.
The other day wandered down the
Strand to the slip where the Mos
quito fleet lay shimmering in the
sun. Beyond, against the outer dock,
lay the fron-clad Ikball, an EngYsh
ship. loading for Liverpool with rice
and cotton. At the corner of the slim
was dry goods box, with a bit of
awning above 1t. f1y-specked glass
case upon it. and behind It, a sun.
burnt, black-eyed, slim girl of per.
haps Is. who was ladling out ice
cream and lemonade to a gang of
sweaty stevedores. Gigantic negroes.
swarthy Portuguese, grinning Irish.
men, stolid Dutchmen, bought tre-
acle candy, water melons, ice cream
and lemonade. and pulled their fore
locks. or touched their oily CAPS when
she spoke to them. Across the warn.
ed front Of this stand" was the sign.
Polly Gurney. Refreshments"
Just beyond her, moored to the
docks, lay the Fleur de Lys, the deck
green with melons, red with chains of
red peppers, ornate with piles of
peaches. gorgeous shells and cut flow.
ers. Forward there were coops Of
spring chickens, and aft. under an
awning in the shade, were cases of
'new-1afd" eggs.
Some buyers came down to the