The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-11
LESSON TO MONEY
GRUB8|NG MAN|PLAT0RS
One Poor Man Who Refused
$4,000 From a Sense of
Public obligation.

Galveston IS mayor, Walter G. Jones
came toward SpeIlane. "My God,
Dick, this is terrible, terrible!' he said
in voice chokcd and broken. ''We re
cut off as if on an island in the Pa"
cifc, and before night thirty thousand
will be starving. What under heaven
can we do?'
Spelanc up to this time had himself
wandered as if in half dream, but
at the question the telegraph operator,
who for years had sat taking messages
of disaster by land and sea, awoke.
"'Do, man? Get into communication
with the outside world somehow.
Within an hour Spellane was aboard
the Pherabe, II powerful thirty-foot
launch, and had set forth TO cross Gal
weston bay to the mainland, and to fol
low the railroad track on foot for
Houston, forty-sevcn miles away For
two hours the launch fought, covering
bare seven miles abreast of the main,
land; but nowhere along shore could
Spellanc see a place TO land. Wreck.
trains Uttered the shore far as the
eve could reach Of what had been
Texas City, Spellane realized he would
have to hit or miss, and ran full speed
ahead at the shore, fetching up in a
heap of debris.
All he could find of the railroad was
the right of way. Ties were gone.
Seventy-pound steel rails lay bent and
twisted like hairpins and corkscrews,
and telegraph poles were RACED clean as
if cut off with a buzz saw. Through
kuee-deep water and ankle.deep mud
he slipped and floundercd. The hot sun,
beating through the murk of the swell
tering calm that had followed the
storm, baked him as If in n kiln, until
he was mad with thirst; but in the
midst of that watery desolation there
was not a drop of water fit to drink.
for the brine of the gulf had flooded
cred only with felt slippers, and dye
had soaked ont of these, poisoning his
ankles until they were as if on fire and
swollen big around as saucers.
Yet he staggered into Houston that
evening. 4 qhastly figure he was. clad
in an undershirt linen trousers, and an
outing cap, bare legs swollen to the
size of watermelons.
"Galveston is gonei Galveston is
gone!'' he mumbled thiekly as he
limped through the streets toward the
telegraph Office, followed by crowd.
=" Any wires working?' he gasped. He
sank into chair in front of desk.
and the magic fingers that had sent the
quick, clear, even incisive Morse for
which even today this man is famed.
grasped the knob of a telegraph kew
and called up st. Louis. where Pres-
dent Mckinley happened to be. This
was the message:
president Mckinley, ST. Louis Mo:
A hurricane and tidal wave DESTROYED
Galveston. At least 10000 are dead in
Galveston and surrounding country
Twenty to thirty thousand are home
less. We need food. clothing. tents.
doctors, drugs, and-aboye all-disin-
fectants. -
Then, presently, came a moment when
Spellane did that for which congress
owes him medal. A New York sheet
had been Clipped off, that Spellane
had arrived with one Of the biggest
stories in n generation, and brazen
editor thought he saw his chance for
a beat He sent this message to Spell
lane:
"The - offers YOU $4,000 for ex-
elusive story Of Galveston disaster
Five thousand dollars, What was not
So 900 to n man unnerved, unstrung. a
man 36 years old. on the Threshold
of beginning life all over again. with
a wife md three hungry little ones to
feed! For minute Spellnne sat. face
flushing Then the blood receded. and
out of his brown eyes snapped a spark