The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Page: 20

20 FIRST NEWS OF THE GREAT CALAMITY.
crew had reported that many bodies were floating, and that they
were using every endeavor to get them all out of the water. The
water swept across the island, and it is presumed that most of
these were Galveston people, though none of them had been identified.
LOST WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.
One of the refugees who came in on the relief train and who
had a sad experience was S. W. Clinton, an engineer at the fertilizing
plant at the Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton's family
consisted of his wife and six children. When his house was
washed away he managed to get two of his little boys safely to a
raft, and with them he drifted helplessly about. His raft collided
with wreckage of every description and was split in two, and he
was forced to witness the drowning' of his sons, being unable to
help them in any way. Mr. Clinton says parts of the city were
seething masses of water.
From an eye-witness of the vast devastation we are able to
give the following graphic account:
"The storm that raged along the coast of Texas was the
most disastrous that has ever visited this section. The wires are
down, and there is no way of finding out just what has happened,
but enough is known to make it certain that there has been great
loss of life and destruction of property all along the coast and for
a hundred miles inland. Every town that is i reached reports one
or more dead, and the property damage is so great that there is
no way of computing it accurately.
"Galveston remains isolated. The Houston Post and the
Associated Press made efforts to get special trains and tugs today
with which to reach the island city. The railroad companies
declined to risk their locomotives.
"It is known that the railroad bridges across the bay at
Galveston are either wrecked or are likely to be destroyed with
the weight of a train on them; the approaches to the wagon
bridge are gone and it is rendered useless. The bridge of the
Galveston, Houston and Northern Railroad is standing, but the
drawbridges over Clear creek and at Edgewater are gone, and the