The Great Galveston Disaster, Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Page: 224

224 DOOMED CITY TURNED TO CHAOS.
"Along the pebbled 1)each, ollce tlle mlost l)eautiful in the
world, and a scene of wonted gayety, 11i0 all is desolation and
awe. Human bodies, swollen and unrecognizablle, were 1miingled
with those of dead animals and reptiles, and the whole formed a
scene so gruesome and so misshapen that the thought of it even
sends a sickening thrill coursing through one's veins.
"To add to the horror of the situation, human hyenas moved
stealthily among the dead, robbing those who were powerless to
resist, but these ghouls in human guise are meeting with just
retribution, for armed sentinels are now on guard and have orders
to shoot them down as they would ilad dogs.
" If the situation along the Fast Side was more horrible than
that along the West, it was only because more people dwelt there
and there were more houses to be destroyed. Along either beach
gaunt destruction held full sway, and each wave seemed more
cruel than that which it succeeded. Nor were the waves alone in
their cruelty, for the winds reveled in maddened fury and seemed
to vie with them in spreading ruin and desolation.
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CARRIED OUT TO SEA.
"The loss of life at Galveston will never be known. The
storm came first from the northwest and hundreds, perhaps thousands,
were carried far out to sea never more to return. At o1
o'clock at night the wind suddenly veered to the southeast and
hundreds more were swept into tile bay and caught by the current
and also carried out to the sea before daylight Sunday morning.
That is the opinion of old sealen with whom I conversed,
and if they do not know the actions of the ocean, then no one does.
"Monday evening and Tuesday morning I myself saw more
than a hundred bodies floating out to sea and these were scarcely
one per cent of those who perished. Responsible men with whom
I talked and who had been front one end of the island to the
other, estimated the loss at from 5,000 to io,ooo, and all thought
it would come nearer the lasL named figures than the first. Day
by day as the debris is cleared away bodies will be found and
many are buried beneath the ruins that will never be removed.