The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 11, 1900, Page 1

14 VOLUM o This Paper not to b the e taken from Library.**** LXXXVIII—=NO. 103 SAN FRANCISCO, TUES AY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1900 PRICE FIVE (‘E\T =VERY STATE INQTHE UNION READY TO AID SUFFERERS OF GALVESTON DISASTER ') mpt Responses to the Appeal Sent Out by the Governor of Texas===Comn- servative Estimates Place the Num-=- ber of Dead at 1500 and the Property Loss Will Run Up Into the Millions. ( rI STON, < Tex.; 10.—The first reports from the s stricken the city of Galveston do not seem to have Sept. which Com- appalling disaster been magnified. was had with the island city to-day by boats and reports received here te tha th list will exceed 1500, while the property loss cannot be estimated, 1 reach seve: :\I of the d million dollars. The list of the dead as given to the Associated 1 one and the names of all who perished in eady begun. ght by the (:.m'cf'ml News is only a part s great storm will never the army barracks near ¢ be known. San Antonio 100 United report is current that. more than >rs lost their li a mass-meeting acks confirmation. ns were made for the immediate re- es in Galveston he report, howeve held and libe contri te. met eal tions had been or- id. This d that 1000 tents and Sayers appealed to President McKinley for a he Pxe sident, was by a se from to each municipality in the State an appea and night from 1 ro out the day lief has been offer: str nger of a water famine and strenuous efforts are being S tr being organized and willleave here at an early s from the ¢ r the I« fe an ¢ tion ,of property reported in TO HELP AFFLICTED —_—— y INGT D. C.. Sept. 10.—Miss Clara Barton to-night issued the following appeal in behalf Texas suff: 3 The National Red Cross at Washington, D. C., is appealed to on 2ll sides for help and ble disaster which has befallen Southern and Central Texas. It re- i, of Johnstown and of Port Royal, with their thousands of ing and needed relief. and turns confidently to the people of the United s never failed to help provide the relief that is asked of it now. Nineteen years T 1y fields renders the obligations of the Red Cross all the greater. The peo- must again open its accustomed avenues for their charities. It be fo: mpathies are as deep and their humanity as great as its own, but ges t old-time Red Cross relief work among the stricken victims of these terrible f s death. He s twice who gives quickly. Contributions may be wired or sent t T tant cashier Riggs National Bank, Washington, D. C.; t Cross committees of the Red Cross India famine fund at 156 Fifth avenue, New na Red Crc Society of New Orleans, both of whom will report all dona- CLARA BARTON, nal Red President American Na Cross. MOST DEPLORABLE CATASTROPHE IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA/|Richard Spillane, the Correspondent, bSTlMATES THF\T F’LACE THE LOSS \ e g for an expression as to the £ catastrophe in the . f great need. F ones or been ctive the ( aker and will give will re- is near OF LIFE AT FROM 1500 TO tement of the situation at Galveston and along the coast was recefved to-night: 5. Diehl, General Manager Assoclated Press, Chicago: From the latest reports, Iveston and along the coast has not been exaggerated. The wasoe: o th of six to twelve feet. During the sudden flood a most terribje an hour. Many of the dead ha ible to glve at this time a re been uncovered: others are able report as to the number . v t come from Galveston, it is be not less than . x numerous ¥ it6 ECRRtY Boms ents were “r’fi‘. 1\.4) ands of homes were . atest disasters that has ever visitec e Unite appallin, ed the United “G. B. DEALY, Manager Dallas News." q} TERROR | with v ated fur: ’\vlvl!t‘lnlr"nr nf,flvl;' the ground for miles. Trees had been i mpanied by the sound o > by their roots and % & o = . 00! d denuded of o r v 7 ne another ma anches » PENT IN A TEXAS rn from their s ey herie ister xnmmu the day before with all the great | ETI D n the sidew below. | fertility of this e RAILROAD DEPOT mection 7 s, tn SO Sebl ES Heving S “uton_of the tin r00f W | were bare. the plants having been grasped h, H,. " chme: and by the hurricane and scattered far and .n.)‘ feet away r‘: adad u,‘ wide Hundreds of head of cattle and .’ ; "> .:m llljv.y- e ht been killed. They can be no question that .l. « I' uilding Was | the loss of life had been something ap rknes _The roof of the|paliing. At least 40 per cent of the O iras torn off, many | structures in the towns of Hockley, Cy into the street.|press and Waller have been totally de. \'l ail '\\":' up | stoved. Hearne w. damaged somewhat, ; e 'u‘vy‘"l”lr(.;\.~;‘."4’~ but T do not r 1 the situation there. ' siylight on the top br comparatively speaking, as serious.” » the roar of the EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS OF LIFE was heard the v » realized the | n, but no one made hrieking, vomen were there nd DALY Tex., Sept. 10.—Houston and rdeal with such fc Texas Central Railroad officials at noon as to lend courage to even the faintest | recelved bulleting from thelr general of- ted man. Suddenly the sound c fices in Houston that the loss of life will . the lower story of the W0 in °ston. The Missouri a A again refuge, remained ind Texas rellef forces near Gal- An inspection in the morning, however. nd along the coast telegraphed revealed act that it was badly shaken | at noon that the loss of life will not be nd greatly damaged less than 5000 and may reach 10,000, As my train left Houston after day- o, o : light, nine hours late, nothing had been COLORADO CONTRIBUTES. Jearned as to the havoc of the storm fn — i other parts of the city. Along the road | COLORADO SPRIN: 4 .,) a sound | north of Houston sce f devastation | At a meeting to-night, by Mayor | and distress were witnessed nxmumgq‘.knbinsnn a draft for $2000 was ordered \e beginning of a night of | had been torn down and the material of | sent to Governor Sayers of Texas, to be n hours the storm raged which they were built was scattered over used to relieve the storm sufferers. 5000 i DARKNESS ADDS TO HORRORS AT GALVESTON Gives a Thrilling Account of the Disaster and Says the Dead|| 'Will Number a Thousand. OUSTON, Texas, . 10.—Richard Spillane, well-kno Galveston newspaper man and day correspondent of the As sociated P in that city, who reached Houston to-day fter a terrible experience, gives the following account of the disaster at Ivesion: “One of the mo: wful tragedies of modern times has visited Galveston The city is in ruins and the dead will probably number a thousand. I am just from the city, having been commissioned by the Mayor and citizens' committee to get in touch with the outside world and appeal for help. Houston was the near- est point at which working telegraph instruments could be found, well as nearly all the buildings between here and the Gulf of wrecked. “When T left Galveston shortly before noon yvesterday the people were or- ganizing for the prompt burial of the dead, distribution of food and all the nec- essary work ofter a period of disaster. The wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tempest so terriole that no words can adequately describe its intensity and by a flood which turned e city into a raging sea. The Weather Bureau records show that the wind attained a velocity of eighty-four miles an hour when the measuring instrument blew away, so it is impossible to tell what the maximum was. “The storm began about 2 o'clock Saturday morning. Previous to that a great storm had been raging in the guif and the tide was very high. The wind at first came from the north and was in direct opposition to the force from the gulf. While the storm in the gulf piled the water upon the beach side of the clty the north wind piled the water from the bay on the bay part of the city. HUNDREDS OF RESIDENCES ABANDONED. “About noon it became evident that the city was golng to be visited With disaster. Hundreds of residences along the beach front were hurriedly aban doned, the families fleeing to dwellings in higher portlons of the city. Every home was opened to the refugees, biack or white. The wind was rising con- stantly and rain fell in torrents. The wind was so flerce that the rain cut like a knife. By 3 o'clock the waters of the gulf and bay met and by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of the electric light plant and the gas planis left the city in darkress. To go out Into the streets was to court death. The wind was then at cyclonic velocity. Roofs, cisterns, portions of buildings, tele- graph poles and walls were falling and the noise of the wind and the crashing of the buildings was terrifying in the extreme. The wind and waters rose stead- ily from dark until 1:45 o'clock Sunday morning. During all this time the people of Galveston were like rats in traps. Thé highest portion of the city was four to five feet under water, while in the great majority of cases the streets were submerged to a depth of ten feet. To'leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court death in the wreckage. FEW BUILDINGS ESCAPE INJURY. “Such a night of agony has seldom been equaled. Without apparent reason the water began to subside at 1:45 a. m. Within two minutes it had gone down two feet and before daylight the streets were practically freed of the flood waters. In the meantime the wind had veered to the southeast. Very few if any buildings escaped Injury. There is hardly a habitable dry house in the city. When the people Who had escaped death went out at daylight to view the work of the tempest and the floods they saw the most horrible sight im- inable. In the three blocks from avenue N to avenue P, on Tremont street, I w eight bodies. Four corpses were In one yard. “The whole of the business front for three blocks in from the gulf was stripped of every vestige of habitation, the dwellings, the great bathing estab- lMshments, the Olympia and every structure having been either carried out to sea or its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town, according to the vagaries of the tempest. the wires as Mexico being Continued on Fifth Page. e THE COTTON WHARE GALVESTON oNBASY SibE | ' uE‘;flE = | LI Rkakmc.a 25 MiLe ’ CoNvENT b ong connmcting (rrE~cH) | | | | | | | | | | | AND MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF | THE CITY ON THE ISLAND, AT THE MOUTH OF THE BAY [ Galveston stands on the eastern end of a low, narrow, sandy island thirty | | | ~miles long. which has been built up by surf and marine cu As e | 11 er at the mouth of Galve ay, which is T Gulf of | 11 . thirty-five miles long an en wide, with t of | | water normally on the bar. The island is not over three | | level on the average and nowhere over eight feet high | both the sea and bay have occurred several times ! | | with little loss of life or property. A strong w | | northwest drives the water up into the streets, w froms th the place, are not much elevated. Two viaducts some three miles raflroads which connect the island city with the continental syster veston in 1890 had a population of about 30,000, which has increased since to some 38,000 VICTIMS ings Perish ing Debris. ALVESTON, Tex., Sept. 10.—Following is a par- tial list of the dead as gathered by It was sent by a tug to Houston: STA? CHARL cotton ma RICHARD LORD, traffic manager for George McFadden & Bros.. cotton exporters, DALY, agent for Charies Ortwein & " graln €Xporiers and steamabip agonts. struck by flying tim- NCER, steamship agent. LER SR. prominent o STICKLOCH, Mechanic street. . Shaw. of the Wensmore family, slding in the East End fumily, re- One member of the n old man, was saved. MAN and two children. wife of the United the M States children. | _Spanish saflor of the steamship Telesfora. The Telesfora went adrift and Whitehall at pler 1. Timbers of the grain elevator fell on the saflor and pinned him to the dock. MR. MAGIA, grocer, Eleventh street and avenue A: two daughters and a son. MISS IDA SCOFIELD. Bridgs Ofcer of port, and two the News. | PARTIAL LIST OF THE OF DISASTER [All the Occupants of Some Build- and Their Bodies Carried Away Amid the Swirl= | _MRS. BAXTER and child, all lost in Magia's store. LEY BELL, wife of a G . E, proofreader of the News, and ' FORDTRAN and sister. | 1A 3 | "rn«- bodles of four w P and seven | colored were found in the first story of W. J. | Reitmeyer's residence in the ng. Reit- meyer and family were in the second story and ¥ c 1 the mother of United States Depu- Mr. Locknecker escaped . mother of Deputy Chist chairman of the Demo- Executive Committee. 3 knocked from dray arry his family to a place IOSEPH B. cratie Count CHARLE: while attempting to e Two children of Captain Eilison, one of them Continued on Fifth Pasa