less than 2000; some of them predict that 5000 will be nearer the mark. No one places the property loss at Galveston at less $10,000,000, while Manager Vaughn, of the Western Union office at Houston, wires Manager Baker at Dallas: ‘Galveston as a business place is practically destroyed.’ When the waters shall have receded it is feared Manager Vaughn will be found to be a wise prophet. Along the coast for 100 miles either way from Galveston is a district that is nearly as completely isolated as is Galveston itself. In this territory are not less than 100 cities, villages and hamlets. Each of these as far as heard from reports from two to twenty dead persons.
OVER SEVEN HUNDRED CORPSES FOUND.
“In a radius of approximately twenty miles from Virginia Point, the centre of railroad relief operations, up to late this afternoon more than 700 corpses had been washed ashore or picked up from the main land. Hitchcock, Clear Creek, Texas City, Virginia Point, Seabrook, Alvin, Dickinson and half a dozen other points midway between Houston and Galveston compose one vast morgue.
“Down along the coast toward Corpus Christi and Rockport all is silence. Not a word had come from there up to this evening. The first news from that section is likely to come from San Antonio, as that is the most directly connected point with that section of the Gulf. An awful calamity, it is feared, will be chronicled when the report does come.
“Telegraphic communication was opened late this afternoon with Beaumont and Orange on the other extreme end of the Gulf to the eastward of Galveston. The joyful news was contained that those two towns and Port Arthur were safe, but in the territory adjacent, forty miles wide and 100 miles long, many lives are believed to have been lost and immense property damage sustained.
“Conservative estimates of the property losses, including commercial and other material interests at Galveston and Houston, put the total at from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 for the State. This includes the damage to cotton, which is placed at 250,000 bales. John Clay, one of the foremost men in the cotton trade at Dallas, addressed wire inquiries to all accessible points in the cotton growing districts of Texas concerning crop losses. He states they will reach ten per cent. of the State’s crop. Spot cotton sold at ten cents per pound on the market, an advance of half a cent a pound over Saturday’s best figures.
RELIEF WORK STARTED.
“Relief work for the Galveston sufferers started in Dallas vigorously on receipt of an appeal from Governor Sayers. The City Council appropriated $500. A mass meeting of citizens appointed soliciting committees, as did also the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. Fully $10,000 in cash had been subscribed by night.
“A special train was started for Houston over the Houston and Texas Central Railroad carrying committees of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and citizens to render aid and distribute relief in the storm districts. At the request of many persons in Dallas a telegram was sent to Governor Sayers by J. C. McNealus, Secretary of the Dallas County Democratic Executive Committee, asking the Governor his idea as to calling an extra session of the Legislature. Governor Sayers this evening replied as follows:
“ ‘Telegram received. I will do nothing until I can hear directly and authoritatively from Galveston except to call upon the people to render assistance.’
“As there is approximately a surplus of $2,000,000 cash in the State Treasury, it is reasoned that the citizens of Texas would endorse the Governor’s action should he conclude to call a special session to furnish public relief to the stricken sections of the State.
“A bulletin received at the Houston and Texas Central headquarters from the headquarters of the company in Houston stated that a courier from the relief force had just arrived. He stated that signal reports from men sent forward to Galveston Island to the relief parties on the main land read:
“ ‘Sixty dead bodies in one block. Six hundred corpses recovered and 400 more reported. People dying from injuries and sickness and for want of fresh water. Survivors threatened with starvation and disease. Doctors, nurses and fresh water needed at once.’
“The telegraph offices at Dallas have been besieged all day with men and women anxious to hear from friends who were in Galveston when the hurricane came on. Messages of inquiry have poured in from all parts of the United States. More than 10,000 messages were piled up in the Dallas offices to-day from local and outside parties, and every telegraph operator has been kept busy as long as he could work. The offices have uniformly had to inform the customers: ‘We can’t reach Galveston; can only promise to forward from Houston by boat as early as possible.’ Notwithstanding discouragements of this kind, the customers have almost invariably insisted on having their messages sent. Some of the scenes at the local telegraph offices have been very pathetic.
“A telegram was received from E. H. R. Green, son of Hetty Green, dated at Rockport, stating that Rockport had not been damaged by the storm, and that the visitors at the Tarpon Club House, on St. Joseph’s Island, were safe. This news lessens the fear felt for the safety of the people living along the coast in the vicinity of Rockport and Corpus Christi.
“Houston and Texas Central Railroad officials at noon received bulletins from their general offices in Houston that the loss of life will reach 3000 in Galveston. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas relief forces near Galveston and along the coast telegraphed at noon that the loss of life will not be less than 5000 and may reach 10,000.”
THE CITY IN RUINS.
Richard Spillane, a well-known Galveston newspaper man and day correspondent of the Associated Press in that city, who reached Houston September 10th, after a terrible experience, gives the following account of the disaster at Galveston:
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, GALVESTON, AFTER THE STORM
WRECKAGE OF CARS OF GRAIN—GALVESTON
AVENUE L AND TWENTY-SIXTH STREET, SHOWING THE URSULINE CONVENT, THE REFUGE OF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE
RUINS OF THE GAS WORKS AT THIRTY-THIRD AND MARKET STREETS
BURYING BODIES WHERE THEY WERE FOUND
AVENUE L AND FIFTEENTH STREET—SHOWING DESTRUCTION DONE BY THE HURRICANE
TANGLED MASS OF RUINS ON NINETEENTH STREET
VOLUNTEERS REMOVING DEBRIS ON TWENTY-FIRST STREET, LOOKING SOUTH
“One of the most awful tragedies of modern times has visited Galveston. The city is in ruins, and the dead will number many thousands: 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 nearest point at which