Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1900 — STORIES OF THE STORM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES OF THE STORM

Sevent.rfive outside towns were wiped Out. Several negroes were shot while looting houses. Helen Gould sent 50,000 army rations to GalvGlton. Five thousand families were made utterly destitute. Ghouhr stripped dead bodies of jewelry and articles of value. Cities tn all parts of the country have volunteded to aid the storm sufferers. Prof. De Voe, Chattanooga, Tenn., the Texas cyclone in an almanac. The Governors qf various States offered aid aud sympathy to the Texas sufferers. The War Department ordered a special train fti>m St. Louis to carry supplies to Galfrston. Marticl law was declared at Galveston owing <9 the rifling of dead bodies and robbery of stores. Idlers were pressed into service at the point <rf the bayonet and made to help clear ujf the debris. Ohicsjo sent a relief train to Galveston. iSte Rock Island road offered to transport provisions and furnishings free. Wheu the water had receded so far that it V as possible to dig trenches bodies were biitied where found. Debns covering bod'.»s was burned where it could be done st ?ely

President McKinley ordered 50,000 army rations and tents for (1,000 persons placed at Gov. Sayers’ disposal. Revenue cutters were sent to nearby ports. Gov. Sayers of Texas has been asked to call a special session of the Legislature in order to take steps to relieve the suffering. The State has approximately a surplus of $2,000,000. Not a single church, school qr charitable Institution, of which Galveston had so many, la left Intact. Not • building record damage and hslf the whole numben Yers entirely obliterated.

DEAD IN MANY CITIES. Great Storm Claimed 800 Victims Outside of Galveston. The extent and character of the calamity which has befallen the people of Galveston is so great and overwhelming that losses of life and property at other small towns in the track of the hurricane have been lost sight of. There are probably seventy-five villages and towns that were

swept by the storm, and in most of these places loss of lives is reported. It is reliably estimated that the loss of life, exclusive of the death list of Galveston, will aggregate 800. Several towns were swept completely out of existence. Through the devastated district the scenes of desolation were terrible to witness. The storm was over 200 miles wide and extended 200 miles inland from the gulf. In Brazoria and other counties of that ■section there is hardly a plantation building left standing. All fences are nlso gone and the devastation is complete. Many large and expensive sugar refineries are wrecked. The negro cabins were blown down and many negroes were killed. On one plantation a short distance from the ill-fated town of Angleton three families of negroes were killed, the death list of that place alone amounting to fifteen people. All relief is being centered at Galveston for the present, but succor will reach the smaller places and the country people just as soon as the relief work can be systematized. Gov. Sayers received upward of 1,000 telegrams Tuesday from parties in the East and West offering assistance to the flood sufferers at Galveston, and from various portions of the State reporting the collection of money and supplies. RAILROADB HEAVY LOBKR*. Great Property Loes buffered by the Llnee in Texas. The railroads will suffer the loss of millions of dollars in actual damage, to say nothing of the loss from stoppage of business. At Galveston their wharves,warehouses, depots and tracks are ruined. The costly bridges which connect the island are in ruins and must be entirely retrain. The International and Great Northern and Santa Fe have conaidarabto track washed out

ONE OF THE GREAT STRUCTURES WRECKED BY STORM. Longest Bridge in the World, Spanning Galveston Bay.