Damage to cotton crop, estimated on average crop of counties affected, 50,000 bales at $60 per bale; total, $3,000,000. Losses to live stock cannot be estimated, but thousands of horses and cattle have been killed all over the storm district.
RELIEF PUSHED FORWARD NIGHT AND DAY.
Relief for those stricken in the awful calamity is now beginning to pour in from all over the country. Relief committees are being organized, and food, clothing and money raised to be sent here as rapidly as the special trains can carry the supplies to the people so sorely in need of them.
The Relief Committee here announces that the subscriptions in cash are in excess of $15,000, and that in addition to the provisions which have been forwarded from here the Federal Government has ordered 50,000 rations, which are now on their way from San Antonio. Lieutenant Ferguson, of General McKibben’s staff, expects to take two car loads of food to Galveston to-day. A telegram from New Orleans says that the exchanges there have raised $6,000 for the sufferers.
Dr. C. P. Wertenbacker, in charge of the Marine Hospital Service in New Orleans, has arrived here. He has special instructions to look after the welfare of steamers which may be in distress in Galveston. Dr. Wertenbacker believes that two camps may have to be established by the Government, one for those who cannot leave Galveston and one for those who may come here. The National Government will send the necessary tents, and the local authorities are providing cots in large numbers.
AN APPEAL TO THE FREE MASONS.
Houston, Tex., Sept. 12.—An appeal has been sent out by the Masonic Grand Master to the Masonic lodges and members in Texas, urging them to remit or contribute to the assistance of the destitute.
Grand Commander W. F. Randolph, of North Carolina Knights Templar, to-day telegraphed the following to subordinate commanders of North Carolina:
“Our fraters in Texas in dire distress because of recent storm. Immediate relief imperative. Grand Master appeals for funds. Wire or send quickly to Henry B. Stoddard, Deputy Grand Master, Galveston, Tex.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS UNDER WAY.
Wilmington, Del., Sept. 12.—H. L. Evans & Co., bankers of Wilmington, to-day started a fund to help the storm sufferers at Galveston. Bishop Monaghan, of the Roman Catholic Church, in response to a telegram from Bishop Gallagher, of Galveston, has also started a relief movement. The money which was collected by the city during the Porto Rico famine is still in the possession of Mayor Fahey, and it is likely that it will be turned over for the relief of the people of Galveston.
Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 12.—At a special meeting of the City Council this afternoon $2500 was appropriated for the Galveston storm sufferers. Private subscriptions have amounted to more than this amount, and to-day $4771 was sent to Galveston.
Liverpool, Sept. 12.—At a meeting convened by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, England, it was decided to open a relief fund for the sufferers from the Galveston disaster, and £1500 was immediately subscribed, exclusive of over £500 raised by the cotton association. The Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool has passed a resolution expressing deep sympathy with the people of Galveston.
PROTECTION OF GALVESTON A COSTLY PROBLEM.
To protect the city of Galveston from the ravages of future cyclones would be almost as costly as to re-establish the city on a new site. This is the opinion of eminent engineers in Washington. To insure the maintenance of the channel it has been necessary to erect jetties, which have cost more than $6,000,000, but these jetties do not furnish any obstacle of value to the invasion of the sea when behind it is a force such as a West Indian cyclone exerts.
Because of the effect of storms upon the Gulf coast it has been customary for engineer officers stationed at Galveston to report yearly upon the appearance of atmospheric disturbances of more than usual intensity, and Captain Rich, the engineer officer, who is believed to have lost his life, stated in his report for 1899 that storms which occurred during April, May and June, 1899, “carried away nearly all that remained of construction trestle and track, and caused more or less settlement of the jetties.”
The need of a safe deep water harbor on the Gulf of Mexico has long been appreciated, and in 1899 Congress passed an act directing the Secretary of War to appoint a board of three engineer officers of the army to make a careful and critical examination
