Two Survivors Give   Harrowing Details of the Awful Disaster

Alexander and Stanley G. Spencer, the two sons of Stanley G. Spencer, of Philadelphia, who was killed in Galveston, reached Philadelphia Monday afternoon, the 17th. Mrs. Spencer was to come north later when their affairs in the stricken city are settled, and would bring the body of Mr. Spencer, which was embalmed and placed in a metallic coffin in a vault in Galveston.

The two boys left Galveston at 9 o'clock Friday morning. It took them until 3.30 in the afternoon to reach Houston, which is only about fifty miles distant from Galveston. " All the society ladies of Houston met the train," said Alexander, the older of the two boys. " They brought clothes and food for the people."

The boys told a remarkable story of their experiences during the flood. Storm warnings were sent out on Friday," said Alexander, "but nobody paid much attention to them; only a little blow was expected. This did not come until Saturday afternoon. It first started with a chilly wind. Things looked rather dark and heavy and black, rapidly moving clouds sped by. Papa had finished work at the office and was getting ready to come home, when he received a telegram from the North telling him to meet Mr. Lord, with whom he was to conduct business relative to the buying of property.

Papa telephoned us that he would not be home for several hours on account of this business. That is why we were not worried about him. He and Mr. Lord met in Ritter's café, and it was there that he was killed. He was sitting on a desk, with his hands clasped over his head, a favorite position of his, talking to Mr. Lord and a Greek, named Marcleitis.
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"Ritter's Café was in a strongly-built brick building, which vas thought to be very safe, but, unfortunately, it was at the foot of a short street leading to the wharf. This gave the wind from the Gulf full sweep against it. There were several other men in the café, and one of them said: 'Why, did you all know there are just thirteen people in this room? ' Papa laughed, and remarked that he was not superstitious. Just then the crash came, killing five out of the thirteen. In the floor above the café was a large printing establishment. A beam hurled down by the weight of the presses above struck papa, killing him instantly. His body was dug out of the ruins Sunday afternoon by about a hundred friends, and his was the first funeral in Galveston."

Were you frightened much?

"No, we were not very scared, because we had no idea how terrible the storm was. We were not worried about papa, thinking he was safer, even, than we were. We secured the shutters and saw that the windows were braced. After that we sat quietly on the first floor. The water never did get above the basement, as the house is situated on an eminence. After a while seven people whom we did not know came in and asked for shelter, as their homes were flooded.

The Storm Grows Worse

"When the storm kept growing steadily worse we got a rope ready, so that if the worst came we could all be tied together. One family whom I knew did this. They tied loop knots around their wrists. All were drowned together and all were buried in the same hole. All night long we could hear cries for help. To everyone who came we gave shelter. Once someone knocked at the door; when we opened it a woman fell headlong across the doorstep. She had fainted from exhaustion. We found a little girl in the basement, who had been tied to a skiff. She seemed dazed, and kept talking about a beautiful carriage she had seen.

“We did not know what she meant, but next morning we saw a neighbor's carriage perched high on top of a pile of wreckage. Even when we looked out of the window we could not tell the extent of the damage. The moon rose, giving a very clear light, by which we could see objects floating around. It did not rain. The people were drowned by the water backing up from the bay and the Gulf.

"At first the wind was to the northeast. This backed the water up from the west bay. Suddenly it turned to the southeast, causing a tidal wave. The water was from four to six feet deep. Two of the observers remained in observatory all night. The wind gauge broke when the wind was blowing from 115 to 125 miles an hour.

Houses in Frightful Collision

"A house was washed against ours. In it the wreckers found eight bodies, three of these and a night sergeant of police were buried in one yard. Our house rocked dreadfully. It and the two houses on either side of it, are old houses built over. No one thought they could stand the fury of the gale; but they were the only three left standing in that part of the city. Mr. Frank Groome and Mr. Hall had to swim home. The house in which Mr. Hall spent the night was split in two, but the side he was in was left standing. If the wind had continued for two hours longer, there would not have been one person left to tell the tale. When the storm first started my brother and I went to the beach to watch the water.

"Even then the water was backing up in the gutters and the little whitecaps were dancing on the waves. The steps of our house were washed away, but Sunday morning we found the body of a woman lodged in the brick work. Our pet donkey was drowned, but we saved the dogs and the cats as they were in the house. There were five big dogs and three little puppies. Paddy, a big dog, would sit around looking at us. He kept whining the whole time as if he knew something unusual was going on. They say black cats are lucky. Well, we had three of them. These would rub up against us in a frightened way.

"Sunday morning, Mr. Groome came out to tell us about papa. Mrs. Brown, a friend of mamma's, sent for us to come to her house. Nearly all the furniture of her house was ruined by the water. The surrender of the city of Galveston to the Union troops was written in her house and the table on which it was written is still there. We had a hard time getting to Mrs. Brown's. We walked part of the way. A colored man with a bony horse hitched to a rickety little delivery wagon, 'dago carts,' we call them hauled us the rest of the way for a dollar a piece. All through the streets we met hysterical women and dazed-looking men.
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“The wife of Dr. Longino, an army surgeon, was at a friend's house, with her little baby, when the storm commenced. During the storm, from fright or something else, the baby lost its breath. Everybody thought the child was dead and tried to persuade Mrs. Longino to leave it and try to save herself but she would not do so. She caught hold of the baby's tongue and held it so it could not retard the passage of air in the windpipe.

Trying to Save the Child's Life

"She blew her own breath into the baby's body. After working for a long time, during the most terrible part of the storm, the baby was revived and is still living. She kept her invalid aunt alive by pinching her cheeks. The next day she reached a place of safety in the city. She said she could hardly walk along the beach for the bodies of children. There was a Catholic orphanage about five miles down the beach, in which were a hundred children and ten nuns. All of these but three boys were killed.

"One woman who was trying to save a child was pinned down by a piano. She was just about to give herself up for lost when a big wave came and washed the piano off of her. She and the child were both rescued. We kept a little pet lamb alive, which afterwards we thought we would have to kill for food. But Mrs. Brown got a calf somewhere. It was killed and cleaned, but the ladies themselves had to cut it up. This served for food for two days. The two big cisterns in the cellar were full of salt water; there was a small one on the roof which furnished us with water for a little while. After that we had to beg it from the neighbors.

"The only clothes we have are what we have on and one change of underclothes, which we took with us when we went to Mrs. Brown's. All the rest of our clothes are mildewed.

”We did not get very frightened when people kept coming to us for help the night of the storm. All we could do was to thank God that He had given us a place of shelter which we could share with those less fortunate."