d just beneath the glassy surface of the water full outlines
of bodies might be seen. Such scenes drove men and women to
desperation and insanity. A number sought freedom in the death which
they fought so stoutly. A young girl, who survived to find mother,
father and sisters dead, crept far out on the wreckage and threw
herself into the bay.

During the storm and afterward a great deal of looting was done. Many
stores had been closed, their owners leaving to look after their
families. The wind forced in the windows, and left the goods prey for
the marauders. Ghouls stripped the dead bodies of jewelry and articles
of value. Captain Rafferty, commanding the United States troops in the
city, was asked for aid, and he sent seventy men, the remnant of a
battery of artillery, to do police duty. Three regiments were sent
from Houston and the city was placed under martial law. Hundreds of
desperate men roamed the streets, crazed with liquor, which many had
drunk because nothing else could be obtained with which to quench
their thirst. Numberless bottles and boxes of intoxicating beverages
were scattered about and easy to obtain.

Robbery and rioting continued during the night, and as the town was in
darkness, the effort of the authorities to control the lawless element
was not entirely successful. Big bonfires were built at various places
from heaps of rubbish to enable troops the better to see where
watchfulness was needed. Reports said that more than 100 looters and
vandals were slain in the city and along the island beach.

The most rigid enforcement of martial law was not able to suppress
robbery entirely. Thirty-three negroes, with effects taken from dead
bodies, were tried by court-martial. They were convicted and ordered
to be shot. One negro had twenty-three human fingers with rings on
them in his pocket.

An eye-witness of the awful horror said: "I was going to take the
train at midnight, and was at the station when the worst of the storm
came up. There were 150 people in the depot, and we all remained there
for nine hours. The back part of the building blew in Sunday morning
and I returned to the Tremont house. The streets were literally filled
with dead and dying people. The Sisters' Orphan Hospital was a
terrible scene. I saw there over ninety dead children and eleven dead
Sisters. We took the steamer Allen Charlotte across the bay, up
Buffalo bay, over to Houston in the morning, and I saw fully fifty
dead bodi