Texas has suffered from a great calamity. A cyclone travelling
at eighty-four miles an hour burst upon Galveston, its principal port, last Saturday, and drove a vast wave of water upon the town, which, as has often been pointed out, lies too low. The wave swept away all the principal build- ings and most of the inhabited houses, drowning, it is believed, for statistics are still imperfect, some thousands of the inhabitants. The loss of children was especially deplor- able. The waterworks were swept away, the elevators rendered useless, the electric light works destroyed, the wharves pulverised, and the shipping dashed upon the shore. The property actually destroyed is computed at 22,000,000, but it will cost double that to replace it ; and mean- while the means of paying wages are gone, there are no foodstuffs left, and the houseless citizens are actually starving. For some hours indeed there was a torment of thirst, which in numerous cases produced in- sanity. It was a terrible aggravation of the suffering that in that climate the dead, if unburied, threaten the living, that no religious ceremonies could be thought of, and that although it was possible to send the corpses to sea, this could only be done by employing forced labour. It is supposed that the prosperity of the city is finally ruined, and that if rebuilt it must be elsewhere, as the citizens will not consent again to run the risk which their geographical situation involved.
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