"I sincerely hope that Galveston will rise again to new prosperity.
"Executive Mansion, September 14, 1900.--His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm II., Stettin, Germany:--Your majesty's message of condolence and sympathy is very grateful to the American government and people, and in their name, as well as on behalf of the many thousands who have suffered bereavement and irreparable loss in the Galveston disaster, I thank you most earnestly.
Business Resumed at Galveston in a Small Way on the Sixth Day after the Catastrophe--"Galveston Shall Rise Again"--How the City Looked On Saturday, One Week after the Flood.
By the time Friday--practically the sixth day after the flood, although the waters did not subside nor the wind go down until about 2 o'clock on Sunday morning--had arrived many of the business men of the stricken city had recovered their courage and two or three banks and a few business houses were opened, although most of the streets were still choked with debris and practically impassable. On every corner was this sign:
Some women even ventured out shopping, picking their way over great masses of wreckage. Tremont street was by that time opened from the bay to the beach, and Mechanic street, the Strand and Winnie and Church streets were being rapidly cleared. However, the stench from the putrefying bodies of the victims of the calamity still in the ruins of scores and hundreds of buildings was all but unbearable.
"Galveston must rise again," said the Galveston News in an editorial on Thursday.
"At the first meeting of Galveston citizens Sunday afternoon after the great hurricane, for the purpose of bringing order out of chaos, the only sentiment expressed," the editorial says, "was that Galveston had received an awful blow. The loss of life and property is appalling--so great that it required several days to form anything like a correct estimate. With sad and aching hearts, but with resolute faces, the sentiment of the meeting was that out of the awful chaos of wrecked homes and wrecked business, Galveston must rise again.
"The sentiment was not that of bury the dead and give up the ship; but, rather, bury the dead, succor the needy, appeal for aid from a charitable world, and then start resolutely to work to mend the broken chains. In many cases the work of upbuilding must begin over. In other cases the destruction is only partial.