The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, April 26, 1906, Page 4

Have Destroyed More Than Three-Fourths of All the Buildings in San Francisco, the California Metropolis. i : OVER EIGHT SQUARE MILES BURNED Not a Business Building in the Down Town District Left Stand- ing---Extent of Loss of Life Unknown---People of the City Facing the Calamity With For- titude and Resignation. * §San Francisco, Calif. — San Fran- @isco was practically wrecked by earth- quake at 5:10 Wednesday morning. The shock lasted three minutes, thou sands of buildings were damaged and Gestroyed .The loss of life is reported to be great. All wires with the excep- tion of one, are gone. The city hall costing $7,000,000, is in ruins, Modern buildings suffered less than brick and frame. Terrur and excitement is indescri- able. Most of the people, asleep, were suddenly aroused and rushed into the streets, undressed. Buildings swayed and crashed, burying occupants. Panic in down town hotels. Lick house waa badly damaged but no loss of life is reported there. The palace and St. Francis hotels stood the shock. People! flocked to the telegraph office to send Messages to friends and were frantic because there were no wires. The greatest damage to buildings was done south of Market street where there are mostly ffame buildings and tene- Ment houses. Fires occurred in every Dlock of that district. When the first shock occurred at 6:15 a, m., most of the population were in bed and many lodging houses ands of the homeless were making their way with their blankets and scant provisions to Golden Gate Park and the beach to find shelter. Those in the homes on the hills just north of the Hayes Valley wrecked section piled their belongins in the streets and express wagons and automobiles were haullug the things away to the sparsely settled regions. Downtown everything is ruin. Not a business house stands, Theaters are crumbled into heaps. Factories and commission houses lie smoulder- ing on their former sites, All of the newspaper plants have been rendered useless. It 13 estimated that the loss in San Francisco will reach from $150,000,- 000 to $200,000,000. These figures are in the rough and nothing can be told until partial accounting is taken, On every side there was death and suffering. Hundreds were injured, burned, crushed or struck by falling pieces from the buildings and one of them died while on the operating ta- ble at Mechanics’ Pavilion, improvised as a hospital for the comfort and care of 300 injured. The number of lead is not known, but ft is estimated SAN FRANCISCO AND VICINITY. 30 LANO 4 ; . Bony. Carr iad) te <Rvo “s+ . o00U%0° «LA Map Showing Towns and Country Affected by the Earthquake, eollapsed with every occupant. There| that at least 500 met their death in ‘Was no warning of the awful catas-| the horror. trophe. First came a slight shock fol-| At 9 o'clock, under a special mes- lowed almost immediately by a second| sage from President Roosevelt, the and then the great shock that sent] city was placed under martial law. buildings swaying and tumbling. Fire| Hundreds of troops patrolled the ‘broke out immediately. Every able-| streets and drove the crowds back, bodied man who could, be pressed into} while hundreds more were set at work service was put to work rescuing the| assisting the fire :md police depart- Nictims. Panic seized most of the| ments. The strictest orders were is- people and they rushed frantically| sued and in true nfillitary spirit about. ‘Toward the Ferry building there was a rush of those fleeing to r. eross the bay. Few carried any effects and some were hardly dressed. .The streets were filled immediately with panicstricken people and the frequently eccurring shocks sent them into un- reasoning panic. Fires lighted up the sky in every direction in the breaking} ,,, dawn. In the business district devasts- ERE gREsk ag FI & A SEER 33 EARTHQUAKE AND FLAMES = elied to the earth: its wide area of s where dweit a happy and pros- people, prostrate in thin ashes, i in ith still greater magnificence. A monument to the courage and indomitable spirit shown by its tnhabitants during the present. awful emergency. The care of the 390,000 starving, homeless refugees now gathered in the city’s public squares and parks is now the main problem the local authorit- fes have to solve. They must be fed and bread, meat and drink are lacking. All the leading cities throughout the country are now exerting themselves to alleviate the sufferings of the un- fortunate victims of the fite, end pro- visions are now headed for them from many points, Bread has already sold as high as $1 a loaf in the stricken city, and two loaves and a can of sardines brought in one instnce $3.50. But this condition of affairs will not be per mitted to last long. In towns across the bay the master bakers have met end fixed the price of bread at five cents a loaf, with the understanding that they will refuse to sell to re- tallers who attempt to charge famine prices. The commitee of citizens now in charge of the situation in the cabinet Friday considered Fraaeciseo situation and it was de- cided thet Secretary Metcalf should proceed to that city as the repre- entative of the national government and to consult with the authorities as to what is needed to alleviate dis- tress.” Every available vessel in the vicinity_of San Francisco, whether it belong to the navy, army, the San reventie | ed With coles and sugar; two cars of ,ersckers and breakfast - feods; two gens af bacon; two cars of eggs; one car of canned meats; two cars of potatees; twe cars of canned corn peas ami tomatoes; two cars of pro- visions to be contributed by the Manufscturaw’ sasociation; one car af blankets an4 comforts; two cars af bottled spring water. cutter service, fish commission or| The Santa Fe railroad will ‘haul lighthouse serviee, has been directed | the train without cost from Kansas ‘to carry supplies of every description | City to San Francisco, and will rush Hopkins Art Institute. to the stricken city of San Francieco and render other assistance, while officers of the army on the Pacific coast and elsewhere have’ been given {imperative instructions to ship tents, rations, medical and other relief sup- | plies and to ite with the local ; authorities of San isco and the state officials to the common end. Offers of assistance from abroad have been very gratifying to the president, but he feels the Untted | States is able to care for the San Francisco sufferers and contribu. | tions from foreign countries will be | declined, Mr. Ballin of the Hamburg- American line offered $25,000 for the California sufferers and the following declination forwarded to Mr, Ballin by Assistant Secretary Bacon of the state‘department shows the president's stricken city will also use every effort | appreciation of the friendliness shown to keep the price of food down to the ordinary price, The problem now confronting the ‘| city government and federal author. ities is how to feed the multitude of destitute. Suplfes are coming in by the trainload, but as yet the system of distribution is not in complete working order. At the Presidio where probably 50,000 people are camped, affairs are conducted with military precision. Water is plentt- ful and rations are dealt out all day long. The refugees stand patiently in line and there is not a murmur. This characteristic is observable all over the city. The people are brave and patient and the wonderful order preserved by them has been of great assistance. In Golden Gate park are encamped 200,000 people. They are being taken care of. A huge supply station has been established there and provisions are being dealt out. Postoffice Resumes Business. Washington, D. C.—A_ telegram was received Friday by the postmaster general from Postmaster Fisk, of San Francisco, dated Thursday, saying that he had resumed business in the main office. Mail and supplies there are intact. The building was badly damaged by earthquake and may have to be abandoned. Sever- al sub-stations were destroyed. He adds that international business can be resumed. Canada Contributes $100,000. Ottawa, Ont.—The Dominion gov- ernment has voted $100,000 for the earthquake and fire sufferers in San Francisco. The Lick Chservatory Undamaged. San Jose, Calif.—The latest re- by Europeans: “The president deeply appreciates your message of sympathy and destres me to thank you heartily for the kind offer of outside ald. Although de- clining, the president earnestly wishes you to understand how much he ap- preciates your cordial and generous sympathy.” The question of an additional ap- propriation to meet the expense of the work of the government in rushing supplies to San Francisco and allevi- ating distress in that quarter will be brought to the attention of congress Saturday, It was announced Friday night that the war department has forwarded to San Francisco one mil- Ifon rations (days rations), some of which has already arrived there and most of which is due there Friday night; tentage for 134,000 people has been forwarded, Washington, D. C.,— The house Thursday’ appropriated $1,000,000 for the suffering and homeless in San Francisco and other California towns and gave the secretaries of war, treas- ury, navy and commerce power to co- operate with the mayors of the strick- en cities that the very best results might be obtained in affording relief. The resolution later passed the senate and was signed by President Roogg- yelt. Washington, D. C., — President Roosevelt, after a conference with Miss Mabel Boardman,'of the Ameri- can National Red Cross, Thursday issued, in the form of a proclamation, an appeal to the American people for aid for the people of San Francisco. He asked that all contributions “be ‘it through. { Both the Union Pacific and tho * Rock Island railroads made the same proposition to haul the train free to San Francisco. ‘ W. P. Trickett, commissiqner of the Kansas City Bureau of Trans~ portation, will go with the train and will see that the food goes to the “While men never knew the depth Chinatown’s underground © city,” Mr. Overton, “they often talked many of them had gone beneath the street levels, two and three stories, But now that Chinatown has been ings were only a mask, men from the hillside have looked on where its inner secrets lay. In places they can’ see passages 100 feet deep. “The fire swept this Mongolian sec- tion clean, It left no shred of the painted wooden fabric. It ate down to the bare ground and this lies stark, for the breezes have taken away the light ashes, Joss houses and mis- sion schools, grocery stores ang opl- um dens, gambling hells and _ thea- ters—all of them went. The build- ings blazed up like tissue paper lanterns when the guttering candles touched their sides, “Krom this place, I, following the fire, saw hundreds of frightcrazed yel- low men fiea In their arms they bore their opium pipes, their money bags, their silks and their children. Be- . side them ran the baggy4trousered women, and some of them hobbled painfully, i LOOKING UP MONTGOMERY STREET “But these were the men and women of the surface. Far beneath the street Jevols_ in those collars anq_passage- ways were other lives. Women, who never saw day from their darken- ed prisons, and blinking jailors were caught like rats in a huge trap. Their very bones were eaten by the flames. “And now there remain only the holes; They pit the hillside Ifke a multitude of ground-swall nesta, They show depths which the) police never knew. The secrets of bur- rows will never be known, for into | them the hungry fire first sifted its red coals’and then licked. eag¢rly in- ly spore San Francisco, Cal.,— San Fran- cisco Thursday night was the city Gesolate. It seemed that the acme of fits misery was reached at dusk, when fiames burst from all sides of the beautiful Hotel Fairmont, the palace that above eyery other structure was apparently most strongly entrenched against the attack of the all-consum- jing fire. And surrounting that lofty pinnacle of fiame, ag far as the eyes could see to the south, to the east and far out to the west lay {n crwel fan- tastic heaps charred and smoking all AT H ge* i g fl E f db B #°8,e gigs z daily will begin Friday, Free trans- portation will be provided by Southern Pacific, to destitute persons desiring to go to interior points. San Francisco, Calif. — Thousands from the fire Thursday. They are flocking to the ferries, to the parks, to the military reservation and to the suburbs. “Residents of the hillsides in the central portion of the city seem- ingly were safe from the roaring fur- nace that was consuming the business section. They watched the towering mounds of flame and speculated as to the extent of the territory that was doomed. Suddenly there was whis- pered alarm up and down the long line of watchers and they hurried away to drag clothing, cooking utensils and scant provisions through the streets, From Grant avenue the procession moved westward. Men and women dra, trunks, packed huge bundles of blankets, boxes of provisions—ev- erythizg. Wagons could not be hired except by paying the most extortion- ate rate, ' But there, was co panic. The peo. plé are calm, stunned. They seem not to realize that the city is destroyed in so far as business plants ais con- cerned; they tell each other in the most natural tone that their residen- ces were destroyed by the flames, but there is no hysteria, no outcry, no crit- icism. San Francisco, Calif. — A wind of Aigh velocity was late Friday night Dlowing from the northwest over the fire-stricken districts and the water front threatening the cutting off of communication with Oakland and. Berkeley. General Castor has order- ed out a squadron of men to endeavor to keep the flames which threaten the Union Ferry station, the only means of égress from the city from being destroyed. The water front emergency hospital was endangered and the officials in charge were prepared to move from their quarters. The wind was of such -| velocity that brick and granite walls, weakened by the earthquake and the subsequent fire were falling into the streets, Market street, the principal avenue of escape from the city to the ferry may be blocked up thus shutting off practically the only means of es- cape, tmz: t _ Hoped to Save One-Foarth. San Francisco, Calif.— The fire was at noon Friday positively stated to be under control, with the proba- bility that one quarter of the city ly-