The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 17, 1906, Page 7

ELS BUILIING— s YHE CLAUS 7 =5 = WEEI B EANCISCO e the medals to the most perfo in the Ana- Sapphira class, then distressed an greatly buffeted ty may be expected to and shower confetti 14 and Signs of Times of London for its masterly perSofm ance in the fleld of earthquake ed writers of the romantic iction in ious parts of the ed terribly during the days llowed the earthquake to con- pecting readers the all the horror of the was not confined te San that the w ters in ques- fortably ge chunk of ghas t in their own precinct waiting to be out to folks who re es their publications Eas d west, north and south, all over the world, the pens of the earthquake and a over paper, ad the feverish tales —oh, terri y cut up. mighty glad they were F n all them horrors s on be “bounced around in P buildings that heaved and nd rolied and almost danced eps the influence of au ake um? All that must in- been terrible and something e shunned by any people. Huh! It w mad race between the spinners, thousands of miles ' uake belt,” all trying | most fantastic, harrowing. urdling, peace heartbreaking story about the And that destroying, soul kin & quake in race for ser honors, who gets the belt? The class in earthquake lore wiil an- Do not all speak at once, for we had enough of clamor. Let that puptl the answer. t in 1ger na g Who is the merriest, maddest, galliest ve Speak up, now. ama meost prepesterous earthquake fic- tionist in all the big, wide field of world journalism? The Christian Herald and Signs o Our Times.” the | e 1 the first row rise | Right you are, littl n Herald by soul, serving an inte ent, God-fearing race of B ish men and brothers, come to the front, the sheets hav just an eartt ake picture and | e carthquake letter pr ated | ke the yellow fellows of Park Row in New York purple wjth the passion of vy, Blazoned on its front page, decked out with bold splashes of color, is a picture which the Christian Herald of London would urge its readers to be- lievé represents what pened | wspaper Row in San Francisco on the | m ng of the earthquake. A repro- | ducti f the picture may not reveal all the beauties of the Chr: ian Herala | and Sighs of Our Times prize wood cut, | but in the original there is an enor- mous quantity of hades turned loose in | Newspaper Row San Francisc as earthquake aftermath, and a quantity | of things that the good people of “Frisco as the dear old Londoners love to call the town—failed to realize had taken place in their very midst The Claus Spreckels building, in the | Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times, burst one of its suspenders | and shed several waistcoats, to say nothing of neglecting to put on its hosiery during the earthquake, for the Christian Herald's conception of earth- quake ¥ tow the C n in Newspaper included Spreckels building in almost with chunks complete dishabille, of the structure dropping of at properly spaced distances, bulging walls adding and strips of away, sirikinz luckles unprotected places, spreading ruin and desolation upon an to the picturesque effect, stone peeling tanders bys in already stricken people below. My | goodness, do you wonder London shud- ; | aerea? | The Christian Herald gent saw In | his mind's eve & crew of half naked | folk, fighting for life in the shadow of | the towering building, some with | clenched hands shaking fists at the teel structure that was slowly but| rely settling to ruin under their| eyes, destroying their friends | and families, as bit by bit, story by | | story it crumbled away in the awful of the earthquake | pink ribbons! | tall very ol r fashjoned | craftsman’s a slim, beautiful building, | genjus and reared by | clever hands, so that at | the this building stood straight to the sky, beauty in every line, Sym- metry in all and a soul looking out b last ¢|from the noble structire—if such a|ine | building as the Claus Spreckels build- ling could speak now, it mig TR e G RO - likely wWouiw. “Kind friends, I will take chances with earthquakes. No particle of hurt came to me in that temblor that shook the earth en April 18. Net a line was disturbed. No hint of disarrange- ment did I know. I do not fear the earthquake, but, oh, friends, spare me from the devastating pencil of the ar- tists of the Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times. Protect me from the fury of that avenging demon in the artroom of the Christian Herald et al. To be riven and shattered and split and disemboweled, made to sway and totter and fall and be ruined, and all by one from whom more humarne treat- ment might have been looked for— | this is too much. please!” Viewed from one standpoint the an- tics of the merry picture men and the prosemakgrs of the Christian Herald and kindred publications, with their deadly eavthquake pictures, some ef which are reproduced on this page, are a blessing. They promote mirth, and the saints above know that mirth {s indeed too rare an article in San Fran- cisco now. It is difficult to gaze upon products of the feverish pens of forelgn journalists, depicting earth- The smelling salts, LTS AT T i 45 W ) . & * NEAELY ALL O e 7 ¥ THE BUSIEST VEEF IFVEILED CLAYS ~ 7ol L5 * LoNDoy l&//LF///Z’f,y to smile, | The horrors are so very, very grisly. | The fleeing crowds are so tremendous- 1y like nothing that ever was on sea lor land. The swayins ouildings so ir- resistibly suggest an architectural | jamboree.” The strain upon the artist's | | intellect is so apparent throughout that | | the disturbance of one's feelings at the | crude exaggerations merges softly into | | hilarity, and then the blessing has ar- | rived. 1t is to laugh. | Hands across the seas, then, oh,| | brother of the Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times. 'Bo have de- | stroyed the Claus Spreckels building | was indeed unkind of you, and to hlve; pictured the “Frisco” populace as hat- less and shirtless and sockless, wav- ing impotent fists in anger at this building as it fell upon them in large chunks was almost saucy, but you are forgiveén, old chap. May you never be rewarded with anything worse than the occasional memory of the dainty little nightmare wherein you toyed with the Newspaper Row buildings oti San Francisco and mercilessly con- | signed them to total destruction. 'By some weird coincidence, the mer- | | | ! | ry falsifiers, with pen and pencil, who ght say, and | quake scenes in San Francisco and not | drew pictures and wrote yarns about the earthquake horrors for the foreign l B%%fisfimer— O. ” 70 JHF GROUND' WEFCKER Y THE HEW ZTALANG a&7/57 SPLECKELS BuiL P/Ifi- W THHE FORLGEGXOUNZ s T g T T o FEIPOPUCED rpm CHELITIAN ER 41 . CLAUS JPPresr, s THE TFORIGXouny publications, with one consent and ac- cord decided to destroy the Claus Spreckels building almost the first thing on the programme. Comes to hand, along with the ghast- ly pages of the Christian Herajd, a highly diverting edition of the Auck- land (New Zealand) Weekly News. There, also, one sees with pain and almost infinite regret that the dispo- sition to demolish the Claus Spreckels building, with other celebrated struc- tures of San Franclsco, simply could not be restrained. True, the earthquake is given the credit for the demolition, In the pictures; but one is forced to o> <o L <> X2 BN OL7 TrrE T o~~~ carorRclons W THE 7y b —a EEICODICED ZCON THUL AUCK~ CAND LAY NELS oee . the belief that it is really the artists’ | inexorable merciless pen that is respon- | thelr fearsome picture o Spreels sible, so that, like an all-powerful cat- | aclysm, the faclle pen of the drawing| man swept to their awful destruction | the Claus Spreckels building and other! | buildings. littering whole pages much valuable space of the Auckland | Weekly News and other publications with the remains of the deceased struc- tures, True, the Claus Spreckels building still stands, fine and strong and true. There is apparent a discrepancy be- tween the building’s condition and the all-devouring wrath of the pencilers, and in the conflict between and the artists’ ereations there can be no question about who gets the worst; of it. If necessary, in the interests of art—art as pursued on the Herald and Signs of Our T the Auckland News—the Claus | els building will be given a sho pushed into the limbo. It is a si | thing to do, and if the amiable gentle- men of foreign parts believe that the true spirit of Christian courtesy does not still prevail on Newspaper Row, they can consider this offer of ass | the facts Christian and e and ple anee to kelp them 1ke good” wi aus heart of g 1t bas been a g distanc?, guick az ~ Ll prr s or of the’“horribles” in “literature, and his fellow angel in distress, the man with the brush. Earthquakes come rarely. Only once in a long while do they toy with a big city. The chance to make much of the seismic phenom- ena cannot be allowed to pass, breth- ren of the Faber and the slim, fine drawing pencil, but if ever the chance comes to reciprocate, and you of the Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times are tossed skyward and down- ward and sideways and then some more, by an earthquake, W we may be expected to hand to you is now to be spoken of only beneath the low, soft, sibilant breath In olden days ther 1d have been a suggestion of a d with popcorn crisps at thirty paces. Noth e sort is to be proposed now. re is really = to w for the 1 World con- every Meanw indicating fleld, I is . -~ o o unfaltering hand on the man- of the Christian Our Times and-the They are indubitably iin so for as much a8 some