IN THE REFUGE CAMPS.
=Scenes of Destitution in the Parks Where the Homeless
Were Gathered--Rich and Poor Share Food and Bed
Alike--All Distinctions of Wealth and Social Position
Wiped Out by the Great Calamity.=
Next to viewing the many square miles of ruins that once made San
Francisco a city, no better realization of the ruin can be gained than
from the refugee camps located in the districts which were untouched
by the flames. Golden Gate park was the mecca of the destitute. This
immense playground of the municipality was converted into a vast
mushroom city that bore striking resemblance to the fleeting towns
located on the border of a government reservation about to be opened
to public settlement.
The common destitution and suffering wiped out all social, financial
and racial distinctions. The man who before the fire had been a
prosperous merchant occupied with his family a little plot of ground
that adjoined the open-air home of a laborer. The white man of
California forgot his antipathy to the Asiatic race and maintained
friendly relations with his new Chinese and Japanese neighbors.
The society belle of the night before the fire, a butterfly of fashion
at the grand opera performance, assisted some factory girl in the
preparation of humble daily meals. Money had little value. The family
who had foresight to lay in the largest stock of foodstuffs on the
first day of the disaster was rated highest in the scale of wealth.
A few of the families who could secure willing expressmen possessed
cooking stoves, but over 95 per cent of the refugees had to do their
cooking on little camp fires made of brick or stone. Kitchen utensils
that a week before would have been regarded with contempt were
articles of high value.
Many of the homeless people were in possession of comfortable clothing
and bed covering. The grass was their bed and their daily clothing
their only protection against the penetrating fog of the ocean or the
chilling dew of the morning. Fresh meat disappeared the first day of
the catastrophe and canned foods and breadstuffs were the only
victuals in evidence.
Not alone were the parks the places of refuge. Every large vacant lot
in the safe zone was preempted and even the cemeteries were crowded.
A well-known young lady of social position when asked where she had
spent the night replied: "On a grave."
Throughout the entire western portion of the peninsular county of San
Francisco these camps were located.
Major McKeever of the United States Army was appointed commandant of
the camps and, with his staff of assistants, brought system and order
out of the chaotic situation. His first thought was to supply food and
water and then to arrange sanitary measures. The throngs of people who
crowded elbow to elbow in the open lots and fields without
conveniences that are naturally demanded were constantly threatened
with an epidemic of disease.
Good order and fellowship prevailed in these impromptu settlements and
the common ruin and poverty made all of the unfortunates akin.
In buildings close to the camps the police stored available foodstuffs
and bed clothing for convenient delivery. No distinctions were drawn
and but few favors shown in the distribution of supplies.
Although efforts of the various relief committees were bent to appease
the gnawing hunger of the destitute thousands--efforts that were in a
large measure entirely successful--there were many persons without
sufficient food or entirely without it.
The government officials took charge of every grocery store in that
part of the city still standing and gave out foodstuffs to all those
who were hungry. Broad lines were established at Fillmore and Turk
streets, at Golden Gate park and at the Presidio and every person who
stood in line was given a whole loaf. The line at Fillmore and Turk
streets was four blocks long all one afternoon and those at the parks
were even longer. A large supply of milk was received from Oakland in
the morning and this was distributed to women and children whenever
they were found in need. A great deal of this milk was used for the
exhausted women.
The breadlines at the parks furnished striking instances of the
absolute patience and fortitude that has marked the behavior of the
people throughout their trying experience. There were no disorders
when the hungry thousands were told to form a line and receive their
bread and canned goods. All were content to wait their turn.
Silk-hatted men followed good naturedly behind Chinese and took their
loaves from the same hand.
Soup kitchens were established in the streets of the unburned section,
no fires whatever being allowed indoors, and many hungry persons were
fed by these individual efforts.
At the ferry station there were some pathetic scenes among the hungry
people. When the boat came in from Stockton with tons of supplies a
number of small children were the first to spy a large box of
sandwiches with cries of delight. They made a rush for the food,
seized as much as they could hold and rushed to their mothers with
shouts of "Oh, mamma, mamma, look at the sandwiches!"
Seated around the ferry buildings sat hundreds of people sucking
canned fruits from the tins. Some were drinking condensed cream and
some were lucky enough to have sardines or cheese. At several places
along Market street scores of men were digging with their hands among
the still smoking debris of some large grocery house for canned goods.
When they secured it, which they did without molestation from
anybody, they broke the tins and drank the contents.
At Filbert and Van Ness avenue at 6 o'clock at night a wagon of
supplies conveyed by soldiers was besieged by a crowd of hungry
people. They appealed to the soldiers for food and their appeals were
quickly heeded. Seizing an ax a soldier smashed the boxes and tossed
the supplies to the crowd, which took time to cheer lustily.
Owing to the energetic efforts of General Funston and the officials of
the Spring Water Company the sufferers in all parts of the city were
spared at least the horrors of a water famine. As soon as it was
learned that some few mercenaries who were fortunate enough to have
fresh water stored in tanks in manufacturing districts were selling it
at 50 cents per glass the authorities took prompt action and hastened
their efforts to repair the mains that had been damaged by the
earthquake shocks.
The work of relief was started early on the second day of the
disaster. A big bakery in the saved district started its fires and
50,000 loaves were baked before night. The police and military were
present in force and each person was allowed only one loaf.
The destitution and suffering were indescribable. Women and children
who had comfortable, happy homes a few days before slept--if sleep
came at all--on hay on the wharves, on the sand lots near North beach,
some of them under the little tents made of sheeting which poorly
protected them from the chilling ocean winds. The people in the parks
were better provided in the matter of shelter, for they left their
homes better prepared.
Instructions were issued by Mayor Schmitz to break open every store
containing provisions and to distribute them to the thousands under
police supervision.
At one time bread sold as high as $1 a loaf and water at fifty cents a
glass, but the authorities at once put a stop to the extortion.
Among the many pathetic incidents of the fire in San Francisco was
that of a woman who sat at the foot of Van Ness avenue on the hot
sands on the hillside overlooking the bay east of Fort Mason with four
little children, the youngest a girl of three, the eldest a boy of
ten.
They were destitute of water, food and money. The woman had fled with
her children from a home in flames in the Mission street district and
tramped to the bay in the hope of sighting the ship, which she said
was about due, of which her husband was the captain.
"He would know me anywhere," she said. And she would not move,
although a young fellow gallantly offered his tent back on a vacant
lot in which to shelter her children.
Among the refugees who found themselves stranded were John Singleton,
a Los Angeles millionaire, his wife and her sister. The Singletons
were staying at the Palace Hotel when the earthquake shock occurred on
Wednesday morning.
Mr. Singleton gave the following account of his experience: "The shock
wrecked the rooms in which we were sleeping. We managed to get our
clothes on and get out immediately. We had been at the hotel only two
days and left probably $3,000 worth of personal effects in the room.
"After leaving the Palace we secured an express wagon for $25 to take
us to the Casino near Golden Gate park, where we stayed the first
night. On the following morning we managed to get a conveyance at
enormous cost and spent the entire day in getting to the Palace. We
paid $1 apiece for eggs and $2 for a loaf of bread. On these and a
little ham we had to be satisfied."
Mr. Singleton, like thousands of other people, found himself without
funds and he had difficulty in securing cash until he met some one who
knew him.
To allay the fears of the refugees in the various camps Mayor Schmitz
issued the following proclamation which citizens were instructed to
observe:
"Do not be afraid of famine. There will be abundance of food
supplied. Do not use any water except for drinking and cooking
purposes. Do not light fires in houses, stoves or fireplaces. Do not
use any house closets under any circumstances, but dig earth closets
in yards or vacant lots, using if possible chloride of lime or some
other disinfectant. This is of the greatest importance, as the water
supply is only sufficient for drinking and cooking. Do not allow any
garbage to remain on the premises; bury it and cover immediately.
Pestilence can only be avoided by complying with these regulations.
"You are particularly requested not to enter any business house or
dwelling except your own, as you may be mistaken for one of the
looters and shot on sight, as the orders are not to arrest but shoot
down any one caught stealing."
The refugees numbered all told about 300,000. At least 75,000 of them
made their way to Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Benicia and neighboring
cities while many more fortunate and prosperous succeeded in reaching
Los Angeles.
The work of caring for the homeless in the refugee camps was
splendidly managed under the direction of the citizens' committee, the
military authorities and the Red Cross.
The people were fed in a thoroughly businesslike and systematic
manner. From the water front, where the boatloads of provisions
docked, there was an endless procession of carts and drays carrying
food to the scores of substations established throughout the city and
the parks. At these stations food and drink, comprising bread,
prepared meats and canned goods, milk and a limited amount of hot
coffee, were served to all those who applied. About 1,500 tons of
provisions were moved daily from the water front.
Large supplies of blankets, tentings and other material to provide
coverings for those who were scantily supplied theretofore reached the
supply stations rapidly. Barracks were erected at several points and
in those many people have found comfort and shelter against the
inclemencies of the weather.
The situation in the congested districts such as Golden Gate Park and
the various public squares throughout the city, was considerably
relieved by the departure of many people for points on the other side
of the bay, as soon as access was had to the ferry building. The
exodus continued daily from the time the fire broke out until every
one who wished to get away had departed.
The greatest hardship experienced by the homeless refugees was on the
first Sunday night following the fire.
From midnight Sunday until 3 o'clock Monday morning a drenching rain
fell at intervals, while a high wind added a melancholy accompaniment,
whistling and sighing about the ruins of the buildings in the burned
district. Five days before when the fire catastrophe was in its
infancy this downpour would have been regarded as a mercy and a
godsend.
When it came it could be regarded in no other light than as an
additional calamity. It meant indescribable suffering to the tens of
thousands of people camped upon the naked hills and in the parks and
open places of the city.
Few of them were provided with water-proof covering. For the most part
their only protection from the wet was a thin covering of sheeting
tacked upon improvised tent-poles. Through this the water poured as
through a sieve, wetting the bedding and soaking the ground upon which
they lay.
When it is understood that thousands upon thousands of delicately
nurtured women and infants in arms and old and feeble people were in
this plight nothing need be added to describe the misery of their
condition.
What could be done was done by the guards in charge of the camps to
relieve the distress. Whenever covering could be had for the women and
children it was taken advantage of. They were housed in the chill and
cheerless churches, garages and barns, and those who had been
fortunate enough to save their homes were called upon to take care of
these unfortunates. With few exceptions these people responded readily
to the new call made upon them and where they did not the butt ends
of Krag rifles quickly forced a way through inhospitable doors.
Of individual instances of suffering the whole number is legion, but
one will tell the story of them all.
About 4 o'clock, when the rain had been falling heavily for an hour, a
middle-aged man, white-faced in his distress and fatigue, appeared at
the headquarters of the general committee. He had walked two miles
from his camping place in the park to make an appeal for his suffering
wife and little ones. As he told of their distress the tears welled up
in his eyes and coursed down his cheeks.
They were, he said, without covering other than a sheeting overhead
and were lying on the naked ground and their bodies protected only by
a quilt and blanket, which of his household bedding were all he had
managed to save. These had quickly been soaked, and while unwilling to
complain on his own account he had been unable to listen to the wails
of his little ones and had tramped all the way from his camping place
to the committee headquarters in the forlorn hope that there he might
find some means of getting his family under shelter.
The condition of the 5,000 people or more camped in Jefferson Square
Park was something terrible. Not more than 5 per cent had even an army
tent and the makeshifts were constructed of carpets, bed sheets and
every imaginable substance. They were totally inadequate to keep out
the heavy rain.
The 400 soldiers of the Fifth and Sixth California National Guard were
requisitioning.
Glenn A. Durston of the Spanish War Veteran's relief committee, had
charge of the relief work.
The spirit and courage shown by the sufferers in the face of their
misfortunes was wonderful. An aged, crippled woman lying on the dirt
floor of patchwork, bed sheets, carpets and tin roofing made a remark
which was a sample.
"I am the widow of a union soldier," she said. "The sufferings
related by my husband at Vicksburg were as nothing compared to mine. I
am very comfortable, thank you."
Many temporary emergency hospitals were established in and near the
refugee camps. The St. Paul Lutheran church near Jefferson square was
one, but the big hospital at the Presidio, the military headquarters
of the government, provided for the greater number of cases.
A temporary detention hospital was also established in the basement of
the Sacred Heart school, conducted by the Dominican Sisters at the
corner of Fillmore and Hayes streets, and the first commitment since
the earthquake was made on the Sunday following the fire. The sisters
of the Sacred Heart kindly turned over a part of the already crowded
quarters to the insanity commissioners, and a number of patients made
insane by the fire were cared for there.
At the general hospital the wards were soon full of patients, but few
were suffering from severe types of sickness. There were many cases of
tonsilitis, colds and such ills.
Within a week after the fire thousands of people left the refugee
camps and found homes with friends in nearby places. One week after
the disaster the authorities estimated that the number of campers on
the grounds had been reduced to less than 8,000, where over 30,000
people had camped.
Temporary structures were erected in Golden Gate Park for the housing
of 40,000 people, who had been sleeping out of doors for nearly a week
and they were moved into comfortable quarters. About the same time a
supply of blankets and bedding was received.
Within a week from the beginning of the disaster the refuge camps were
converted into comfortable places of residence, with adequate
sanitation, and the homeless at least had temporary homes. All this
was accomplished with a minimum of suffering and illness that speaks
volumes for the courage, energy and common sense of the American
people.
[Illustration: =THE BEAUTIFUL VENDOME HOTEL, SAN JOSE.=
This famous hotel was partly wrecked by the earthquake.]
[Illustration: =POSTOFFICE, SAN JOSE.=
This building faces a beautiful public square and was badly damaged.]