MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND INCIDENTS.
=Many Babies Born in Refuge Camps--Expressions of
Sympathy from Foreign Nations--San Francisco's Famous
Restaurants--Plight of Newspaper and Telegraph Offices.=
In the refugee camps a number of babies were born under the most
distressing and pathetic circumstances, the mothers in many cases
being unattended by either husbands or relatives. In Golden Gate Park
alone fifteen babies were born in one night, it was reported. The
excitement and agony of the situation brought the little ones
prematurely into the world. And equally remarkable was the fact that
when all danger was over all of the mothers and the children of the
catastrophe were reported to have withstood the untoward conditions
and continued to improve and grow strong as if the conditions which
surrounded them had been normal. This, undoubtedly, was in great part
due to the care and kindness of the physicians and surgeons in the
camps whose efforts were untiring and self-sacrificing for all who had
been so suddenly surrendered to their care.
In an express wagon bumping over the brick piles and broken streets
was a mother who gave birth to triplets in the Panhandle of Golden
Gate Park a week later. All the triplets were living and apparently
doing well. In this narrow park strip where the triplets were born
fifteen other babies came into the world on the same fateful night,
and, strange as it seems, every one of the mothers and every one of
the infants had been reported as doing well.
The following night thirteen more babies were born in the park
Panhandle, and these, so far as the reports show, fared as well as
those born the first night. In fact, the doctors and nurses reported
that there had been no fatality among the earthquake babies or their
unfortunate mothers. One trained nurse who accompanied a prominent
doctor on his rounds the first night after the shock attended eight
cases in which both mothers and children thrived. One baby was born in
a wheelbarrow as the mother was being trundled to the park by her
husband.
* * * * *
Expressions of sympathy and condolence on account of the great
disaster were sent to the President of the United States from all over
the world. Among the messages received within about 24 hours after the
catastrophe were the following:
From the President of Guatemala--I am deeply grieved by the
catastrophe at San Francisco. The president of Guatemala sends to the
people of the United States through your eminence his expression of
the most sincere grief, with the confidence that in such a lamentable
misfortune the indomitable spirit of your people will newly manifest
itself--that spirit which, if great in prosperity, is equally great in
time of trial.
President of Mexico--Will your excellency be so kind as to accept the
expression of my profound and deep sympathy with the American people
on account of the disaster at San Francisco, which has so affected the
American people.
President of Brazil--I do myself the honor of sending to you the
expression of the profound grief with which the government and people
of the United States of Brazil have read the news of the great
misfortune which has occurred at San Francisco.
Emperor of Japan--With assurances of the deepest and heartiest
sympathy for the sufferers by the terrible earthquake.
King Leopold of Belgium--I must express to you the deep sympathy which
I feel in the mourning which the terrible disaster at San Francisco is
causing the whole American people.
President of Cuba--In the name of the government and people of Cuba,
I assure you of the deep grief and sympathy with which they have heard
of the great misfortune which has overtaken San Francisco.
Kirkpatrick, acting premier of New Zealand--South Australia deplores
the appalling disaster which has befallen the state of California and
extends heartfelt sympathy to sufferers.
Viceroy of India--My deepest sympathy with you and people of United
States in terrible catastrophe at San Francisco.
Governor Talbot of Victoria, Australia--On behalf of the people of
Victoria, I beg to offer our heartfelt sympathy with the United States
on the terrible calamity at San Francisco.
President of Switzerland--The federal council is profoundly affected
by the terrible catastrophe which has visited San Francisco and other
California cities, and I beg you to receive the sincere expressions of
its regret and the sympathy of the Swiss people as a whole, who join
in the mourning of a sister republic.
Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria--I beg to assure you, Mr. President,
of my most sincere sympathy with your land in its sorrow because of
the terrible earthquake at San Francisco, and I beg to offer you
personally, Mr. President, my heartfelt condolences.
Prince Henry of Prussia--Remembering American hospitality, which is
still so fresh in my memory, I hereby wish to express my deepest
sympathy on behalf of the terrible catastrophe which has befallen the
thriving city of San Francisco and which has destroyed so many
valuable lives therein. Still hope that news is greatly exaggerated.
Premier Bent of South Wales--New South Wales and Victoria sympathize
with California suffering disaster.
Count Witte--The Russian members of the Portsmouth conference,
profoundly moved by the sad tidings of the calamity that has befallen
the American people, whose hospitality they recently enjoyed, beg your
excellency to accept and to transmit to citizens of United States the
expression of their profound and heartfelt sympathy.
* * * * *
The cathedral of San Francisco with the residences attached, together
with the residence of the archbishop, were saved. Sacred Heart College
and Mercy Hospital, together with the various schools attached, were
destroyed.
The churches damaged by the earthquake are:
St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo park.
St. James' church.
St. Bridget's church.
St. Dominick's church.
Church of the Holy Cross.
St. Patrick's church at San Jose.
Those destroyed by fire were:
Churches of SS. Ignatius, Boniface, Joseph, Patrick, Brendan, Rose,
Francis, Mission Dolores, French church, Slavonian church and the old
Cathedral of St. Mary's.
The Custom House with its records was saved. It was in one of the
little islands which the fire passed by. All the city records which
were in the vaults of the city hall were saved. The city hall fell,
but the ruins did not burn. By this bit of luck the city escapes great
confusion in property claims and adjustments.
Millet's famous picture, "The Man with the Hoe," was saved with other
paintings and tapestries in the collection of William H. Crocker.
Mr. Crocker, who was in New York, said about the rescue of the
paintings (Head is Mr. Crocker's butler):
"I am much gratified at the devotion Head displayed in saving my
pictures and tapestries at such a time. Besides the 'Man with the
Hoe,' I have pictures by Tenniel, Troyon, Paul Potter, Corot, Monet,
Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes, Pissaro, and Constable. The tapestries
consisted of six Flemish pieces dating from the sixteenth century, of
which the finest is a 'Resurrection.' It is a splendid example of
tissue d'or work, and was once the property of the duc d'Albe."
On April 20 Bishop Coadjutor Greer of the Protestant Episcopal church
of New York announced that this prayer had been authorized to be used
in the churches of that diocese for victims of the earthquake:
"O Father of Mercy and God of all comfort, our only help in time of
need, look down from heaven, we humbly beseech thee, behold, visit and
relieve thy servants to whom such great and grievous loss and
suffering have come through the earthquake and the fire.
"In thy wisdom thou hast seen fit to visit them with trouble and to
bring distress upon them. Remember, O Lord, in mercy and imbue their
souls with patience under this affliction.
"Though they be perplexed and troubled on every side, save them from
despair and suffer not their faith and trust in thee to fail.
"In this our hour of darkness, when thou hast made the earth to
tremble and the mountains thereof to shake, be thou, O God, their
refuge and their strength and their present help in trouble.
"And for as much as thou alone canst bring light out of darkness and
good out of evil, let the light of thy loving countenance shine upon
them through the cloud; let the angel of thy presence be with them in
their sorrow, to comfort and support them, giving strength to the
weak, courage to the faint and consolation to the dying.
"We ask it in the name of him who in all our afflictions is afflicted
with us, thy son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen!"
Mrs. A. G. Pritchard, wife of a San Francisco manufacturer, who, with
her husband, was on her way home from Europe to San Francisco, became
suddenly insane at the Union Station in Pittsburgh Pa., when she
alighted to get some fresh air.
The Pritchards were hurrying to San Francisco with the expectation of
finding their three children dead in the ruins of their home.
Landing in New York April 24, the Pritchards learned that their home
had been destroyed before any of the occupants had had an opportunity
to get out.
Mr. Pritchard said that his information was that the governess was
dying in a hospital, and from what he has heard, he had no hope of
seeing his children alive.
At Philadelphia a physician told Mr. Pritchard that his wife was
bordering on insanity. At the station Mrs. Pritchard shrieked and
moaned until she was put into the car, where a physician passenger
volunteered to care for the case.
On the afternoon of the fire the police broke open every saloon and
corner grocery in the saved district and poured all malt and
spirituous liquors into the gutters.
San Francisco was famous for the excellence of its restaurants. Many
of these were known wherever the traveler discussed good living. Among
them were the "Pup" and Marschand's in Stockton street; the "Poodle
Dog," one of the most ornate distinctive restaurant buildings in the
United States; Zinkand's and the Fiesta, in Market street; the famous
Palace grill in the Palace hotel; and scores of bohemian resorts in
the old part of San Francisco. They are no more.
Down near the railroad tracks at what used to be Townsend street, food
was mined from the ruins as a result of a fortuitous discovery made by
Ben Campbell, a negro. While in search of possible treasure he located
the ruins of a grocery warehouse, which turned out to be a veritable
oven of plenty. People gathered to this place and picked up oysters,
canned asparagus, beans, and fruit all done to a turn and ready for
serving.
For a time there was marked indignation in San Francisco caused by the
report that the San Franciscans, in their deep-grounded prejudice, had
discriminated against the Chinamen in the relief work. This report was
groundless. The six Chinese companies, or Tongs, representing
enormous wealth, had done such good work that but little had been
necessary from the general relief committee, and, besides, the Chinese
needed less. No Chinaman was treated as other than a citizen entitled
to all rights, which cannot be said under normal conditions on the
Pacific coast. Gee Sing, a Chinese member of the Salvation Army, had
been particularly efficient in caring for his countrymen.
The San Francisco daily newspapers, all of which were burned out, were
prompt in getting in shape to serve their subscribers. On Thursday
morning, the day after the fire, the best showing the morning journals
could make was a small combination sheet bearing the unique heading,
"Call-Chronicle-Examiner." It was set up and printed in the office of
the Oakland Tribune, gave a brief account of the great disaster, and
took an optimistic view of the future of the stricken city. The day
after the papers, though still printed in Oakland, appeared under
their own headings and with a few illustrations, showing scenes in the
streets of San Francisco.
S. M. Pencovic, a San Francisco druggist, on arriving in Chicago from
Paris, said he had a premonition of disaster, which impelled him to
hasten home, several days before the earthquake. He left for San
Francisco to search for his father and mother, who are among the
missing.
"For several days I felt as if something awful was about to happen,"
said he. "So completely did the feeling take possession of me that I
could not sleep at night. At last I could stand it no longer, and I
left Paris April 14, four days before the upheaval.
"I embarked on La Savoie at Havre. I tried to send a wireless message,
but could receive no answer.
"The day after the catastrophe the captain of the ship called me to
his cabin and told me he had just received a wireless message that San
Francisco had been destroyed by an earthquake. I was not surprised."
At the Presidio, where probably 50,000 people were camped, affairs
were conducted with military precision. Here those who are fortunate
enough to be numbered among the campers were able now and then to
obtain a little water with which to moisten their parched lips, while
rations, owing to the limited supply, were being dealt out in the
smallest quantities that all may share a bit. The refugees stood
patiently in line and the marvelous thing about it all was that not a
murmur was heard. This characteristic is observable all over the city.
The people were brave and patient and the wonderful order preserved by
them had been of great assistance. Though homeless and starving they
were facing the awful calamity with resigned fortitude.
In Oakland the day after the quake messages were stacked yards high in
all the telegraph offices waiting to be sent throughout the world.
Conditions warranted utter despair and panic, but through it all the
people were trying to be brave and falter not.
Oakland temporarily took the place of San Francisco as the metropolis
of the Pacific coast, and there the finance kings, the bankers and
merchants of the San Francisco of yesterday were gathering and
conferring and getting into shape the first plans for the rebuilding
of the burned city and preventing a widespread financial panic that in
the first part of the awful catastrophe seemed certain.
Resting on a brick pile in Howard street was a young Swedish woman,
whose entire family had perished and who had succeeded in saving from
the ruins of her home only the picture of her mother. This she
clutched tightly as she struggled on to the ferry landing--the gateway
to new hope for the refugees. A little farther along sat a man with
his wife and child. He had had a good home and business. Wrapped in a
newspaper he held six hand-painted dinner plates. They were all he
could dig out of the debris of his home, and by accident they had
escaped breakage.
"This is what I start life over again with," he said, and his wife
tried to smile as she took her child's hand to continue the journey.
Thousands of these instances are to be found.
Owing to the energetic efforts of General Funston and the officials of
the Spring Valley 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.
John Singleton, a Los Angeles millionaire, his wife and her sister,
were staying at the Palace Hotel when the earthquake shock occurred.
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 Wednesday
night. On Thursday 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."
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=RANDOLPH STORAGE.=
Walls shaken down by the earthquake.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=DESTROYED SWITCHBOARD.=
The electric lighting company.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=ST. DOMINICI CHURCH.=
A part of the steeple shaken out by the earthquake.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=ST. DOMINICI CHURCH.=
A view of the wreck which tells its own story.]
John A. Floyd, a Pullman conductor on the Northwestern railroad,
living in Chicago, gave a lengthy and vivid description of the quake
and its effects.
"If I live a thousand lifetimes I will never forget that night," he
said. "Words are too feeble, entirely too inadequate, to portray the
fear that clutched the human breast. The most graphic pen could not
faithfully portray the sickening horror of that night.
"Plaster falling from the walls in my room in the fourth floor of
the Terminal Hotel in Market street aroused me from a sound sleep
about 5 o'clock in the morning. I sat up in bed, and got out onto the
floor. The building was shaking like a reed in a storm, literally
rocking like a hammock. It was impossible for me to stand. Another
shock threw me heavily to the floor. I remained there for what seemed
hours to me. Then I crawled on hands and knees to the door, and
succeeded in unlocking it with much difficulty. I was in my night
clothes, and without waiting to even pull on a pair of shoes I made my
way down those swaying stairs as rapidly as I could.
"When I reached the street it was filled with half mad unclothed men,
women, and children, running this way and that, hugging and fighting
each other in their frenzy.
"The loud detonations under the earth enhanced the horror. The ground
kept swaying from side to side, then roaring like the waves of the
ocean, then jolting in every conceivable direction.
"Buildings were parting on all sides like egg shells, the stone and
brick and iron raining down on the undressed hundreds in the streets,
killing many of them outright and pinning others down to die slowly of
torture or be roasted alive by the flames that sprang up everywhere
around us.
"When things had quieted somewhat, I went back to the hotel to dress,
and discovered that the entire wall of my room had fallen out.
"I succeeded in finding most of my clothes, and after donning them
hastily went back to the work of rescue. When I got back to the street
from the hotel the entire district seemed to be in flames. Fire seemed
to break out of the very earth on all sides of Market street, eating
up buildings as if they were so many buildings of paper. A big
wholesale drug house on Seventh street exploded, throwing sparking and
burning embers high into the air. These fiery pieces descended on the
half-clad people in the streets, causing them to run madly for places
of safety, almost crazy with the pain.
"Soon the improvised hearses began to arrive. Out of every building
bodies were taken like carcasses out of a slaughter pen. Automobiles,
carriages, express wagons, private equipages, and vehicles of all
kinds were pressed into service and piled high with the bodies.
Everywhere these wagon loads of dead bodies were being dragged through
the streets, offering a spectacle to turn the most stout-hearted sick.
"With three or four sailors I went up to Seventh street to assist a
number of men, women and children who had become entombed under the
debris of a flat building.
"They were so tightly wedged in that we were unable to offer them any
help and had to stand by and hear their cries as they were slowly
roasted to death by the ever increasing flames. I can hear the cries
of one of those women ringing in my ears yet--I guess I always will.
"I guess pretty nearly every bone in her body was broken. As we stood
by helplessly she cried over and over again:
"'Don't let me die like this. Don't let me roast. I'm cooking, cooking
alive. Kill me! Shoot me--anything! For God's sake have mercy!'
"Others joined her in the cry and begged piteously to be quickly
killed before the flames reached them.
"By this time the street level had become so irregular that it was
almost impossible to drag the dead wagons over them.
"Dynamite was then brought into use and the buildings were blown up
like firecrackers. Flying debris was everywhere in the air, and
another mad rush for safety was made, the almost naked people falling
over each other in their frantic efforts to get out of the danger.
"While this excitement was at its height a man dressed only in his
underclothing made his appearance among the people in a light gasoline
runabout. At top speed he ran into a crowd of women, knocking them
down and injuring at least a dozen. Then he turned back and charged
them again. He had gone mad as a result of the scenes of death and
destruction.
"Some one called for a gun, hoping that they might stop the fellow by
shooting him. None was to be had, and after a desperate fight with
sailors who succeeded in getting into the machine he was overpowered
and turned loose.
"Everybody in the crowd, I believe, was temporarily crazy. Men and
women ran helter-skelter in nothing but their night gowns, and many of
them did not have on that much."
Mrs. J. B. Conaty, of Los Angeles, was in Oakland at the time of the
shock and felt the vibrations. "The suddenness with which it came upon
the people," she said, "was the most appalling thing. When I looked
across the bay at 'Frisco from the Oakland shore the city seemed
peacefully at sleep, like a tired baby beside its mother. With my next
glance at the city I was turned almost sick.
"The ground was shaking beneath me and I thought that the end of the
world was at hand. Buildings were falling to the right and left. The
earth was groaning and rocking, and flames were shooting high into the
sky. Soon the sound of the dynamiting reached us and buildings began
to fly in the air like fireworks.
"The sea lashed itself into a fury and beat upon the shores as if it
too sought to escape nature's wrath. Over across the bay all was
disorder. In the glare of the blood red flames reflected against sky
and sea, white robed, half naked men and women could be seen wildly
running about.
"Some of them ran to the water's edge and threw themselves in and
others less frantic had to battle with them to haul them out.
"It seemed as if every man, woman and child in 'Frisco was running
toward the ferry docks. When the boat arrived on our side of the shore
it was packed with men and women, none of whom seemed to be in their
right senses. Many of them jumped from the boat as soon as it was made
fast and ran at top speed through the streets of Oakland until forced
to fall through sheer exhaustion.
"One woman in the crowd had nothing on but a night gown. In her arms
she carried a 3-year-old girl who was hanging tightly to a rag doll
and seemed to be the only one in the vast crowd that was unafraid.
Where all these people went to I have no idea.
"I stood on the Oakland side watching 'Frisco devoured. In a space of
time so short that it all seems to me like a dream now the whole city,
slumbering peacefully but a moment before, presented a perdition
beside which Dante's inferno seems to pale into insignificance."
The looters early began operations in the stricken city. The vandal
thinking that law and order had gone in the general crash filled his
pockets as he fled.
It was the relic hunter who opened the door to the looter. The spirit
which sends the tourist tapping about the ruins of the Parthenon,
awoke in San Francisco. Idle and curious men swarmed into the city,
poking about in the ruins in the hope of finding something worth
carrying away as a souvenir of the greatest calamity of modern times.
Scores of men and women were seen digging in the ruins of one store.
They were disinterring bits of crockery, china and glassware.
Strangely enough, a great deal of this sort of ware had been protected
by a wall which stood through quake and fire. One woman came toiling
out over a pile of brick, covered with ashes and dust, her hair
dishevelled and hands grimy, but she was perfectly happy.
"See," said she, "I found half a dozen cups and saucers as good as
new. They are fine china and they will be worth more than ever now."
I asked her if she needed them.
"Oh, dear no!" said she, laughing. "I live over in Oakland. I just
wanted them to keep as souvenirs!"
Some hard-hearted jokers were abroad also. Humor dies hard, and
perhaps it is just as well that it does, for the six men who started
the bogus bread lines would have needed much of it if the soldiers had
caught them.
The people of San Francisco had become accustomed to eating out of the
hand. They put in long hours every day standing in line waiting for
something to be given out. Many of them did not know what was being
distributed, but they knew it would be good, so they fell into line
and waited.
There were thousands of people in San Francisco who fell into a line
every time they saw one. They had the bread line habit.
This impressed itself on these six men, for they went about the town
and every time they found a promising spot they lined up and looked
expectant. Men came and fell in behind. Women with baskets joined the
brigade and in ten minutes these sidewalk comedians had a string a
block long behind them and more coming every minute. Then the six
jokers slipped away and left the confiding ones to wait. It was a mean
trick.
The stranger and the wayfarer was made to feel at home anywhere in
Oakland and the luxury of sleeping within four walls was not denied to
any one. Only a few hardy men who were willing to sacrifice themselves
for the good of the weaklings went without covering. The people
stripped the portieres and hangings from their walls, tore up their
carpets and brought in every spare piece of cloth which would do for a
night's covering. The women and children who preferred to stay indoors
and on hard floors were taken care of in the public halls, the school
buildings, and the basements of the churches. Beds were improvised of
sheets and hay and the weaker refugees, who were beginning to go down
under the strain, slept comfortably. Oakland did nobly. People shared
their beds with absolute strangers, and while the newcomers in the
park camps were dead to the world, those who came the day before
cheered up considerably. One camp of young men got out a banjo and
sang for the entertainment of the crowd.