The San Francisco Calamity

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As the truth, however, became gradually sifted out of the tangle of
rumors, the horror, instead of being diminished, was vastly increased.
It became evident that instead of this being a local catastrophe, the
full force of the seismic waves had travelled from Ukiah in the north
to Monterey in the south, a distance of about 180 miles, and had made
itself felt for a considerable distance from the Pacific westward,
wrecking the larger buildings of every town in its path, rending and
ruining as it went, and doing millions of dollars worth of damage.


THE DESTRUCTION OF SANTA ROSA.


In Santa Rosa, sixty miles to the north of San Francisco, and one of
the most beautiful towns of California, practically every building
was destroyed or badly damaged. The brick and stone business blocks,
together with the public buildings, were thrown down. The Court House,
Hall of Records, the Occidental and Santa Rosa Hotels, the Athenaeum
Theatre, the new Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows' Block, all the banks,
everything went, and in all the city not one brick or stone building was
left standing, except the California Northwestern Depot.

In the residential portion of the city the foundations receded from
under the houses, badly wrecking about twenty of the largest and
damaging every one more or less; and here, as in San Francisco, flames
followed the earthquake, breaking out in a dozen different places at
once and completing the work of devastation. From the ruins of the
fallen houses fifty-eight bodies were taken out and interred during
the first few days, and the total of dead and injured was close to a
hundred. The money loss at this small city is estimated at $3,000,000.

The destruction of Santa Rosa gave rise to general sorrow among the
residents of the interior of the State. It was one of the show towns of
California, and not only one of the most prosperous cities in the
fine county of Sonoma, but one of the most picturesque in the State.
Surrounding it there were miles of orchards, vineyards and corn fields.
The beautiful drives of the city were adorned with bowers of roses,
which everywhere were seen growing about the homes of the people. In
its vicinity are the famous gardens of Luther Burbank, the "California
wizard," but these fortunately escaped injury.

At San Jose, another very beautiful city of over 20,000 population,
not a single brick or stone building of two stories or over was left
standing. Among those wrecked were the Hall of justice, just completed
at a cost of $300,000; the new High School, the Presbyterian Church and
St. Patrick's Cathedral. Numbers of people were caught in the ruins and
maimed or killed. The death list appears to have been small, but the
property damage was not less than $5,000,000. The Agnew State Insane
Asylum, in the vicinity of San Jose, was entirely destroyed, more than
half the inmates being killed or injured.


THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY.


The Leland Stanford, Jr., University, at Palo Alto (about thirty miles
south of San Francisco), felt the full force of the earthquake and was
badly wrecked. Only two lives were lost as a result of the earthquake,
one of a student, the other of a fireman, but eight students were
injured more or less seriously. The damage to the buildings is estimated
by President Jordan to amount to about $4,000,000.

The memorial church, with its twelve marble figures of the apostles,
each weighing two tons, was badly injured by the fall of its Gothic
spire, which crashed through the roof and demolished much of the
interior; the great entrance archway was split in twain and wrecked; so,
too, were the library, the gymnasium and the power house. A number of
other buildings in the outer quadrangle and some of the small workshops
were seriously damaged.

Encina Hall and the inner quadrangle were practically uninjured, and the
bulk of the books, collections and apparatus escaped damage.

Sacramento, together with all the smaller cities and towns that dot the
great Sacramento Valley for a distance fifty miles south and 150 miles
north of the capital, escaped without injury, not a single pane of glass
being broken or a brick displaced in Sacramento and no injury done in
the other places, they lying eastward of the seat of serious earthquake
activity.

Los Angeles and Santa Barbara escaped with a slight trembling; Stockton,
103 miles north of San Francisco, felt a severe shock and the Santa Fe
bridge over the San Joaquin River at this point settled several inches.
The only place in Southern California that suffered was Brawley, a small
town lying 120 miles south of Los Angeles, about 100 buildings in the
town and the surrounding valley being injured, though none of them were
destroyed.


THE EARTHQUAKE AT OTHER CITIES.


At Alameda, on the bay opposite San Francisco, a score of chimneys were
shaken down and other injuries done. Railroad tracks were twisted, and
over 600 feet of track of the Oakland Transit Company's railway sank
four feet. The total damage done amounted to probably $200,000, but no
lives were lost. Tomales, a place of 350 inhabitants, was left a pile of
ruins.

At Los Panos several buildings were wrecked, causing damage to the
extent of $75,000, but no lives were lost.

At Loma Prieta the earthquake caused a mine house to slip down the side
of a mountain, ten men being buried in the ruins.

Fort Bragg, one of the principal lumbering towns in Mendocino County,
was practically wiped out by fire following the earthquake, but out of a
population of 5,000 only one was killed, though scores were injured.

The town of Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco, suffered
considerable damage from twisted structures, fallen walls and broken
chimneys, the greatest injury being in the collapse of the town hall
and the ruin of the deaf and dumb asylum. The University of California,
situated here, was fortunate in escaping injury, it being reported
that not a building was harmed in the slightest degree. Another public
edifice of importance and interest, in a different section of the State,
the famous Lick Astronomical Observatory, was equally fortunate, no
damage being done to the buildings or the instruments.


AT THE STATE UNIVERSITY.


Salinas, a town down the coast near Monterey, suffered severely, the
place being to a large extent destroyed, with an estimated loss of over
$1,000,000. The Spreckels' sugar factory and a score of other buildings
were reported ruined and a number of lives lost. During the succeeding
week several other shocks of some strength were reported from this town.

Thus the ruinous work of the earthquake stretched over a broad track
of prosperous, peaceful and happy country, embracing one of the best
sections of California, laying waste not only the towns in its path,
but doing much damage to ranch houses and country residences. Strange
manifestations of nature were reported from the interior, where the
ground was opened in many places like a ploughed field. Great rents
in the earth were reported, and for many miles north from Los Angeles
miniature geysers are said to have spouted volcano-like streams of hot
mud.

Railroad tracks in some localities were badly injured, sinking or
lifting, and being put out of service until repaired. In fact, the
ruinous effects of the earthquake immensely exceeded those of any
similar catastrophe ever before known in the United States, and when
the destruction done by the succeeding conflagration in San Francisco is
taken into account the California earthquake of 1906 takes rank with the
most destructive of those recorded in history.



CHAPTER X.

All America and Canada to the Rescue


During the first three days after the terrible news had been flashed
over the world the relief fund from the nation had leaped beyond the
$5,000,000 mark. New York took the lead in the most generous giving that
the world has ever seen. From every town and country village the people
hastened to the Town Halls, the newspaper offices and wherever help was
to be found most quickly, to add their savings and to sacrifice all but
necessities for their stricken fellow-countrymen. Never has there been
such a practical illustration of brotherly love. A perfect shower of
gold and food was poured out to the sufferers to give them immediate
assistance and to help them to a new start in life. All relief records
were broken within two days of the disaster, but still the purses of the
rich and poor alike continued to add to the huge contributions. Though
the relief records were broken, every succeeding dispatch from the West
told too plainly the terrible fact that all records of necessity were
also broken.

Over the entire globe Americans wherever they were hastened to cable or
telegraph their bankers to add their share to the great work. A large
fund was at once started in London, and with contributions of from
$2,000 to $12,000 the sum was soon raised to hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

Individual contributions of $100,000 were common. In addition to John
D. Rockefeller's gift of this sum, his company, the Standard Oil, gave
another $100,000. The Steel Corporation and Andrew Carnegie each
gave $100,000. From London William Waldorf Astor cabled his American
representative, Charles A. Peabody, to place $100,000 at once at
the disposal of Mayor Schmitz, of San Francisco, which was done. The
Dominion Government of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000
and the Canadian Bank of Commerce, at Toronto, gave $10,000. And two of
the great steamship companies owned in Germany sent $25,000 each.


RIGHT OF WAY FOR FOOD TRAINS.


On nearly a dozen roads, two days before the fire was over, great trains
of freight cars loaded with foodstuffs were hastening at express
speed to San Francisco. They had the right of way on every line. E. H.
Harriman, in addition to giving $200,000 for the Union Pacific, Southern
Pacific and other Harriman roads, issued orders that all relief trains
bound for the desolated city should have Precedence over all other
business of the roads.

Advices from many points indicated that at least 150 freight cars loaded
with the necessaries so eagerly awaited in San Francisco were speeding
there as fast as steam could drive them. In addition, several steamers
from other Pacific coast points, all food-laden, were rushing toward the
stricken city.

The rapidity with which the various relief funds in every city grew was
almost magical.

From corporations, firms, labor unions, religious societies,
individuals, rich and poor, money flowed. Even the children in the
schools gave their pennies. Every grade of society, every branch of
trade and commerce seemed inspired by a spirit of emulation in giving.

The United States Government at once voted a contribution of $1,000,000,
and government supplies were rushed from every post in the West.

The $1,000,000 government gift, which formed the nucleus of the relief
fund, was doubled on Saturday by a resolution appropriating another, and
a vote was taken on Monday to increase this sum to $1,500,000, making a
total government contribution of $2,500,000. This was largely expended
in supplies of absolute necessaries, furnished from the stores of the
War Department, and those first sent being five carloads of army medical
supplies from St. Louis. A cargo of evaporated cream was also sent to
use in the care of little children, while the Red Cross Society shipped
a carload of eggs from Chicago. Dr. Edward Devine, special Red Cross
agent in San Francisco, was appointed to distribute these supplies.


CARGOES OF SUPPLIES.


Trainloads of other supplies were dispatched in all haste from various
points in the West and East, carrying provisions of all kinds, tents,
cots, clothing, bedding and a great variety of other articles. A special
train of twenty-six cars was dispatched from Portland, Oregon, on
Thursday night, conveying ten doctors, twenty trained nurses and 800,000
pounds of provisions. Chicago sent meat. Minneapolis sent flour, and,
in fact, every part of the country moved in the greatest haste for the
relief of the stricken city.

There was urgent need of haste. On Friday, while the flames were still
making their way onward, General Funston telegraphed: "Famine seems
inevitable." The people of the country took a more hopeful view of it,
and by Saturday night the spectre of famine was definitely driven from
the field and food for all the fugitives was within reach.


THE SYMPATHY OF THE PEOPLE AWAKES.


On all sides the people were awake and doing. In all the great
cities agencies to receive contributions were opened, and many of the
newspapers undertook the task of collecting and forwarding supplies. The
smaller towns were equally alert in furnishing their quota to the good
work, and from countryside and village contributions were forwarded
until the fund accumulated to an unprecedented amount. Collections were
made in factories, in stores, in offices, in the public schools; cash
boxes or globes stood in all frequented places and were rapidly filled
with bank notes; theatrical and musical entertainments were given for
the benefit of the earthquake sufferers; never had there been such an
awakening. As an instance of the spirit displayed, one man came running
into a banking house and threw a thousand dollar bill on the counter.

"For San Francisco," he said, as he turned toward the door.

"What name?" asked the teller.

"Put it down to 'cash,'" he answered, as he vanished.

Rapidly the fund accumulated. A few days brought it up to the $5,000,000
mark. Then it grew to $10,000,000. Within ten days' time the relief fund
was estimated at $18,000,000, and the good work was still going on--in
less profusion, it is true, but still the spirit was alive.


FOREIGN OFFERS OF AID.


The generous impulse was not confined to the United States. From all
countries came offers of aid. Canada was promptly in the field, and
the chief nations of Europe were quick to follow, while Japan made a
generous offer, and in far Australia funds were started at the various
cities for the sufferers. No doubt a large sum from foreign lands would
have been available had not President Roosevelt declined to accept
contributions from abroad, as not needed in view of America's abundant
response. To the Hamburg-Line which offered $25,000, the following
letter was sent:

"The President deeply appreciates your message of sympathy, and desires
me to thank you heartily for the kind offer of outside aid. Although
declining, the President earnestly wishes you to understand how much he
appreciates your cordial and generous sympathy."

All other offerings from abroad were in the same thankful spirit
declined, even those from our immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico.
Some feeling was aroused by this, especially in the relief committee at
San Francisco, which felt that the need of that city was so great and
urgent that no offer of relief should have been declined. In response
the President explained that he only spoke for the government, in his
official capacity, and that San Francisco was in no sense debarred from
accepting any contributions made directly to it.

It may justly be said for the people of this country that their
spontaneous generosity in the presence of a great calamity, either at
home or abroad, is always magnificent. It never waits for solicitation.
It does not delay even until the necessity is demonstrated, but it
assumes that where there is great destruction of property and homes are
swept away there must be distress which calls for immediate relief.

There is one ray of light in the gloom caused by the calamity at San
Francisco. A truly splendid display of brotherly love and sympathy has
been shown by the people of this country, and a similar display was
ready to be shown by the people of the civilized world had it been felt
that the occasion demanded it and that the exigency surpassed the power
of our people to meet it.


ENTERPRISE IN SAN FRANCISCO.


In the face of an appalling and death-dealing disaster, rendering an
entire community dependent for the bare necessities of life and putting
it in imminent danger of greater horrors, the nation has been stirred
as it has rarely been before, and there have been awakened those deeper
feelings of brotherhood which are referred to in the oft-quoted passage
that "one touch of nature makes the whole world akin."

The nature indicated in this instance is human nature in its highest
manifestation, the sympathetic sentiment that stirs deeply in all our
hearts and needs but the occasion to make itself warmly manifested.
There is something incomparably splendid in the spectacle of an entire
nation straining every nerve to send succor to the helpless and the
suffering, and this spectacle has warmed the hearts of our people to the
uttermost and inspired them to make the most strenuous efforts to drive
away the gaunt wolf of famine from the ruined homes of our far Pacific
brethren.

It may be said that San Francisco will be willing to accept this relief
only so long as stern necessity demands it. At this writing only two
weeks have passed since the dread calamity, and already active steps
are being taken to provide for themselves. As an example of their
enterprise, it may be said that their newspapers hardly suspended at
all, the Evening Post alone suspending publication for a time from
being unable to acquire a plant in the vicinity of the city. When the
conflagration made it apparent that all plants would be destroyed, the
Bulletin put at work a force in its composing rooms, a hand-bill was
set and some hundreds of copies run off on the proof-press, giving the
salient features of the day's news.

The morning papers, the Call, Chronicle and Examiner, retired to
Oakland, on the other side of the bay, and there, on Thursday morning,
issued a joint paper from the office of the Oakland Tribune. On Friday
morning they split forces again, the Examiner retaining the use of the
Tribune plant and the Call and Chronicle issuing from the office of
the Oakland Herald. Two days later the Call secured the service of
the Oakland Enquirer plant. Meantime, on Friday, the Bulletin, after a
suspension of one day, made arrangements for the use in the afternoon
of the Oakland Herald equipment, and from these sources and under such
circumstances the San Francisco papers have been issuing.

Offices were hurriedly opened on Fillmore Street, which today is the
main thoroughfare of San Francisco, and from these headquarters the news
of the day as it is gathered is transmitted by means of automobiles and
ferry service to the Oakland shore.

There also were accepted such advertisements as had been offered. The
number of these was, perhaps, the best visual sign of the resurrection
of the new city. It was noted that in a fourteen-page paper printed
within two weeks after the fire by the Examiner there were over nine
pages of advertisements, and in a sixteen-page paper published by the
Chronicle at least fifty per cent. of its space was devoted to the same
end.

Many of the larger factories left unharmed were also quick to start
work. At the Union Iron Works 2,300 men were promptly employed, and the
management expected within a fortnight to have the full complement of
its force, nearly 4,000 men, engaged. No damage was done to the three
new warships being built at these works for the government, the cruisers
California and Milwaukee and the battleship South Dakota. The steamer
City of Puebla, which was sunk in the bay, has been raised and is being
repaired. Workmen are also engaged fixing the steamship Columbia, which
was turned on her side. The hulls of the new Hawaiian-American Steamship
Company's liners were pitched about four feet to the south, but were
uninjured and only need to be replaced in position.

As for the working people at large, those without funds for their own
support, abundant employment will quickly be provided for them in the
necessary work of clearing away the debris, thus opening the way to a
resumption of business and reducing the number requiring relief. The
ukase has already been issued that all able-bodied men needing aid must
go to work or leave the city.

This dictum of Chief of Police Dinan's will be strictly enforced. The
relief work and distribution of food and clothing are attracting a
certain element to the city which does not desire to labor, while some
already here prefer to live on the generosity of others. Chief Dinan has
determined that those who apply for relief and refuse work when it
is offered them shall leave the city or be arrested for vagrancy. The
police judges have suggested establishing a chain gang and putting all
vagrants and petty offenders at work clearing up the ruins.

Perhaps never in the history of the city has there been so little crime
in San Francisco. With the saloons closed, Chinatown, the Barbary Coast,
and other haunts of criminals wiped out, and soldiers and marines on
almost every block in the residence districts, there have been few
crimes of any kind. It is the opinion of the police that most of the
criminal element has left the city. The saloons, in all probability will
remain closed for two more months.


THE PROBLEM OF THE CHINESE.


In conclusion of this chapter it is advisable to refer to the situation
of one of the elements of San Francisco's population, the people of
Chinatown. One of the problems facing the relief committees on both
sides of the bay is the sheltering of the Chinese. Many of them are
destitute. It has long been a question in San Francisco what should be
done with Chinatown, and moving the Chinese in the direction of Colma
has been agitated. Now they are without homes and without prospects of
procuring any. They can get no land. The limits of Oakland's Chinatown
have already been extended, and the strictest police regulations are in
force to prevent further enlargement. On this side of the bay they are
camping in open lots. Unless the government undertakes their relief,
they are in grave danger. Those who have money cannot purchase property,
as no one will sell to them. Few, however, even of the wealthiest
merchants in Chinatown, saved anything of value, for their wealth was
invested in the Oriental village which had sprung up in the heart of the
area burned.

Yet it is the desire of the municipality not to harass this portion of
its foreign population, and the vexatious problem of placing the new
Chinatown will probably be settled to the satisfaction of the Chinese
colony. This colony diverts an important part of the trade of San
Francisco to that city, and if its members are dealt with unjustly there
is danger of losing this trade. The question is one that must be left
for the future to decide, but no doubt care will be taken that a new
Chinatown with the unsavory conditions of the old shall not arise.



CHAPTER XI.

San Francisco of the Past


The story of San Francisco's history and tragedy appeal with
extraordinary force to the imagination of all civilized men. For several
generations the city was looked upon as an Arabian Night's dream--a
place where gold lay in the streets and joy and happiness were
unlimited. Its settlement, or, rather, its real rise as a city, was as
by magic. It was first a city of tents, of shanties, of "shacks," lying
on the rim of a great, spacious bay. Ships of all sizes and rigs brought
gold-seekers and provisions from the East, all the way round Cape Horn,
after voyages of weary months, and at San Francisco their crews deserted
and hundreds of these craft were left at their moorings to rot. Ashore
was a riot of money, prodigious extravagance, mean, shabby appointments,
sudden riches, great disappointment, revelry, improvidence and suicide.

The streets that now lay squares from the water were then at the water's
edge and batteaus brought cargoes ashore. Long wharves--one was for
years called the Long Wharf even after there were others built much
longer--led out over the shallow water. These shallows were later filled
and streets built upon them, and upon them arose warehouses, hotels,
factories, lodging houses and business places.

The city grew rapidly in the direction away from the bay. But in its
early days it was a city with no confidence in its own stability, and
its buildings were accordingly unstable. A few minor earthquakes shook
some of these down years ago and established in the minds of the people
a horror of earthquakes. Frame houses became the rule.

In its ensuing life San Francisco developed the attributes of a city of
gayety tempered by business. The population, for the most part, affected
light-hearted scorn of money, or, rather, of saving money. It made
mirth of life, habituated itself to expect windfalls such as miners
and prospectors dream of, developed a moderate amount of business, and
enjoyed the day while there was sunlight and the night when there was
artificial light. The windfalls grew less frequent, mining became a
costly and scientific process, and agriculture succeeded it. But, though
it was only necessary to tickle the land with a hoe and pour water upon
the tickled spot, to have it laugh with two, three or even four harvests
a year, agriculturists continued scarce. The Chinese truck farms, some
of which lay within the city's lines, supplied the small fruits and
vegetables. Across the bay white men farmed, and grapes, fruits,
vegetables and flowers of prodigious variety and monstrous dimensions
were grown. But Eastern men came to do the farming. The Californian who
himself was an "Argonaut," or whose father was an Argonaut, found no
attractions in the steady labor of farming.