Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1906 — DIRE HAVOC AND DEATH IN A REVEL [ARTICLE]

DIRE HAVOC AND DEATH IN A REVEL

Earthquake Brings Destruction to San Francisco. GREAT BUILDINGS FALL TO RUIN Five Thousand Are Dead, Perhaps, in the Debris. FlfiE THEN SWEEPS THE WBEOK Property Worth $200,000,000 Coes Down in the Awful Crash of Matter.

Washington, April 19. —The war department received the following bulletin from the Western Union: “Entire district up as far the New Fairmont hotel, on top of Nob Hill, California street, between Powell and Mason streets, all gone. Reported that 100,000 people are homeless. Fire not under control. Water supply again cut off.” . 1 San Francisco, April 19.—The latest estimates of the loss by earthquake and Are here goes high as $200,000,000. It is believed that the wounded will number tens of thousands. The whole nation is rising to the occasion and help and offers of help are coming from everywhere. Oakland, Cal., April 19.—1 tis reported that the mint in San Francisco is ablaze and from the outside indications it will be impossible to save it The fire surrounds it on every hand. Fractically the whole district south of Market street from the water front to the Mission has been swept clean by fiames. The Palace and Grand hotels, all the best theaters, Including the Grand Opera House, are in ruins.

San Francisco, April 19.—Thirty thousand bouses were either partly or wholly destroyed by earthquake and the subsequent fire that swept this city from one end to the other yesterday. Hundreds of buildings are burning without any effort being made to check the flames. It is estimated that there are 150,000 homeless people. The number of the dead cannot be readily estimated. One hundred bodies have been already recovered, many perished miserably In the broken-down wooden houses along the water front in the Mission and along Market Btreet. Fulling walls pinned many victims fast, and they were compelled to suffer untold agonies while fiery flames crept toward them. Deaths May Reach 5,000. Some believe the number of death will reach the appallingflguresof 5,000* hut from the number of bodies thus far recovered this figure may be excessive. The entire city presents a scene of indescribable confusion. The fire zone is so large that it takes two and one-half hours to go uround it. Every automobile, vehicle, and wagon In the city will be pressed imto service as ambulances. Mayor Schmitz appointed 3,000 more special policemen. It Is estimated that aside from the city Are department there are 25,000 fire fighters. Marvelous deeds of heroism are reported on all sides. There were many thrilling rescues. The deeds erf valor performed by firemen and police would fill a Tolume. The foregoing is title result of the earthquake that /

struck the city at 5:15 a. m. yesterday. Outside the City there have been terrible tragedies also. More Destruction of Hninan Life. A long-distance telephone message from Salinas, 115 miles south of San Francisco, gave the following informa tion: “One hundred and twenty bodies have been taken ont of the Agnew Insane asylum near Santa Clara, and there are probably 150 more corpses in the ruins. The magnificent structure was demolished. Eight dead Italians were taken out of tiie Italian hotel at Son Jose. At that place the Presbyterian church, St Patrick’s cathjjrirfT and the high school were destroyed. The new Hall of Justice at San Jose, just completed at a cost of $300,000, was demolished. At Loam Prieta, eighteen miles from Santa Cruz, a mine house slipped down the side of a mountain, burying ten men in the ruins.

AWFUL WOitK OUTSIDE Santa Rosa a Wreck—Many Dead—Ten Thousand Homeless. A.t San Jose the Vondome hotel annex waft badly wrecked and ten or fifteen killed. Doherty block was completely bnmed and one woman killed. Dr. l>egrow was killed and bis wife badly injured. Every business building is demolished. The estimate is fifty killed; the postofllce is half wrecked, the First Presbyterian church totally demolished, the court house a wreck. Passengers arriving from other cities in California bring tales of death and disaster from nearly all. Santa Cruz, Monterey, Gilroy ami Hollister wrecked. Thp death list at Santa Cruz is rei>orted large. Santa Rosa is a total wreck, and 10,000 are homeless. The loss of life will probably reach hundreds. The whole business portion of the city tumbled into ruins. Main street is piled on either side many feet deep with fallen buildings. Not one business building is left intact. The four-story court house Is a pile of broken masonry. What was not destroyed by the earthquake was swept by fire. The citizens fled to the fields and hills to watch the destruction of the city. Water system destroyed. As for San Francisco, Tuesday she was a thriving city, today she is ashes. The earthquake caused fires to break out in a dozen directions, and before the fire, department arrived the fires were beyond control and within one hour it was seen that San Francisco was doomed. Pen cannot describe the awful scene. Hundreds were killed by falling buildings at the moment of the earthquake. Hundreds of injured imprisoned in wrecked buildings were roasted to death. To preserve order the city is under martial law and General Funston is in command.

SWEEP OF THE FLAMES Many Square Miles Devastated and Still Burning. The fire that swepUthe city after the quake was simply irresistible, the quake having broken all the water mains, and left the city without water. About 0 n. m. the world-famous Palace hotel, built at a cost of $3,000,000, fell a prey to the conflagration and the Crocker building, across tlfe street, began emitting smoke. One of the big losses of the day was the destruction of St. Ignatius’ ehurah and college at Vanness avenue and Hayes street. This was th greatest Jesuitical institution in the west, and was built at a cost of a couple of millions. At 7 p. m. the fire had swept from the south side of the town across Market street into the district called the Western Addition and was burning houses at Golden Gate avenue and Oetavia. This result was reached after almost the entire southern district from Ninth street to the eastern water front had been converted into a blackened waste. In this section were hundreds of factories, wholesale houses and many business firms, In addition to thousands of homes.

The burned district extends from the water front soutli of Market street to Market street and west to Eleventh street, north of Market. The fire extends out Hayes and McAllister streets nearly to Fillmore and from the water front along Market to Montgomery and north from the water to Montgomery street. Manuf«cturie«, hotels, wholesale houses and residences, comprising the principal part of the business section have been destroyed. The city hall, a structure costing $7,000,000, was first wrecked by the earthquake and then destroyed by fire. The beautiful Claus Spreckels buildlug at Third and Market streets was gutted. The Rialto building, the Hall of Justice, and dozens of other costly structures were also destroyed. The Examiner and The Call buildings are gone, together with the Crocker building across the street from the Palace hotel.

SOME DETAILS OF THE HORROR Every Factory Building, Nearly, Is Gone—Fire Still Raging. Nearly every famous landmark that has made San Francisco famous over the world has been laid in ruins or burned to the ground in the dire catastrophe. Never has the fate of a city

been more disastrous. Nearly every big factory building has been wiped out of existence and ft complete enumeration of them would look like a copy of the city directory. Many of the finest buildings In the city were leveled to dust by terrific charges of dynamite in the hopeless efTort to stay the horror of fire. *From the CHIT House comes word that the great pleasure resort and show place of the city, which stood upon a foundation of solid rock, has been swept into the sea. Not a thing stands to teil where the monster stone building once stood. It has been leveled to the foundation and only the rock lining the sea coast remains intact. There is neither gas nor electric light In San Francisco. The plant of one of the gas companies blew up and as a-measure of precaution all the other gas in the city was turned off. The ruin in the commission ant# wholesale district is complete. Unde* the earthquake shock all the rookeries used as commission houses —many of them relics of the days of ’49—cob lapsed. Under the debris were killed and buried hundreds of horses hitched to the vegetable wagons which were drawn up to receive the day’s supplies. The dead horses were piled high and the wreckage blocked the streets until the advancing conflagration turned all that section of the town into a vast funeral pyre. Down on the harbor front the eartli seems to have sunk from six to eight inches, and great cracks appear in the streets. Car tracks are twisted into all shapes. At this writing the fire still roars. Fleeing inhabitants can see from miles; around the pillars of fire towering sky- j ward. The crash of falling ruins and! the muffled reports of the exploding dynamite reach the ear at regular intervals. A disaster that staggers <>oinprehension and in point of terror and damage is unprecedented on the coast has not yet reached its culmination. The city in the face of its appalling disaster is fairly quiet and orderly. Liquor cannot be had anywhere anil the formidable presence of federal troops, militia and naval reserves has had its effect on any element that might he disposed to be disorderly. The mayor’s proclamation authorizing the shooting of looters on sight has been scattered broadcast on circulars and little reports of thieving are being received. Leland Stanford. Jr., university and Palo Alto suffered. At Stanford many of the handsome buildings were damaged and two persons were killed. BIG HOTKL.S ARE BURNED Sad Scenes When the Dead and Wounded Were Taken. All efforts to prevent the fire from reaching the Palace and Grand hotels were unsuccessful, and both were completely destroyed, together with all their contents. All of San Francisco’s best play houses, including the Majestic, Columbia. Orpheum and Grand Opera House, are a mass of ruins. Tho earthquake demolished them for all practical purjioses, and the fire completed the work of demolition. The handsome Itialto and Cassetly build ings were burned to the ground, as was everything in that district. The scene at the Mechanics’ pavilion during the early hours of the morning and up until noon, when all the injured and dead were removed because of the threatened destruction of the building by fire, was one of indescribable sadness. Sisters, brothers, wives and sweethearts searched eagerly for some missing dear one. Thousands of persons hurriedly went through the building. inspecting the cots on which the sufferers lay. iu the hoi>e that they would locate some loved one that was missing.

The dead were placed in one portion of tiie building and the remainder was devoted to hospital purposes. After the fire forced the nurses and physicians tc desert the building the eager crowds followed them to the Presidio and the Children's hospital, where' they renewed tlieir search for missing relatives. Up to a late hour yesterday afternoon more than 750 persons who were seriously injured by the earthquake and the fire been treated at the various hospitals throughout tht city.

SALINAS BADLY SHOCKED Much Property Destroyed Several Killed in Other Towns. Snlinas, Cal., April If).—At 5:15 a m. yesterday three shocks of earthquake visited this town, lasting respectively five, three and forty-two seconds. They came from the northeast and southwest. The damage will lie (2.500,000. No lives were lost in Salinas. but one man, Armstrong, of Santa Cruz, jumped from the window of the Jeffreys House and broke his leg. Among the buildings destroyed in this town are the Ford and Stanbury building, dry goods; Elk’s hall. Masonic building, Knights of Pythias’ building. armory, Porter & Irving store, Logan Cyelery, Odd Fellow building, city hall. Masonic Temple and several other smaller buildings. Every window in the city Is broken. Chimneys toppled over and crashed through roofs. fspreekels’ sugar factory, about three miles from town, was entirely destroyed: damage $1,500,000. The high school building was also wrecked. Different stores had entire stocks damaged. At 2:25 p. m. another shoek was experienced. There is Intense excitement, and people are fearful of anoth- • -tv

er shock. Damage may greatly exceed estimate. Cut entirely off from communication with San Francisco and north. At Watsonville the Moreland academy was destroyed by fire and several buildings collapsed. At Monterey and Pacific Grove there was also n shock, but little damage. At the Del Monte hotel three chimneys fell through the roof, kiHing a bride and groom and one of the hotel help, Injuring several others fatally. At Hollister the Grangers* union warehouse was destroyed. Mrs Griffith was killed and her husband went insane from the shock.