THE SAN FRACISCO EARTHQUAKE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12508, 22 May 1906, Page 8

THE SAN FRACISCO EARTHQUAKE.

JOTTINGS. Mr F. Cross, of Christchurch, received n. letter on Sunday from his s-jn-in-law, Mr F. 11. .St.indish. formerly of btandish and Pivee.', photogiaphers, and now resident in San Francisco. Mr .Stundi.sh d t-cribcH the awfui havee caused l.y the earthquake and lues, and goes on to state that he lost all his cameras, leniscs and tiulio furnishings in the flames. Fortunat.ly th.• portion of the city in wh.ch he lived did not suffer so fievc-rely, but he and his family were undergoing great hardships. At the time he wrote there was a shortage of provision's, and a.s there was hardly a chimney left standing, ail the cooking had to bo done in the street. Tlie authorities would not allow (ires to bo lit in. the houses or candles to be lighted for fear of more (ires, and altogether rhey were having a very trying time. He was informed of cud case whr.re a woman who persisted in lighting a fire in a stove was taken out and idiot. Altogether tho outlook, as far as Mr Standish was concerned was exceedingly hopeless, as ho had lost practicaLly everything.

\V. B. Bohlin, a San Francisco printer, who lived on the corner of Mason and Lombard -streets, said when ho rushed to the street there was a scene that beggared description. It was in a part of the town where there are a great many Italians, and the street was crowded with men ond women, all in their night clothes and all on their knees preying. Tho sights that he saw were simply awful, mou and women going insane on tho street.

"When we were escaping through tho ruins of the San Francisco earthquake," said W. W. Wil-on, "my wife and I were liorror-stdcken to see several bodies of people, charred and blackened by fire, lying in our path. We wore compelled to get out of tho city by way of Golden Gate park. During the excitement of the people, several ruffians busied themselves robbing tho helpless."

"Tho earthquake and resulting fires in San Francisco were worse than tho newspaper accounts of them," said S. C. Welling, of New York. '"Wo were staying at the St. Francis hotel, on the eleventh floor, when we were awakened by tho awe-inspiring motion of the building. It moved backward and forward in the manner of a cradle," and everything became almost chaotic. Tlie first thing I noticed on gaining tho open nil* was a man taking a ring from the finger of a half-dressed young girl who liad rushed in terror into the street from tho hotel. Immediately afterwards, 1 saw six dead bodies being carried out of tho building opposite... My wife and I, forced by the advaticing'flames, gradually retreated towards the cemetery district. On the way, Aye passed over the ruins of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where I saw over one hundred dead bodies. In some places, particularly along Market street, wo noticed that tho street car rails were elevated in somo places and sunken in others for six feet. On our way to the ferry afterwards, wo encountered ono great crevice, the extent of which may be gauged by the fact that a large waggon which had fallen into it did not como near to reaching the top. Indeed, the streets were literally ripped up in all directions."

The San Francisco correspondent of the "New York World" telegraphed:— "Now trad then ono can recognise somo man, dressed like a tramp, dirty, dragging a miserable woman, as a prosperousbusiness man or a sleek clerk, whom you may have known in San Francisco. They come in hungry, mainly penniless, fairly begging something to eat from the public kitchens which the soldiers have set up in the streets. In addition to those injured by falling walls and by fire, many frail women and delicate children have broken down with exhaustion and with actual disease, caused by the exposure. One woman was dragged from park to park since the first sheck. Finally she got out by boat, dying with her new-born child." PERSONAL. Mr W. G. Layng, who is known throughout New Zealand by his articles on the trotting horse in the "Referee,'' had his residence destroyed by tho earthquake in San Frauci-co, and, with his wife, had to camp out in Golden Gate Park. Everything in his house was destroyed by fire. lie writes that he is well, and that Mr Charles Powrie, brother of Mr Robert Powrie, of Christchurch. en ne safely through the trouble caused by earthquake and fire.

Mr Joseph Gould, who left Christchurch for England at the end of March, wrote aa follows from Vancouver, under dato of April 19th:—'We arrived here on the night of the 18th April from San Francisco, to learn thnt the city had been shaken down n-r.d then destroyed by fire. If wo could have cccurod a reserved car for the night of the Ifith, wo should havo stjived in Sen Francisco, but we could only get one on the 11th or lath, and as the latter date was too lite, we left on the 14th, and so escaped. We .--fayed at the Palace Hotel while in San Francisco."