THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12509, 23 May 1906, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER.

CHINATOWN LOOTED. In spite of tho effort* of the regular troops to check looting, robbers raided the Chinese quarter. "CJiinatown waa looted yesterday," says the "Examiner" of April 28th. "Tho plaoo waa looted by hundreds of relic hunters, people who three days e_o would have shot down a man had h° co much as touched his hand.to a piece of valuable property. . . It was not long untiil £5Te riff-raff of society learned what was going on in the locality recently occupied by the Celestials. Then it was fhat thousands thronged that'portion of the city, which has long been given over to the! opium pipe and Jh'a joes-. houae. A tinge of respectability was , given to the action of the looters by ths presence of a lot of-men in uniform. They seemed to encourage tbe men to go deeper into the ruins. Men and womeh joined the ranks, and huge sacks of melted bronzes were carried away. It was the ohanawarethat attracted .most. Some wise mortal among the. motley crowd gave out the word tihat all china to be valuable must be thoroughly burnt and that ware that would stand the fearful blaze that followed the earthquake would be enhanced ten times tn value. It was the soldiers that got tb;6 cue first—that is the men who wore the k!haki uniform and had done duty as national guardsmen. Every tody grabbed for the valuable china. There was a march of fully a thousand men to the late afternoon boats. Hiey carried no end of valuable relics from Chinatown. One party of six men had no lees than 1000 dollars worth of ware, which they offered for eale on the boats. Plates brought three dollars apiece, tea cups two dollars, while pitchers .and teapots brought anywhere from two dollars to fifteen dollars. . One individual, prompted by the good prices offered for the loot, opened two wicker baskets filled with the beet the Chinees Empire ever <»ent out in th§ way of ware. He came to grief, for tlhea it was that the ferry travellers realised that the man and his possessions oould not be above suspicion. In the rush that followed tho better pert-ion off the ware, was broken." A detainment of regular troops arrived on the scene, and »aized ten men in the uniform of the Nationa.l Guard. These individuals had several thou and dollars' worth, of chinaware in theSr possession. A warning was issued that looters would be shot when caught.