STRANGE SCENES IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12532, 29 June 1906, Page 3

STRANGE SCENES IN SAN FRANCISCO.

"No words can describe, nor photograph picture, the blank desolation *if the streets .of Ban Francisco. It is all so unreal, so unlike the actual. that one feels like a jctiiost revisiting the remains of Pompeii and Ifereulancum. J Square mile after square mile shows ruin, ruin, ruin—blank, hopeless ruin. Tho very bricks are ground to powder. It. is hard to realise that nn Mitrket and Mission streets. and in all the great thoroughfares, th.-> only merchants are vendors of peanuts and KotLawater, and hawkers cf popcorn."

Tins is the pen-picture drawn of tlie stricken city in a letter dated May 1:?. puViishid in the Vancouver "Daily News A >.' from Miss Macl.ean, -one cf the nurses who wont down from Yarr.juver to attend to the sufferers. •It is a vast graveyard," she writes. "The Palace Hotel is open to the four wine's of heaven ; tli" glittering restaurants and grillrooms are heaps of ci ;-i'i! k\l I:rick : tho great dope rtii-e>it stores are swaying, jagged walls, with gaping windows and twisted girders, ur for th? most part a level waste."

At that date things wore gradually gert in a; 'into better working order from a relict" standpoint. "The army." writes Miss Mac Lean. 'new makes a house-t:)----house visitation, an 1 won to that man who Ins stocked his cellar an 1 stiil persists in 'going into line' for rations. Ore o; the fc&l-supply stations ii: tlie mission feeds between 00.COO an- 70.003 daily. The line sometimes extends for six «>r r-.'ven blocks. The- storehouse, a bam-lik-. 1 structure, 7j x 150 feet. is divided' into huge bins; ono contains bread, of which the students of Palo Alco send 70,000 loaves daily; another ham ar.d bacon, sliced for individual use; another Bologna sausage, another canned meats and vegetables, and s.i on. A block beyond is tl-.r- milk supply station, where 000 gallons were dispensed daily. Tiie milk supply, however, has been cut down, an.l tiie cit.v--t.hat is. those who cannot afford to buy their food—is put o:i army rations, br.-a;', meat, and vegetables; in. milk (except in the case of infants!. butt.T. nor eggs." With the increasing severity of tho

] regulations surrounding the "Creau | lino.'' General Greely hoped to elimiI nate from tho relief lists a largo perJ centage of the people then receiving : free food supplies. It was becoming | moro difficult every day for able-bodied . men to secure their army rations. ! Vv'hon a healthy-looking man presented himself for food ho was frequently confronted by an offer of employment, ; and if ho refused to engage in tho | proffered work ho was denied relief. I All women wore required to prove""*Do- | yotid doubt that they were iv need of | assistance. Tiio sale of linuorjn neighj homing counties caused tlio Pun Fraisj fisai police much trouble. After tho I saloons wore closed, drinking-plaecs I were established ;usi across tho county I lino in San Mateo, and tho'saloons of Oakland, across tiio bay, had recently I bo-n allowed t■> resume business. The j result v.'.-.s that thousands of idle men 1 visited the resorts, and le'urncd to ! Van Francisco the worse for liquor. [The police accordingly decided not to' permit persons under ihe influence of drink to enter tho city. Any person who chanced to coiro in from Oakland conveying suspicions bottles, or looking ;as if'ho'had been imbibing., "as sun:marilv taken in charge and sentenced Ito three month..-,' hard labour, which (consisted in removing bricks and I debris, and otherwise making himself j useful to h : '-. country. There is no room jin San Fni!tei«eo for idlers. A great j work is to be done there, and the I men who w:-- 1 ' to look cm while others work may f'.nd themselves looking into a loaded «rif!o and listening to a very pressing invitation 'o join the firing liiK- where tho bricks arc flying. PT?OMINEXT CITIZEN PHOT DEAD. Ono of the f« remo-t cf the relief workers. M.ijor 11. C. Tihlen. a pro- i ! minont commission merchant, of San Fr.'UK'i-co, w.w t-hot d.ad. cwir.g, it is j -tat*"), to -in error on the part cf wrai of these ong.-.god as members of the Vigi- ; j lance Committee. He was driving his autone-bile. upon which was displayed , io i coiisnicuons place the flag of tin ; IL 1 C.-o-.'l, ar.d ho wore on his arm . tlio insignh cf the organisation. It i.s -rated thtit when the car was near the comer of TVontv-'eeond street, aivli travelling at the nde of T" 5 miles an hour,- six men. who wore <irm<-d with I rifle-. be'.:aii .shooting without nny | warning. " When tlie car had travelh-.l I oOfr pe.=! tho p'ltrol. it stopped. «nd , Tihlen fell ever on the seat with tho j !erv, '■They've killed mo!" A few I moiV-ent.s later he died. In view of t-hi.3 'occurrence, the Chief of Police, Mr | Dinan, ordered that the Vigilance ComI mitteo be no longer r,ermittod to enrry I , in ,-h. Threo men havo been arrc-tod 1 and charged with the murder of Tili don. AnoJh"r version states that Tilden a miliiary ord-er. Ono maii was phot do-ad in the street •imply for wa.shing his hands and face, water being so son reo. A woman was idiot dead "boc-amo. against military orders, she pcr.sistod in building a fire in ono of the houses for cocking purposes. GROSS MISMANAGEMENT. Tho Vancouver ''World publiuhctl a statomont to the effect that the real truth ns to tho extent of the disaster to tho California metropolis, a.s also tho facts as to the fitato of affairs in thio stricken city, had betni most inadequately shown in publLOiod reports, and that as a mat tor of fact the mil vondon cf the story Was bc-ims _ suppressed. This Btntemt-nt'wa-s qucstJcnod. in many (piifitors, but tho journal i-ays tho s-tatoiiK'iit had found .striking arid incnntrovcrtiblfl ct-ri-obc-raticui in tho telegram jmbiishtd from Mayor Bti-s----eoiube, uho arrive<l in San Francisco on the relief steamer Amur. Additional proof had also reached the "World"' in a letter to a well-known real estate man of Vancouver, whora brother, writing from San Francisco, nbatcn that it is

well kiMnvn there that tho news i.s being •suppressed. Details in this letter show ii state ot affairs that lias hardly bsi'ii hinted at. Gross mismanagement cf the relief feed supply, lie Kays, has resulted in a waste oi' valuable and needed provision.-! that has practically resulted in another panic. Tli-ok> who havo succeeded in getting a supply arc forced to hide and guard thorn, a.s tlvere is no tolling when further supplies may ho ...btain-ed. Tiio extent of tho actual damage to property i.s infinitely greater than any printed despatch has told. The suffering, especially of the -women, rendered hoinelees, has been beyond description.

Tiie most singular and perhaps the mo-t deplorable stories .relate tlie fact that, through excitement, carelessness, or absolute malicious intont, tho military dynamited building after building without giving any warnin-g, except perhaps aCTioiit, to inform the inmates of the. adjoining building of their intent inn. One notable instanc,* of this was that of the blowing up cf the Dalzell building on Jciwo street. Next door to this structure wi>& a tenement 'house, in wiiich lived a Mr Dillia, a man of >.<ome seventy-livo years cf age, and his brother, who was, perhaps, eighty, both deaf and .generally unable to help themselves. The authorities dynamited the Dalzell building witihoiit warning, ar.d the two old n:-?n were caught under the falling walla. All over the c!fy men and women were shot down by the guards for starting Miiall fires (cr the purpose exf making t-oa or coffee.

Mr Willictt. a member of tho Dunedin Post Office stuff, who returned from iSan Francisco hy tho last mail steamer, told a Timaru "Herald" reporter th.nl there had been a good deal of "Jnishing-up'' of the bad features of the disaster and its consequences. A irco'l d»al of dismal news hnd reached the Xew Zealand papers, ho understood, but it could net equal the reality. The destruction and tlie misery that ho saw during his eleven days' stay beggared description. The earthquake did more damage than had been generally published, in breaking mi and biickling-up the site of the city. At one point a building sunk t;> tho second storey; at another, tho street was ridded up like a wave six lei-t hkdi. There had been some careful hushing up, too, of reckless shooting of citizens by the soldiers sent cut as guards. Some of them pot drunk, and shot r.eople on very little excuse. Two oiT&ers were arrested, and are to be tried for wilful murder.

Christmas comes but- once a year. And when it conns—why, the a it'o her-; Rut this of cokli we cannot fay, Thy come, they ge, they often tray, And nnrge into a nasty cough. Which we liavo trouble to drive off. Vr.in the attempt unices we procure A lcttlj- of Woods' Groat Peppermint Cure. * 22