THE EARTHQUAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13160, 25 April 1906, Page 5

THE EARTHQUAKE.

A SHOCKING TRAGEDY. * AN OFFICIAL SHOT DEAD. PATROLMEN'S FATAL BLUNDER. i By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received April 24, 11.28 p.m.) New York, April 24. Mr. Tilden, a member of the State Government of California, has been shot dead by patrolmen in San Francisco. He had been using his motor car as an ambulance for conveying sick and wounded people to the hospitals, and was one of the most prominent of the relief workers. At dawn yesterday, as he was proceeding in his automobile, with the red cross flag flying, on his labour of mercy, he was shot by a. party of six citizen patrolmen. VOTE OF CONGRESS. 1,500,000 DOLLARS GRANTED. (Received April 24, 11.28 p.m.) New York, April 24. Congress has voted the additional 1 sum of 1,500,000 dollars asked for by President Roosevelt, for the San Francisco relief fund. REBUILDING THE CITY. ' TO BE COMPLETED WITHIN ; FIVE YEARS. New York, April 23. ; Mr. W. Crocker, the well-known . capitalist, has lost £600,000 by the ' destruction of San Francisco, but he ' is now returning to help to rebuild ; the city, and will devote what money i he has left to that end. Mr. Crocker > and many others predict that a new * and greater city will have been cre--1 ated within five years. Among Mr. Crocker's losses were works of art, including the famous picture by Millet, the French artist, "The-Man With the Hoe." FAMINE PRICES, i * ; A SHILLING FOR A GLASS OF !' WATER. ! New York, April 23. The prices reached for. food in San [ Francisco on Friday resembled those ; of a beleaguered town on the eve of surrender. Eggs and loaves brought from -is ' each, while a glass of water fetched [ Is. and other necessaries were proportionately dear.

, THE CLIFF HOUSE. : NOT SERIOUSLY DAMAGED. New York, April 23. The Cliff House, the pleasure re- ' sort to the south of San Francisco, which it was reported had slid into - the sea, is now stated not to have , been seriously damaged. r } The Cliff House is on Point Lobos, seven miles from Palace Hotel, and almost overhangs the sea. From the verandahs there is a magnificent look-out. It was built in 1853, partially wrecked by an explosion of f dynamite- on a schooner below in 1886, and j burned to the ground in 1594.

CONDITION OF THE [ SUFFERERS. ) THE PARKS ON SUNDAY. f * SERVICES HELD IN THE OPEN. ' New York, April 23. ' Daylight on Sunday showed I tens of thousands of rich and poor lying on the damp grass in the; Gol--1 den Gate, Presidio, and other parks, j Many thousands left the enclosures soon after waking, but large numbers remained and erected rude altars, round which they worshipped with deep emotion. The withdrawal of upwards of 100,000 people from San Francisco has materially eased the situation, but the distress is likely to continue for some time longer. t THE LOSS OF LIFE. GREATEST AFTER THE EARTHn" QUAKE. New York, April 23. I The military authorities at San Francisco report that they believe that less than 1000 people were kill- , ed in the earthquake, and that the ' rest lost their lives in the fires or died from fright or exhaustion. WHAT THE CRUISERS DID. d II y PREVENTED VESSELS FROM d LEAVING. New York, April 23. Admiral McCalla has issued a statement to the effect that after the « earthquake cruisers of the Pacific squadron were stationed at the entrance to the bay to prevent vessels from leaving San Francisco, in the s- event of their being required to acb - commodate refugees or take them I s away. te — a". SAN FRANCISCO'S AREA. A cablegram in yesterday's Herald said that 25 square miles, or 16,000 acres of ft s an Francisco had been burned. The city RS covers an area of 26,681 acres, of which 5 ' 1500 acres is military reservation. If the ■s, estimate of 25 square miles bo correct, Is then close upon two-thirds of the city has been destroyed by tire, and that, too, containing the most valuable - property

THE RELIEF FUNDS. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S REFUSAL OF HELP. A GERMAN PROTEST. s (Received April 24, 11.28 p.m.) Berlin, April 24.. The Berliner Tageblatt, commenting on the refusal of the £5000 sent by the Hamburg- Shipping Company for the San Francisco relief fund, accuses President Roosevelt of carrying the Monroe doctrine into the moral sphere, thus completely separating American and European interests, even in matters affecting common humanity. Sydney, April 24. In view of President Roosevelt s statement with reference to foreign assistance not being required for San Francisco, the Lord Mayors of Sydney and Melbourne have telegraphed to the British Consul at San Francisco for further information, and will await the .reply. before taking combined action to establish a relief fund. AUCKLAND'S RELIEF FUND. The town clerk (Mr. H. D. Wilson.) issued 100 San Francisco Relief Fund, subscription forms yesterday to the daily newspaper offices, banks, factories, warehouses and other places of business. In addition to the £72 7s already subscribed, which included the Mayor's donation .of £20, the town clerk yesterday received the following donations: —Gabriel Lewis and Co. £3 35," Consul-General Prickett £5, Mrs. Louis Myers £1 Is, Hugh K. Gilmour £5 ss, Consul for Germany (C. Seegner) £1 Is, Charles Arnold £2, Maurice O'Connor £3 3s, G. Kronfeld £2 2s, V. Hayman and Co. £3 3s, L. A. Bachelder £3 3s, G. W. S. Patterson and Co. £2 2s, H. Edmonds £2 2s, H. L. Posseniskie £1 Is, C. V. Houghton £1 Is, Hipkinsand Coutts £1 Is, A Friend £1 Is, E. Ellingham and Co. £1 Is, W. J. Baker £1 Is, J. M. Laxon £1 Is, Briscoe and Co. £5 ss, W. H. Heather £1 Is, Carr, Pountney and Co. £5 ss, Collins Bros, and Co., Ltd., £1 Is. 8. A. Longuet £1 Is, E. B. Dufaur 10s, Russell and Somers £1 Is, New Zealand Express Co., Auckland, £1 Is, John Chambers and Son, Ltd., £3 3s, J. S. Lennox 10s 6(1, Liclitenstein, Ainolclsoti and Co. £2 2s, Andreae and Co. £5 ss, P.D.J.A. £1 Is, Murgatroyd Bros. £2 2s, G. Fowlds £2 2s, Eliot I and Waller £2 2s, A., G. Buchanan £1 Is, Edmund Mahony £1 Is, P. M. Hansen £2 2s, H. P. Barter £1 Is, T. J. Atkins £2 2s, Walter Rohson £3 • 3s. Total to date, £159 2s 6d. A number of ladies were collecting for the fund in the city yesterday, and several business men were also engaged in soliciting subscriptions for the fund. Members of the Salvation Army were also out street collecting. | MEETING OF LADIES. The ladies' meeting in connection with the Relief Fund, convened by the Mayor for noon yesterday, was only attended by three ladies. It was surmised that the hotice was too short, and it was decided, on the initiative of the town clerk (Mr. H. W. Wilson), to convene another meeting, to be held in the Council Chambers, at ten a.m. to-day. Should a sufficiently representative number of ladies attend the meeting it, is proposed that those selected shall go straight from the meeting to such collecting stations at the street corners or elsewhere as shall be decided. WELLINGTON CABLES £300. • [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The Wellington Relief Committee this morning cabled £300 to Vancouver, to be invested in supplies for the afflicted in San Francisco. THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE. In regard to the interruption to the San Francisco service, inquiries made yesterday from Messrs. Henderson and Macfarlane showed that they are not yet prepared to make any official statement, but it is understood that while the exact course is not known, it seems that the service will be resumed by a steamer leaving San Francisco on May 10, which means that one inward and one outward mail will be withdrawn. This information they hope to make officially public within the next three days. NEW ZEALANDERS IN SAN FRANCISCO. Several of the relatives and friends of persons resident in New Zealand who wired immediately news of the disaster came through have not yet received any reply. It is hoped that the delay is due to the accumulation of telegraphic business only. M'rs. Mitchell, formerly of Amberley, Canterbury, left Auckland two months ago for San Francisco, and inquiries are being made on the lines of the list cent by the Premier. A number of Auckland firms having business connections with San Francisco houses are still awaiting replies to their wires of inquiry. ■' ■ " ( ' | TELEGRAPHIC ARRANGEMENTS. LINES AGAIN IN WORKING ORDER. The Pacific cable advises:—" Californian telegraphic traffic, now circulating freely. Will take some few days to clear accumulation of messages at different stations." Cables from Auckland to San Francisco have been sent to Portland, Oregon, and mailed overland to Oakland. There are no wires leading into San Francisco, consequently the messages were conveyed across the bay by the ferry boats. DUNEDIN CITIZENS' MEETING. Dune din, Tuesday. A public meeting of citizens, at which the Mayor presided, was held this afternoon to consider the question of affording pecuniary assistance in regard to the San Francisco disaster. A resolution of sympathy was passed, also the following: "That the President of the United States lias publicly notified that general help from abroad is unnecessary, but as it is understood that there are a large number of New riders resident in San Francisco, who have in all probability suffered ruinous loss through the calamity that has befallen the city, a committee be formed to co-operate if required with other centres in New Zealand in raising funds for their relief, the committee to consist of lliofee present, with power to add to their number." Mr. M. Cohen mentioned that he had forwarded to Wellington last week the names of 23 families in Dunedin vho had blood relations in San Francisco.

I THE INSURANCES. We are authorised to contradict a, tumour I which Was current yesterday to the effect that the South British Insurance Company was interested by way of reinsurance in the devastation wrought by the great fires in San Francisco. The shareholders of the company will be pleased to learn that the company having some years ago withdrawn from all business in the United States it has no risks whatever, either directly or indirectly, in that country, a.nd consequently is in no way affected by the San Francisco calamity. OAKLAND. Oakland is the largest railway terminus on the Pacific coast. Daily the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose Railway runs 205 trains through the city. The Southern Pacific and its constituent reads run 447 trains daily in and out of the city, aud each month 16,000 cars are transported across the bay of San Francisco to Oakland. THE CITY IN. 1905. A letter received by last mail front an exWellingtonian at San Francisco mentions that 1905 was the most prosperous year the city ever ha.d. It was gaining population at the rate of 5000 a month, and the hotels and) private lodging-houses were unable to provide accommodation. New suburbs were i opening out in all directions, and land sales were being held at frequent intervals. The suburb of Berkeley lia.d 31,000 inhabitants. It was in Berkeley that the New Zealand football team played a University fifteen, and the writer mentions that the California University authorities have now adopted the Rugby game, in spite of the opposition of the students. On March 25 there was a downpour of sin of rain in the neighbourhood of San Francisco. Several houses and bridges were carried away, and the pipes supplying the town of Sonoma with water were burst. THE LONE I'TNE EARTHQUAKE. A FEARFUL SCENE. The earthquake in California of March 26, 1872, known as the Lone Pine earthquake, was of a most destructive character. About half-past two a.m. the inhabitants of Lone Pine were awakened by a loud explosion, followed by a terrible upheaval and shaking of the earth from south to north. In an instant the whole town was in ruins, not a building being left standing. The scene which ensued, beggared, description; • screams and groans rent the air in all directions. Nearly the whole populace of the town, says a paper of. that date, was buried beneath the ruins; cries for help and screams of pain from the wounded filled the air, while from the ruins those who had escaped were calling for help to rescue fathers, brothers, wives, and children in a manner agonising to hear. The first shock was followed in quick succession by three others. Over 300 distinct shocks were felt between half-past two and sunrise ; " in fact, the earth was in constant shake and tremble foi over three hours. A chasm was opened extending 35 miles down the valley, ranging from Sin to 40ft in width. Rocks were torn from their places, and rolled down into the valley. Over 600 distinct shocks were felt within 58 hours after the first. Up to Wednesday morning fully 1000 distinct shocks were felt. At Tibbefts' branch, 15 miles above Independence, about 40 acres of ground sank j 'about 7ft below the surface of the surrounding country. Big Owens lake rose 4ft since the first shock. Owen River ran over its bainks, depositing shoals of fish on the shore after it receded. For a distance of three or four miles through Lone Pine the earth cracked ; one side remained stationary, while the other sank 7ft or Bft, leaving a wall of earth extending over three miles in length, where formerly was a level plaiin. Innumerable cracks were made throughout the valley. Kern and Owens Rivers turned and' ran upstream for several minutes, leaving their beds dry, and finally returned with largely-increased volumes of water. Some of the shocks were preceded by deafening reports, as though the mountains were being rent- in two, others were accompanied by a low continuous rumble, as of a train of cars running underground. TWO VIEWS OF SAN FRANCISCO. R. L. Stevenson has described in unforgetable style the manner of his own first journey to San Francisco, dropping " down the long slope" towards a far sea-level, and through the " good country" that train of immigrants had been dreaming of so long. Finally, the day was breaking as they crossed the ferry. " The fog was rising over the citied hills of San Francisco; everything was waiting, breathless, for the sun. A spot of cloudy gold lit first upon the head of Tamalpais, and then widened downward on its shapely shoulder the air seemed to awaken, and began to sparkle; and suddenly 'The tall hills Titan discovered,' and the city of San Fraiicisco, and the bay of gold and corn, were lit from end to end with summer daylight." In "The Wrecker" he makes use again of such an experience, in the person of Loudon Dodd, and has much further, both bad and good, to say of this " city singularly picturesque," this " draughty, rowdy city," the city " tightly packed and growling with traffic," and whatever her faults might be, always with an enthralling grace for the vagrant sketcher delighting in ships and in slums. " San Francisco is not only the most interesting city in the Union, and the hugest smelting-pot of races and the precious metal. She keeps, besides, the doors of the Pacific. Nowhere else shall you observe, in ancient phrase, so many tall ships." Within the town, he comments on the dives and warehouses" of the water front, and the variety of erections comprised ill a. single street. The endless streets of any American city pass through strange degrees and vicissitudes of splendour and distress, running under the same name between monumental warehouses, the dens and taverns of thieves, and the sward and shubberies of villas. In San Francisco the sharp inequalities of the ground, and the sea bordering on so many sides greatly exaggerate the contrasts." G. W. Steevens, however, in tho " Land of the Dollar," denied the picturesque quality to the city itself. He declared this great metropolis of an Empire roughly a dozen times the size of England would have an aspect almost tame and suburban, but for the ground on which it was built: " Standing on a I stretch of billowing sandhills, it everywhere exposes a panorama of roofs. Yon seem to have a. more intimate knowledge of it than of cities where you can only see a few walls at a time. At night, too, the long dipping lines of lights give an impression of distance, and size, air, and freedom." Mournful to think of the change in that panorama of roofs; and of the parks renowned as j being, if not the largest in the world, "the j most completely equipped for pleasure withj out overmuch profit," now taking up the ! serious uses of a harbour for earthquake I refugees.

THE WELLINGTON DEMONSTRATION. [BY TEL WRAP SI, —OWN CORRESPONDENT.'] Wellington, Tuesday. All arrangements are well in hand for to- j morrow's demonstration in aid of the San ; Francisco relief fund, and a very liberal re- j spouse to the committee's appeal is assured. j Mr. Jas. Moore, who is to marshal to-mor- | row's procession, states that a contingent j of naval men from the Pegasus will take pait, as well as the Wellington and St. Patrick's College Cadets. The Permanent j Artillery will also march in the procession, j and the Minister for Defence has given permission to school cadets and volunteers who j wish to participate to be present in uni- j form, and march in the procession. The Garrison Band will be present, as well as the Tramway Band. The Premier has in- ; timated that he will attend, but no reply j has vet been received from the Governor. PLEASURE RESORTS IN SAN FRANCISCO. | [BY TELEGItAI'if. — OWN CORRKf.FONT.EXT.] j CiiRiSTCHUF.cn, Tuesday. Mr; James MacMahon. the well-known J theatrical manager, knows San Francisco j almost as well as he knows any place in. ; the world. Speaking to a, Times reporter J on the congenial topic of theatres and theatrical people, he said that the city was without doubt one of the vcrj best centres from the point of view of a theatrical manager. Among the principal and most popular places of public amusement were the Grand Opera House, the new Majestic Theatre, the California Theatre, the Columbia Theatre, and the Alcazar Theatre. Ihc Tivoli was the permanent home of comic opera in San Francisco, and it was at that house that large numbers of Australian operatic artists had made their first appearance in America. In every theatre in the city there were Sunday performances. Sunday, in fact, was regarded as the best day of the week, there being matinees as wed as evening performances. Outdoor amusements also were taken part in freely on Sundays, when many thousands of people journeyed to the Golden Gate Park and other places of popular resort. There were three big daily papers in 'Frisco, and each published a large Sunday edition, profusely illustrated. The newspaper work illustrated the remarkable smartness of the Americans, and their intense anxiety to get things through with a bustle. One evening when he was in the Call office, news came to hand of a murder at Oakland, five miles or so across the harbour. A reporter and an artist .were sent out. They returned about two a.m., and within half-au-hour of their arrival there had been produced, not only a full description of the affair, but also illustrations taken from the artist's sketches. The locality frequently referred to in the cablegrams as the " water front was best known as the " Barbary coast." Its restaurants represented many nationalities, and meals were served there in the manner in vogue in Europe. It was San Francisco s Bohemia, where men of widely-different ideas and vocations met together. A great deal had been written about- the Golden Gate Park, but there was another great reserve adjoining the site of the city. It was the Presidio, an old Spanish reservation, a vast territory which was now used as a military station. The whole of its foreshore was fortified with heavy guns, which had been placed there at the time of the outbreak of the Spanish-American war. Touching on horse racing, Mr. MacMahon said that absolutely no racing takes place in San Francisco county. It was banished about four years ago, when a large section of the population, shocked at the extent to which it was being carried on, declared that' it would have to be checked. Before that races were held on every day of the Week except Sunday, for eight months of the year, without a break. All the racing was now done across the bay at Oakland, where a great race track had been established. Palatial ferry steamers plied across the harbour nearly all day long, carrying sporting men, and others interested in the events.