Part 2

About noon on the 20th the blocks between Pacific and Filbert were on fire at Jones Street, and the fire was again threatening Van Ness Avenue, but several engines were pumping, from one to another, saltwater from Black Point and had a stream on the west side of Van Ness until it was saved.

While the fire was threatening, I went up to my daughter's (Mrs. Oxnard's) and told the servants to get things ready to take out. I would go back home, and if it crossed Van Ness I would return, but if I did not return in fifteen minutes they might consider the danger over. It did not cross. While this pumping was going on, and when the fire had approached the east side of Van Ness Avenue, one of the engines in the line suddenly stopped. This was a critical moment, but the firemen were equal to the emergency, and they uncoupled the engine which was playing on the houses, and remembering that the earthquake had disrupted and choked up the sewer, thereby damming up the outlet, and in fact creating a cistern, they put the suction down the manhole and continued playing on the fire, and saved the buildings on the north side. I tried to get the names of the foreman and men who had the presence of mind and cool judgment, but was unable to do so. This ended the conflagration; but for three nights after there were fires from smouldering timbers and slow-burning debris, sufficient to light up my room so that I could see to read. I was still in fear of a fire breaking out in the unburnt district west of Van Ness Avenue, and as there was no water in the pipes we would be as helpless as ever. This gave much anxiety during the two weeks following the calamity.

When night came on the evening of the 19th, the parks and the Presidio were filled with frightened people, old and young. Thousands left their homes in the (which afterwards proved to be) unburned district, and sought shelter, as stated, in the parks and streets in the open air. Mr. and Mrs. Dr. J. W. Keeney and family left their home at 2222 Clay Street, and remained on Lafayette Square in the open air for two days and nights, with hundreds of others, who feared another earthquake and the conflagration.

The afternoon after the fire had exhausted itself, the atmosphere was hot, the great beds of coals gave out heat and glowed brightly at night. The more I saw of this desolation, the worse it looked. I barricaded my windows the best I could with mattresses and rugs, as the wind was a little chilly. They stayed that way for about two weeks. The front of my house was blistered and blackened by the intense heat. The paint melted in a peculiar way, and over two of the windows it hung like drapery. This morning (Saturday, the 21st) a man with a policeman came to the door and demanded blankets, cover-lids, pillows, and mattresses. I gave all I could spare, and some draperies besides. They insisted on taking the rugs from the floor, and I had much difficulty in making them see that rugs were not what they needed. The telegraph and telephone wires made a network on every street, and for more than two weeks I carried in my pocket a pair of wire cutters, which I had often occasion to use. During the week following the fire, I found many water-pipes leaking, and I went around with a hammer and wooden plugs and stopped them, in hope to raise the water sufficient to have a supply in my house. I think I succeeded. This morning (Saturday) I was hungry, with nothing in my house to eat. I found a fireman on the street who gave me one of two boxes of sardines which he had, and a stranger gave me soda crackers, so I had a pretty fair breakfast under the circumstances.

Bread we were able to buy after a few days. On May 3d we were able to buy the staple articles of food. Up to that time we obtained what we needed from the Relief Committee, such as canned meats, potatoes, coffee, crackers, etc.

The city being under military rule, on May 4th I obtained the following orders:

San Francisco, May 4, 1906. To All Civic and Military Authorities:

Permit the bearer, Mr. J. B. Stetson, to visit the premises, 123 California, and get safe.

J. F. Dinan, Chief of Police. May 4, 1906.

Permit Mr. Stetson, No. 123 California Street, to open safe and remove contents.

J. M. Stafford, Major 20th Infantry, U. S. A.

So, with this permit, authority or protection, or whatever it may be called, I found my safe in the ruins and everything in it that was inflammable burned to a coal; one of the twenty-dollar gold pieces before mentioned was saved.

During the afternoon of the 18th and until 3 o'clock P. M. of the 19th the scraping sound of dragging trunks on the sidewalks was continual. All sorts of methods for conveying valuables were resorted to,--chairs on casters, baby carriages, wheelbarrows,--but the trunk-dragging was the most common. It was almost impossible to get a wagon of any kind. The object of the people was to get to the vacant lots at North Beach and to the Presidio grounds.

Shortly after the calamity the most absurd stories were in circulation. It was stated that a man came out of the wreck of the Palace Hotel with his pockets filled with human fingers and ears taken from the dead inmates for the rings and earrings. As no one was injured in the hotel, it was wholly imaginative. A man near the Park met another who related the shocking occurrence of two men having been hanged on a tree in sight, and not a long way off; the man hastened to the spot and found no crowd, nor men hanging.

My son was engaged with his automobile all the forenoon in work connected with the temporary hospital at the Mechanics' Pavilion. At about 11 A. M. it was found necessary to remove the patients, which was finished by noon. When the last one was taken out, he went in and made a search, and found that all had been taken away. Still the report was believed by many that a hundred or more perished there by the fire.

A few personal experiences have come to me, and as I can verify them, I have here inserted them.

One of our men who roomed near the engine-house on California Street, packed his trunk and dragged it downstairs, and started along the street for a place of safety until he came to a pile of brick, when he stopped and had just time to lay the brick all around it and run away. The next day as soon as the heat would permit, he went for his trunk and found it slightly roasted, but the contents uninjured.

A lady who does not wish her name mentioned relates a very interesting and thrilling story of her earthquake experience. She says she had permitted her servant to go away for the night, and at five o'clock she remembered that the milkcan had not been placed out as usual, so at that hour she concluded to get up and do it herself. She did so and before she could return to her bed, the shock came and the chimney was thrown over, falling on the roof and crashed through that and the ceiling of the chamber and on to the bed, which she had left only a few minutes before.

Alfred Boles, roadmaster of the California Street Cable R. R. Co., was working on the cables all of the previous night, and up to about 4:30 on the morning of the 18th. Therefore, that night at their home in the Richmond District, the daughter slept with her mother. The earthquake shook the chimney down, which fell through the roof and ceiling of her room, and covered the bed with brick and mortar. Had she been in it she certainly would have been killed.

Mr. and Mrs. Weatherly, who were living in the Savoy, carefully packed a trunk of their most valuable belongings, and he started up Post Street dragging the trunk, seeking a place of safety. The porter of the Savoy called him back, and showed him an express wagon in front of the house, and said he was about to start for Golden Gate Park, so he lifted his trunk on to the wagon. About this time a soldier or policeman came along and said, "I want these horses," and without ceremony unharnessed them, and took them away. In a few minutes the fire had got so near, that it was impossible to get other horses, or move the wagon by hand and the wagon and contents were burned.

Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Tharp tell a very interesting story of their experience on that April morning. Their sleeping room was one fronting on the east side of Scott Street, between Sacramento and California Streets. When the shock came it rolled their bed from one side of the room to the other, quite across the room, and where the bed had stood was filled with the broken chimney, to the amount of more than three tons. Mrs. Tharp remembers having oiled the castors on the bedstead only a short time before, which she thinks saved their lives. Later in the day or the beginning of the next, while the fire was still miles away, some friendly but excited neighbors, came rushing into Mr. Tharp's chambers commanding him to flee as the house was in danger from the conflagration. He was at that instant engaged in changing his undergarments, and had his arms and head nearly through. They shouted for him to come quick and save himself. He begged for a little more time, when one of them petulantly exclaimed: "Oh! let him burn up if he is so slow!" The fire did not come within two miles of this place.

Shortly after the fire and as soon as people began to realize the extent of the calamity, I listened to many discussions and prophecies concerning the future in reference to business and rebuilding. It was the general opinion that the business of jewelry and other luxuries, would be ruined for many years to come; that Fillmore Street and Van Ness Avenue would be only used temporarily; that the down-town district would be restored in two years--many entertained opinions exactly the reverse, and predicted all sorts of gloomy outlooks. Many theories and predictions were made, none of which have been verified.

My daughter, Mrs. Oxnard, with her husband was on the way to New York. At about noon of the 18th they heard, at North Platte, that there had been a severe shock of earthquake in San Francisco, and that the lower part of the city south of Market Street was on fire. They thought the report exaggerated, and at first declined to give it much attention; but when they met friends at Grand Island at about 3 o'clock they got information of such a character that it began to give them fear. At every place until they reached Chicago additional news was obtained, which indicated a very alarming condition of things here. They went to the offices of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroad companies, but could get nothing that they considered reliable. So they started on their way to New York from Chicago in doubt as to whether they should continue or turn back. On arrival in New York on the 20th there was much excitement. Newspapers issued extras every hour, filled with fearful stories and of the progress of the fire. The limits of the burned districts were reported with great accuracy, but the stories were alarmingly exaggerated, and in many instances absurd. One telegram read that the dead were so numerous that it was impossible to give burial, and the Government at Washington was asked to furnish a ship that they might be carried out far into the ocean and thrown into the sea. Some were fortunate enough to get a telegram, which was eagerly read and discussed. The number of people killed was reported to be from one to thirty thousand.

I finally received a telegram from them asking whether I would advise them to return, which I answered at once to come by all means. So they started back, arriving here on the 4th of May.

My sister was in Dresden, Germany, and was like others in an excited condition, until she could hear by mail from San Francisco. She says the first knowledge of the disaster reaching her was from a small evening newspaper printed in English, which in a very brief item said that "San Francisco was destroyed by an earthquake this morning [April 18th]." This was all the information which she could obtain that afternoon and evening. A neighbor, a German lady, came in the next morning and told her that the German newspapers of that morning said that the city of San Francisco was on fire, and that the loss of life was enormous. That day, the 19th, she visited the bulletin boards of the different newspapers, and with her daughter endeavored to translate the brief cable telegrams which were posted. The news came to London in English, and there cut down as brief as possible and translated into German, so the information was very brief. San Francisco people who were there sought one another for news. Within a week the New York papers came, which gave more particulars. While waiting for authentic information, such items as these were in circulation: "Golden Gate Park has been withered by the intense heat, and people are crowded to the beach," and that "Typhoid fever has broken out"; that a tidal-wave had swept over the city; that the earthquake shocks continued; that all communication with the interior by rail or otherwise had been cut off; that thirty thousand people had been killed. Whether her family and friends were alive she did not know.

In this state of mind, she found in a New York paper a picture of the Spreckels residence which showed mine. This was the first information that she received in reference to her family or their belongings. Mr. and Mrs. Dohrmann and his sister, Mrs. Paulsen, of San Francisco, were in Dresden, and did much to allay the fears of the San Franciscans.

During the first few days the German people got over the excitement, but not so with those whose homes were in this city. A letter which I mailed to her on April 22d reached her on May 8th, which was the first one she received, and which assured her of the safety of her family and friends.

Charles Stetson Wheeler, Jr., who was in school at Belmont, sends me an interesting account of his experiences. He says: