THE FRISCO DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8114, 19 May 1906, Page 2

THE FRISCO DISASTER.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION,

PKB PBEBS ASSOCIATION Auckland, May 18. Mr W. McCutcheon, stage manager of the Wm. Collier Company, had an interesting story to tell. "We arrived in Frisco on Monday night," he said, " and most of us put up at St. Francis and Palace Hotels. I got upon the seventh floor of St Francis, as high up as I could get. When the shock came it threw me out of bed. That was all it did to me. The swaying of the building was

MOST Awm, I hadn't time to get frightened. I got back to bed again, and I didn't put my head under the blankets either. I put the pillow over my head instead to save my face from tho falling plaster. It came down iu sheets and tho chandelier along with it. The room shook like a rat iu the jaws of a terrier. The papers Baid it lasted for 50 minutes. It seomed to mc more like 50 years. When it stopped, I lay there waiting for the whole building to collapse on top of me, but it didn't and 1 got up and put my clothes on. I didn't then realiso the

AWFUL NATURE OF THE SHOCK and what had happened to the town. As soon as I had dressed I went down stairs. That hotel was in a terrible state. Plaster lay in heaps all over the floor, and chandeliers were piled on top. Furniture was thrown everywhere, and the place looked a regular wreck, but, as a matter of fact, there was no structural damage, beyond the fallen plaster. When I reached I Union square, it was

CBOWDED WITH FBOPLB, in all sorts of get-ups—men with pyjamas on and overcoats over them; men with pyjamas and no overcoats ; women with night dresses and kimonos and women in night dresses only. Signor Carueo, the great tenor, was in the square clad in pyjamas and far overcoat. The people in the square were

- FBIGHTENED TO DEATH, but there was absolutely no panic after the shock was over. Wo tried to get the women to go back to dress, but they wouldn't go, remaining out in the open air in their scanty attire for two or three hours. back and groped round for women folks' clothos, aud then.they went to the parks where sheets wore held round them, while they dressed in the morning. We bought a few baked beans and a little bread und that was our breakfast. A waggon came round and supplied us with water. The town was

PLUNGED IN DAItKNESS by the breakage of gas mains, ant when day broke we began to realise

THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE. Building were down everywhere'; houses thrown into the middle of the street; roads torn and twisted and opened into great crevices. People in all stages of dress and undress were rushing about, but there was no crying or wailing. By daylight soldiers from Presidio, one of the largest garrisons iu United States, had arrived in town, They were asked to come out by the Mayor aud came in hay wagjjons, ambulances and all sorts of vehicles, a couple of thousand being in the town inside of two hours. Their prompt arrival alone saved the town from

riLLXQB AND EIOTB. They were stationed at banks and other financial institutions, with orders to shoot pillagers, and thoy carried out 1 their instructions. There was no arresting; any thief caught in the aet was incontinently shot, and this quickly ovorawed any of the roughs bent on theft. A gang of 40 or 50 thieves tried to

THE MINT, then uninjurod. Thoy were met by a volley from the soldiers, and eight were shot dead. The rest quickly sought shelter, and didn't renew their depredations. Altogether about 14 were shot, and thouj;u tuc treatment was draconiun, nothing else would have served. Anybody seen attempting to get into it bit.lduig to steal was ..lot ut sight, and ti a very short spaju olu.incomplete order prevailed I'licre was absolutely no rioting.

tub l'lits commenced in a building iu Union Square, and the rapidity with which it spread was simply amazing. It Hen from building to building with wonderful rapidity, licking up everything in its path. Next morning the scene in tho fire area was appalling'; words could not describe it. The only two buildings left standing were the grim and ! gaunt skeletons of two buildings, the Spreckcls' " Sky Scraper," and the St. Francis Hotel, These two wore gutted from the ground to the ceiling, but they were fireproof and they stood The walls and most of the floors were intact. The St. Francis Hotel proprietary expect to bo ready to recoive guests again in 90 days, and in the same space of time Sprcckels' building was to bo ready for use. The rest of the fire-swept area presented a soeno of

FBIBUIFUL DEVASTATION and 110 words could adequately describe tlie desolation, smouldering ruins covering tho ground as far as tlie eye could see. Thore was no water supply, owing to the twisting and bursting ol the mains, and tho brigade dynamited the buildings to stay the progress of tho blaze, but it was no use. The fire bridged gaps and consumed buildings in an incredibly short space of time, Those that were not earthquaked were burned, and those that wore not burned were dynamited, so botween tho three thero was very little loft. It was wonderful how well the people took the disaster. Indeed, they did not seem Iq realise tho AWl'l'L JJATUBE OF TUB CATASTHOMIE. Thoy seemed stupilied and one would sec pcoplo sitting about brooding over

onos; and women in night dresses 11 —j. j oniu'i had happened and that they could do nothing. The most remarkable thing though was the odd naturo of things taken by fleeing people who were

LEiYIN'Q THEIR HOUK3 for otlier sides of the b»y. You would sec a man going along with a pieture strapped to kis back, not wcrth more than a couple of dollars. Wc paused two or three people who had pihd some of their household goods on couches, and were pulling tlicm along the street on casters. Ono old woman was trudging along towards the ferry with a parrot m a cage, and another was pnshing a sewing machine along tko pavement. The most weird things in the world were saved. Our pirty staved in Union Square until 11 o'clock that night. We believed that

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the fire would not spread to our hotel, but at that hour soldiers told ui that the fire had crossed Market Street, and ordered us to

BETBBAT DP IBS Hill. We weut to the oorrfer of Post street md Van Neßs Avenuo, and camped in a garden, but a couple of hours later '■ve had to shift further away, owing to the rapid approach of the fire, Next morning some of us tried to male our •vay to the hotel, but when we got there we could do nothing. Some of our company were seen by soldiers, and were immediately

PUT TO WOBK shifting stone off the roadway, so that carts could get along, and there was no ' please' about it either. It was a case jf do it, or strike trouble. For an uour and a half they kept at it, and the trouble was all for nothing, for when ihe party got to the hotel they oould save nothing, and all we got, exoepttho clothes, we stood in, was a small hand* bag. Our manager oabled for a thousand dollars, and divided it among the company, and we're been buying clothes ever since at Seattle, Vancouver, Honolulu and Suva. We were ill talking about great things we were going to do in Australia, and the drst thing handed to us was an earth* .]uakc, and then a fire. The things generally come in threes, you know, and we-have been expecting to be lihip-wrecked, castaway on desert island, or eaten by cannibals, but we are all right so far, though rather reduced in wardrobes. We went across to Oakland on .Thursday and eight of us spent the night in two rooms. We found very

LITTLE DAMAGE DOHB It) OAKUM) Few buildings were damaged, nearly ill tke chimneys shaken down, and (he churoh spires on the roadway, bat little beside that. People were not allowed to light fires owing to the absenee of chimneys and almost everybody dined at restaurants. We lined up in the road and as soon ai one contingent reported, another filed in. The eating houses were hard at it ail Jay long Next day we got away by train to Portland. The previous day «c skirted the fire and reached the water front to find that the Sonoma was not going to sail for 17 day*,"

ANOTQEB BTOEY. A most exciting earthquake story was told by Mr Stewart, a member of Mr Colliers' theatrical company. " Have you ever been in a haunted room you sometimes get in an exhibition ? That was what it frit like, The whole place shook wpth strong firm pulls, from side to sjde, but I kept my presence |oi mind, Mid called to my sister, ' Don't be frightened; its only an earthquake, go to sleep again.' Then the

CBILING lIEQAN TO FALL in bits, and walls to bend, and crack in 43, as I learned afterwsrdi it was over. Luokily there was a fire escape < in my room, so I allowed myself to dress in comfort, except that no water was to be had, and packed up. Although through the open window I had seen buildings rocking like trees in j a gale, I did not realiso the extent of the disaster till I got outside and saw crowds of startled women in their night dresses, A drug store in aur block wM blazing, but another member of the - company and myself decided that we had time to get the people's Itutgage downstairs, when we finally pasted out into the stroet. Things were oonfuied, of course, but there was hardly any panic, and the

SPLENDID BBHAVIOUB OF WOKW was beyond all praise. NeYer a whimper through ittll. It u only as I talk that hundreds of incident* come orowding in upon mo. I saw a man crawling in his undershirt down a water pipe of a wrecked howe, in which every one else had been killed. Despite their own sufferings, the crowd was unselfish enough to oheet the poor refugee. Many of the. women were seasick, All day long, through the aeries of minor earthquakes, and the number of lesser afflictions was end- : less. I saw two .. qjta shot for looting, the first foil catting a ring - off a dead woman's finger, and the second a man who was offered four or live dollars to carry some baggage. He i demanded twenty, saying, *1 am out for stuff.' 'Oh, are you'P 1 said'the j, soldier, who wai standingby, and shot hiin dead. I nover saw such a sight . as that in Saoramento Square. People '■ living neat brought out their beds, but i others, like ourselves, had to put up ' with bare ground, and from there I , CUiHltcd " . ' if

NINSTBIN FIBIS i oaoh a blook wide, sweeping irrepressibly over the city, and wondering when it would get us. A wonderfully pathetie sight was tho hauling of end* k less boxes up torrific hills which are so common about Frisco. Large numbers of these people were Japanese. and Italians.". v ■

Mr Stewart was enthusiastic with regard to the Oakland people, and ho told, in this connection, a delightful story. A ruined waiter from San Fran- d cisco came into the restaurant, and said " he was starving, and asked for a job, adding that he had four ehildren depending on him. The proprietor said

ho had had huudreds already, and ' ; could do nothing for Mm. Another waiter was standing by. " How many ■ ' children?" "Four." "Welll'reonly J two," and he took off hi) apron * nf l a jave it to tlie refugee. Then all along J! llie railway to Vanoouver the people 4 itood on the platform giving away . :oltee and paper bags of provisions. ■' One more instance," said Mr Stewart,

" The Oakland shops, with every opportunity .to charge famine prices, actually i put up this notice: ' Prices materially ,v, 'owored on account of the general dis. tross.'" :